i am thinking of going custom turbo. nothing crazy, maybe a little bit bigger than the t1r kit...but that will all be determined later. i am first trying to decide on what piggy-back to use. those who actually have experience with tuning cars, is there anything that makes this motor/ecu difficult to tune? will the emange blue cheapest be able to adjust anything i may need? is there really a neccesity to use the ultimate over the regular blue? and any opinions on the AEM fi/c.

i am coming from a 06+ civic SI which had many difficulties with tuning, i am a little worried of how other DBW honda motors are accepting piggy back EMS.


pros/cons of the follwing EMS would be very helpful:
emanage blue
emanage ultimate
AEM fi/c

 

from what i understand the EManage Ultimate which comes with the T1R Kit
FCon iS HKS kit

they both respond very well to tuning

i don't think anyone has tried the AEM EMS yet
i am curious though

 

I have also debated about doing a larger turbo set up on my Fit and in the same boat as Nighthawksi. Just wondering how much the motor can handle before i buy a turbo kit and swap to a larger turbo or just custom make a kit.

I have heard bad things about the AEM EMS on other car forums. Some of the problems I have heard with the AEM is the reliability of storing information (tune/Map). I have also heard good things about it but I see alot of unhappy people with them over happy customers.

The Greddy units i have heard good and bad also. I have heard from other tuners that it is hard to get good drive-ability out of them. I thought it was the tuner at first but then I saw more and more tuners stray away from the EManage. on another note i personally am staying away from Greddy products even more so now that they have filed bankrupt in fear of possible warranty issues. No one knows how much longer they will be around.

The HKS Fcon IS and Fcon Vpro i have seen alot of people happy with them. The only bad thing is that only HKS Pro dealers can tune them. My friend once pointed out to me during a discussion that, if a good tuner sets the HKS unit up for you there is really no reason for the me (or any end user) to have to retune or adjust it. I really havent seen any problems with the HKS units personally and a couple of my friends use the Fcon Vpro on thier S13, S14, Evo and Subaru's. One of my friends actually switched from the AEM to the HKS due to problems loosing the map. My other friend also switched from Greddy Emanage Ultimate on his Subaru to the HKS.

In no way do i mean to bash or disrespect anyone or manufactures. I am also not posting any of this as actual facts on paper kind of thing but just letting people know what i have seen/read on other forums and from friends with actual personal experience. With all said and done I think i am leaning towards the HKS turbo kit and swapping to a larger turbo just so i can have the CARB sticker. (us Cali people need this)

Hope this information helps you and if anyone else has some information i hope they can post to help the rest of us.

 

I'd say go E-manage Ultimate, and here's why:

I've never had experience with the other options you listed, but tuning the E-manage is frighteningly easy. Once I sat down and thought about how it all had to work, I threw together a map, loaded it up, and was 80% of the way there. All in all it probably took me about 1-2 hours to do it, with just a wideband, laptop, and the trusty butt-dyno. This is all with ZERO experience tuning BTW.


I'm not worried about the Greddy/Trust bankruptcy issue, as it's only the Japanese parent company TRUST who is filing for reorganization. All American Greddy operations will continue unaffected.

The E-manage Ultimate is really cool, as all you have to do is tell it what your injector sizes are and it pretty much takes care of the entire vacuum curve! That's because your stock ECU already knows what to do for non-boost situations, so all the E-manage does is translate injector pulses to make the big fat 310s flow the same as your 185s the stock computer is expecting.

Add in a MAP voltage clamp at ~2.95v, and then add fuel up to your desired boost level, interpolate (which involves clicking a stupid button LOL), and boom. Easy peasy. I'm running anywhere between 11.7-12.1 at 6-7Psi (7 when it's cold outside). Timing is similarly easy, but I pussed out at 6.5 degrees of advance in boost, and ~10 in vac. No knock, but I'm done pushing it any further without a dyno or at least a knock light of some sort.

This isn't to say that the AEM F/IC (NOT the AEM EMS -- that's a standalone) is worse than the E-manage, or better. I've never used it. I can say that no matter how awesome the F-CON IS is, I think it's garbage because only 'certified' (read: paid HKS a lot of $$) can tune it, as the software is locked down. Also, I live in Michigan, so if I wanted a tune I'd have to drive several states (or to Canada!) just to get a damn tune. No thanks.

 

quanglang is running the aem fi/c but I don't believe he's boosted yet.

I also have it but havent gotten my butt into gear to install it with the rc310's. lol

 

they both respond very well to tuning

i don't think anyone has tried the AEM EMS yet
i am curious though

 

Correction** i was boosted for less than a week until the turbo took a dump.
it does respond really well. i need to be turbo'd again soon... damn schooling!

 

why did you copy my post?

 

lol same difference. i'm still going to try and beat you. if only I had the time to do it. my problem is turbo decision. I have a gt28r and my custom hybrid I want to do and can't decide on which one. pretty sure I'm not going to try and mass produce any more. just too much going on. I have that t3 60 trim still. i'll give it to you fairly cheap if your really interested on boosting again(but not till i'm boosted first j/k). hows the gas milage with the 310's. have you dialed them in yet?
ok end of thread jack. sorry

 

haha no thanks on the turbo, i think i told you that i have a brand new garrett t3 ar .48/.42 sitting here waiting for a better manifold and downpipe to be built.
i didnt really dial anything in with the 310cc injectors, i just set my whole fuel map to -42% and let the closed loop system take care of the adjustments right now. i rarely go into open loop cause im scared i might be running lean, because of this im getting 39 mpg every tank hahaha
one more month and ill have a five week break to work on the car... Step yo game up! lol

 

I was wondering how your setup was comming along George? I just got back from a trip through the hills with my friends from the Mustang Club, and while I held my own through the twisties, when we went up in elevation or was stuck behind a car going up hill it became cruely apperent how underpowered these cars are. I understand they were not meant for performance, but the new Civic's have more HP, and still get better MPG's.

 

Greddy Emanage Ultimate is very easy to use. AEM EMS has so many map adjustments, its very complicated to tune. My friend in a Lexus gs300 is constantly changing his map to his preference for daily temperatures.(Highest boost at 33psi) If you want it easy, go Greddy.

 

very helpful answers. thank you all very much.

BTW, i see that soem of you are putting down AEM EMS...just FYI, there is AEM fuel ignition controller (f/ic) and AEM EMS.....there are 2 different ones. i assume you actually meant to reference the f/ic?

 

Yea Fi/C, me in the mornings=cant think.