you can find an adapter for the s4's anywhere, and just throw a random air filter on it from autozone. Where can I get an adapter for the s5 afm? its a 2.5 inlet instead of the popular 3 in inlet. Or, if everything else is stock, except intake and exhaust, how easy is it to install and tune a standalone? i.e. haltech, rtek, etc.?

or can I just swap the s4 adapter into an s5?

 

An S4 AFM adapter can't be used with an S5 AFM. There is nothing to bolt to, and the shape is square on one side to match the S4 AFM anyhow. I've seen air filters attached directly to S5 AFMs, so either people are buying filters with 2.5" outlets, or they're making some sort of spacers to clamp in between. A piece of silicon coupler cut to take up the 1/2" gap would work.

Rteks are not standalones. They are modified stock ECUs that can either be chipped versions with pre-programmed settings (v1.5, 1.7, 1.8), or fully programmable versions that act much like standalones (v2.0/2.1). You can read up on each on pocketlogger's site. The stage 1 versions require specific injector sizes, and the stage 2 versions require some understanding of how to tune air/fuel ratios and timing. The advantage over standalones is that you have the stock settings to start with and installation is as simple as plugging the computer in.

A full standalone EMS will require its own harness, or a patch harness to utilize stock wiring and sensors. There will be little or nothing to start with, so the user will need a very good understanding of engine tuning to build fuel and timing maps from scratch. The potential will be great, but the learning curve can be pretty steep.

 

I knew you couldn't put an s4 adapter onto the s5 afm. I asked the question wrong. I meant to ask if you could swap the s4 afm to the s5. But I got my answer. No. I'm sorry. I kinda answered "some" of my questions by continuing to look around the web. But....Can you use an Rtek, without an afm?

 

Eventually the stage 2 Rteks will allow you to remove the AFM, but it's still in R&D at the moment.