Wondering if anyone has successfully ran AEM EMS on their 20B.

I was told that AEM 30-1800 PnP with some mod it will run 20B without an issue. Wondering if anyone have done this.

 

I have not done it yet, but I have spoken to the engineers about it and they do not seem to think it will be an issue at all.

Edit- Since you will need to add to or "build" a harness, there really is nothing really to add to the ECU, just some settings in the software and making sure the pins are hooked up correctly.

 

D Walker, are you going that route?

I guess my question is, PnP has 10 injector output and only 5 ignition output... I'm guessing when they said ignition output, that's coil output? If so, 20B will need 6. Just wanted to make sure it could be done.

I'm also going to call AEM tomorrow.

 

I did actually look into it for another project, as I currently use the AEM 30-1800 on my 13B-t.

 

How do you like running 30-1800 on 13bt?

 

Works perfectly, with no idle air valve etc and running E-85 it started on the button and idled near perfectly hot or cold, was easy to tune (for me anyway) and the datalogging is awesome. Its also nice it has serial communication for an AIM or similar dash/logger.

When I am more awake I will be glad to talk to you more about it.

 

It can be done. A local is runningn the aem on his 3 rotor. Made 810rwhp on e85

 

D Walker, Sounds great. I'm new to AEM and any help suggestion would be great... And a base map for me to start off on 13B REW seq. Turbo.

driftfever, do you have that local guys contact info?

 

It's IronMdnx on the forum, if I'm not mistaken.

 

IronMdnx used AEM? Interesting. I did not know that.

 

I found his old thread... funny.. I did ask him which EMS he used And he said AEM.

 

Bingo

 

that was the issue when the AEM came out, they thought it was perfectly acceptable to run the 20B waste spark, like a 13B with an extra trailing or something.

it actually took quite a lot of convincing on our part to make their know it all guy to even look into it.

not that the unit can't do a 3 rotor, but when they say sure its no problem you only need 5 outputs, and its obviously wrong, well they looked bad

edit, links are mostly for entertainment. black680hp rx7 is the guy @aem who designed the box, or something

https://www.rx7club.com/forum/showth...ght=20b&page=2

https://www.rx7club.com/forum/showth...&highlight=20b

and actually as you can see he's kind of vague on the details too "sure we can run it" also.

anyways i'm sure the unit is fine, but the guy who was the public "face" at the outset um, sucked.

 

Guys, I'll be running an aem on my racecar, the difference will be I'm firing leading and trailing at the same time. (PP 3rotor n/a) I'm using an old series one box, last year they came out with the series two boxes that have at least six (possibly 8) ignition outputs. I'm told with this many outputs you can have trailing plugs on a 3rotor. If this is the case this is the ecu to run, I've used the aem on everything upto a $750k racecar and it really is the best bang for the buck.

just my $.02 worth

BigAl...

 

Be careful, some of those "engineers" are idiots. Fortunately, they found enough guinea pigs to work a lot of bugs out of their product. I'm not sure where they ended up, but it seems like everything is working out OK now.

Here is a successful 20B car run by an AEM EMS, and it looks like it includes a link to a how-to thread on the AEM forum:
http://www.7parts.com/erikstrelnieks.html
Dyno of the car here:
http://www.7parts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=12

 

I had initially looked into using the AEM when selecting an ECU for my 20B. I had many lengthy emails back and forth with one of their tech people. The main problem was the 5 ignition outputs, one of the injector outputs needed to be reconfigured as an ignition. The issue with this was that it could only be used as a trailing edge configuration. This was going to require the purchase of 2 M&W ignition boxes, as the tech specifically said NOT to use their ignition amp since it was so failure prone. They also would not be able to provide any support as the 20B was not a supported engine.

 

Ineresting, as I do not run any CDI at all, just a Mistu ignitor. I see no reason why ou woul dneed to use a CDI, just use a six-channel ignitor, three two channel ignitors, or 6 one channel ignitors. Using an injector output as a coil driver is what gave me pause, but it does work. a Series 2 EVO EMS might be the ticket, as it uses the same ECU connectors and you have to build or modify a harnes anyway. The real hot ticket would be the AEM Race EMS, but its pricey and last I heard could only be installed by an approved AEM installer, although that might have changed in the last few years.

 

One of the emails from Scott @ AEM:

"Hi Chris, thanks for the email.

I’m aware of at least two people using the 30-1800 EMS with a 20B setup, one of these people is Erik Strelnieks (username “streldoc” on rx7club and the aempower forums). I believe he uses an M&W ignition box, from what I gather that box will work with a rising or falling edge ignition trigger signal. The fuel injector output, when configured as an ignition channel, will send a rising edge trigger: the EMS fuel injector driver grounds the coil to charge it and fires when the signal goes high again (same as a direct fire ignition signal).

I’m not aware of anyone who has used the 30-1900 Universal box to run a 20B. The 30-1902 uses four pairs of wasted spark outputs (four unique ignition signals, each signal is sent out to two pins), you would still need to use the Fuel #10 as the sixth coil signal but I’m not sure if the peak-and-hold injector outputs would play nicely with most ignition boxes.

I don’t have any base maps, the firing order would depend on how the 6 coil outputs are wired, I can help with this if you’d like. I’d need to know the number of teeth on your trigger wheel (the stock FD trigger wheel uses 12 teeth per revolution, I’ve heard the 20B uses something different). Depending on your project’s time frame, we have a new EMS that will be available before the end of the year, it supports up to 8 sequential ignition channels and will be much simpler to configure for use with a 20B setup.

Officially the 20B is an unsupported application for now (the fuel injector 10 as a coil driver thing is a pain) and we can’t spend too many resources to help people get it working, but I’m personally a RX-7 fan so let me know if you have any other questions"

 

I didn't know Erik's car used AEM 30-1800s.. I tried to get more info from AEM site but the link no longer available with details.

I did however chatted with IronMdnx and he is going to send me some info.

D Walker, Thanks for your input and let me know when you might be heading to Nashvegas.

Banzai, Thanks for sharing your correspondence with AEM. Good to see what they said about the EMS. I just got my PnP but haven't even open the box.