My '93 RX-7 has always been tuned by me, but I could never iron out some of the problems without a dyno. I used to have free hookups to a dyno but when I really needed it most, my hookup vaporized.

I didn't know any respectable shops in SoCal that could tune an RX-7 with an AEM EMS, so I assumed I'd never get it dialed in. I chose the EMS because of the bang for buck power and options the interface has. Most people choose the PowerFC which has many limitations and the only way to tune it is with a 3rd party interface. The PowerFC is just problematic and I really don't understand why people use it, perhaps the price tag?

It wasn't until a very good friend, Big Mike, turned me to Bisimoto. I've met 'Bisi a few times, sat at a few Honda AEM dyno sessions with him because Big Mike is close to 'Bisi, but I never thought to ask about an RX-7 + AEM, and if he knew about tuning a rotary. Once I finally did ask he said he could do it.

So today was the day. My car was hooked up to a Dynapack. I've had my old Honda attached to one, so now the RX7 gets its turn. I've operated Dyno Jets before, but I've never had the pleasure to operate a Dynapack, and I turned down the opportunity to use it myself in favor of 'Bisi's expertise.


My RX-7 Next to 'Bisi's drag car:


All hooked up:


'Bisi at work


I made 411whp and 328 FT lbs @ 15psi with a half bridge single turbo.
These numbers are low. Due to my own flawed design. My intercooler is starving for air and the air temp was hitting 95 deg F on a 65 deg day. I know what is wrong and I will be fixing it. He said that hitting 450whp should be really easy once I fix my problem. Overall I'm very happy and my car is much more drivable.

Some load tuning with a full pass at the end:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qu31q1Q23mY

 

There are many reasons. The PFC certainly isn't the best ECU but its simple, everyone and their mother seems to be able to tune on it, people have made good power with it and the commander is pretty damn cool.

BTW great numbers man. Engine bay pics?

 

My friend's Miata was tuned at Bisimoto's shop, it's a cool place to visit. I'd like to take my RX-7 there sometime.

 

Dynapacks are pretty cool, did you have trouble aligning the machine? Aligning the machine to the hubs are bish sometimes, if your off a little bit it's almost impossible to align/remove, it's worst when you have to do AWD vehicles.

 

people use the powerfc because it was the ONLY plug n play ECU for quite some time, which has gotten it some popularity by demand. i have never been a fan of tuning the powerfc but it does do the job, although a bit tedious compared to some real standalones and lacking many options and never well documented it is still rather cheap also.

 

personally i love my Power FC, its easy to tune, no splicing or running a custom harness and the amount of people that can tune them helps. as stated for the price and the plug and play ability its hard to beat this ECU, while it cant do many of the things the newer full standalone ecu's can it has the ability and to make very good numbers.

 

What IC are you running?

 

AEM is plug and play.

universal.

 

yea, but only the second plug and play ECU for the FD which only came out a few years ago while the PowerFC is over a decade old now, cheaper yet still does the necessities and can be found used.

 

The PowerFC also has a very safe, completely driveable base map for a car with a few bolt ons or that is stock. If you have a few more bolt ons you just need to pull some timing. The AEM doesn't not run the FD nearly as well (or even at all) out of the box with the supplied base map. So in the end, the user has to make a map from scratch.

 

Yeah it's surprising that the PFC is still so dominant, I guess a good product has staying power. But these days you can get something like Greddy E-Manage ultimate with a 400 mhz CPU and usb ports. Speaking of which, anybody want to comment on the EMU?

That's a cool dyno thing. I've never seen that before. It actually seems a bit safer too because the car can't jump off the rollers.

 

In reality.. the numbers are lower... A. Tuning while hood is open B. Dynapack
Never the less sick

 

The Dynapack is just a completely different animal than a roller dyno. It works in a different way obviously and has its own set of advantages and disadvantages.

If you are going to use a piggyback system (which the FD doesn't do so well with) there are other options out there. All you can do is make corrections to the inputs and fuel/spark outputs from the stock ECU and even then you have a lot of limitations in terms of correction amount and map resolution. You also won't get control over things like idle for example.

The early ones were problematic but I do like the AEM EMS. I've tuned it before. It works great, and I have been assisting one of the forum members here with it. It has a steeper learning curve than the PFC but also more adjustability and features. I have thought about switching to one, but I really like the PFC Commander and AEM offers nothing equivalent to that.

 

Not sure what you are trying to say since I already said why the numbers were low.
The reality being the air temps were 95 deg on a 65 deg day.

I'll clarify a bit, Bisi said I should hit 450whp no problem on the same dyno when I fix my intake temp issue. The hood has no bearing on how the air flows to the IC because the IC has a ducting "lid." I had to take the lid off of my IC to introduce more cold air to the IC with fans, which can only be done with the hood open.

No they went right in.
I'm a big believer in Dynapacks, mainly because of how the load control works.

He's very professional and very pro AEM, so if you have an AEM I would definitely get a tune there. He also is very informative and will ask about questionable things in your current map and talk about why he is changing them.

 

With those temps your numbers are pretty good. I would be a little concerned to continue tuning with those hot intake temps though. Instead of changing IC's are you considering just going AI to cool temps?

The dynapaks are pretty cool. I have not ever used one but it does look a bit safer than the roller dynos. According to a post above they have great load control so would this help translate to more accurate dyno numbers?

 

I've been told that they are more consistent so it is really good for R&D of performance parts.
I'm not changing my IC, just how the air gets to it.

 

95 degree fahrenheit? That's 35C. That's not bad at all since you are measuring right at the intake manifold or TB elbow. In the middle of the summer you can get over 130-140F just driving around in traffic heat soaking.

I'll see 120+ F at the airbox on a lot of non Rx-7's (Subarus for example).

 

95 at the cold side of the intercooler. The manifold and elbow were much, much hotter.