Garfinkles first unit let the car die and restart . The second unit is running well driving a 33000 volt motorcycle coil for the leading with two 30000 volt motorcycle coils for the trailing.

 

There's the next question. Is everyone that has these driving the stock coils? Those who haven't chimed in that may be running this with aftermarket coils, any issues?

If the deal is the AEM driving the stock coils, what can be done about it?

 

what is the stock coils output...I seem to remember but I might be getting things mixed up...it being 45000. Anyone know for sure?

Tim

 

The stock coils must be less than 45000 , If you test them you will see a very weak thread of a white spark . The 33000 and 30000 volt coils give a fat full spark with a much louder snap .This was with the AEM and with out the AEM .The minimum voltage to jump a plug gap and fire a compressed mixture is around 18000 volts .

 

So the problem with the AEM CDI is that it pushs the spark voltage past the stock coils limit ? Mm...how did Garfinkles get the motorcycle coils to work on the FD? splicing or plug and play ? What kind of motorcycle coils did he use and what other coils can we use ? and most of all ..how much..

 

Has anyone tried mounting a simple 12V fan on the cooling fins? I'm sure that passive heatsink would perform much better with some active cooling.

 

The AEM on the RX-7 works very well once you figure it out. I've done a few that have turned out awesome.

 

this thread isn't about the AEM EMS

 

i am having the same problems with my car.

i will be driving and it just stalls. it sometimes works for a while..at other times it stalls every half mile..which led to its yard ornament state while i troubleshot all the wiring for shorts. not fun. now i see this thread...thanks for the help in here.

i have to completely turn off the car to get it to start again. under a normal stall it will catch and start if it is in gear and moving....when this stall happens i have to stop the car...shut it all the way down...and then turn the ignition. it starts.

mine is mounted all the way up front where the battery used to be long ago.

please let me know if there are any solutions...post post post.



j

 

are all of you guys using fuses on the 12v supply to the AEM?

my first unit i didn't use a fuse, so it would just die

the second unit, i used the fuse, and it burns the fuse up

would be interesting to see if you guys that are having it die and then it restarts when it cools, are not using a fuse...this would explain that much

 

I don't know what the unit looks like.. but I wonder what would happen if you bolted a large hunk of aluminum with some slots cut in it (for fins) to it.

 

It already has fins on it. There's an electrical issue with this thing. If this is the only application that there are problems, there has to be an issue with the electronics involved. Some Supra guys are running this and haven't had a single issue that I've read yet. It may not be the unit itself, but how it interacts with our coils, etc. Our cars may be causing this to overheat as opposed to the product overheating all on it's own. I'm just playing devil's advocate here. Either way, if AEM claimed that this was designed with the rotary in mind, there most certainly wasn't enough R&D with our systems to properly design/troubleshoot this product and related issues.

 

what is the dwell time of a supra? ours is typically 3.0ms

 

We are the R&D for AEM. Ralph

 

I installed mine to be tuned with it last Saturday when Steve Kan was in town, but I bypassed it almost immediately.

I first put the wiring harness in and tested with the bypass plug to make sure I didn't screw that up. No problems at all, ran fine.

When I put the AEM in, it would occasionally die during idle. Never really made it more than 5-7 minutes at idle before dying. When it died, I had to turn off the ignition before it would start again. Bypass it and it would run fine. This was before I mounted it, so it was sitting on the front fender, getting plenty of air. It was not warm to the touch.

Thinking it might be an issue Steve could fix, I drove to the dyno on the bypass plug, and even managed to get onto the dyno without it dying with the AEM connected, but we decided not to risk it and tuned it without it.

Steve said he's done several installs of these and never had any problems, so he was a bit surprised, I think, at my woes. He said it was detecting something it didn't like, and going into a "safe" mode (which is not very safe at all, IMO). He wasn't sure what it didn't like, but did suggest I try adding shielding to the harness. I'd used as much of the original shielding as possible, but I'm going to try that next.

I'd sure be nice if the big LED would blink out a code when it detected a problem.

 

I have an AEM unit sitting in my garage, now obviousely discouraged to install it.

The ones that are running the unit without any problems, can you post your set-up....i.e. stock coils, mounting location, wiring. Maybe we can figure out a pattern which causes the failure.

Thanks
Claus

 

1st unit- stock coils, enginebay/brakebooster area, stock ignitor, haltech e6x, 3ms coil charge time,
2nd unit-stock coils, pass floorboard, stock ignitor, haltech e6x, 3ms coil charge time, wired with fuse

 

the thing will stall out if the car sits in the sun all day and try to drive it around the block. within five minutes its stalling....i doubt a little fan will do it but i will give it a shot.

j

 

you shouldn't have to re-engineer somethign you paid good money for

 

no i am not using a fuse. I could try that as well I suppose. I would rather just get the msd or another...frusterating times.

j

 

I did two more 7 hour trips, with a couple hours of grid lock, in 84+ degree weather with the AEM and it worked flawlessly. As I said before, I mounted it where the stock cruise control actuator was. I don't think the stock battery location is the best place to put it since it is in close proximity to the radiator. Of course this doesn't explain 93blackFD's problem.

 

i had mine mounted where cruise control goes as well, and now its in pass floorboard

 

Of the 5 we have had problems with, all of them were mounted above the cruise control.

Jason

 

I would like to get someone to test the new XS Engineering Power Pack Ignition. Takes about 10 minutes to install and alot easier than the AEM. We have tested it up to 15 lbs of boost with no problems. I wanted to get a couple of people to test it and post their impressions of it. Give me a call if you are willing. The price would be $225 for the lucky two that want to test.

Thanks
Jason

 

I've installed like 3 of them in fds and have not seen any problems yet. One has been on the road for at least 6 months now. All the cars had stock coils. The only one I've seen go bad was installed inproperly by a customer and the internals fried. Sent it back to aem and they sent a new one. One thing I should note though, is I didn't use the crimp connectors that came with the aem. Anytime something is outside the interior of the car I solder and heat shrink it. I also always use the fuse. I dunno Why you guys think its so dangerous when one fails. Its not like the car is going to lock the tires and go out of control. In the event that is does go bad, put on hazards and coast off the road.