I'm looking at perhaps getting the AEM EMS for my FC. I was wondering if anyone has it, any problems you may have encountered, the good points, everything.

 

1) Bad Point, AEM doesn't make an ECU for the FC.

 

well ****...i read the info wrong...my bad

 

Even though there isnt an AEM for the FC, it is possible to use one, in similar fashion as the Power FC is fitted onto the FC, with an adapter harness, of course, the car's harness needs to be from the S5 car/ECU, and some rewiring of the coils would be needed.

 

soon there will be one, im order one from AEM cost me like $1,200 at a beta tester.. and my cost msrp $2,300

s4 turbo

 

so AEM is finaly going to make one for the FC?

 

I've spoken to Mitch their ECU engineer and he has a friend with an FC they will be doing some testing, i gave him some points on the way the ignition triggers in those cars and he will be looking into it. So, yes, AEM is planning to come out with an EMS for the 89-91 FC.

It will be possible to retrofit it onto the S4 with an adapter harness later on.

 

Mitch is a Joke, he couldn't find the block on a rotary if you painted it bright red, and asked him to point at the RED thing.....

Mitch and Jusrin, the guy with the FC, his roomate came out to rotary power one sunny afternoon when I was having difficulty tuning the car @ Rotary power... A whole nother threads woth of grief.... and Mitch tweaked on it for about 2-3 hours, after telling me he'd come out to take a look at what was wrong... well when he was done, I was very appeciateive, and enthusiastic with AEM's support, and asked him if I could get him a case of beer, or what I could do to show my gratitude .. he said he'd call me, well so He did 3 days later demanding $200 for his time, and I said, no way, there was no discussion of $$ before and if I'd known I'd have done without the tune.

I said because I knew he was looking to get paid and I was not aware of his rate, or that I was getting charged, and the motor ran like crap, and even though it didn't blow up, it wasn't done, I'd pay him 1/2 or $100 becuse it was a missunderstanding, and I wasn't going to stiff him totally... which I should have done...
Upon further investigation and getting 5 mpg on the highway and in the city, I looked at the map and AFR's... under deceleration down a hill with the car in gear, 10.2 on the wideband... I couldn't belive it, he was so unfamiliar with the rotary he doused the **** out of the motor in fear of blowing it... which I can appreciate,for him staying safe, but for the next month untill Steve Kahn came out I was going through a set of plugs a week....

Also Once Steve came over to tune, he said there was something strange with the timing... we doubble checked, it was 15 deg. retarded all across the board, and I watched Mitch Zero out the timing....

And this is supposedly your insructor at AEM.... I'm sure you can confirm this Claudio....

This is about 1/4 of the iceberg of reasons why I hate AEM.... nothing but grief... hopefully your milage/experience will vary .....

-DC

 

To tell you the truth DC, i dont expet Mitch to know it all, and i dont expect anyone to know it all, but the fact of the matter is that he does know a lot about his system and how to make it work. If he wasnt at all familiar with the way the rotary works maybe he shouldnt have worked on it, but then again, we all started without knowing jack at somepoint.

I talked to him about the way the ignition works on the rotary and how to properly dial the fuel and ignition, and it seemed to be a little helpful. I would personally install an AEM on an FC any time, the features are awsome and there are a TON of them.

What people need to understand that with more features comes more tuning time to make it all work together, you could get the fuel and ignition tables done right, but if you leave all the compensations untouched the thing would run like crap 3/4th of the time. So, if you know what you are doing and know what to lookfor you can make anything work.

I want to work with the AEM as much as possible and make the most of it, so when i do get the chance to do a project car that will definately be one way to go.

 

that little story sounds like mitch tried to tune it for you and didnt do a good job. BUT if you dont know what you are doing then you shouldnt be poking away with an AEM this box is Very advanced. if you havent ever tune a car then AEM isnt the way to go for you try an AFC first.

 

Trust me I wanted this box to work very badly, so badly that I bought all the crap to go with it, Wideband, 3Bar Map, GM Boost Solonoid, AEM Ignition amp... I Figured if I get all the **** they reccomend, I'd be set, and it'd be just up to the tuning... and I was WRONG !
The tuning was a mess, and everytime I called to complain or to get an RMA from AEM I got grief... AEM: oh you're not tuning it right, ME: okay how do I tune it "Right", AEM: we don't tune cars, we just sell the system, ME: Fine, tell me where to get it tuned, AEM: Tri-Point, I call Tri-Point, and the first thing is well what do you have on it, oh that's all wrong, you need to buy this, this, and that from us before we will concider tuning it for you.... (all fuel related stuff, greddy elbow with injectors) I tried to tell them that I had taken care of the extra fuel, and they were like but that's not how we tune... (click) .....

You might get more support since you went through the training program, but me as an end user couldn't even get out of them what the stock parameters for the OMP were, when we were troubbleshooting it because it was over oiling... AEM: "That's part of the tune and not our responsibility" yet it is in the basemap how difficuly would it have been to check the values I had against the basemap, which I didn't have in the car at the time, and couldn't check....

I don't even want to mention the grief I had with the AEM CDI Ignition Box... what a mess that was....

I've had nothing but bad experiences with AEM. Not that Apexi has been troubble free, but I can't speak Japansese, and I rely on the boards/my tuner to answer any questions... so maybe that's why...

 

so has it came out for the S4 yet?