AEM EMS or Microtech

 

Your car are not programable? LOL

 

Megasquirt only costs $120? I know if you look around for a little bit you can get an AEM Used with all the sensors and so forth for around $1200 and thats for a DSM PnP. From what I have seen it's even cheaper for other more popular applications.

I do get the point you are getting at fordified. For some reason the megasquirt just doesnt compare when it comes to tuning abilities to me.

For those looking into the megasquirt...

http://www.bgsoflex.com/megasquirt.html

My train of thought is when I have so much money spent on a nice fast setup, why go on the cheap end when it comes to controling the whole thing. To me using a megasquirt on a race car is like putting snow tires on a 9second race car.

 

This is true that's why it's not really fare to compare. To me the megasquirt looks like a computer controled VPC and that's about it. It's kind of hard to compare the two when it comes to that stuff just because the aem ems is more advanced, has more research behind it, bigger user base and is capable of alot more.

http://www.megasquirt.info/index.html

Main link for megasquirt also.

After looking through the megasquirt sight somewhat it seems that the megasquirt doesn't even have a timing control unit. Plus the fact that it doesnt have knock control like the aem ems does for pussies like me. Also not sure how many ports it has for controling stuff like meth injection, nitrous(even dual stages) and so forth.

 

Knock sensors do come in handy at times so for me it's better to be over safe then ever sorry.

I understand about the versitility but lack of flexibility with the MS. For me it's just that the aem ems can do so much more and offer more control, is proven and money wasn't a factor so it's the right choice for me.

BTW - CFT has aem ems for sale at like $1200 right now brand new and microtechs at like $800. Incase you are looking to buy soon slash.

I'm hoping boostjunkie will jump in here when he see's this since he has alot more hands on experience and a wider range of stand alones he has worked with so he can give better information then me since im still in the very early stages of stand alones and capabilities and so forth when comparing.

 

It really depeonds on a quite a few factors. Do you need knock control? Do you need many additional outputs to control ntirous, IAC (idle control), etc, etc. Do you need the advanced logging capabilities of some? Closed loop operation for cruising? Or is this going on a race car that is seeing straight line and WOT only? Wideband integration?

Your choice in engine management varies depending on the answer to questions like that and many more.

Once you decide what you want, making the choice based on a feature set is trivial. There is no best engine management out there, at the core all they control is injector operation and timing. Its up to you to decide if you need/want the bells and whistles.

Another deciding factor is that you do not want to be running an esoteric engine management that is not widely used by the racing community. When you run into a problem its good to be able to ask others with similar setups to see if they have been through the same trials and tribulations. Trust me, you do NOT want to be R&Ding an EMS on your car unless you like wasting money.

I have tuned stock ECUs, AFCs, VPCs, Haltechs, AEMs, Microtechs... they are all similar once you get the concepts down. For a full street car needing to maintain AC, knock control for shitty gas, advanced logging, wideband integration, closed loop tuning for AFR, and the ease of plug and play..I would go with an AEM. Race car, straight line, good gas all the time, Haltech is nice and cheap. All my cars will run an AEM, because I build full street cars that idle, kick ass, and that actually drive on the street frequently. So it fits my needs very well.

EDIT: I will say though, that short of a MOTEC, *none* of the EMSs I have tuned have even close to the same logging capabilities of the AEM. In that regard, the AEM wins hands down.