My new car!

[speedjunkie]

CABaynes is the guy I was talking about haha. He's the one that was giving Z shit about his car and telling me he loved my setup...that is until I told him Z was my roommate HAHAHAHA. Z and I both thought that was pretty comical.

I actually used to be quite uncomfortable in my car, until I swapped the steering wheel. It's weird how swapping the steering wheel put my head another inch or two away from the headliner. Then the old lady put too much foam in my seat and now I'm back to square one haha.

Well, maybe you and I should make history with the AEM platform then, and pave the way...maybe lol.

[chickenwafer]

I'm seriously considering it haha. The AEM is far better...I am going to talk to AEM tech support- they are generally pretty good- about the platform for the FD and how is acts when sensors aren't plugged in.

The biggest potential drawback is the lack of the Commander for quick viewing of vitals or even quick changes to parameters, but how useful is the Commander really? Very few people actually tune their PFC with the Commander anyways.

Plus you have the extra cost of the FC Datalogit.


Unrelated to my FD- I picked up a compression tester at Harbor Freight and decided to test the compression on my truck. I goto remove the first spark plug and CRACK! I broke it off at the ceramic. Great. I was still able to get it out, luckily. So I goto Checker, pick up 8 new spark plugs and head home.

Driver side bank of plugs was a bitch to change. Steering shaft in the way, tight tolerances, etc. I finally got them out, and ran the tester on all cylinders. Then broke a brand new plug going into cylinder #8. Damnit! So I put in the old plug, which actually looks pretty good. Fire it up and I hear a pretty audible miss- can't tell which bank it's from. I pull all plug wires and re-attach them, also re-torque a few plugs I was questionable on. Miss is much less audible now at idle, but when driving I can still hear something. Not sure what's going on. I'm going to have to idle it and pull each individual plug wire at a time to determine which one is the issue...I wonder if it's possible if a new plug is bad out of the box?

On a side note, compression was pretty low on average, but pretty consistent. Average was about 110psi per cylinder, low was 90psi max was 120psi. The lowest cylinder also had the worst looking plug...pretty fouled up.

[speedjunkie]

Well it's kinda hard to tune with the Commander if you don't know where in the map you need to adjust, so yeah, the Commander is pretty useless for anything other than monitoring, or maybe adjusting TPS or something.

Don't know much about piston engines so you're on your own there lol. I do have that same compression tester though, $7 right? Lol, gotta love Harbor Freight.

[Chance]

AEM is a good unit, but they have updates all the time that you need to send the box into them in order to get it done. I had an AEM that didn't exist, so no updates for me haha


Honestly, I think the best plug and play is the power fc, but the new haltech is ****ing amazing. It's soooo easy to tune with and haltech support seems to be bettter than AEM's. If you have questions, you need to call RX7.com and ask for Chris or Ari, they know WAY too much about this shit haha

[speedjunkie]

The last time I spoke with Chris and Ari was after they repeatedly ignored my buddy Mike that needs to have his map looked at and I called them to see if they would check it out for him. I was planning on taking my car down there to have them tune it, but if they don't treat my buddy the same way they treat me, I might have to change my mind. Which probably won't mean much to them, but it's the principle of the whole thing. Mike had sent Chris his map several months ago and has yet to hear back from them. They said send it again when I spoke with them, so he did. STILL hasn't heard back. I personally am getting a little pissed off. I like Ari, I've talked to him several times about my setup, but doing this to Mike pisses me off.

Anyway, I've heard Haltechs are pretty good, I thought about trying them myself. So they have a PNP now? I thought before they all had to be wired by the customer or something.

[chickenwafer]

I haven't made up my mind, yet, which EMS to get. Still have a few months before I can afford it anyways, so I have time LOL.

Got an email today from Rotary Performance (speak of the devil, LOL) that the lip is backordered from Mazda with no ETA. I emailed Corksport (second least expensive option) and they will have them in stock on Friday, so I placed an order with them.

Yeah, the compression tester is Harbor Freight, like $8 bucks I paid after tax LOL. Love HF...but it's a good 30min drive for me as it's in South Ft Collins

[speedjunkie]

Well if Haltech has a PNP unit, that looks like what I would go with if AEM has updates that require sending it back. I've heard nothing but good things about Haltech anyway.

That's why I check on parts like that to make sure they actually have it in stock, I don't trust website quantities.

Ahhh, that's why C Springs is better, HF isn't far away at all HAHA. Actually it's a little further south from us, but I don't think it's quite 30 minutes. That's one thing about Vegas, I loved living there, but it takes FOREVER to get to where you want to go, especially now since the city has grown so much in the last several years. C Springs isn't quite so bad about taking forever. It takes a bit sometimes, but that's to get all the way across the city.

[erod550]

I live over by Constitution/Peterson and it really depends on traffic how long it takes to get to HF. If traffic on Powers and Fountain is light, I can get there in 15 minutes, but it can also take closer to 30 if traffic is heavy and/or I catch most of the lights badly.

Have to agree though that store is the shit.

[Chance]

The Haltech comes with a pinout sheet and a harness with specific instructions, we've had problems with the boost solenoid failing though so my car has an AEM truboost on it.

Ari is the tuner, knows more than anyone I have ever talked to and seems to do more/bettter tunes than most people and he is not a rotary specific tuner either so he isn't closed minded on it.

Chris is the mechanical/electrical know it all, I wouldn't take my car anywhere but there, in fact that's where my Haltech Sprint RE is right now.

[speedjunkie]

^See I was told that Ari was the owner/operator and Chris was the tuner, yet Ari is who Frank talked to for hours at a time back in 08 when he was tuning my car. Whatever. Anyway, yeah I know they're the best, but it still comes down to the fact that they're not taking care of a friend of mine and it's pushing him away from the rotary, which really burns my hide...also the fact that they're in Texas and I'm not too keen on making the trip down there LOL. Regardless, all they have to do is look at the map and see if something obvious is wrong with it. They said a few months ago that they've just been busy. How busy can two people be that they can't look at a map for about 8 to 10 months? I'd still like to take my car down there at some point, but if they treat him this way, what's the say they don't back out on me while I'm on my way down there or something?

[chickenwafer]

I wouldn't mind a Haltech since I already know how to tune comfortably with them, but I don't want to build my own harness when there are PnP options out there.

I've had friends who use the AEM EMS, they never had to send it back in for updates...you can download new firmware off the AEM support forum and easily install it on your AEM.

I've only heard you need to send it back in when you have a serious hardware failure.

[speedjunkie]

Oh, well maybe AEM is the answer after all then lol.

Hey Dave, check out my new thread, IF YOU DARE!! BWAHAHAHA!

It's just a really super long first post, don't let it get you down lol.

[Chance]

AEM setups are NOT easy and can have problems. The reason mine worked is because this guy Justin Pawlak built it when he worked there for his FC and then sold it to me after he picked up his haltech hookup.


Basically, the AEM is a true plug n play, however you still have to modify it and set wires, do custom shit if your car is modified at all. I mean really, with the haltech you have to solder like ten wires or something and tuning the new unit is WAY easier, its just as capable as the AEM and not to mention its much easier to tune.......oh yeah, and there is like a $350 increase in price to buy an AEM.......just saying


As far as Ari goes, no one is better and when I lived in Dallas for a little while they were ALWAYS busy as hell when I had to pick something up or do something to my car. They are a big shop and have been doing it for quite a while. I don't know what to say about the map......but its not really something you can just look at and figure out all the time, sometimes you need more input to decipher the problems such as dyno sheets with corresponding maps

[speedjunkie]

OK forget it, I'll stick with the PFC until God hands down something He approved Himself LOL.

I hear you on them being busy, and even if they can't figure out what's wrong with the map, a simple email or phone call would be nice. Know what I mean? I've never talked to Chris, but Ari has always been super nice and very helpful when I've talked to him, so I personally have had no problems with them. I mean, Ari talked to my previous tuner for several hours quite a few times because it was his first time tuning a rotary, and my previous tuner was a genius too and said Ari was the shit and had alot of respect for him.

[Chance]

I'd rock a PFC if I could find a killer deal on a late model one for an FD, but the fc ones kind of suck and used ones go for about the same as my new Haltech so I can't justify it. AEM's are great don't get me wrong, but they are anything but easy on modified rotaries