So a customer drops his car off for an AEM tune

[Ninja Performance]

Another shop had "tuned" it but it was running very poorly and could not get over 16psi with out breaking up and just over all running bad. Bad idle that is high, then low, then surges up and down, etc etc.

I will spend some time on it later, building a new map from scratch of course, I never trust another shops map and won't build off of it cause you never know what small detail you will miss on one of the buried graphs etc. But like looking into what was "tuned" at this point and why it may be running poorly.

But here is what I found in 5 minutes looking at it.

92 RTTT
Forged rods and pistons
Forged crank
JDPC TD05 kit
MHI EVOIIIs
Walbro pump
680 PTE
AEM Meth kit
boostaspark
etc

I like to shoot for pump gas (on TD05) 20 degrees at redline at 20psi. It's a good benchmark to kinda aim for.

This AEM was setup with 9 degrees at 20psi at redline. Wow, that's low.

Then I thought, Let me check the base timing. This needs to be set before anything else to ensure when the AEM puts out 15 degrees, the engine will actually be at 15 degrees.

Sure enough, when the car is at idle and the AEM is putting out 15 degrees, the actual mechanical timing on the car is.......5

So at 20psi at redline the car is somewhere around 0 to -1 degrees.

Knock control is set maxed out at 1.4 volts. Very conservative.
Oh wait, if it were turned on. Yep, it's unchecked, it's off.

Looked around for a few more minutes and found some other funny things. Can't wait to dig in and tune her up!

-Chris

[Sin'sVr4]

god i wish i had you or ray close to me. ugh

[mb3000]

Really curious as to who tuned the car initially...

[stealthII]

Really curious as to who tuned the car initially...

Agreed.

On a lighter note, glad to see that you are feeling better and that you are getting back into working again!

[ChargerX3]

Good eye Chris.

[IPD]

wow. if i need a tune when my car is built, i know where i'm sending it.

[ictponder]

I really hate having a base.

[Ninja Performance]

And these were just the issues I found looking at the map for a couple minutes, literally 2-3.
I also found things like in his idle there is no Hysteresis between on and off points which is another reason it will surge.

Who knows what else is in there. He isn't going to know what the hell when he gets it back tuned. Currently it's probably no faster than stock or maybe slower.

As for who tuned it, that's not my place to divulge. If the customer want to he can.

-Chris

[DrGonzo]

Is this a car we are familiar with Chris? Local or Forum member?

[DG]

god i wish i had you or ray close to me. ugh

Dirty little secret - tuning an AEM is *not at all hard*.

Intimidating? Sure. There's a lot going on in there and the idea that you can fuck up your engine is scary as all hell. But by taking things a step at a time, paying attention to the manuals (and the context-sensitive help) and proceding a step at a time working off positive information, tuning an AEM is actually pretty easy.

Lob knows there are way more resources out there to get help too - not like it was in 1999 when it was Jason, John, and me.

DG