I have my eye on the EMS, or the S300 on a P28 ECU. All I am wanting is to be able to have it tuned, and the car run as it should with the most safe and drivable power possible. I am planning on keeping this car for awhile and am now planning on the H22 head swap for an H23 V-tec. My question is out of those 2 what would you recommend, price wise and tuning wise. And secondly with either what stock sensors do I need to run, and are there any new sensors I should install? I was thinking of getting a A/F meter install kit for my cheezy *** autometer gauge, but if I will need a UEGU gauge for tuning I will wait and go with that. As far as the ECU wires and sensors, what all can be deleted from the motor/harness before I start on the head swap? I have a full parts list for the swap and will start buying parts once I get it running with the 23 head again. I just don't want to spend the time wiring up sensors if they won't be needed anyway.

 

The s300 would be 1/2 the price & perform most of the functions that a race car & daily driver will need.

The AEM is a great system but costs a lot more & requires some one to tune it which is experienced & comfortable with the system's many parameters & tables.

Talk to whom ever you will be having the vehicle tuned by & ask them what they would prefer to tune.

 

For a daily driven car, I'd suggest sticking with the S300 setup. The system is much more user friendly and can be tuned by anyone with a dyno and decent tuning knowledge. The AEM EMS cost twice the money and will usually take 2-3 times longer to tune properly (more time on dyno = more money).

With the S300/ P28 combo, you can run all of your stock sensors, etc. If your car is OBD1 you can purchase a complete ECU with S300 already installed from us or any other reputable seller and it will plug right in. You will not need to modify anything on the engine. Then, have a reputable tuner tune your car/engine and be done with it.

Best of luck

 

AEM doesn't take 2-3 times longer for me to tune over s300 :-)

To the OP: If you find a GOOD tuner that has EXPERIENCE you will be set!
If you are trying to tune the car your self, buy an s300 or similar

 

I wasn't/won't going to try to tune it myself. I would like to learn to tune my car slowly on my own, but I was planning on just getting it running perfectly with no issues and then just enjoying it for a few weeks. Then I would like to start up again fabbing my own intake manifolds and testing a few different things I had in mind, that however is a year plus in the future. If the EMS doesn't do anything extra I won't miss then the P28 is exactly what I am going to want. I have no intention of buying one second hand, the ECU or the hondata. I will most definitely be buying one from one of you guys (gotta support the sponsors). Is the AFR something I should install before or after I get the ECU? I know it will help with tuning, but before I get it tuned and am just driving around town will it make any difference? Would it matter where exactly I put it in the exhaust, or will any shop know where the optimum place in the stream is?

 

Installing a wideband gauge sensor setup is important on any vehicle even if you don't have a tunable engine management system. Why? So you can monitor your air fuel ratios and determine if your tune is off etc.

Concerning the AEM VS Hondata. AEM is capable of more hardware features such as coil on plug for higher horsepower cars etc.

I would suggest downloading the aem software & the hondata s300 smanager software & looking through them to see which software you feel like learning :-)

 

Just out of curiosity, could I buy a P28 now, and have a custom chip burned for it so I can use it with my h23 until I do the head swap? Or am I looking to do a whole lot of work for nothing?

 

You can do that. When you install the vtec head you will just have to install a chip with the correct tune on it (or just get it retuned.

If you go with the s300 setup, you will just have to upload the new program/tune once you install the vtec head.

 

Neptune RTP