congratulations nigel.

you are truly doing us a service.

how long did it take to figure out the cps?

 

great news! for me, the option of a standalone makes a turbo kit much more attractive

 

Thanks!

In reality it took 3 days. I have been travelling a lot more than I expected to recently so that 3 days of work stretched over 4 weeks! Some of it was like flying blind, cos the AEM datalogger was not fast enough to log all the crank transisitons. I had one or two set backs with my cam trigger modification in the AEM box so that took a couple of days to figure out too. We have a really nutty cam signal! I need to put in a wideband before I start tuning it myself to a driveable state and then it will be off to the dyno! Work has been crazy so I don't know when I'll have it all done. My car is a wiring mess right now cos I want it still driveable as well as developing this box.

 

Purty cool!

 

i cant wait till its done man....great job

 

I have had major issues with stable sync, fuel and sparks cuts out if sync lost. It is getting there though. Spent a whole week on just this!

 

I'm guessing this is for 4th gens only...

How hard do you think this would be to port over to the 5th and 5.5th gens?

 

congratz nigel..
i too want to know if this stand alone would work for the 5th gen, and will this be bundled up with the pfi turbo package? for those of us that have not got one yet?

 

A couple of issues to deal with here.

First, this is already working with a 2003 or 2004 350Z (I think overseas). That application is already working. Therefore, I believe if you have a VQ35DE, you should be in good shape.

Problem now is more political. The firmware I am using is unreleased firmware. AEM normally controls firmware releases, so I will need to contact them to see what their thoughts are. This means that even if I have it stable on my car, I may not be allowed to distribute it. AEM software has some interlocks to prevent opening later versions of cals

The latest firmware I have should iron out any remaining issues of lost sync. Then I can move on to the serious stuff of the tune setup.

I have also learned recently that Nissan often changes their triggering scheme even within the same year (lord knows why) so initial setup may be more complex. The 240Z guys need to deal with this aspect even though theirs is plug and play, it is not trivial.

Things will be slow again since I am going away on business again.

 

im gonna be all over this when its done

 

Ive seen the Nissan release for the 240 on the AEM site, is the firm ware free to distro now? Any progress here?

 

since all the n/a guys are dying off or going boosted i might as well join the click. definitely interested if this is included in the kit from PFI. will def. keep an eye on this thread.

 

bump for update...

 

Hey guys ... I have been in China for 2 weeks, got back and my transmission has some problems. I have not worked on it for about a month now. I was close. Still loses sync at low rpms. If people can tolerate a crank sensor check engine light I might be able to hook directly to the crank sensor instead of piggy back and that should get rid of the instability. If not then I will need a way to amplify the crank signal.

The firmware for Nissans for the 240 SX is not stable for use on the Maxima though it can be used. The firmware I am using is unreleased and will probably remain so for about 6 months. I am using V1.14 vs released v1.11 ...

 

Nigel, In Maryland as well as a few other states, they have adapted a new emissions testing standard using an OBD2 scanner to check for codes instead of the sniffer test. I thought about adapting an AEM standalone or any other one for that matter, but wondered if the unit will send a signal to the OBD2 port for emissions testing.

Richard

 

interesting to say the least
but i do have this question, what possessed you to go with AEM over anything else?
with all the horror stories floating around from the supra world, the dsm world about the aem, and even their tuners saying things about it.

it's just me, although i do give you mad props for tackling this!

 

It seems easier, cheaper, and better to go with EPROM emulation.



You can use the stock sensors and datalog up to 11 sensors. At the moment, I am only datalogging my wideband o2 sensor and MAF voltage. The software has everything I could possibly need for tuning my car since it was originally written for the Z32.

Ash Powers is the guy that wrote all this software. He use to work for Z1 Motorsports, but he recently left and took all his copywritten software with him to open up his own business...

http://ashspecz.com/ashspec/zem/zem_about.htm

He has plans to get make this software specifically for the KAs, SRs, all z32s, VEs, VQ30DEs, and all the VGs. He hasn't researched the 5th and 6th gen Maximas yet, but I'm sure that will come in the future. Once he gets this setup working with my VE ECU, then the same design will work in almost all other Nissans out there. He will just have to fine tune the program to suit each motor, like VTC release point (only for VEs and z32s) and variable intake release point (only for VEs and you MEVI 4th gen guys).

This setup currently costs $600 for z32s. But the setup for my ECU and most other Nissans will cost $800 b/c of the 16 bit design versus the 8 bit design of the early model z32s. Full control over your ECU is very nice!

 

Great Job with that Aaron!! I've been researching that as well as Ash has contacted someone down here in NC about the same program. That was the other option I may be going with. It is easier to work with, gives you the same control, and more. You'd be suprised at how much your ECU can control. AshSPEC ECUs have been known to give tremendous gains in the Z32. The fact that the users can control the program themselves gives you better fine tuning than just going with a re-burn.

 

Who did Ash contact in NC? Is it about Maximas? 4th gen? I know he's been thinking about the big picture for Nissan tuning in general. Once this works, almost all Nissans will be effected. This better work! I am sending all my components to Ash tomorrow morning and he will hook everything together and do some programming to his software to support the "two emulator setup" that we will have to use with my 16 bit ECU. He says he has a way to test the setup before he ships it back to me. Once Ash ships it all back to me and I get it connected, I will be sure to post a thread about it.

 

i wanna see results. because as much as i am for boost, im not all about the aem setup. that scares me, id rather go autronic or haltech {i miss my autronic} windows or dos based? is it something similar to dsmlink?

there is a reason why im asking this. just don't get all excited yet

 

this man know's what is good, autronic
In aem's defense, they have made great improvements and with most all the bugs worked out - it's not bad. After putting emanage on my car with all the addons and throwing a wideband on it, I regretted not having purhcased a standalone be it AEM, autronic etc

 

How similar would it be to control the VQ35 vs. VQ30? Somebody on the 350z forum has the HKS FCON VPRO working with the Z...

 

i had an autronic SMC2 on the 95 gsx i had. kind of a pain in the butt sometimes, but easy to work with once the base lines, and paramters were put in.

my opinion is based upon the supra world, and dsm world on the aem. if i do this project it would be about the same to run a full standalone system then to gt the jwt ecu, emanage, j&s. that right there is 2k i have to drop. i't still up in the air right now on what to do.

im still not conviced on a standalone from a company that makes cold air intakes, that they have their crap together when it comes to engine management

 

Why AEM? Many reasons!

1. I have developed a custom application for my IS300, the first one ever. I have no issues with it whatsoever! Even fires up in 2 degree weather!

2. I have a pretty good relationship with the designer (it is not AEM contrary to popular belief)

3. It is by far the most flexible ECU out there (except maybe Motec) and can sync up with almost any application. Mine is working but not stable.

With any ECU that is widely used, there are bound to be issues, not all issues are related to ECU, many are tuning issues also. So many people are so quick to blame an ECU for blowing up a motor when it can often be due to bad tuning. Yes indeed there are some issues and yes they will improve. I would do a MOTEC, but they are seriously expensive! I have witnessed problems with the AEM box reliability myself on other people's cars. The more people that use it the more nightmare issues you are going to hear of. If you have a 10000 customer install base with 1% failures, you will hear of 100 issues. If you sell 1000 you will hear of just 10 and not really think anything of it.

Autronic is also a good ECU ... someone just make it work! I would love to hear feedback. My main motivation is to give enthusiasts an alternative to JWT and emanage. I could make almost any ECU work, I just happened to get funded for the AEM. If you will fund an Autronic, I will make it work too!

The programmable Eprom stuff is good and is the first time I have heard of it being expanded to the VQ30DE. It is yet another alternative. I am not all about AEM, I am not all about any specific ECU. I love the AEM because it is so flexible but I am not "all about it". It has taken me a while to get this far cos I work and travel a lot! Hope to get it stable before christmas cos I won't have time again until Feb! Good luck with whatever you decide to use.

 

Of course I applaud your effort! It's people like you that make serious advancements in the Maxima world. Keep it up!

 

what are the problems you are still having?

 

The person he talked to is the owner of Turbo-Tune in Greensboro. The program was for the Z32. We were discussing it because I had my Z there. We were talking about trying to adapt that program to the VQ motor so that the ECU can be retuned without sending it to JWT or Techtom(Technosquare). He mentioned that Ash was already attempting to rewrite his BIN program for other motors.

 

Oh yes, he is on top of things! As of right now, Ash has all my ECU components with him (VE ECU, Zemulator, and PLMS daughterboard). He thinks he has found a solution. He is working hard on this everyday b/c as soon as he gets this working, this same setup will work with pretty much all other Nissan ECUs. He will just have to fine tune his Zemulator software.

 

i really hope he gets this working for the VE ecu

 

Well, I have been extremely busy the last couple of weeks/months. I managed to sit down and work on this for a little bit .... success! I have finally got it stabilized! The hardest part is over! Phew! Now just need to re-hook up the injectors and ignition since I switched back to stock for now. After that, some dyno tuning should put it where it needs to be. Only problem now is I will be gone from end of next week for a month or so for business. Hope I can get something before then!

 

As long as the price was right and you didn't forget about the thirdgens,we're ok !

 

What ... do you sell these or something? I don't really think it is necessary to thread jack do you? People who are interested in this are very capable of doing a search on their own. Afterall it is in this particular forum .. I guess you are assuming he cannot read?

 

Well, I let it slide once, there's no harm in someone mentioning that there is an alternative and that was the idea of me coming up with this in the first place.... but when someone else starts pushing it that's when it becomes annoying especially when you say "... fourth gens coming soon" I am only developing this for the 4th gen. 3rd gens are easy but I have no interest in the 3rd gen applications. I do have interest in 5th gens though since that would cover the newer cars which are growing not declining ... sorry to jump all over you but that's how it appeared ... thank you for being considerate enough in deleting the post

 

I would have sent you a PM, but your box is full. I understand now how that came across, the 4th gen thing was in the title of the thread, hence why i included it. I'm just going to delete all my posts about it so that it doesn't ***** up your thread. you quoted me in your replies, so i would recomend you do the same. believe me i want you to get this done, and i never intended to undermine your efforts in any way, shape, or form. people like yourself are who get things done for our little forgotten community.

I appreciate your efforts, and forgive my ignorance in posting that stupid reply.

George

 

Well that was handled well

 

Hey George, thanks for being so amicable on all of this.

Well made 3 steps backwards and 10 steps forward today. I am very happy with the progress made today. I had a lot of trouble with sync even when I thought I had it nailed. Today, I think I got it really down! Synced up the rest of the injectors and ignition. I need to readjust a lot of map parameters or my motor will be flooded with fuel.

I am learning a lot from this experience. One thing threw me for a big curve today - was the injector advance map. When the engine increases in speed (rpm), the injector firing advances relative to TDC. I can theorize why but cannot understand why Nissan applications are so different from others produced by AEM such as Hondas and Toyotas. I am wondering if the side feed injector has something to do with it (although I doubt it). The AEM is certainly a complex creature with so many things that can be adjusted!

 

Nigel how are you?

check your email, I have wrote you. If not can you write me back please

Rodriguezjf@3mawdm.usmc.mil

its about your 2nd car that you bought in Fl. have questions about it?

 

Forget selling it to only PFI customers. Sell it to all now. GIMME GIMME GIMME.

 

My second car or my third one? I now have 2 IS300s .. yah sorry man, I forgot to finish off my message back to you, it is sitting in my in box ... by the way, one of them is for sale, the other one I am building for some serious power so if you know anyone who wants to buy one, let me know!

 

i know youre very busy, but can you let us know where you are at. do you think you will be able to get it finished by late may or june?