AEM and vipec

northwestsupra

New Member
Sep 19, 2006
1,166
0
0
Washington, Marysville
ok so im thinking about getting AEM Gen 1, but i've heard horror stories from now 2 reputable people about aem causing engines to pop and blow up do to hardware issues on the AEM. these 2 people were duane and adam "honestabe"

my setup is all in my build thread, but in short its a 87 7mgte manual

adam tells me to go with either a AEM gen 2 since there is alot of issues fixed in that. well via AEMs site it says gen 2 "series 2" is only availible for MKIV.

Is there a patch harness for this? or does anyone make harnesses for these for a 7mgte yellow plug?

same thing question to the vipec system. does anyone make a harness for pnp? and what one would work for the 7mgte the best and being the cheapest. i need somthing to get me moving again. i dont mind having to wire things up at all, im really good at electrical but im just trying to avoid having to do it if possible lol. any and all help will make my brain hurt less.
 

ml43

New Member
Feb 12, 2009
69
0
0
HI
buy a jumper harness, then you can pretty much make any standalone PnP

side note: Vipec is decades better than any AEM

Vipec was started by the previous owner of autronic, which was a lead design engineer from motec. That's why they are all very similar
 

Cz.

CAR > FAMILY
Mar 31, 2005
324
0
0
Seattle, WA
I don't believe that Vipec has a plug and play harness for a 7m, however you could probably send an email to Phoenix tuning and he could probably make you a harness.
 

GrimJack

Administrator
Dec 31, 1969
12,377
3
38
56
Richmond, BC, Canada
idriders.com
Add Turbo Drifter, the original builder of my 2J car, to the list of people who popped an engine using the AEM. He switched to the Vipec because of it, and that's what I'm running now.

Given that I've never personally used an AEM, I have to say the Vipec is very nice. Software is easy to understand, and it's USB instead of Serial like everything else, so it works out of the box with modern computers, no messing with USB -> Serial adapters that work 'most' of the time.

No PnP harness that I'm aware of - not surprising, given that the Vipec is so new. Furthermore, it's probably worth the trouble to make a custom harness, just to avoid using the original harness that's probably in not too awesome shape, and add another connection where bad things (tm) can happen.
 

Cz.

CAR > FAMILY
Mar 31, 2005
324
0
0
Seattle, WA
I believe he was referring to Vipec and AEM v2, anything with the word Motec on it means the price is at least doubled.

Vipec isn't very new it's been out for at least about 2 years? and it was basically Autronic before that. They have plug and play kits for newer cars (including the 2jz) but I doubt they'll ever make one for the 7m.
 

honestabe

Happy as hell :D
Jan 15, 2006
3,713
0
0
38
Mount Vernon, WA, USA
www.cardomain.com
ViPEC, worth every penny. Hell, you've been playing around with the software for a couple hours and you can see for yourself just how user friendly it is. Hell, even I can sorta figure out things (although there's a lot of things I'd never mess with). I'd never trust the AEM 1st Gen, it scares the hell out of me. Hell, I'm still wary of the 2nd gen AEM.
 

northwestsupra

New Member
Sep 19, 2006
1,166
0
0
Washington, Marysville
honestabe;1541809 said:
ViPEC, worth every penny. Hell, you've been playing around with the software for a couple hours and you can see for yourself just how user friendly it is. Hell, even I can sorta figure out things (although there's a lot of things I'd never mess with). I'd never trust the AEM 1st Gen, it scares the hell out of me. Hell, I'm still wary of the 2nd gen AEM.

so vipec is definatly on my list now. now which should i go for lol v44 or v88
 

Cz.

CAR > FAMILY
Mar 31, 2005
324
0
0
Seattle, WA
The most significant difference between the two is whether you're ok with a wasted spark setup (V44) or you want a superior sequential fire setup (V88). The V88 also has DBW controls, but you're probably not going to need that.
 

IJ.

Grumpy Old Man
Mar 30, 2005
38,728
0
0
61
I come from a land down under
Cz.;1542282 said:
The most significant difference between the two is whether you're ok with a wasted spark setup (V44) or you want a superior sequential fire setup (V88). The V88 also has DBW controls, but you're probably not going to need that.
What makes it "superior"?

northwestsupra;1542333 said:
Drive By Wire
 

Cz.

CAR > FAMILY
Mar 31, 2005
324
0
0
Seattle, WA
IJ.;1542336 said:
What makes it "superior"?

That you're not taxing the coils? Most people who use AEM (wasted spark setup) say that you have to have the HKS DLI since otherwise you get spark blow out at higher rpm. I'm not sure about the 7m coils having the same issue, but that's the case for the 2jz.
With the wasted spark setup, the coils are firing twice as much, but I'm sure you know all this.
 

IJ.

Grumpy Old Man
Mar 30, 2005
38,728
0
0
61
I come from a land down under
Cz.;1542884 said:
That you're not taxing the coils? Most people who use AEM (wasted spark setup) say that you have to have the HKS DLI since otherwise you get spark blow out at higher rpm. I'm not sure about the 7m coils having the same issue, but that's the case for the 2jz.
With the wasted spark setup, the coils are firing twice as much, but I'm sure you know all this.
There is little to no cylinder pressure in the dead cylinder, load on the coil increases with pressure.

If it's that marginal you can always swap out the coils for individual coils with built in ignitors and run it in wastefire mode but still have 100% energy to the working coils.

Sequential for Injectors makes a lot of sense but for coils not so much.

I'd rather have those 3 drivers available for other things if the ECU allows it.
 

Cz.

CAR > FAMILY
Mar 31, 2005
324
0
0
Seattle, WA
Well maybe superior was too strong a word, but I don't think it is step back when compared to wastefire.

I should have pointed out that the V88 does have the ability to run the superior sequential injection setup.

Regardless, the V88 can do both sequential ignition and injection on a 6-cylinder, where as the V44 can't.