Power gain with AEM tunning (light mod car)

Russ M

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As some of you know I am a dyno queen, test and retest every mod I ever do. Call it what you like but I personally like to know what does and what does not do as claimed.

To date the mods on the car are; Borla exhaust (no cats), K&N/Smooth tubes (no power gain), under drive pulley 25%, AEM unit.

For about 3 months now I have been driving around on the base map that comes with the AEM unit thinking that there was not much point to tuning on such a lightly modded car. After all the car felt fantastic, ran cool, smooth, etc...

But being the dyno ****** that I am, the urge kept nagging me to go and find out just what the AEM unit could do on my car, since the majority on the forums feels there is no gain on a light modded/stock car.

The tuning was done with daily drivability/poor quality California gas (91 octane) in mind. Could there be even more power to be gained? Yes, no doubt but with best grade of 91 octane being available around here doing so would be destructive.

First image shows the comparison of pulls; 26 pull shows one of the best factory ECU pulls which at 437.7 hp is fantastic on this particular dyno, stock viper make 396-404 here. Pull 27 is the base AEM map which was made on a 97gts stock I believe, and is the map I have driving around on. You can see significant gains over the best factory ECU. Now this is where it gets interesting, 32 is the last pull we made after some fine tweaking of the AEM unit for my lightly modded car (corvette guys would say stock).

The AEM unit allowed the car to make 452.5 hp and 508lb's of torque; this is at the WHEELS people.

635compareviper-med.jpg


This image is the only 3 tuning pulls we needed to make; yes you read that right took 3 pulls to fantastic tune. Most of the gains were seen in pull 30, but a bit of fine tweaking instead of broad adjustment got us over the 450 mark.

6353bestviper-med.jpg


The best torque this car ever made with the factory ECU was 471lb's, and horsepower was 437.7. Both of which were NOT achieved on the same pull. The AEM unit allowed 15rwhp and 40 lb's torque gain. Notice the gain is not just peak numbers, it is all across the power band and the hp gains and torque gains in different parts of the RPM band are even greater than peak.

Now I suspect the many of you out there that have my mods along with some others like headers, rockers might be able to realize 500hp at the wheels and only God knows how much torque.

Thanks for reading, take care.

PS--This is my first time trying to post an image, and it is not coming up. If anyone knows how to make the dyno graphs come up right away please fix it.

[image]http://[/image]
 

Tommy K

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Great numbers man. 40 ft/lbs. is definitely something you can feel! Keep the mods coming...

Tom
 

DLTARNU

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Russ, just a ballpark guess, how much HP/TQ would an AEM tuning give to a car with the VIPAIR system installed? I'm guessing at least 100 RWHP but I'm a novice so I could be low balling it.
 

AJT

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I think to figure out with a vipair system we would need to relook at that thread.. now where did it go :rolleyes:
 
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Russ M

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Russ, just a ballpark guess, how much HP/TQ would an AEM tuning give to a car with the VIPAIR system installed? I'm guessing at least 100 RWHP but I'm a novice so I could be low balling it.

Unratld,

Well there would have to be significant tuning involved to make up for the large volume of air that it deflects, not to mention the cooler and denser air charge it would promote "based on builders claims".

The power gains would be significant if the car being tested was to somehow loose the #9 spark plug, in the pre Vipair dyno pulls. :eek:
 
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Russ M

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On a side note, my car has never seen better than 10-11mpg with the factory ECU. Ever since install of the AEM unit my gas millage has been 16-17.

Not that many of us care, but with gas at $2.40 a gal arround here at least I am starting to notice it.
 

pauls

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That is pretty much what the VEC 2 did for my car on the torque curve. Lots of improvement in the mid range. When we get the V notch thing sorted out I can add some timing and make more power!
 
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Russ M

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Pauls,

I would NOT recomend getting much timing involved, especialy in the mid range. Unless you can get some knock sensors involved, there is a reason the factory timing curve takes a dip there or your car will knock.
 

pauls

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10-4 Russ. I'd like to have a card for race gas that can use a little more timing. Nothing radical. With stock timing race gas made no more power than 94 Sunoco.
 

Simi Viper

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God I wish Cali had 94 octane pump gas, you dont know how lucky you are Pauls.
Russ which part of LA you live at? As I recall there is a Race Gasoline sold
at 76 Unocal gas station in Pasadena right off Arroyo parkway and Glenarm St.
 

Viperfreak2

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Just to rub it in a little, locally 93 is the norm and I have a station up the road that sells 100 octane from the pump in the summer. They switch it to kerosene in the winter (3-4 months) What octane is the 'race gas' in cali? I can't believe CARB would allow it to be legal!

The SRT-10 runs no different on any gas (that I can tell) and my times at the local drag strip are the same wether I run 87 or 100.

Would love to see an octane only comparison of dyno pulls.
 
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Russ M

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God I wish Cali had 94 octane pump gas, you dont know how lucky you are Pauls.
Russ which part of LA you live at? As I recall there is a Race Gasoline sold
at 76 Unocal gas station in Pasadena right off Arroyo parkway and Glenarm St.

I cant justify spending $4.00 a gal for for 100 octane fuel. All I ask for is that Cali gets the same grade gas as the rest of the nation.
 
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Russ M

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Just to rub it in a little, locally 93 is the norm and I have a station up the road that sells 100 octane from the pump in the summer. They switch it to kerosene in the winter (3-4 months) What octane is the 'race gas' in cali? I can't believe CARB would allow it to be legal!

The SRT-10 runs no different on any gas (that I can tell) and my times at the local drag strip are the same wether I run 87 or 100.

Would love to see an octane only comparison of dyno pulls.

With factory ECU you wont see any gain in power with 100 octane fuel, if anything you may loose some.

Having higher octane and the ability to adjust your timing is what will get you more power.
 

98viperGTS

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I have a 96 RT/10. Would a AEM unit help me with HP and MPG? What is the AEM unit? How hard would it be to install and where can I get one? Sorry about asking so many questions.

Thanks
 
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Russ M

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Sorry, but the AEM unit will not work on Gen 1 cars. The Gen 1 cars had a completly different ECU than the Gen 2's.
 
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Russ M

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David,

I thought it was the 97? But I may be wrong.

Anyone know for sure?

Is it this saturday? I didnt register, but will come down if anyone does not show up I would be glad to make a few pulls.
 
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Russ M

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Rob,

DC sports, Horsepower freaks, Titan Motor sports, etc...

Every AEM dealer can get you one of these units. I would recomend contacting one of the above. Price should be south of $3000.00 I just dont know how far south.
 

Daniel Cragin/DC Performance Inc

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Russ,
You have done some great work for AEM and this new system. You are welcome to come down and tune on our dyno.

Just a note, Russ tunes at R&D Dyno service, they are a top notch dyno shop and Darren takes good care of the Viper folks.
 

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