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Lovefab and AEM FIC is the answer

Joined
22 April 2003
Messages
1,063
Location
chicago
I thought I would post a quick update on my car as it is one of the higher boosted turbos and is equipped with the AEM FIC that has emerged as the solution of choice for OBD II FI management.

I have a Lovefab turbo kit with Approx 30,000 miles on it. I sent my car back to Cody after driving almost 2 years at 500 rwhp and the MSL harness and full AEM ECU. My goal was to increase both power and day to day driveability. I knew Cody was involved in the Beta application of the FIC and he told me he was getting great results (understatement, but more on that later)

My car is a bit of a bastard step child as it is a 2000 with a 97 motor. The only thing I had done was a Jim Elkin's build using ONLY Darton sleeves and JE pistons. At the time my HP goal was 400 and I did not feel it was necessary to upgrade HG or head bolts. My car had been puffing a little white smoke for the past several months on startup and Cody agreed that it had a telltale "sweet " smell of antifreeze. My coolant levels had been steady and a recent leak down showed all was well at <10% on all cylinders so we decided to go ahead and move forward with the project. In an attempt to isolate the smoke source Cody had the turbo seals replace, removed the headers to check for leakage from valve seals and really went the extra mile to find the problem. After continued smoke on warm startups he decided to recheck compression and leaks downs and confirmed that all was as it should be. Too weird, After the shop was closed and quiet he went back and redid the leakdown and was able to hear a tiny amount of bubbling into the coolant. The engine must really be healthy if it can give great leakdowns with a bad head gasket! It is likely that the increase in boost floated the head enough to worsen the problem and increase coolant leakage after warm shutdown. Cody got on it and 3 days after the HG and ARP bolts arrived the engine was pulled, inspected, repaired and replaced. During this process a missing ground was identified as well as an assortment of minor items that were attended to.

Once back together the process of tuning started and the journey to 18 PSI began. The car was good to 7 psi but started missing at 13 psi. Cody swapped his own cars coils into my car to determine if this was the problem. I had had a functioning coil miss at boost with Devin a couple years ago so I knew they need to be a 100% for higher boost levels. Everything checked out though and the miss didn't go away. The plugs were all new and all looked fine , but Cody swapped them out anyway. VIOLA! New plugs don't always work. Sooo...onward to 18.5 PSI. The next day I got a phone call with the sound track of my car cracking the tires loose in 3rd gear!

That weekend Cody DELIVERED my car a 2 1/2 hr drive to Grand Rapids and we took her for a spin. I was speechless. All I could do was grin from ear to ear! It started up in 1 crank, it idled with NO searching or bouncing. it was a well behaved as stock until you put your foot in it.

I have now had the car back for almost 3 weeks and I still smile every time I turn it over and it fires up immediately. The drivability of the car has made me fall in love with it all over again. I can get on it in second up to 19 psi and take my foot off the gas and the rpm's fall gently to 900 and stay there. I am a happy man.

Those that know me , understand that I have been down a long and frustrating FI road and have certainly paid my dues. The single take home point from all the frustrations is the need to find the right person to work on your car, and there aren't many choices in the FI arena. I want to publicly thank Cody for always sticking with me and my cars peculiar issues. He never threw in the towel with the repeated BS and figured out the problems even when several issues at once were making diagnosis extremely difficult. I am sure there are other people who are knowledgeable and reputable, but Cody has this thing figured out and down to a science.

A couple take home points from this last experience:

1. Lovefab turbo now has 30,000 miles on it. I have had no problems. it is a quality product.

2. The AEM FIC is the solution for OBD II if you want you car to run like stock. I have 19 psi and 750 injectors and it runs perfectly.

3. The single disc RPS clutch is holding up to the 19 PSI just fine and has over 25,000 miles on it. This is a good clutch.

4. Factory head gasket and head bolts on OBD II are probably only good to slightly over 400 rwhp. I believe mine started to go bad shortly after I went to 500 rwhp.

5. A good leakdown does NOT equal a good head gasket. Use a stethoscope and do it in a quiet place.

6. Coils can be weak but not dead. A coil that works at 6 psi will NOT necessarily work at 10 ps.

7. The life expectancy of a well built motor can easily be over 50,000 miles. I have almost 60,000 (25,000 at 400 whp, 28,000 @500 whp) and I still have leakdowns below 10%.

8. So far stock rods are good to > 550 RWHP.

9. Stock TCS is great and worth preserving by using the FIC. The control is smooth and welcome when the rear end cracks loose at 80 MPH.



I am not affiliated with Lovefab, RPS, or AEM. Just a happy camper that might be able to save someone else some headaches.

Oh, did I mention I no longer have /need an oil pump on my turbo?

Thanks Cody!
 
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I have now had the car back for almost 3 weeks and I still smile every time I turn it over and it fires up immediately. The drivability of the car has made me fall in love with it all over again. I can get on it in second up to 19 psi and take my foot off the gas and the rpm's fall gently to 900 and stay there. I am a happy man.



Thanks Cody!

Hey Woody I can certainly relate to the statement "Fall in love all over again". After Cody installed an AEM FIC on my car I couldn't believe how it drove. I'm sure we all bought our NSX's because of the overall drivability. We gave that up in search of more power. Now we have our cake and can eat it too. Thanks Cody!:biggrin:
 
why did you switch the EMS for the FIC?

I did not switch the EMS for the F/IC. The F/IC is a piggyback fuel and timing contoller that works with the stock ECU. I had the MSL harness that allowed the full AEM to be used with the OBD II to accomodate the throttle by wire. With the F/IC.I now have engine diagnostics, cel light function and traction control back
 
Glenn - You're an outstanding guy and I can't tell you how lucky we feel to have you as a customer.

Your post describes exactly why we recommend products such as AEM and RPS. We recommend the AEM EMS for the 1991-1994 NSX, the AEM F/IC for 1995+ NSX, and RPS products for every generation. Great products packaged well together will always result in an awesome outcome.
 
Is the smell of unburnt fuel eliminated with the addition of the FIC. I have been debating the turbo and CTSC installation in my head since I got my car and after driving behind and checking out other members' cars I really want to not have the black smoke upon take off or the smell that comes with these systems.

I was told that this mod could make that go away and make the car perform like stock in the smell and smoke department as well. Has this also been acheived?

Thanks,

Tytus
 
Is the smell of unburnt fuel eliminated with the addition of the FIC. I have been debating the turbo and CTSC installation in my head since I got my car and after driving behind and checking out other members' cars I really want to not have the black smoke upon take off or the smell that comes with these systems.

I was told that this mod could make that go away and make the car perform like stock in the smell and smoke department as well. Has this also been acheived?

Thanks,

Tytus

Like we said earlier, if you didn't look in the engine compartment, you wouldn't know the car is FI, this includes the smell of unburnt fuel. My mechanic mentioned after changing my timing belt, how much cleaner my car smelled then another customer who has a comptech with the full AEM and the modified cable to run his 2000 NSX.
 
Tytus,
My car will be getting the FIC later this month or early July. I'll let you know. The others with OBD2 Turbo and FIC are having no issues regarding running excessively rich.
Tim
 
Is the smell of unburnt fuel eliminated with the addition of the FIC. I have been debating the turbo and CTSC installation in my head since I got my car and after driving behind and checking out other members' cars I really want to not have the black smoke upon take off or the smell that comes with these systems.

I was told that this mod could make that go away and make the car perform like stock in the smell and smoke department as well. Has this also been acheived?

Thanks,

Tytus

hi Tytus --

The AEM F/IC can trim down 750cc injectors to the point that the car will not burn rich at idle. That being said, neither should a stock Comptech supercharger setup (I'm assuming that's what you have). The fuel pressure and injector duty cycle at idle should be close to stock.

Cheers,
-- Chris
 
Tim,

Since I know personnally about your black smoke and smell from my own experiece from driving behind you, I am most interested in your results.

Is the FIC a fix for the CTSC as well? Or just turbos?

I need to be NY state compliant and preferably 50 state compliant.

Thanks,

Tytus
 
hi Tytus --

The AEM F/IC can trim down 750cc injectors to the point that the car will not burn rich at idle. That being said, neither should a stock Comptech supercharger setup (I'm assuming that's what you have). The fuel pressure and injector duty cycle at idle should be close to stock.

Cheers,
-- Chris

Chris,

I don't have the CTSC yet but am researching it. I have driven and rode behind CTSC cars and smelled that unburnt fuel smell at speed and at idle. Took me back in time to the 60s and 70s carburated days. I am not a fan of the smell and hope this can be eliminated from the CTSC system before I buy it.

I am hoping this is the fix.

Thanks,

Tytus
 
When I had the MLS harness with the full AEM ECU I could smell the raw fuel. I have to back into the garage and the smell would be over powering and seep into the house and piss off my wife. Also when my window was down or top off it would smell of fuel in the car at WOT. This problem is gone now.
 
FYI - you shouldn't smell raw fuel or see large amounts of smoke with a properly tuned AEM EMS on a 91 - 94 NSX (the model years the EMS was produced for). The same holds true for the F/IC on the late model 95+ OBDII NSX.

Black exhaust smoke from an overly-rich air/fuel mixture is 100% tuning related regardless of AEM EMS on OBDI or AEM F/IC on OBDII.
 
Tytus,
WOODY pretty much describes the same thing as my car which also has the MSL-AEM. I am hoping for the same results as WOODY. Otherwise, my car is running great, 3K miles and no issues.

Cody, The NY owners have Emission checks but no visual, simply a plug into the OBD2 port and possibly a sniffer, I know that some are interested in the FIC - turbo route but concerned about passing emissions. Larry B should have all of the details about what is tested and then you can check if it will pass emissions via a simple OBD2 port check.
Tim
 
Tytus,
My car will be getting the FIC later this month or early July. I'll let you know. The others with OBD2 Turbo and FIC are having no issues regarding running excessively rich.
Tim

Tim,

Since I know personnally about your black smoke and smell from my own experiece from driving behind you, I am most interested in your results.

Is the FIC a fix for the CTSC as well? Or just turbos?

I need to be NY state compliant and preferably 50 state compliant.

Thanks,

Tytus

Tytus,
WOODY pretty much describes the same thing as my car which also has the MSL-AEM. I am hoping for the same results as WOODY. Otherwise, my car is running great, 3K miles and no issues.

Cody, The NY owners have Emission checks but no visual, simply a plug into the OBD2 port and possibly a sniffer, I know that some are interested in the FIC - turbo route but concerned about passing emissions. Larry B should have all of the details about what is tested and then you can check if it will pass emissions via a simple OBD2 port check.
Tim

I had Tim's car tuned overly conservative as I knew he was going to be doing some track events. I mentioned that to my tuner and he tuned it for street and track use. Which of course would be better with two maps(one for street and one for track), but one conservative map is what we ended up with. It could have been a lot less rich for a conservative street driving tune however(with the MSL AEM EMS).

My only concern with the FIC is the lack of some of the safety functions(unless I am incorrect assuming it doesn't have them). Things that a EMS does like watching IAT's, Wideband O2's, custom knock tables, etc which you can watch and pull timing/add fuel/cut fuel or whatever you want the desired effect to be.. Considering Devin is back in my neck of the woods, I'll use the FIC on the next '95+ car I turbo and relay my thoughts.
 
I know that my car runs a bit rich with the base autorotor kit, but only because of the black soot that builds on my bumper with miles.

Personally, I dont care about it. I know you're fixated on it Tytus, but YOUR CAR IS BLACK!!! The soot is from the conservative tune that comes with the base kit. If you want to have it tuned out, Im positive that Cody could do that for you.

Just get FI and be done with it. Im extremely happy with my autorotor. You should have driven my car at Est Fest.
 
I thought I would post a quick update on my car as it is one of the higher boosted turbos and is equipped with the AEM FIC that has emerged as the solution of choice for OBD II FI management.

I have a Lovefab turbo kit with Approx 30,000 miles on it. I sent my car back to Cody after driving almost 2 years at 500 rwhp and the MSL harness and full AEM ECU. My goal was to increase both power and day to day driveability. I knew Cody was involved in the Beta application of the FIC and he told me he was getting great results (understatement, but more on that later)

My car is a bit of a bastard step child as it is a 2000 with a 97 motor. The only thing I had done was a Jim Elkin's build using ONLY Darton sleeves and JE pistons. At the time my HP goal was 400 and I did not feel it was necessary to upgrade HG or head bolts. My car had been puffing a little white smoke for the past several months on startup and Cody agreed that it had a telltale "sweet " smell of antifreeze. My coolant levels had been steady and a recent leak down showed all was well at <10% on all cylinders so we decided to go ahead and move forward with the project. In an attempt to isolate the smoke source Cody had the turbo seals replace, removed the headers to check for leakage from valve seals and really went the extra mile to find the problem. After continued smoke on warm startups he decided to recheck compression and leaks downs and confirmed that all was as it should be. Too weird, After the shop was closed and quiet he went back and redid the leakdown and was able to hear a tiny amount of bubbling into the coolant. The engine must really be healthy if it can give great leakdowns with a bad head gasket! It is likely that the increase in boost floated the head enough to worsen the problem and increase coolant leakage after warm shutdown. Cody got on it and 3 days after the HG and ARP bolts arrived the engine was pulled, inspected, repaired and replaced. During this process a missing ground was identified as well as an assortment of minor items that were attended to.

Once back together the process of tuning started and the journey to 18 PSI began. The car was good to 7 psi but started missing at 13 psi. Cody swapped his own cars coils into my car to determine if this was the problem. I had had a functioning coil miss at boost with Devin a couple years ago so I knew they need to be a 100% for higher boost levels. Everything checked out though and the miss didn't go away. The plugs were all new and all looked fine , but Cody swapped them out anyway. VIOLA! New plugs don't always work. Sooo...onward to 18.5 PSI. The next day I got a phone call with the sound track of my car cracking the tires loose in 3rd gear!

That weekend Cody DELIVERED my car a 2 1/2 hr drive to Grand Rapids and we took her for a spin. I was speechless. All I could do was grin from ear to ear! It started up in 1 crank, it idled with NO searching or bouncing. it was a well behaved as stock until you put your foot in it.

I have now had the car back for almost 3 weeks and I still smile every time I turn it over and it fires up immediately. The drivability of the car has made me fall in love with it all over again. I can get on it in second up to 19 psi and take my foot off the gas and the rpm's fall gently to 900 and stay there. I am a happy man.

Those that know me , understand that I have been down a long and frustrating FI road and have certainly paid my dues. The single take home point from all the frustrations is the need to find the right person to work on your car, and there aren't many choices in the FI arena. I want to publicly thank Cody for always sticking with me and my cars peculiar issues. He never threw in the towel with the repeated BS and figured out the problems even when several issues at once were making diagnosis extremely difficult. I am sure there are other people who are knowledgeable and reputable, but Cody has this thing figured out and down to a science.

A couple take home points from this last experience:

1. Lovefab turbo now has 30,000 miles on it. I have had no problems. it is a quality product.

2. The AEM FIC is the solution for OBD II if you want you car to run like stock. I have 19 psi and 750 injectors and it runs perfectly.

3. The single disc RPS clutch is holding up to the 19 PSI just fine and has over 25,000 miles on it. This is a good clutch.

4. Factory head gasket and head bolts on OBD II are probably only good to slightly over 400 rwhp. I believe mine started to go bad shortly after I went to 500 rwhp.

5. A good leakdown does NOT equal a good head gasket. Use a stethoscope and do it in a quiet place.

6. Coils can be weak but not dead. A coil that works at 6 psi will NOT necessarily work at 10 ps.

7. The life expectancy of a well built motor can easily be over 50,000 miles. I have almost 60,000 (25,000 at 400 whp, 28,000 @500 whp) and I still have leakdowns below 10%.

8. So far stock rods are good to > 550 RWHP.

9. Stock TCS is great and worth preserving by using the FIC. The control is smooth and welcome when the rear end cracks loose at 80 MPH.



I am not affiliated with Lovefab, RPS, or AEM. Just a happy camper that might be able to save someone else some headaches.

Oh, did I mention I no longer have /need an oil pump on my turbo?

Thanks Cody!


I fit the FIC on my car and it works perfectly. NSXXXTC
 
When I had the MLS harness with the full AEM ECU I could smell the raw fuel. I have to back into the garage and the smell would be over powering and seep into the house and piss off my wife. Also when my window was down or top off it would smell of fuel in the car at WOT. This problem is gone now.

I think the reason you do not smell the fuel anymore is because the OBD 2 system is now active with the FIC which enables the function of the evaporative charcoal canister / system. The evaporative charcoal canister filters the fuel vapors and then recircualtes the fumes from there. When you have a stand alone (EMS, TEC 2, etc) it disables the OBD 2 system and then you lose this feature.
 
You may be right, but I had raw fuel smell back when I had a BBSC with the SS box piggyback which still used the ecu. Also, why would they bother to carbon filter the fumes if they are recirculated anyways?
 
You may be right, but I had raw fuel smell back when I had a BBSC with the SS box piggyback which still used the ecu. Also, why would they bother to carbon filter the fumes if they are recirculated anyways?


The canister and recirculation is EPA standard issue that all 96 + vehicles had to have before being sold in the US. The raw fuel smell on your SS box was probably due to the car running too rich since you did not have precise fuel control with it.
 
so is the aem fic more precise than the ssbox? i stilluse the ssbox, and have raw fuel smell at idle... in spite of AFR of 14.6-15 at idle.

i'd love to get rid of the rich idle.

i'm running 550's.
 
so is the aem fic more precise than the ssbox? i stilluse the ssbox, and have raw fuel smell at idle... in spite of AFR of 14.6-15 at idle.

i'd love to get rid of the rich idle.

i'm running 550's.

I don't know if the AEM is more precise, but I do know it works. Most of us with forced induction on an OBD II car for any length of time, just started putting up with a car that ran less then perfect. As Woody stated in his first post, we fell in love all over again after the AEM install. As an early adopter of a BBSC, Mark Basch flew a well respected tuner from Los Angeles to my house in WI. He spent three days trying to tune the SS box to run correctly and maintain my drive by wire control. All that without real success. Then when I moved to IL, I had another respected local tuner try twice without complete success to get my car to run like it was intended. Finally after reading about Cody at LoveFab having success I gave him a try. I don't know what else to say but my car runs absolutely PERFECT. Just like Acura/Honda designed it. No fuel smells, no jumping idle and NO CHECK ENGINE LIGHTS. If I had an OBD II NSX that had forced induction, I would send it to Cody or fly him to your place. Man, it's that good!!!
 
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so is the aem fic more precise than the ssbox? i stilluse the ssbox, and have raw fuel smell at idle... in spite of AFR of 14.6-15 at idle.

i'd love to get rid of the rich idle.

i'm running 550's.

I also had the bbsc with the ssbb which was tuned by Devin. He was able to do a fairly good job with it in terms of start ups and idle, but I always had that raw fuel smell. If I recall correctly the ssbb had very poor resolution for fuel MAP. It sucked when you would have a friend in the car and get on it, only to have the cabin smell like someone threw a cup of gasoline in it. It doesn't sound like your idle is rich if it floats around 14.7 or so. As mentioned before, it may well have something to do with fume evacuation from the tank, but I do not understand why that would be effected by the ssbb or resolved by the FIC. Bottom line, the FIC eliminated the problem for myself and others. Spend the $600 on the FIC and Harness and be happy. I am not sure if other tuners in your area have had the success that Cody has accomplished with this unit. I actually have not heard of anyone else tuning NSX with the FIC.
 
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