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Last Updated on Monday, 03 February 2014 22:13

Written by Aaron

With a small but dedicated team at FSR, we are moving ahead in many directions.  We want to be your one stop shop:  we have built solid relationships with chassis, paint, and coating experts local to us.  We can help you with everything from painting your engine bay, to doing a body off restoration on an old muscle car, to your basic service and engine rebuilding.  We only work with people who maintain the highest quality standards, and if we can't be sure of it we won't do it.  Also, we have been working on putting together an online store which will carry a very select offering of top quality parts.  We are direct with companies like AEM, Turbosmart, and SMAX Performance.  We ONLY sell things we'd put on our own cars.  Please click the "store" button on the top of the page.  We can offer you tech support and help with engine/turbocharging/drivetrain theory if necessary.  Please let us know how we can help!

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Last Updated on Monday, 03 February 2014 22:13

Written by Aaron

Why you want an AEM EMS from FSR

UPDATES for 2011!  We already have closed loop wideband control, of course, as well as closed loop boost control and closed loop EGT feedback.  But we are adding more tricks and solutions to our offerings soon with more advanced knock control, more advanced methanol integration, lean protection, fuel pressure protection, and E85 flex fuel capability.  We already offer a highly integrated methanol injection setup that considers both electronic faults, low level sensor faults, along with an actual physical flow meter minimum and maximum limit lines which minimize risk.

-An EMS is NOT overkill for any stock or modified car used as a performance vehicle

·         POWER:  Stock imports and domestics leave a lot on the table power and economy wise that can be fully tapped only with complete engine control.  Period.

·         POWERBAND:  Even if your goal isn’t a lot more power than stock, everyone can appreciate a nice, smooth, clean powerband.  Plan on your torque coming in earlier, your power holding on later, and with so much flexibility, we can even compensate for things like aerodynamic drag and low grip situations

·         DRIVEABILITY:  The driveability of a stock or close to stock car can be matched and sometimes exceeded by a well tuned EMS car

·         RELIABILITY:  We all know that certain brands of stock ECU’s have been known to fail multiple times.  Put an end to that with an EMS warranted through FSR.  Our labor carries a lifetime guarantee.

-To install, plug.  To uninstall, unplug

·         For a basic installation, an EMS can literally be plugged into the car and be ready for tuning.  You unplug your stock ECU, plug in the EMS, and tune.

·         It can operate on all of the factory sensors including the factory MAF sensor

·         Consider the significant time/costs involved in wiring in a piggyback such as the e-manage (labor can be up to $500 for a piggyback installation, you can save that money AND not chop up your harness with a plug and play ems)

·         Quick, easy removal for going back to stock, no signs of a tampered with ECU, no chopped up wiring harness.

-Complete engine system controls, and by complete, we mean complete.  Possibly more importantly, FSR is very familiar with how to use all of these controls to get the most out of your car, and custom tailor it to your specific setup.  Let us digress, for a moment.  Any engine management system is only as good as the tuner behind it, and we have that end covered; in order to have a well tuned, solid car, it requires much more than just good tuning.  The car needs a solid mechanical checkover to ensure consistency and mechanical functionality.  Because FSR builds engines and drivetrains from the ground up, we know exactly what constitutes a car ready for tuning.  Trying to tune a car that is not mechanically sound often is asking a tuning system to do more than it can; compensate for poor mechanical condition. 

That said, the EMS offers COMPLETE control and real time data for all engine control systems, with the flexibility to recognize, and adjust for when problems come up.  Think you are saving money with an alphabet soup of afc, vpc, gcc, itc, arc, emu, ebc, evc, and fcd?  Think again.  Before you even consider the very significant costs and chopping up of your wiring harness to install all those marginal piggybacks, the AEM EMS replaces ALL of them.  Obviously, the cost of the AEM EMS is almost always LESS than the multiple units, and offers far, far greater functionality and control.  Here are a few things:

·         A piggyback takes sensor signals going to the ECU, modifies the signals, and hopes that the ECU outputs injector/ignition signals that the tuner is looking for.  ECU’s are getting smarter, and that is working less of the time.  Modern ECU’s are very, very difficult to trick because they have many systems that monitor consistency among engine controls

·         A stock ECU has a “lookup table”, or a target air/fuel ratio that it is aiming for at all times, under all conditions.  When you modify your car, the changed volumetric efficiency, dynamic compression, etc  may require a different air/fuel ratio under almost all conditions.  While you can try to use a piggyback to achieve those air/fuel ratios (and sometimes that is entirely possible), you are almost ALWAYS leaving some performance and economy on the table by not being in true, total control of the air fuel ratio.  With the EMS, you SET the target air/fuel ratio table, and then tune to achieve that.  No more fighting your way into a happy medium with the ECU.  You ARE the ECU.

·         Fuel control:  multiple fuel maps,  357 point load/rpm table.   In comparison, an AFC has 10 set points.  An ARC-2 has four knobs.  An ITC has 5 break points and knobs.  A VPC has 4 knobs and 1 idle control knob.  This is 2011 people, we’re past that.  Further, with the EMS you get individual cylinder fuel trims; at FSR we monitor plugs and use other external devices to see how each cylinder is running, and which cylinders may need a bit of extra fuel.  Your motor is only as strong as its weakest link, and we don’t want to let any cylinders down.  We also get fuel trims by throttle, air intake temperature compensation, coolant temperature compensation, boost fuel compensation, battery voltage compensation, barometric pressure compensation, and the list goes on…  Lastly, with injector phasing, and ONLY a load bearing 4 wheel dyno like ours, we can actually time when the injectors fire during the stroke for maximum best mean torque at all load and RPM points.  This is simply not possible without real time tuning (or flash tuning) or without a real time torque readout on the dyno (a dual eddy current dyno unlike basic Dynojets).

·         Acceleration fuel:  Accel fuel is a very touchy thing to play with.  But if you’ve done some data acquisition before, you know that when you dump big injectors in your car with a stock ECU, you’ll get major injector dead time and tip in issues.  The EMS is well set up to handle what AEM knows we’re after; perfect driveability with big injectors, even on cold starts with E85.  While we’re on that subject, the EMS has built in functions, and we have the experience to help you dial in cars with big cams, big injectors, and big fuel systems for the street.  You need both a qualified tuner and a flexible management system to make this happen.

·         Ignition control.  Like fuel control, you get a 357 point load/RPM table that can be configured off calculated load, MAP, or MAF.  In addition to that table, we add in individual cylinder ignition trim, something most tuners don’t even come close to touching.  Further, ignition can be used for air temp compensation, coolant temp, idle control, and to help cold and hot starts.  The new hardware in the V2 EMS makes for dead accurate ignition timing that you can be certain of.

o   Now some individuals don’t feel like ignition timing is important; they tune for fuel and then just hope their timing is where it needs to be.  With larger injectors and low boost, they run solely off the Knock sensors hoping that their stock ECU will pickup knock and pull timing as necessary.  We just don’t feel like that’s a safe bet to make with our customers’ money, motors, or our time.  Without going into too much detail, air/fuel ratio is important, but timing control is where all the power and safety lies.  When tuning a piggy back controller, adjusting the amount of fuel delivered inadvertently affects the ignition timing.  For example, with an Emanage, when you lean out the air fuel ratio, you add timing, even if you don’t want to.  Now, instead of simply evening out the air/fuel ratio, you’ve got a leaner mixture which is more likely to knock, and advanced the timing which makes it more likely to detonate.  You have to reactively go back to the ignition map, suggest that the ECU takes out timing, and hope that it does.  Not our style.  To properly tune a car, it is imperative, in our opinion, to individually trim timing and fuel.  It is absolutely the key to power and reliability.  This is a situation where you sacrifice BOTH (power and reliability) without the proper hardware or know-how to get the job done right.  FSR tuning is not based on hopes and suggestions.

·         02 feedback.  Got a wideband ?  Good, because you can wire it into your EMS to tell the EMS exactly what your air/fuel ratio is at all times.  A high accuracy wideband has about twenty times the resolution of the stock narrowband o2 sensors, which is what the stock ECU is using to figure out the “approximate” air fuel ratio.  The EMS can use two different widebands, too, so you can monitor each bank of cylinders and adjust fuel for whichever bank runs leaner or richer.  This is another area that FSR exceeds most tuners; even on our most basic tunes, we’ll monitor differential air/fuel ratio for your particular engine and set up your banked fuel correction.  These are the little things that can make or break the driveability, get you that extra 20 horesepower, and increase the safety and longevity of the motor.

·         Idle control:  multiple circuit idle control.  Have big cams?  Don’t fight the AFC idle and die symptoms.  AEM can set your target idle, and has full control over the idle motor so that you can get the idle right where it needs to be.  It will also use fuel enrichment and timing trims to keep the RPM right where you want it.  For extra braking power for road racers, you can set the

-Flexibility.  We have experience configuring the EMS to run a variety of different engines, and engines in a variety of configurations.  While most shops can plug and play, we can take you much further.  We are striving to be the leader in EMS implementation into sand rails, off road vehicles, ¾ size race cars, Lotus style kit cars, and LSX performance.  Naturally, with our v8 and hot rod experience, you can expect to see us churning out more EMS powered small and big block GM, Mopars, and Fords.  In whatever  vehicle you have us chose to help you install and tune an EMS, you can configure it to exactly the setup that works best for you.

·         Run any gas you want.  Pump gas, pump 100, C16 leaded race gas, E85, or any mix.  Coming soon, flex fuel capability

·         Run any sensors you want.  Using a different throttle, different TPS, CLT, IAT, or oxygen sensor?  No problem, every sensor is configurable.

·         AEM has lookup tables for many different common injectors, and is completely configurable to run any injector that you want to run.  Further, with the Series 2’s new hardware, you can say goodbye to your resolution killing resistor packs and directly drive peak and hold injectors.  We cannot overstate the importance of this.

-Diagnostics.    The stock ECU, as well as it can run a stock car, is very limited in the amount of real time data it can provide.  If a car comes in with a problem that is difficult to find, we often find ourselves installing an EMS simply to see what is going on with the car.  We can turn on or off certain coils, injectors, or configure our way around dead spots in a sensor.  We can see a failing thermistor, a faulty TPS that may NOT show up as an error code on the stock ECU, or hunt down a difficult to pinpoint problem in the EFI main relay circuit.  Our point here is that, often times, an EMS will save the customer significant time (and money) by allowing a technician to quickly diagnose a mechanical problem.

-No Laptop Necessary.  When you bring your car to FSR to have us install and tune an EMS system.  We do the work.  We do the professional installation, any necessary wiring.  We set up all of the sensors, fans, external controllers, pumps, and tie in whatever gauges that may provide more information to the EMS.  We test drive, it, we cold start it, hot start it,  half start it, maybe even start it upside down.  We run it at high RPM, low RPM, barely idling and everything in between.  Our dyno can simulate any road condition imaginable… we have plots for driving up long hills, towing, racing around a road circuit, drag racing, so on and so forth.  Your job?  Put gas in it and drive.  No laptops, not tuning, no tweaking, no nothing.

-Safeguards and value.  So you’ve got an expensive stock motor, or a built up very expensive motor.  Your basic drop in and go six or eight cylinder motor is going to be a minimum of $5000 to pull and replace with a motor that you don’t know the history behind.  If it is a built motor, double that, and that’s still estimating low.  Let’s talk briefly about why you want an EMS, what safeguards are built in, and how that can SAVE you money!

·         Over rev protection.  Three step system with both soft and hard cuts.  Ignition and fuel cuts, all will be configured by us.

·         Speed limiters, configurable.  We can put them on or remove them.  For example, we can set the speed limiter to the max recommended speed rating by your tires.

·         Over heating protection.  Say your car blows off a coolant hose, sticks a thermostat, or loses a water pump and tries to overheat.  A stock or piggyback/flash tuned car will overheat in minutes, blow the head gasket, crack the head, and take all of the tension out of your rings, ruin your block.  Here comes a big bill.  When FSR configures your EMS, if the car starts to overheat, we use very aggressive fan configuration to try to pull down the temperature.  We make changes to the fuel delivery and timing, as well as boost, methanol, nitrous, or whatever other external systems that we configure using the EMS.  Then, if it continues to overheat, we can turn on a light on your dash… if that still isn’t enough (say you don’t see the gauge), we can make the car literally attempt to turn itself off.  That should be a sign.  That comes free, unlocked, included, and would pay for the EMS about five times over.

·         Knock control.  We can’t go into all of the detail of the knock control system, but here at FSR, we believe in active knock control, and hope you’ll never have to use it.  We tune under the knock limit, but we also live in reality, where bad gas, a mechanical failure, or extra hot temperatures can make your engine more likely to detonate.  Luckily, with every EMS box tuned by FSR, you get a custom tailored knock control designed for YOUR individual car.  Knock response, knock frequency, and knock amplitude will vary from car to car.  Further, it will vary from engine to engine depending on modifications.  Given that, we have a program that allows us to figure out exactly what real knock is, and we custom tailor the knock control to pick up detonation as soon as it happens.  When it senses knock, we tell the EMS exactly how much fuel to add, how long to add it for, and how much timing to pull.  When the knock subsides, we add back in the timing, pull the fuel and you are on your merry way.  The stock knock control is simply not designed with performance in mind, or running the cars under more load than they were designed for stock.

·         Real life stories:  Here are two different very real scenarios that you may find yourself in

o   Scenario 1:  You have an electronic boost controller, or even a manual boost controller, a stock computer, piggy back, etc.  Say the boost control solenoid fails, or the vacuum lines melt.  You lose control of your boost.  The boost spikes to 30+psi on pump gas, engine fails, get out your wallet, find a corner, do what you’ve gotta do.

o   Scenario 2:  Say you have your boost set at 15psi, and we’ve tuned your EMS for that boost level.  Then your boost controller fails, and your boost starts to spike, just as in scenario 1.  At 16psi, the EMS picks up some knock, and adds in some fuel, and pulls some timing to keep the engine safe.  When the boost keeps going up (because of the failed boost controller), at 17psi, the EMS knows that there is a problem, and cuts all spark, so the engine physically cannot overboost.  Engine saved, problem averted.  As the engine comes back down, you can continue to drive normally, and you just kept several thousand bucks in your pocket.   As you can see, a $1600 EMS + tuning doesn’t seem so costly now, does it!?

-Simplify and add lightness.  We all know how many different gadgets end up in our hobby cars.  We’ve got gauges up the wazoo, boost controllers, nitrous buttons, fan controllers, meth controllers, UEGO units, and so on and so forth.  With an FSR installed EMS, we can simplify all of that.  For example, your EMS can tie into all of the sensors necessary to datalog fuel pressure, coolant temp, air intake temperature, oil pressure, multiple channels of air/fuel ratio, EGT, and so on and so fourth.  So unless you want a Star Wars style dashboard, you don’t need so many gauges.  The reason for having gauges is to monitor if there is a problem, so you can cut the engine to save it.  Why not save the easy $1000+ you can spend on gauges and let the EMS monitor all of those functions, and make any changes necessary based on the parameters it sees?

                We can tie your EMS into your boost and meth control systems, too.  For example, we can wire the defrost or headlight button on your dash to arm the meth system.  That will send a signal to the meth control unit to do a system check.  If the meth controller senses fluid level is ok, and all parameters are within spec, it will send a ground signal to the EMS.  The EMS will then send an “ARM” signal to the meth control unit, and to the electronic boost controller.  The EMS will active the meth, and switch the boost to a high boost tune.  At the same time, we’ll have maps tuned for the high boost and meth, so the fuel and timing maps will switch over when the meth is active.  Essentially, one flip of a switch can arm your meth, turn up your boost, and switch to aggressive timing and fuel maps.  Flip the switch off and enjoy cruising around on straight pump gas with nothing to worry about.

                Even better, say your meth system has a problem, we can wire that to the EMS, which can turn down the boost, and switch to safe fuel and timing maps to save your motor until you get the meth system working properly again.

This is the same car, same day, tuned professionally by piggyback compared to with the AEM.  Boost controller OFF on both runs.

Here is the same car after we tuned the AEM up to 13.5 psi of boost.  The blue line is with the AEM, the red lines are with a piggyback.  NO other parts were changed.

-Data Acquisition.  The last thing we want to touch on is the significant data acquisition available and set up on all EMS’s tuned by FSR.  The Series 2 box comes with 1MB of internal data logging.  We set this up to record a number of engine parameters (such as boost, engine speed, vehicle speed, air/fuel ratio, EGT, etc…).  When you bring your car to us for service, we download your logs, look everything over, and ensure that the car is running exactly as it should be.  On race day, we get a millisecond by millisecond snap shot of exactly what is going on as you go down a drag strip or around a road course.  If something were to go wrong, we can also see if fuel pressure dropped, coolant temperature shot up, and possibly why that may have happened (for example, we can see if the rev limiters have been engaged).   A stock ECU simply cannot acquire data fast enough to be of any use to any vehicle that can get out of its own way.

The truth is that we could go on forever on all of the different features an EMS has, and how we use everything to give you a faster, more reliable car.  However, not everyone needs an EMS, and plenty of people have gone very fast with much, much less.  That said, we believe in taking advantage of all of the technology available, especially when it comes at such a reasonable price.  For less than most of us spend on wheels and tires, you can get a completely programmable system that can stay with your car from a completely stock vehicle to a 7 second drag car, or road race machine.  There are no credits to buy, no features to unlock, and no pay-for software updates.  These units are rugged, versatile, and offer the flexibility at a price that no other system can match.  An EMS from FSR is a start, drive, and smile process; we make it simple.  So forget what you've heard, we aren't new at this, and we can deliver a car that you can count on to be not only more reliable, but a better performer than you ever thought possible.

Why have FSR help you with your initial install, setup, and tune?  Well, if you think we’ve covered a lot of safety features, details, and tuning concepts, we haven’t even scratched the surface.  We’d prefer to not bore our customers with the nitty gritty of it all.  The truth is, that we do this six days away because we love what we do, and we have the tools, experience, and know how to set it up properly.  We don't depend on the internet, on third party opinions, or on hypotheticals. We put our parts and tuning to the test on a daily basis.  With our strong history of performing against all odds on the dyno or the racetrack, you can be sure that your car will be tuned to the maximum safe potential.  Our in house technicians are experts in custom installations, and tailoring your EMS to work exactly how you want it.  With our brand new four wheel drive dual eddy brake load and inertia style dyno, we can get repeatable numbers and replicate any type of condition you may find your car in.  We look forward to answering any and all questions you have about an EMS, so don’t hesitate to call.  Pricing for Series 2 EMS’ start at just $1150.  909.949.0550 or email  fsr AT fsrmotorsports.com

This article has not been completed, so please excuse any grammatical or spelling errors.  This article is also not designed to teach anyone how to tune, or become the basis for a debate by working professionals.  We are simply trying to simplify some of the techniques we used to make our customer's cars run as well as they can.  Tuning is complicated, time consuming, and dangerous to do on the street, so please act responsibly and set a good example for your fellow enthusiasts to follow.

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Last Updated on Monday, 03 February 2014 22:13

Written by Aaron

Here is a short video from some Supra's we've dyno'd over the last couple months.  We offer tuning of almost any management system that you can think of, from AFC/VPC's all the way up to sales, installation, and tuning of AEM EMS full stand alone systems.  Call us today to schedule an appointment for dyno time:  909.949.0550

Roy's 1969 Camaro

Check out the image gallery with pictures of some work we are doing on Roy's 1969 Camaro.  Our specialty is making sense of other shop's work; the engine bay, a/c, electrical, etc was all a mess and we are working to get this car into perfect running condition so it drives and performs as well as it looks!  Click on the picture for the gallery.

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Last Updated on Monday, 03 February 2014 22:13

Written by Aaron

We are proud to announce a new partnership that will bring one of Europe's leading drift teams to the West Coast to compete in Formula Drift.

Come see us on April 9th and 10th competing at the streets of Long Beach.  After the first event, we'll announce further dates and our schedule for the rest of the year.  We believe that partnering with Fredric will further enhance our race car, time attack, and drift car building skills, and we look forward to what developments that can bring to all of our customers here at FSR.