Now that I have already answered I have a question.
What is your goal, do you want to be an engine tuner or just have a more powerful car?
It could be a fun hobby.
if you want to borrow the book shoot me a pm.
edit:
i can hand it off to tickleme when i drive past him in the am to give to you 
I think that I am going to wait it out until DSMlink comes out, I think I convinced myself will alittle verbal abuse help from Rick.
Thats really cute but you are basically asking someone to LEARN hot to install, use, and tune a custom standalone engine management system on a $35,000 car. THAT, I think is stupid… If you have the time and money to risk the car then by all means, go ahead. This is not a $7000 S13 or $5000 mustang project car. I would think the reflash could be done along side some dyno runs… but anyway. Point is you dont start experimenting with a new $35 thousand dollar car. Installing, undersanding, and tuning a standalone is not easy… I dont give a shit how many books somone reads or how intelligent they THINK they are. You need experience… period.
If you get the AEM and PAY (a lot) a EXPERIENCED EVO TUNER shop to install, dyno, and tune the car… then the AEM is the best choice… hands down. Be ready to turn your wallet upside down.
cute. yea.
i am sure aem or mike at innovative (who has a few evos under his belt) can provide a basemap and give him a hand getting the car running. after spending sometime reading, and helping/watching the original tuner, he should have no problem making minor adjustments here and there for added mods.
after a few mods and reading he will probably be good enough to whore himself out to all his evo driving friends and get some free beer out of the deal.
its tuning a car, its not rocket surgery. it used to be done with a carb, now you can acctually datalog and see whats happening. a trained monkey can do it.
aren’t we all trained monkeys anyhow?
^
that would mean that with a little reading and some help from someone with some know how that anyone could do it.
nah, that cant be. tuning is like black magic
I have a lot of respect for dave and dan buschur, but lately I don’t trust them or put tons of faith in them, as it seemed in less than a week he went from strongly recommending SAFCs to immediately recommending a dynoflash reflash. lately dsmtuner and evolutionm is just flooded with what feels like a buschur/dynoflash publicity tidal wave. It shouldn’t discredit them, but in my eyes it kind of does. Granted most of my parts will be coming from Buschur anyways… but each engine is different, I just can’t accept mail in flashes as being accurate enough. Do you run an EGT at least? I couldnt do it without a wideband. What if there is something different with your engine and you are running on the brink of popping? :gotme:
I really don’t want to run a piggyback, and I don’t have a problem learning how to tune my own car ( after a pro like tim switzer or whoever dynotunes it first ). In fact I’d rather be capable of taking care of myself and learning myself.
work edit in a sec
edit: of course with all the success of DSMLink i’d like to see that too. Rick 
apexi power fc? if its close to the AEM then go with AEM though.
Im a monkey… minus the training 
I have to admit I don’t look at evolutionm.net like I used to.
They may have changed recommendations for many reasons.
Money or performance who knows.
As for my car, it has more than 40000 miles and more than 400 buschur hp.
I purchased Buschur parts very shortly after buying my car and I have put the car through it’s paces at driving events.
My engine didn’t blow up and no one passed me.(reliable and fast)
I guess it could pop at anytime but I believe that Buschur lowers the chances.
It would be interesting to get a new tune and see what the power gains/losses are.
It would also be nice to tune it myself but I just haven’t dedicated the time.
If I was tuning my own car the first thing I would buy is an egt gage.
It sounds like you have enough time and interest in tuning to buy a stand alone.:tup:
edited for grammar. (because I care about that sort of thing)
DSMLINK is heavily supported in WNY… which is nice.
AEM EMS is supported, but by people who cost $$, but Mike is worth every penny.
If you want advice on engine management for your Evo I’d be happy to go through the options. I’m familiar with all of them and have experience with DynoFlash, UTEC, Xede, and AEM EMS out of the options you listed.
I’m going out to tune another Evo with AEM EMS right now…because another shop mentioned in this thread screwed the tune up so badly that the owner couldn’t boost it at all without it detonating, misfiring, and falling on its face. They told him his car made 400 hp too :mamoru:
-Mike
Well, I’m sure that they create these things with tolerances. After all, every car off the factory floor is running the same program and does not require individual tuning to be able to run safely and reliably. Can more performance be extracted by tuning on a car-by-car basis? Certainly. But a properly-engineered reflash should in theory work as transparently and safely as a stock ECU.
I absolutely agree with what you said, however hardly anyone gets a reflash on their stock setup. My arguement is that once you start including aftermarket parts, thats when things become much less consistent. I know many aftermarket companies are getting the same base part from the same factory overseas, and they just throw their own label on it. For example, I know for a fact that HKS and BuddyClub both get their cams from the same factory, but they just have different labels, and HKS might pretty theirs up a bit. But not everything is the same. There are 101 different intakes, which can have a pretty prenounce impact on a/f. I dont think that these mail-in flashes account for all the different types. Or another example is intercooler size, which consistently varies, and will definately flow more or less air than its competitors… not to mention the fact that intercoolers come in two different types
An arguement against what I’m saying is what AWDrifter brought up before… that some flash companies have predesigned ecu flashes coded in entirely based on ‘stage’ upgrades from specific companies ( buschur / dynoflash etc etc etc ) This is probably safer than a hodge podge of different parts… and maybe the ecuflashers are intentionally coding in the ecu’s to run somewhat rich so they never pop, I dont know
But for what its worth I just can’t see myself doing some boltons and minor porting and then sending my ecu to be flashed for what someone ‘expects’ my a/f to be like. Its like trying to tune a car with a SAFC but no o2, or even no egt. :gotme:
i have just about every “chip” for a honda or acura any company has ever made. i have never made less than 10 more whp than one of these chips after tuning. thats a lot when you’re talking about an engine only making 160-200whp (NA). that doesnt make me a tuning god, it just shows that they are not 1 size fits all.
it doesnt require tuning, but tuning it will insure a proper tune, and a safe tune.
the best bang for the buck would probably be what rick suggested… dsmlink, make it work, or wait until they release it for the evo.
DSM link will be released for the evo in the near future, but in all honesty with what AEM offers for the extra money it is worth it. DSM link has only 8 bin points and sets all fuel with sliders. For an EVO i would run the AEM.
Do you know for a fact you have more than 400hp? Do you have a turbo or a dyno sheet to prove it? World record on stock turbo was 408 whp last time i checked.
There is soo much more to that story than you will ever know and there is info I cannot get into here about the whole dyno flash thing…odds are they are receiving a good kick back for recommending it and it is more profitable to send the ecu out rather than spend time wiring and tuning,
Buschur is a profit whore…but with a family and cars i cant blame him, lord knows i would kill to be at his level of financial success…keyword financial.
I disagree with this statement entirely. As long as you have some technical background and have your head one your shoulders anyone can tune. There is enuff documentation and people with experience that are willing to help. Like said tuning is not brain surgery its fairly basic. I learned on my $35K+ car and would again. Certainly a stand alone is another ballgame but the game is the same, with the same variables. In fact it’s easier to get a consistant tune with a stand alone than with oem operating systems because the oem systems have three times the variables to ensure proper emissions, eliminate abusive actions, etc… I was very disappointed that I have purchased a flash tune before once I got into it, what a waste of money. As stated, a few flashes would pay for the system its self or one flash usually will pay for the software needed if your can reflash the oem pcm. The funny thing is that so many people are afraid of learning and trying. The ironic thing is that they are willing to pay people to learn their systems. I have a few good examples of that last statement (snip.)