Carnut:
Unless you plan on making a ton of power and taking use of all of its functions I would not buy the AEM EMS. For your setup there really is no need. It would be nice to use it for speed density and Boost Compensation tuning but other than that you need to start from scratch and alot of the time it will take some tweeking to get it right where it needs to be.
If you can still manage to run a flashed program where the stock ECU will retain control over things like idle control, cold start driveability, part throttle fueling, etc I would do that as the stock ecu has had thousands of hours of setup for a calibration that will start in 0 degree weather and run decent in 100 plus weather. I have seen the amount of work that goes into calibration files first hand at Delphi. It’s amazing. To perfectly tune a standalone so that it runs like a stock car under any condition it you would probably be looking at about 20 hours of load based dyno time. This is from the mouth of the AEM EMS instructor when I took my certification course in Los Angelos.
Personally I do not think the AEM is necessary for you and besides getting inspected is a bitch because you cannot communicate with the stock computer because it is no longer there.
I love the AEM EMS and all of its features but it is for a race car. Not a street car.
If you can utilize a program that will build upon the stock ecu much like uberdata, hondata, some of the EVO free ware flash programming software, etc you would be much better off. Again if it will work with your setup. I don’t know but I would assume your not running 1000 cc injectors or dual rails etc.
My .02 cents
excellent points don. trust me ive done all the research and all, i know what i would be getting myself into if i go in that direction. but im not going with the EMS, i will just go with the wheels as of now. when i upgrade the turbo the stock ECU will be just perfect for what i plan on doing. so im not really worried about EMS at this point after talking to mike today. He really let me know everything of everything i needed to know and with what i want to do, he wont have trouble with the stock ECU