What ECU should I get?
 

I am building my b16 in my hatch, I have porting, cams, intake manifold, high compression pistons, etc. What would the best ecu be for the $? I was looking at aem but it is hella expensive. :confused:

Hondata S100

Depends on what you want. Do you want a programable one like the AEM, or Hondata or do you want a plug and play one like a Rechipped ECU with a Spoon, Mugen, J's racing, Skunk2 etc. If your not going FI, a rechipped OBD1 ECU with an Apex-i VAFC controller will do wonders.

That would cost the same amount as a Hondata S100, and not have nearly as much tunability.

Now let's see here, a Hondata s100 is $245 and lets you rewrite the actual program inside the ECU. An A'PEXi V-AFC is $330 and only tricks the ECU into changing the fuel a bit. Either one has to be tuned on a dyno to gain power. This choice should be very easy.

So why is the Apexi V-AFC so popular again? ;) Besides the blang blang factor

Shingo

Or because the Hondata s100 came out like a week ago.

It's a good tuning tool for those with OBD-II ECMs, since it's significantly less than the cost of an OBD-I ECM, OBD-II>OBD-I adapter harness, and Hondata. However, if you already have an OBD-I ECM, Hondata is the way to go.

First decide what's more important to you: being able to go in pretty much anywhere, and have a shop be able to fine tune your car or doing it yourself for that matter... or not paying a lot of money now and only going to shops that have hondata eeprom burners when you change the makeup of your car. If you want that flexibility, its better to save up a couple of months and get what you really want. I was having the same debate a while back over the Hondata, AEM, or PowerFC. I ended up waiting a little longer and paying a little more for the AEM, because its what I really wanted all along... (and its cool to drive around with a laptop and a digital dashboard :thumbup: )

how much did you pay for your aem?