V2Rocket

Several people asked me to share my impressions and experiences with the VEMS setup once I got it installed.

I have been running it for a few weeks now, and all is good.
Installation is very easy, because of course it is plug-and-play
Hardest part was adding the 2-wire ISV to my early car (which has no such provisions).

I mounted the IAT sensor on the top half of the factory airbox, and put together a "delete pipe" to connect the airbox straight to the J-boot since the AFM is no longer needed.

Everything else plugged in to place. Took a little bit of tweaking on the initial setup file but once the car started, it runs great. VEMS has a "fuel pump prime" option which runs the pump for half a second or so when you first key-on..I like that, makes the car start faster after sitting for a few days and will help in the future diagnose a bad DME relay.

Driving around the car feels great, and with an open intake tract letting the engine breathe, the exhaust note even changed and got crisper (more machine-gun sound at WOT). And the Auto-Tune feature (the reason I bought VEMS in the first place)...my goodness, it works well.

VEMS-Tune software is easy to use and mostly self-explanatory - I am not a computer person so the terms and stuff used make no sense to me (baudrate??) but in terms of adjusting numbers it is easy

Peep (Raceboy here) is very helpful with getting it set up and coaching through the installation process.

Overall very pleased with it so far, well worth the $1200 or whatever I paid (more than I paid for the 944 originally!)

I intend to take the car back to the dyno sometime soon, and do back-to-back comparisons with/without the AFM installed, to illustrate definitively the restriction posed by the flapper door.

H.F.B.

Thanks for the review. I'm interested in VEMS too.
Would you share a photo of the stored ECU + harness under the dasboard?
Thank you.

odonnell

Looking forward to seeing this become a reasonable option for even NA 944s....

Any ignition upgrades planned? I have a few igniter modules that would work well with wasted spark towers if you want them. From a 928S.

V2Rocket

right now it has one screw and 3 zipties
eventually ill make a board to fit the ECU to the DME bracket.

i don't see the need for that at this time.
VEMS can run wasted spark or COP, if i decide to later.

i think $1200 all-in for a ready-made, real plug-and-play option, is very very reasonable, pricewise.
i sold my NA-tune, tuner, logger and DME for $800 so in essence I paid $400 net for VEMS.

i thought about MS but don't have the time, patience, or really interest to go through all the computer building/programming stuff...and the cost was looking fairly close anyways.

odonnell

Post up your VE and ignition tables sometime, curious to see what your auto-tune came up with.

944crazy

Awesome, good to hear the install went well. I will definitely be getting VEMS for my 952 after I've done my rebuild.

shortyboy

Thank You for your review!

Iceman1183

Thanks for the review! I like how you put the IAT on the top side of the airbox, looks very clean.

Any chance you could share a bit more detail on how difficult it was to add the 2-wire ISV? I've got an '83, so I'd have to do the same.

Any wires you have to run through the firewall? If so, where'd you do it?



Edit: Nevermind, found my answers from your thread on PP. Thanks man.

azbanks

This makes mounting the IAT sensor really easy. You can pick the diameter, the length, and the material.

http://www.bellengineering.net/produ...roducts_id=674

Raceboy

With NA you can use hollowed out AFM and leave stock IAT in place, in that case it looks just like factory but still has free flowing intake.

I have many AFM's (some bigger diameter than 944 NA) in case anyone wants to go that way.


Thanks for the positive review Spencer!

odonnell

I'm also running it - the stock J-boot is 2.75" ID for an NA car, I'm not sure if the 951/S2 is the same, but you would just measure it and specify when ordering. It uses a standard GM sensor.

To use the stock NA airbox with that part, order a 4" length and 2.75" OD. Then use this and this to adapt to the airbox. You'll need some M6 bolts and nyloc nuts to mount the flange. I'd use blue loctite as well, for safety.

Phaedra

I own a 1987 944S with a pretty decent engine (compression around 13 bar on all 4 cylinders for instance).
I would love a bit more low-rpm torque, though, and so I was wondering if a VEMS ECU could help me out for this?
Or would I be better off finding a good S2 3.0 engine?

odonnell

I don't have the dyno charts in front of me, but it's very easy to improve the 16v engine with a SD tune. I want to say someone with VEMS made a little over 200bhp with no other mods.

Phaedra

Thanks for your reply.
I have no idea about how much hp and torque (on the wheels) mine actually has left of the original 190 bhp.
Are you talking about 200 BHP on the wheels? And were the injectors replaced too?

odonnell

BHP generally describes power at the crank, so, not considering drivetrain losses. For power at the wheels, you'll see people use WHP or RWHP instead of BHP. You should plenty of injector headroom to make that power with stock S injectors.