AEM Infinity 506 and 508h Plug n Play S2000 F20 and F22
When Honda built the S2000 they did more than a few things right and provided a great platform to expand upon. One of the greatest features of the S2000 has to be the F series engines, IE: F20 and F22. Honda built these engines to make reliable power from 5000-9000rpm. While both engines produce over 200hp from the factory and pull hard all the way to redline (8500rpm for the F22 and 9000rpm for the F20) the high strung NA engine’s power band does leave the driver craving for more.
One of my personal favorite engines/cars to tune has to be a turbo S2000 or turbo F series swaps as even a stock engine will make 500+hp with one of the many turbo kits we offer. Now that the AEM Infinity EMS is available with a plug and play harness for the S2000 getting the most out of the F series has never been safer. With a long list of safety features and available inputs the Infinity ECU is truly a perfect match for anyone looking to get the most out of their engine (Honda or other alike). At the end of 2016 a customer approached us to do the final setup and tuning on his S2000 project. After going over all the details of this turbo F20 build the car was tailored to the shop where the fun began.
What makes this S2000 462 Horse Power at the flywheel with only 15psi:
- Stage 3 long block (stock sleeves, forged pistons/rods ACL bearings)
- Full-Race EFR turbo kit with 7064 efr twin scroll internal waste gate (external gate is always recommended for F series engines)
- Injector Dynamics 1300cc Injectors
- AEM E85/Ethanol Fuel pump
- AEM Fuel pressure regulator
- AEM Infinity 508 ems & AEM s2000 plug and play harness with: oil, fuel pressure/temp sensors, AEM boost solenoid, o2 sensor
- Flex Fuel (safely run any blend of gasoline and Ethanol or E85)
- AEM CANbus gauges (displays ALL engine sensors with Peak/memory functions)
- 3” turbo back exhaust
- 255/35/18 rear tire 225/40/18 front tire
Once the car got to the shop we started wiring in the extra pressure/temp sensors to the supplied 12 pin DTM acc. harness connector. Adding a fuel pressure, oil pressure, oil temp, flex fuel sensor and wide band o2 allow the Infinity ems and tuner to closely monitor and tune fail safe options for oil pressure, fuel pressure and lean protection. These fail safe options can easily save an engine during a mechanical failure such as a bad fuel pump or oil pump. Alternatively you do not “need” to install any of these extra sensors if you don’t want. You can run the engine on the Infinity with all stock Honda sensors however we highly recommend at least a wide band o2 sensor.
***As of August 2016 AEM has released a plug and play s2000 F20 Infinity 6 and 8h adapter harness.
With the wiring done and the Infinity installed we turned our attention to the exhaust side of the engine. Turbo Honda engines with long tube headers/down pipes have a TON of exhaust surface area which can easily melt vacuum lines, wiring etc. To avoid an engine fires or damaged wiring we turned to the tried and true Velocity Element fire sleeve. Available in a multitude of sizes this stuff is perfect for covering engine plumbing and wiring. Don’t be a rookie, using fire sleeve is KEY to ensuring all plumbing and wiring stays safe from the exhaust. Of course with the S2000 the battery and fuse box are also in need of heat protection so we whipped up a nice aluminum heat shield and covered it with the Velocity element gold foil heat reflective tape.
After starting the engine on a custom Brewed base map for the Full Race Turbo kit and ID1300 injectors we proceeded to break in the new engine with “light-medium” driving/revving. After the vacuum gauge stopped climbing the break in oil was changed out and filter cut open/inspected to ensure no contaminates.
Because Brewed Motorsports has a vast library of custom calibrations/tunes/maps getting a new engine started and safely broken in on a Brewed base map has never been easier. With fresh oil/filter and gasoline in the car the tuning began and went rather quickly do to the already tuned and tested Brewed base map, only a few minor changes were required for the fueling, ignition and waste gate duty (internal waste gate).
With the pump gas/gasoline tuning completed I moved onto the Ethanol aka E85 and flex fuel blends. A few pulls later and the E85 portion of the tuning was completed resulting in 462hp at the flywheel, boost was set to 18psi but do to the internal waste gate would taper to 15psi by 7700rpm. *The internal waste gate is a big restriction here; we highly recommend external waste gates like the Tial MVR 44mm whenever possible. This same set up with external waste gates will make well over 500whp at the same boost levels and provide much better boost control.
After dialing in the E85 or 85% ethanol content fuel I started slowly blending in gasoline to reach different ethanol content to refine the “flex fuel” portion of the tune even further. The trick for tuning flex fuel is to first tune pure gasoline and then the highest % of ethanol you plan to run. From here you slowly blend the fuels and tune the “blend maps” accordingly, I also like to use a second VE map for further resolution. The Brewed base maps will already have these tables set up/tuned and should only need minor adjustment. While blending the ethanol fuels I will normally move in 10% increments IE: after tuning for E85 I will add gasoline until I have E75 then log/tune followed by more gasoline to get to E65 and repeat until you are back to pure gasoline.
This is normally a very time consuming processes but goes much faster when starting with a Brewed base map thanks to the already tuned/tested tables. Only a fully tuned and tested “flex fuel” calibration will safely deliver all the power available based on ethanol content. The Infinity truly offers a high resolution tuning solution for flex fuel un like many so called “flex fuel” compatible ECUs that only offer a VERY limited amount of true flex fuel tuning/adjustments.
Infinity Knock Control note for Honda applications:
The Infinity’s individual cylinder knock control coupled with a VE dual knock sensor kit delivers a clear “tunable” frequency, flat response or “wide band knock sensor” knock signal. This high resolution engine noise data can then be fine tuned even further calculating precise ignition/fuel changes per individual cylinder. HIGHLY recommended for turbo S2000’s, while the stock Honda knock sensor does work ok it can only pick up a very narrow window of the engine frequency. With forged pistons, bigger bore or longer stroke this frequency needs to be tuned. To learn more about the Infinity Knock control and tuning click here.
Data Log: a recording of engine sensor data used to diagnose, tune or trouble shoot an EFI engine.
Knock: a frequency, sound, vibration from an internal combustion engine, often used to describe pre ignition or detonation