SAFC or Greddy E-manage

[Chaosweaver]

Alright, so for my daily driver (The talon) I'm thinking of getting either an SAFC or Greddy e-manage. I found an emanage unit with the harness (I gotta splice the wires still) for $100. My goals are only for about 350-400HP at most since its just a car I enjoy driving around and really dont want to spend money on DSMlink for this vehicle as well (GSX already has it). I'm also getting evo 560 injectors along with it.

Anyone have any input on it? which one of the 2 would you recommend? I'm kind of leaning towards the Emanage a little bit, specially since I have to buy a new laptop (was kinda waiting on the new laptop though, specially since a friend uses his to tune my GSX for me) but the SAFC can just do what I want to do right then and there since it has its own screen. As I said, I'm not looking to do anything completely crazy.

So... What do you guys think? The SAFC used may run for like $200 or so, the emanage+ laptop will probably run me $300 give or take. I'm looking to save money but get something worth while, you guys know how it is.

 

[JEFFREYCASTGSX]

I would get...neither. They both suck, if your putting it on that 95 that your profile says you, then you know for sure you have a eprom ecu, so put it to good use. If you want spend little money (and have a good tune) look into custom burning your own chips (or get jeff at DSMchips to set you up a chip for your setup). Just search up on ostrich/moates, there are many writeups on using it and are WAY superior to the silly piggyback (AFC/E-manage) setup's.

 

[Chaosweaver]

Yeah, the thing is I don't want to spend all that money for a powerful tool that I'm not even going to use to its full potential.

 

[spyderturbo007]

I'm biased, since I used the SAFC for years and don't know much about the E-Manage. Does it require a logging device like the SAFC does or does it have a built in logger?

 

[the_mork]

IMO using an SAFC or emanage on one of these cars these days is silly. There are simply too many good and cheap tuning solutions out there that are capable of so very much more for little or no extra price. For a 1g consider Jackal (requires eprom ecu) or an evo8 ecu (requires a lot of rewiring) for a 2g I would suggest swapping to an H8 ecu (98/99), or an evo8 ecu (minimal rewiring)

Of course there are other great options as well that will fit either gen eprom ecus.
Keydiver - inexpensive and effective with no tuning required
ecmlink lite - relatively inexpensive and feature rich
ecmlink - expensive but full featured
burn your own - steep learning curve but cheap and feature rich

 

[JayRolla]

Don't knock emanate if you havnt used it. My bro uses it and it's 10 times better than an safc. U get load style based tuning, injector comp. and timing control. If u get a good deal it's worth it. You will need the timing harness and the support tool software which can get pricey. He runs the blue version on e85 and 30psi out his 16g.

 

[Chaosweaver]

Don't knock emanate if you havnt used it. My bro uses it and it's 10 times better than an safc. U get load style based tuning, injector comp. and timing control. If u get a good deal it's worth it. You will need the timing harness and the support tool software which can get pricey. He runs the blue version on e85 and 30psi out his 16g.

I'm looking for something I can just splice up right away and get to some light tuning here and there. I've heard great things about emanage, the one that I found comes with the universal harness and the software disk. If I can do some light tuning just using those, I may go with it.

 

[JayRolla]

It has a lot of features. Nissans ans supras use them to this day and make up too 1000hp. I really don't know why dsm guys never used them. Before dsmlink was only for 2gs and emanage was the best option because of timing contol. U can get the timing harness new for $75 and is very helpful when tuning.

 

[jeffo]

I have another (better) option for you: sell the EPROM ECU (or trade it to me) and use the money to buy a 1998/99 Flash ECU setup, with your own Openport 2.0 cable and EVOSCAN. You will be able to log 10X faster than your 1995 ECU, and have much more control over tuning.
Can the E-manage even log the 1995 ECU's? I know at one time it couldn't do the MUT-over-OBDII protocol, only the 1997+ MUT protocol.
For the same $200-$300 you can have a much better setup, IMO, than a piggyback.

 

[JayRolla]

Nope I dont think it can. But I'm also used too 1g's with all the free good logging software. But we where comparing SAFC too the emanage and niether one logs.

 

[Scientist]

E-manage logs. E-manage ultimate logs even better

 

[jeffo]

You are logging a 1995 ECU, or logging the E-manage unit? I find it hard to believe that Greddy has bothered cracking the weird 1995 protocol, and included it in their software.

 

[Scientist]

E-manage.

 

[SpoolinTalonAWD]

Keydiver chip or DSMlink.
the SAFC is cool for tweaking the MAS signal, but it doesnt have any timing contol.

I burn my own chips to compensate for largers injectors and MAS, plus tune my timing table and use an SAFC to keep my fuel trims in order. Works great.

 

[RadDsm]

You said your goals are ~400hp, why would you cheap out on something to tune? It takes a little more than just some "light tuning" to get to that power level.

ECMLink lite might be another option for you.

 

[JayRolla]

Emanage does have logging features but I dont believe many work on the dsm's. I believe you can log boost, timing?, IDC's and some others. Knock feature doesnt work though.

 

[Scientist]

You need to set it up right for knock to work.

On an RVR i've been able to log:
Water temp
Boost
AFR
RPM
Timing
Knock
Duty Cycle
Throttle position