The other thing that you are missing though is that the components you are using bar the actual chip are well over 30 years old. Tracks in the AFM are notorious for failing as are joints within the processor board of the ECU. The Augment Automotive kit resolves these issues and I have found it to be very reliable
Augment Automotive.
- Thread starter Frenchy
- Start date
Hi!
Another new member here. Since there are not too many actual experiences with AA ECU here yet, I thought I might chime in. I bought the AA ECU along with the essentials (AFM delete pipe, MAP sensor, Breakout box etc.) way back in 2016, but only managed to finish the car for MOT this summer. Well, better late than never (the ECU swap was by no means the only time-consuming swap I did this time around, in fact it was the easiest of the bunch). My 944 is a '86 NA, sold new to Germany, no cat, bone-stock engine-wise. Close to 350.000km on the odometer.
I'm located in Finland, and ethanol (E85) fuel availability is getting better all the time, so I decided it was time for the Porker to have it's share of alcohol. [
] That meant I had to swap in bigger injectors (Volvo T5) as I intend to run the car solely on E85 (no flexfuel-sensor). The main reason why I wanted an aftermarket ECU (besides being able to run E85) is the aging AFM. Years ago I already refreshed the original AFM by doing the "bend-mod", but I knew it was only a temporary solution. I even got a quote for the price of a new AFM from the local Porsche-dealer, well over 1000 euros IIRC. And that was years ago, now it might well be NLA like many other critical components for the 944 already are.
Tom's support has been nothing short of spectacular. This is my first aftermarket ECU, and I know I have made many stupid questions, but with Tom's help I now have a very well running 944 to enjoy. I dynoed the car a month ago, and it now makes 167BHP@220Nm as opposed to stock 163BHP@205Nm. AA 3D Tuner is intuitive to use, and the dyno operator said it was easy to get all the essential settings and maps correct.
In the future I might opt for a roadrace-type camshaft and a slight increase in compression ratio (as E85 is well suited for that) to get closer to 200BHP, but I honestly think the car will stay NA. It's a joy to drive, a daily-driver of sorts (along my wife's Bimmer E46 also running E85). I have plans to keep both cars for the foreseeable future, and I can honestly say that the AA ECU has made keeping the 944 in top notch so much easier as I'm not restricted to eg. OEM ignition parts, stock injectors, stock AFM etc.
There might some other offerings that are better suited to people that have more experience with aftermarket ECUs, but for a beginner such as myself I find the AA ECU a great value for the money spent. Support and documentation is more than adequate. There are a couple of AA ECU users here in Finland (as it has a local distributor, 9xx-parts), and I have not heard of any problems or dissatisfied customers. It tends to be so that people only write to forums when they have something to complain, so I thought I must make an exception this time. []
Another new member here. Since there are not too many actual experiences with AA ECU here yet, I thought I might chime in. I bought the AA ECU along with the essentials (AFM delete pipe, MAP sensor, Breakout box etc.) way back in 2016, but only managed to finish the car for MOT this summer. Well, better late than never (the ECU swap was by no means the only time-consuming swap I did this time around, in fact it was the easiest of the bunch). My 944 is a '86 NA, sold new to Germany, no cat, bone-stock engine-wise. Close to 350.000km on the odometer.
I'm located in Finland, and ethanol (E85) fuel availability is getting better all the time, so I decided it was time for the Porker to have it's share of alcohol. [
] That meant I had to swap in bigger injectors (Volvo T5) as I intend to run the car solely on E85 (no flexfuel-sensor). The main reason why I wanted an aftermarket ECU (besides being able to run E85) is the aging AFM. Years ago I already refreshed the original AFM by doing the "bend-mod", but I knew it was only a temporary solution. I even got a quote for the price of a new AFM from the local Porsche-dealer, well over 1000 euros IIRC. And that was years ago, now it might well be NLA like many other critical components for the 944 already are.Tom's support has been nothing short of spectacular. This is my first aftermarket ECU, and I know I have made many stupid questions, but with Tom's help I now have a very well running 944 to enjoy. I dynoed the car a month ago, and it now makes 167BHP@220Nm as opposed to stock 163BHP@205Nm. AA 3D Tuner is intuitive to use, and the dyno operator said it was easy to get all the essential settings and maps correct.
In the future I might opt for a roadrace-type camshaft and a slight increase in compression ratio (as E85 is well suited for that) to get closer to 200BHP, but I honestly think the car will stay NA. It's a joy to drive, a daily-driver of sorts (along my wife's Bimmer E46 also running E85). I have plans to keep both cars for the foreseeable future, and I can honestly say that the AA ECU has made keeping the 944 in top notch so much easier as I'm not restricted to eg. OEM ignition parts, stock injectors, stock AFM etc.
There might some other offerings that are better suited to people that have more experience with aftermarket ECUs, but for a beginner such as myself I find the AA ECU a great value for the money spent. Support and documentation is more than adequate. There are a couple of AA ECU users here in Finland (as it has a local distributor, 9xx-parts), and I have not heard of any problems or dissatisfied customers. It tends to be so that people only write to forums when they have something to complain, so I thought I must make an exception this time. [
]
924Srr27l
New member
Sprint924 said:
This is EXACTLY the thing that I'm not missing, as my point is I am using 30 year old gear and it all not only works great but has greater power / torque figures than an aftermarket AA modern system.
The AFM was checked and recorded as being within tolerance, all the rest of the ignition was new Dizzy cap / arm and Coil. The injectors were cleaned and tested @ ASNU and the ECU was off Ebay from a 1984 944. I've never had any issues with the OE equipment (road and race) but did consider an aftermarket ECU etc....but was told it wouldn't make any difference.
I was sceptical as a lot of forum speak grinds down that new must be better for more power (This is the original posters question I believe - but for a turbo application I think?) and also that he oe
AFM is restrictive and dire etc...But the Engineer / tuner that advised me not to go this route was correct, I didn't need to spend thousands of pounds on different gear just use all the stock Bosch stuff and with a Mild camshaft (274 duration) and one of the best 944 Porsche tuners in the Uk the results are Impressive.
R
924Srr27l
New member
Wespa said:
Hi, Yes I can understand if the original equipment is failing and very expensive to replace it's an alternative route to buy an aftermarket ECU, however in terms of can this equipment make lots more power if your dyno figures have gained only 4bhp over a stock figure? then this would suggest no.
R
924Srr27l said:
On a naturally aspirated car such as mine there won't be any significant gains based solely on an ECU upgrade, be it AA or someone else's, I think no one has claimed (or will claim) otherwise. But of course if I wanted to add a supercharger or turbocharger now it would be quite easy, no need to buy a Turbo ECU and associated OEM parts (= big savings). With OEM Turbos AA ECU enables the removal of restrictive intake parts and opens up possibilities of going way beyond +300BHP, especially with E85.
I am more than happy with the dyno results I got, for an engine that's only had one head gasket job some 200.000km ago (and now has 350.000km on the odo) the results are really good.
Dan944t
New member
Wespa said:
Congrats on your new setup Wespa, I would love one myself, even though I’m all tuned up now with standard Ecu and AFM all be it on my turbo 944 , but I do have my first 944 which is the 86 163 bhp lux.
could I ask where you bought it from and how much?
Also who did you use for your tune?
sorry if I’ve missed any of this info as I’ve not read the whole thread through, having three kids I don’t get much time for anything anymore
atb
Daniel ??
924Srr27l
New member
Wespa said:
Hi,
There's been plenty of comments made in Magazine features (911 & Porsche world) to suggest a decent size power increase is the aim of installing this equipment, not to mention plenty on the forums
where too many people buy into the Hype "it's a modern thing" so it must be better etc..! and also
On AA's website it says:
At Augment Automotive we felt that the performance of the standard engines left a little to be desired. Historically the 944 has not had many tuning options mainly down to the original injection system which is difficult to modify. (I've not heard or been told there's any issues with tuning the injection? Mines on stock 2.5 injectors and reached over 200bhp)
AugTronic ECU gives the benefits of a modern engine management system without the associated difficulties and cost of installation and setup.
(You could of bought a 2nd hand AFM like I did off ebay and have it checked out for the resistance etc. this would not of been expensive or difficult)
The restrictive and often worn out air flow meter is removed and replaced with modern injection system components.
(I considered the Injectors developed by ASNU, but they didn't work well initially and even years later when I spoke to Simon @ ASNU he wasn't keen on me buying some !besides I was advised the stock Injectors are fine)
The performance, response and economy of standard engines can be improved significantly and the path for further modifications is opened!
(You could put a cost per £1 or in Euro's etc...on the additional BHP achieved and then decide is it's worth doing or not?)
R
Dan944t said:
I bought it from the local distributor 9xx-parts here in Finland, for a little less (since I'm a long-time customer of theirs) than the price quoted on their webpage: https://en.9xx-parts.com/product/3571/moottorinohjausyksikko-augtronic
A local dyno did the final adjustments to get everything right, but the car was drivable even before that with the help of closed loop fueling even though I began using E85 instead of petrol straight away. Really easy to adjust by yourself with little reading of the documentation. A dyno session is needed to get everything optimised, but not strictly necessary, "road-tuning" with a friend/wife/whoever will get you in the ballpark pretty quickly.
AA ECU is by no means a cheap solution, but IMHO with all thing considered a good choice, at least for me. I didn't want to fight with a piggypack, I wanted to be able to use existing OEM sensors etc., and I really needed an aftermarket mappable ECU since I wanted to start using E85. Per Tom, AA ECU is not really designed to run E85 since as I've understood it's not really available in the UK, but thanks to the various parameters available AA ECU seems to handle it really well.
924Srr27l
New member
Waylander said:
Oh your back !! I thought you'd thrown toys and done a runner ! ?
Another alternative would be the Lindsey Racing M-Tune kit which also claims the AFM is restrictive etc...and that HP gains of 5-10% are possible when fitting this lot:
https://www.lindseyracing.com/LR/Parts/944NATUNE.html
R
Wespa said:Hi!
Another new member here. Since there are not too many actual experiences with AA ECU here yet, I thought I might chime in. I bought the AA ECU along with the essentials (AFM delete pipe, MAP sensor, Breakout box etc.) way back in 2016, but only managed to finish the car for MOT this summer. Well, better late than never (the ECU swap was by no means the only time-consuming swap I did this time around, in fact it was the easiest of the bunch). My 944 is a '86 NA, sold new to Germany, no cat, bone-stock engine-wise. Close to 350.000km on the odometer.
I'm located in Finland, and ethanol (E85) fuel availability is getting better all the time, so I decided it was time for the Porker to have it's share of alcohol. [
Tom's support has been nothing short of spectacular. This is my first aftermarket ECU, and I know I have made many stupid questions, but with Tom's help I now have a very well running 944 to enjoy. I dynoed the car a month ago, and it now makes 167BHP@220Nm as opposed to stock 163BHP@205Nm. AA 3D Tuner is intuitive to use, and the dyno operator said it was easy to get all the essential settings and maps correct.
In the future I might opt for a roadrace-type camshaft and a slight increase in compression ratio (as E85 is well suited for that) to get closer to 200BHP, but I honestly think the car will stay NA. It's a joy to drive, a daily-driver of sorts (along my wife's Bimmer E46 also running E85). I have plans to keep both cars for the foreseeable future, and I can honestly say that the AA ECU has made keeping the 944 in top notch so much easier as I'm not restricted to eg. OEM ignition parts, stock injectors, stock AFM etc.
There might some other offerings that are better suited to people that have more experience with aftermarket ECUs, but for a beginner such as myself I find the AA ECU a great value for the money spent. Support and documentation is more than adequate. There are a couple of AA ECU users here in Finland (as it has a local distributor, 9xx-parts), and I have not heard of any problems or dissatisfied customers. It tends to be so that people only write to forums when they have something to complain, so I thought I must make an exception this time. [
Hi, welcome to the forum! be nice to see your graphs to see how the curves look lower down the rev range - I know this forum can be a bit tricky to get pics to display!
Hope you can enjoy your car now it is back on the road - are you going to use it in the winter?
E85 might have to be something we all consider in the future - though it is currently hard to get hold of in the UK.
Cheers,
Tony
924Srr27l said:
not necessarily a very wise choice - m-tune is a product of rogue tuning not lindsey and a few years ago the guy behind it had some issues (young family real job etc) and stopped supporting it to any real extent. Lindsey may still be selling it but the real support and knowledge is gone.
Tony
924Srr27l
New member
944Turbo said:
I read that too (Ant / Rogue Not developed it due to time etc..), but then I also read this was 5+ years ago and that it was picked up again recently and the Turbo Version was revamped and this N/A version developed and made available it was only released a year or 2 ago so it's a fairly new, and they now have extensive instructions and technical service...
N/A
https://www.lindseyracing.com/LR/Parts/NATUNE.html
https://www.lindseyracing.com/instructions/NA-Tune_Installation_Procedure.pdf
Turbo
https://www.lindseyracing.com/LR/Parts/M-TUNE.html
R
944Turbo said:
Here you go:
I plan to use the car in winter too, but fortunately I have a warm garage for it, and it won't be driven too often, once a week at max, most likely less than that. 944 is an excellent car for the cold winters here in Finland, I've driven it in temperatures below -30 degrees Celsius without any issues.
924Srr27l said:
No I didn't, sadly. I would guess that it would have been little less than the original 163BHP&205Nm, but that's just guessing. The car was by no means sluggish or anything like that, the first symptoms of a failing AFM seemed to be the difficulties to get the car to idle well enough to pass the MOT emissions test.
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