Going forged and stand alone - Tell me more about ADAPTRONIC
 

So I have a 2002 with a BEGi s4 kit and XEDE. I was running a bit too much boost and popped my motor. Now I'm building a fully forged setup and i need a stand alone.

Adaptronic seems to be my best plug and play option when I consider feature matrix and ease of use.

Which one do I need?
What can I expect to pay?
The 99-00 seems to be more readily available, why and what will it really take to run this on my car, or convert my car to the 99-00 system?

Thanks friends.

-you can get the 420 that some on here have, or the new 440 which has some new features.
-you can expect to pay the prices on BoundaryEngineerings site or look for one in the classifieds which usually runs 650-800.
-only difference is the harness. thats all youll need to convert if you got a different year

I'm a newbie with tuning. I started with MS, just too complicated for me. The WARI software that comes with the Adatpronic is much more user friendly IMHO. I wouldn't hesitate buying one. I think somebody here on the board is selling his Adaptronic.

BTW the Adaptronic is still a piggyback. You still need to hook up your stock ECU to the Adaptronic. A true plug and play standalone is still an MS.

I gave the WARI software a look and couldn't figure anything. hell i couldnt even figure out how the fuel map worked.

I used both and tuned both.
They are about the same in terms of ease of use.
I HATED the stupid ass wiring harness the adaptronic comes with, completely retarded. Though the new 440 doesn't need it iirc.

I got the MS dialed in way faster because there is a ton more support for it on this site and tons more documentation. If I had to buy both again I'd get the MS.

Let me know when you want to buy one. i may be selling a 420 for 99-00 with stock idle bored.

I'm ready to go whenever. So if it still uses my stock ECU.. Am I limited by anything? Boost? Do I have full control over everything?

Will it work with my AC?

IIRC the stock ECU will control the alternator. Correct me if I'm wrong. Not limited to anything you are in full control. Yes it will work with AC. Download the WARI software and play around with it. Plenty of maps here you can download and play.

hhmmmmm, maybe if I switch back to MS, tuning the MS would be much easier.

As is the stock ecu controls voltage and alternator. With the stock idle board you can chose to have the stock ecu control all idle parameters other then fuel and spark. Works extremely well on my car and was much easier then tuning idle as i am lazy.

Adaptronic is almost full standalone. The only thing it does not control is alternator. If you didnt need the alternator you wouldnt even have to plug in the stock ecu.

To convert a 99-00 to 01+ you'll need the different harness.

You're not limited to anything. It comes with a 3bar boost sensor however you're in charge of everything the motor does besides the alternator.

I have to ask. Why get rid of the Xede?

Adaptronic is a pain to tune compared to MS.

because its crap

Because i almost blew my motor with it ^.

As far as adaptronic, i'm having second thoughts about selling it now that i started over with the correct settings. I'm now tunning in VE, I'm letting the stock ecu control idle so the motor never dips any more. A/fs dont go into lean when the fans turn on.. etc. Cranks and starts like it was with stock ecu etc... Currently i have it running non turbo on stock injectors and it runs just as it ran with the stock ecu.

XEDE doesn't suck. It's just limited. I was at the power limit with XEDE and I want more.

The Xede is a piggyback. It does not give you direct control over fuel and spark, it merely modifies the signals going into and coming out of the stock ECU.

Because of this, there are some limits as to its capabilities. Injector size (and thus, fuel delivery) is one. The Xede trims fuel indirectly, by altering the AFM signal going into the ECU to trick it into thinking these is less airflow than there actually is.

A fully standalone ECU involves less guesswork. With something like an MS or an Adaptronic, you can directly control all fuel and ignition parameters and not have to mess around with "fooling" the stock ECU.

Just to clarify, the XEDE will compensate for 550cc injectors so fuel delivery is not limited by injector size but instead, the signal range of your MAF sensor. You'll max out your MAF long before you tap out 550's. I really enjoyed the XEDE unit. If my motor didn't pop from stock block limitations I would have kept it. 270+ from an interceptor style piggy back is impressive, no matter how you spin it.