| A'pex V-AFC - Tune This Motha' Out
What's the difference between a quick and a slow car? Tuning, of course. How a car is tuned can make or break it. Having the proper spark, fuel curve, VTEC crossover point, and engine monitoring devices will make your Honda vehicle run like the wind. Many enthusiasts have purchased upgrades for their engine, but after everything was installed, some were not happy with the results. Little do many know that a small amount of tuning can increase horsepower and driveability dramatically. A'pex knows tuning is important, hence, the company creation: VTEC-AFC (or V-AFC). This little electronic wonder has many features, including an adjustable VTEC crossover point, an adjustable fuel curve (both wide and narrow throttle), sensor monitoring, and a menu for adjusting variables critical to adjusting fuel properly.
With so many functions available, what do they all do? Let's take a closer look at the functions of the V-AFC and explain how it works. When adding aftermarket parts, the factory VTEC point may be affected. What this means is that it is no longer switching over at the precise moment to keep the powerband and maximum performance. The V-AFC allows the user to set the VTEC switchover at both acceleration and deceleration from the 3,000-7,000 rpm range. You will be able to fine-tune your VTEC and get it working in perfect harmony with the engine-once again.
Next up would be your fuel curve. Having too much fuel is a bad thing as your engine can suffer and may bog, which we all know is a loss of horsepower. Not having enough fuel is even worse because you will be prone to detonation. If you have never seen what detonation from running lean can do to a motor, we can tell you it's not a pretty sight. In fact, you will more than likely be looking at a rebuild. With the V-AFC, the user is allowed to change the fuel curve at 8 points between 3,000 and 9,000 rpm (plus/minus 50 percent). With this kind of range, there should be no reason why your vehicle's fuel curve is not properly tuned. The V-AFC is a fully rounded tuning machine, as it utilizes the monitoring of vital sensors in your vehicle. Engine values such as intake pressure, throttle position, engine rpm, air correction rate, and a few others can be monitored while driving. You will always know what your vehicle's ECU is reading and be able to make adjustments based on that. And just to make it even cooler, it can provide this information in graph form. Enough of the techie talk, let's watch as Autolink installs and XS Engineering tunes the unit on a '98 turbocharged Prelude.