Tonight I tuned a Evo which before had excessive engine noise and could not make any good power with the stock knock sesnor corrections and also had low oil pressure - the car was sent to Ferrarokid who diagnosed excessive out of tolerance on the cam journals

Ferraro kid and Dark Horse re-machined the head and cam journals and tonight I had a chance to re-tune the same car with the same mods - just the head and valve springs were added

This Evo is now the strongest and quietest and smoothest running evo I have tuned to date with cams

It seems as if the engine spins a lot better - it just revs a lot faster now

There is virtually ZERO engine noise and the car pulls much harder than any other stock turbo evo we have tuned

The car even had a blow off valve leaking and it still realy pulled hard

I can not wait to try the car after the bov is replaced and I can run a bit more boost and tune it some more

The head work by Dark Horse transfomed this engine I highly recomend the work this guy is doing - its expensive but there are significant improvements with his touch

 

How much was the headwork? Is it similar to the Buschur Stage 3 head?

 

Its not cheap ! I have nothing to comare as i have not seen bushur's head yet

 

I'm very impressed with Darkhorse. Why did he have excessive eng. nosie? From the factory? Did he have upgraded cams before the head work?

What Spring did he use?
Stock Vavles?
What cams?

Thanks
Eric

 

Apparently the cam journal caps were distorted when they were gently removed - this caused serious out of tolerance conditions in the head - there was too much gap in some journals causing a loss in oil pressure

Interestingly - about 20 % of the Evos with HKS cams installed make noises at idel which get louder on high rpms and that noise is sometimes picked up by the factory knock sesnor

THIS particular Dark Horse machined head had zero noise - it was a real aid to making big time power on this particular car

 

really? when they were GENTLY removed or GENTLY installed? How were the cam caps damaged?

What springs did he use? (looking to have Darkhorse do my motor up)

 

My undersatnding is the tolerance from the factory is already not ideal and that the very taking off and re-installing of the cam caps can further distort them as they are very lightweight

I wonder if any of us could afford to have Dark Horse do up a motor - I see no prices quoted yet - my guess is a lot of loot

 

Yes it is but money well spent on my beloved EVO

Do you know what springs he used???

 

here's the link where more info can be found

https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/sh...ight=darkhorse


https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/sh...ight=darkhorse

 

I happen to be in that 20%. It vibrates the hell out of the car too. So this is a good fix for it?

 

without a doubt - this machine shops work is world class - the on,y question i have is IF I can afford it - I am waiting for prices from them to be listed

 

If you're waiting for a price list with specials like the deli you grab an egg sandwich at in the morning, you'll be waiting a while.

The work that is done behind those doors is worth every penny that he charges, and any of his customers can tell you that. Some shops do what they have to do, some do what you tell them to do, but very few do what is needed in order to sustain a hi-hp motor.

There's a lot to be said for a shop that you can trust, which these days is very few and far between, as you should know by now. Why let a little thing like money get in the way?

 

Joe Agreed!!! Darkhorse is amazing.

 

No, cmon, not amazing, just trying to do things properly. I have been fortunate to have been taught, and still am learning from this old fart who is a real pain in the ***, but has been doing this type of work for almost 55 years. He has allowed me to share his logo as well as his shop. SO it is like having the key to a well of information. The most important thing that I have learned though from the get go is to figure out if I want to do this for a living, or to make this my life. So, the prices are inconsequential. I would rather be known for my work rather than how good of a deal I am compared to the other guys. I am a one man show, so I can only take on so much work, but I do need to eat so I charge fairly and accordingly. Every job is different, has different goals and requires a different approach, so I treat each on a case by case basis. Thats why I really cannot, nor do not want to have a cut and dry price list. I can get close, but honestly, I don't know what I have until it is sitting in front of me, so any other way of trying to figure how much, or how long is just guessing. If I am doing a job that I have given an estimate on, and find something unforseen in the process, I will take care of that issue to make sure that it gets done properly, and not rush through because I had already quoted a price.

It takes however long it takes to get it right, and costs what it cost to get it right. I will always be fair, and diagnose for free, if you do not like what I come up with, no hard feelings in any way, then I dont do it. I do this work because I love the challenge.

 

you got my doe! Now if I can only score on that ****en motor.