Please keep in mind this thread is not intended to start trouble. I just want some honest opinions and hopefully some facts from shops. And I do understand that many tuners are just tuners with nothing to sell.

A friend and I have been discussing modding approaches and tuning. We both seem to believe that you are much more likely to get a more powerful and reliable tune by a vendor when you are using his product line. For example, I buy an xyz turboback, an ffg intake, some bbd cams, etc... If I go to shop AAy for my tune, he probably won't be interested in seeing my car make big power because I'm not using AAy parts, right? If I did buy all AAy parts and got an AAy tune, he'd definately want to give me the best tune out there.

Personally, I have experienced some bashing and sales pitches from a certain tuner back in my VIII days. I had mostly HKS parts and the tuner was affiliated with one of the big evo shops. He said my HKS parts weren't good and that I should have gotten so and so's exhaust, FMIC, mbc, etc... I'll never know how he tuned the car. What was in his mind, what he intended.

Now I understand all about shop loyalty. Sure if you spend thousands at one shop they're going to go the extra mile for you. But I'm not so sure that they'd go the extra mile if you just bought a tune off of them. And I'm not saying they have to, but you get the idea...

Personally with my X I'm going to go with AMS all the way. Everything they make I want on my car. (Not for the reasons above, but for reasons like; I respect them as a vendor and as members of this forum, their parts are incredible, the service is great, the tunes are great, etc...) And it's been proven that certain combo's don't often work well. Goind AMS or Buschur or ETS you'll know that each part will work well with the next part.

What are your thoughts about this?

 

if you are not far from NJ. then go for Sean Ivey, he is a dealer for HKS etc. And top of it i do believe , he is the definitely the best evo tuner in the Tri- state area.

 

I had an 8 with just about all Buschur bolt-ons. Then got an AMS stroker build and added an AMS Intercooler to it and had AMS tune it. Car was mean for the short time I had it

I now have an X and have almost all Buschur Boltons, thanks to Ben Graham !!. I am being tuned by AMS come August 14th. I think both shops are great and would say that there is no way that either one would tune your car lower due to lack of that shops parts. Both make great parts, have great tuners, and take care of their customers as job 1.

You can read some good reviews in the Service, Parts & Tuning Review section. I wrote one for AMS when I got my engine built.

I usually buy my parts used when I can so it is a matter of what is available for the best price.

 

I would HIGHLY recommend you go to a shop to have the car tuned.


Email flashes are okay, but something about pulling the brains out of my car and sending it in doesn't sit well with the last two issues I have had with FedEx about random car parts. Even pulling a ROM using a Tactrix cable - the tune isn't going to be as good until you put it on a set of rollers and simulate REAL WORLD CONDITIONS.

Find a reputable tuner near you and get tuned. Find one that has a great track record and is consistently putting out high HP Evo's

G/L sir!



https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/sh...d.php?t=318772

 

First thank you very much for your kind words. It means a lot when a EVOM member has something nice to say about us.

If you are in the NJ area and want a Custom Tune Ivey tune is great, they are also an AMS dealer so he can get you all the AMS goodies you like

If you want a mail in flash or want to hike down to Sunny Chicago...We have you covered there Too

We make our own line of parts because honestly when we got into this business we saw a huge void for a quality part part. If you notice we also carry a great deal of parts we don't make. Those parts are parts that we have tested and stand behind. No matter who makes it... if we sell it...it works and we will always, no matter who's parts are on the car get you the best tune possible.

Eric

 

You regularly track your cars, right?

 

yep, but since a have a X i couldn't get close to the track yet. Seems in august and september would be my track days this year.
So basically i will find out on this events what i want to do my X for next season. And the winter time, i will build it .

 

Thanks for the response Eric. I'm in Pittsburgh and doing a quick mapquest you guys are around 520 miles and 9 hours away. That might be too far. I did not know that Sean Ivey is an AMS dealer. That's great to know. I've always heard good things about him and New Jersey isn't quite as far. About 350 miles and 6 hours. My sister lives in Philly so I could just stay with her for the weekend or something. Then there's always the easy way out with a mail in. Personally I've always gotten custom tunes on my VIII. Keep up the great work guys.