Retuned Evo IX by Tom at VR-Speed
 

I was tuned about a year back and was pretty happy with the way my car as driving but lately i was having some drivability issues which let me to find a huge boost leak and some other random issues. I decided to shop around for a retune and I made the right choice.

I have been having some knocking problems for almost a year now and I havent been able to track down what has been causing it. I contacted a few different tuners and while that all had great input I just got a certain feeling about the quality of service from VR-Speed. They were responsive and very helpful.

First they told me what to look for in my engine bay, anything that can cause a knocking sound. I found that my bov was hitting my fan shroud as well as a bolt lodged between my oil pan and transfer case. This alleviated some of the false knock i was getting and we determined the rest of it was from the Kelford 272 cams. In my previous posts I had pictures of my old spark plugs that were shot.. this was most likely due to the excessive fuel as well as the low timing causing some detonation. Before i found my boost leak my stock injectors were running at 120% IDC and flooding the cylinders with gas.

I turned my boost pressure down about 2 or 3 psi while trying to diagnose my issues...The car was running pig rich and only 6* timing at red line due to it knocking.

VR-speed pulled my timing in the mid range, increased it from mid to red line and leveled my AFRs to target 11.5 . We also increased the boost from 24psi to 27psi spike tapering to 20 on a hallman MBC. The V7 BIG fuel and timing maps we remade from scratch and the car drives smoother then ever.

The knock multiplier was modified slightly to take into account the kelford cams and now i get minimal if any knock.

VR-speed was constantly at my service, always available when i had to give them logs, got me an updated tune within a few hours and got the full tune dialed in in under a week but i was stil having a random knocking issue. I kept tell Tom the i was going to get springs and retainers done and i wanted to see if my noisy valvetrain was the issue because of the kelfords but he STILL kept give me different tunes to try. He gave me one final to the did WONDERS to my car. It eliminated about 99% of the knock with the knock sensor still set to factory levels.

The car never drove so smooth, it spools sooner then it ever did and the power hits harder then ever.

All of this was on a stock turbo
FIC 850cc injectors
ETS Black 3in intercool
ETS LICP
Stock UICP
Kelford 272 Cams
O2 Dump and full 3in exhaust with a test pipe
Hallman MBC
ACT HDSS Clutch

I went from 300hp and 292tq to 378hp and 366tq all while getting better gas mileage and more comfortable cruising.


After all of this he still answers my questions if i have any..he doesnt leave me high and dry after he does his job..the customer service is GREAT.

Thanks Tom!

Congrats! Nice job Tom!

Sounds like a win/win to me...congrats
Nice job VR-Speed

I've exchanged emails a few time seems like a great guy always answers my question and is friendly. These numbers are making me want to do my e-tune with him more and more.

yea.. the power is great.. he is easy to work with and in total we probably did about 30 different tunes...

wrong section of forum. please have a mod put this in Service, Parts & Tuning Review.

I appreciate the very nice review though!

its nice to read that there are still tuners out there who will take the time out to tune a bolt on evo, rather than making the quick buck.

yeah Tcomp is the man

really knows how to tune e85..

he is OK on pump too J/K LOL

I honestly feel safer with a tuner such as him or other e-mail tunes one reason there not out to sell you a engine job like some others. Good to see these kind of numbers i know if i change my mind who ill go to for a tune good **** tom keep up the good work!

Thanks for the kind words guys. Heres his fuel & timing map in 3d to show you guys how I tune.. I tune every car as if it were my own.

http://oi51.tinypic.com/257efdk.jpg

This particular car had a lot of phantom knock and also was very troublesome when it came to tuning in general. This car is very picky and if you didn't give it just the right timing it would start knocking.. I had spent a lot of time on this car and it had just recently been done at another shop in warmer weather. He was told to get a new knock sensor and never did I guess.

We ended up mildly adjusting the knock sensor and smoothing the timing out over and over until we came to the conclusion it was a bit of timing & false knock causing the issue.

Car went from knocking 8-12 counts to 0-1 now. OP is happy, im happy.. and if he has future issues I will touch up for free within 6months period.

Keath e85 is harder to tune then 91,92,93, etc :lol:

I know.. my car pull hard and timing is smooth..

i run your 91 oct tune once a year probably LOL..
91 oct still make 450 so that is awesome...

good job man you better give me that 6 month too...

6month is for maintenance issues with tune, not if you want 100whp more in 6 months you get it free.. I will discount it, but not free :lol:

i was slightly concerned of doing a tune since im a believer of doing tunes in springtime but when i do, im considering getting it done by you. also its too cold to work on my car! :(

it will yes. and this is a good example of what i mean by backing my tune up. if you get tuned in cold (20F) and then it is 60F and your AFR is all over the place 1-2 months later, i will fix the afr no cost.

Nice job Tom...tune looks good! Cool that you posted the 3d graphs...you don't see that very often...