jba3

iTrader: (7)

I'm finally in love with the evo again!!!

Here's a little history:

Love Found
I wanted an evo SO bad. I finally got one, although used was the only thing in my budget range. It came with a BOV, intake, cam gears, downpipe, amp, sub ... and a DVD flip-out head unit! Unfortunately it had a sunroof, and I wanted to mount monitors on the roof for the rear seats. I went to the extent of having a body shop cut the whole roof out, and put an MR roof on my 2003! Dulles AutoBody in Sterling, VA took care of that and did a great job.

Love Lost
However, about a month ago, I was so frustrated with the car and it's countless issues I was ready to part it out and sell it and eat a $10k loss just to be rid of it. My VR4 motor blew september of last year and I wanted to fix it and be rid of the evo. It wasn't living up to what I had hoped it would despite spending more than I could keep track of on it. And after numerous issues with work performed by others on my car, I began doing things myself. I can do it half-assed myself for free, why pay someone else to half-*** it?

DIY Install Festival
Previously, I had a buschur turboback. I replaced it with a stock cat and catback, and QTP electric cutout downpipe, with the controller wired in the center console next to my FMIC sprayer (2003). DC Sports tubular manifold. SS o2 housing. Evo8 20g turbo w/ 10.5 TME hotside. TurboXS FMIC. Nisei UICP. Fighters Garage LICP. Buschur mini battery and tray. I did the radio relocation, and triple a-pillar gauges (6 ProSports). I installed a set of dual Alpine Type R 12" subs, monoblock amp, 4ch amp, and capacitor with 4 gauge wiring. I didn't trust anyone to do those things.

Screw Jobs
Unfortunately, I purchased the 20g from an evo forum. It was misrepresented and listed for sale as a "20g LT TME", which it is definitely NOT an LT. The sale included a link to TC.com which didn't state LT, but was my oversight in not knowing enough before purchasing. But, I also got screwed on the manifold. I purchased it from an evo forum, and it split itself open front to back; I also later found out that it had been cracked before and welded in other spots as well! Oh, did I mention I was seeing 25, 30, 40 counts of knock in EvoScan and the car would constantly run in low octane mode?

Getting Help
What was my solution? Take the car to DTM in Chantilly, VA. They recently moved to a new facility, or I would have taken it there sooner. DTM fixed some issues I had with my DynoFlash tune, including bad AFR, random knocking (under load and during pulls), and a locked ECU that I couldn't do anything with. However, I am not trying to bash DynoFlash ... the car was tuned 6 months prior, so some of that I chalk up to differences in temperature.

To continue, here's what DTM took care of for me:

A shop installed cams and head studs for me. They failed to notice the cam gears on my car (purchased used with them already installed) were actually DSM cam gears! My timing was off by *16* degrees! As such, the car was running really rough since I purchased it. I never knew the difference until now, because I never felt it running at full potential. I'm running stock cam gears in the interim.

• Replaced my cracked DC Sports with a ported and coated stock manifold.
• Replaced my blown o2 sensor.
• Replaced my spark plugs which were completely blown in about 1,000 miles.
• Replaced my sheared o2 housing with a stock o2 housing (I drilled out the bolt and zip-tied it to the downpipe as a temp fix). Also provided me with a bolt from the o2 to the turbo, which I did not have (I sheared it while transferring from stock setup).
• The QTP downpipe was extremely close to the oil pan and underbody heat shielding (attached to the frame). With the tight tolerances and slight exhaust flex from the sheared o2 housing (QTP only uses passenger side rear downpipe mount due to the cutout) the pipe would rattle and hit the subframe. This was causing my phantom knock. DTM replaced the downpipe with a standard 3" with flex section and made a custom cutout section with the stock cat and catback too.
• 60k service - Timing belt, fluids, etc. A friend has his 60k done at a shop and it took 2 days to get it done. I delayed on mine until over 70k miles because of this.
  I was also given all of my bad parts back.

Future Work DTM Will Be Doing In February+

• Better recirc for my BOV (I grabbed an old radiator hose as a get-it-runnin)
• Coil On Plug ignition setup
• Fix my FMIC bracket (sheared a bolt on passenger side hanger
• FMIC sprayer meth injection installation and tuning
• Corner balancing my coilovers
• Tires for my new Volk TE-37 17x9 wheels

Final Results
When my car went in to have the issues addressed, it was dyno'd to see where it was at. Around 225whp if I remember correctly. After fixing the issues and retuning, it made 332whp and 298 torque, after correction ... on a mustang load-bearing dyno (probably 375+ on the AMS dynojet) ... with the stock manifold (unported, uncoated), stock cam gears, stock bottom end, stock head (basically stock motor with cams and head studs) ... and at 22.5psi and on straight 93, no meth, no additives.

My AFR was also at 11.1 and higher, so there's more room to lean it out and pick up some more. For now, Nick wanted me to take the car and enjoy it actually working like it should. I have a 200 mile road trip this weekend.

I am very happy with all of the service provided by DTM thus far, and will continue to recommend them to friends if they ask me for a shop that they can trust to treat their car with the same attention to detail and caution as if it were their own.

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For those of you who missed hearing or didn't know, DTM has moved. They are now at a new facility located at 25350 Pleasant Valley Road, Unit #165 in Chantilly, Virginia (20152)

UT_Evo

iTrader: (5)

Excellent review, companies like this are too few and far between (knowledgable, helpful, available, respectful, etc). Thankfully there was both an Evo shop (two really, if COBB counts, though they weren't ready for Evos when I had mine) and there is a great Porsche/Audi/VW shop here. Props and kudos to DTM.

jba3

iTrader: (7)

Dyno chart here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/james.an...17212184498690

Guyver

iTrader: (3)

I have been there a few times, and would highly recommend them to anyone as well.

DTM

iTrader: (4)

Thanks again James for the opportunity. Enjoy your car and we will see you soon.

Nick
DTM