My experience @ reese tuning...
May 20, 2009, 03:06 PM
#1
My experience @ reese tuning...
First off, I was there in Jan. of this year. I wasnt even gonna waste my time, but Ive had a couple ppl hit me up asking me about their service, and I feel like I should say something... Im not a hater by any means! And the fact that I never posted this should show that. I was just gonna call it a day, chalk it up to a bad experience, but I would feel slightly responsible for the next person who received a similar tune... I would love to be able to praise james, hes a cool guy, but unfortuneately the tune I received from him was less than stellar. 
First thing, I told him I tune a lil, but was having inconsistent KNOCK, (up to 4 counts) and AFR was inconsistant (LS enabled), so I asked him about his tuning "method" and he "sold" me well! So I chose him for my "dyno tune"...
Im almost positive the sporatic knock was due to running too high of boost for 91 octane. (26 -26.5psi) So I told him I wanted to lower boost to 24 max! He said no prob! I also told him I wanted to completetly disable LS, he said, and I quote, " Im notorious for doing that"... I also told him, I wanna check each rpm point 2000, 2500, 3000, 3500, etc. he said no prob...
So on to the tuning... I let him do his thing, w/ out riding hiss *** on every pull, but he did all pulls from 2500... I dont have the logs to prove this, cause he was still in the tuning process, and I hadnt asked him to let me log his pulls yet... So that was ignored! Then I noticed the dyno was reading ~ 24 psi, so I was cool w/ the fact that the #'s were a lil lower than before... So he said he was done, I asked him to let me log a few pulls. We logged a few pulls on the dyno (minus afr), and Im hitting upwards of 10 counts, every pull... And the kind that take the entire pull to "decay"I ask him WTF??? I DO have the logs to prove this! He told me and I quote, "its the dyno"! And because Im not the type of person to walk into someones shop, and tell them theyre full of it, I let it go, and told him lets hit the street. Did I mention, that this is w/ the same amount of boost (26.5psi)!!! Went out on the road to test it out, and of course, knock hasnt gone anywhere. I then again, said WTF? Then he goes on to tell me its "tip in" and thats its normal, and will do it every time, and watch... Sure enough it did it every time! LOL
So, Im like, I guess this is the best he can do, let me just go home and clean it up. I get home to open up my rom, and he didnt even disable LS. Set it from 2500 to 2594 which left me w/ a nice lil dip in AFR... Then I noticed boost was the same 26+psi. Then I noticed he pulled 6* up top unnecessarily. So I was running 6* @ 7000. I also noticed he decreased timing everywhere as well.
I called him reguarding this tune, and he said "thats how I do things" and if I wanted, I could make the 200 mile trip again... Which I commend him for that, but I wasnt making that trip again...
The next morning I started cleaning up his work, completely disabled LS, (dip went away), added my timing back in (11* @ 7000, and everywhere else for that matter), left boost alone, just to compare knock counts, but was left to a minimal amount of 1-5, sporatic counts... I then lowered boost to 24.5 psi, and am now somewhat knock free, w/ the sporatic 1-3 here and there. Knock cell flash FTW!
I even used the most recent excell power graph, to compare my last recent pull, w/ a pull from the tune... I dont recall the difference in #'s, but the graph looked sooo much better. And this is w/ a spike of 25-25.5psi due to corrections. So, ~ 1 psi less, and yet much more power. I guess thats what 10+ counts of knock will do for ya! And yes I know that the #'s in the pwer graph may not be 100% accurate, but the difference between the pulls was substantial.
Im NO fan boy, nor am I a hater. Im obviously still a lil BITTER, about spending $450 w/ james and getting those results! On top of that, I can tune my own car, but felt like theres gotta be more to learn from others, and was hoping to pick up a few tricks... Basically the entire reason for the tune!
I didnt start this thread to cause any drama w/ the back and forth crap! This was my experience. Take it for what its worth to ya! If my experience was a good 1 (for my evo) this thread would be completely different!
Like I said, james was a nice guy, minus the BSing. I dont take well to a tuner BSing me though, and I think I speak for most if not all...
I also know your not gonna please every1, all the time, but this was a bit outta hand!
First thing, I told him I tune a lil, but was having inconsistent KNOCK, (up to 4 counts) and AFR was inconsistant (LS enabled), so I asked him about his tuning "method" and he "sold" me well! So I chose him for my "dyno tune"...
Im almost positive the sporatic knock was due to running too high of boost for 91 octane. (26 -26.5psi) So I told him I wanted to lower boost to 24 max! He said no prob! I also told him I wanted to completetly disable LS, he said, and I quote, " Im notorious for doing that"... I also told him, I wanna check each rpm point 2000, 2500, 3000, 3500, etc. he said no prob...
So on to the tuning... I let him do his thing, w/ out riding hiss *** on every pull, but he did all pulls from 2500... I dont have the logs to prove this, cause he was still in the tuning process, and I hadnt asked him to let me log his pulls yet... So that was ignored! Then I noticed the dyno was reading ~ 24 psi, so I was cool w/ the fact that the #'s were a lil lower than before... So he said he was done, I asked him to let me log a few pulls. We logged a few pulls on the dyno (minus afr), and Im hitting upwards of 10 counts, every pull... And the kind that take the entire pull to "decay"I ask him WTF??? I DO have the logs to prove this! He told me and I quote, "its the dyno"! And because Im not the type of person to walk into someones shop, and tell them theyre full of it, I let it go, and told him lets hit the street. Did I mention, that this is w/ the same amount of boost (26.5psi)!!! Went out on the road to test it out, and of course, knock hasnt gone anywhere. I then again, said WTF? Then he goes on to tell me its "tip in" and thats its normal, and will do it every time, and watch... Sure enough it did it every time! LOL
So, Im like, I guess this is the best he can do, let me just go home and clean it up. I get home to open up my rom, and he didnt even disable LS. Set it from 2500 to 2594 which left me w/ a nice lil dip in AFR... Then I noticed boost was the same 26+psi. Then I noticed he pulled 6* up top unnecessarily. So I was running 6* @ 7000. I also noticed he decreased timing everywhere as well.
I called him reguarding this tune, and he said "thats how I do things" and if I wanted, I could make the 200 mile trip again... Which I commend him for that, but I wasnt making that trip again...
The next morning I started cleaning up his work, completely disabled LS, (dip went away), added my timing back in (11* @ 7000, and everywhere else for that matter), left boost alone, just to compare knock counts, but was left to a minimal amount of 1-5, sporatic counts... I then lowered boost to 24.5 psi, and am now somewhat knock free, w/ the sporatic 1-3 here and there. Knock cell flash FTW!
I even used the most recent excell power graph, to compare my last recent pull, w/ a pull from the tune... I dont recall the difference in #'s, but the graph looked sooo much better. And this is w/ a spike of 25-25.5psi due to corrections. So, ~ 1 psi less, and yet much more power. I guess thats what 10+ counts of knock will do for ya! And yes I know that the #'s in the pwer graph may not be 100% accurate, but the difference between the pulls was substantial.
Im NO fan boy, nor am I a hater. Im obviously still a lil BITTER, about spending $450 w/ james and getting those results! On top of that, I can tune my own car, but felt like theres gotta be more to learn from others, and was hoping to pick up a few tricks... Basically the entire reason for the tune!
I didnt start this thread to cause any drama w/ the back and forth crap! This was my experience. Take it for what its worth to ya! If my experience was a good 1 (for my evo) this thread would be completely different!
Like I said, james was a nice guy, minus the BSing. I dont take well to a tuner BSing me though, and I think I speak for most if not all...
I also know your not gonna please every1, all the time, but this was a bit outta hand!
Last edited by nonschlont; May 20, 2009 at 03:14 PM.
May 20, 2009, 03:13 PM
#2
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understandable, but u cant expect a man to give out his secrets on how he makes a living, just not ethically correct, however he wasnt all perfect either, he should have been more straightforward with u and at least see that what u wanted such as the ls enable and such were met... I hope ur car continues to run smooth and best of luck in the future...
May 20, 2009, 03:16 PM
#4
understandable, but u cant expect a man to give out his secrets on how he makes a living, just not ethically correct, however he wasnt all perfect either, he should have been more straightforward with u and at least see that what u wanted such as the ls enable and such were met... I hope ur car continues to run smooth and best of luck in the future...
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May 29, 2009, 09:32 PM
#11
I never got a graph, nor did he bother to post up about the tune... Here is a pull from that day, on the road, after the initial tune, to make sure things are in order. I have another that has 12 counts, in 5th gear... 
edited: for irrelevant data.
edited: for irrelevant data.
Last edited by nonschlont; May 29, 2009 at 10:01 PM.
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