Dimeomboost

I'm not either to be honest but I didn't know where else to go I liked it at first but then it got to where it was so rich it was burning my eyes just idleing around

DarkHorse

iTrader: (1)

I'm severely biased here as both Keith and Bryan @ PCMForLess are very good personal friends of mine but i'll give my .02 anyway.


I've never had an issue with the tunes but then again I have access to Keith's dyno so.....Honestly, that's the best/only way to properly tune a car.

I can speak to their character - if there's an issue they're there to fix it. If you're an *******, as with any business, it's better to walk away. Not saying any of you have had that attitude going in but in the 14 years that i've been around these guys and their company/companies, I've seen customers from both sides of the spectrum.

If you have a PCMForLess tune and have an issue - call them.

Using your butt dyno isn't enough data for you to bash companies. Get it to a dyno, get some real data to provide your tuner with - whoever that may be - so that they can give you the best results.

CamOnlyJabroni

Solomon is the man period. He tuned my car on gas and now it is tuned on E85. My old LT1 is a beast with his magic and makes my Scat Pack feel soft. After he got done tuning my car on E85 it is laying rubber in second gear with 275/60 Mickey Thompson dr's. I am talking about doing this in 85 degree weather repeatedly with full suspension including a anti-roll bar. Car used to have a pcmforless tune. Car runs a lot better now.

Shownomercy

iTrader: (1)

My car barely even spins the rear tires, does this mean I should get in retooned or something??

Should I add a chip to it?

Lt1Son

iTrader: (2)

pcmforless didn't do me any favors and I was not an "*******" sent my pcm out to be tuned-came back with a 51 code-fried it- said my pcm was junk and offered me a used pcm for more than I could get from a junkyard-had them email me tune I loaded it into pcm drove to dyno and it made 310 to wheels- after dyno 375 to wheels- everything was off in the tune car ran hot etc. I was very surprised at their lack of customer service and would never do business w them again- but Solomon I have had good luck w for basic tunes on a stock car w/ headers/exhaust rockers/tb etc... mail order as mentioned imo should only be used to get you to a dyno. good luck

CamOnlyJabroni

Likely cause is the ebay turbo. A lot of people cheap out on the v8 turbo builds. Which leads to getting drug by 4 cylinder turbo builds.

Dirty_Bird

Means you need moar powa, add some nawzz to teh boost

CamOnlyJabroni

don't blow your welds on the floor pan!

atlantadan

At least you own your bias in your post.

Out here in the real, non-friend world, they treat their customers like dogshit. I sent them my PCM, they tuned it, and the car ran like *** when I got it back. (The car was tuned to get the correct rear gear ratio - that's all) It sucked down gas like no tomorrow, idled rough, and the trans wasn't shifting correctly. He insisted that there was something wrong with my car, despite all of my problems magically disappearing when the original PCM was re-installed.

I informed him of this and he said I was lying and told me to take a hike.

I wish I would have saved the email chain. I'd have gladly post it here to show everyone how truly awful they are to deal with. And before anyone says that the PCM must have been bad, I'm running it now with a tune from Solomon and its 100%.

Dirty_Bird

If he sacrafices an optispark to the lt1 gods he should be fine

sweetbmxrider

iTrader: (13)

Bryan was fantastic when I dealt with him through a mail order, a dyno, and then a mail order on the re-cam. Car went 10.85 at 124 but I don't have any rolling burnout data to back that up. Whenever I have heard Keith mentioned, its never been good. No personal experience with him though.

AdsoYo

iTrader: (1)

I was seriously disappointed when I opened up my pcmforless tune with hptuners. I ordered a tune from them when I did 24x and when it didn't work I bought hptuners to do it myself. All they did was take a bunch out of the low load/low rpm area of the VE table, change injector flow rate for my 30#ers, lean out power enrichment by about 6%, and set WOT spark to 31*. That's $250 right there.

kinglt-1

iTrader: (26)

PCM4Less sent me the wrong PCM and it cost me a blown head gasket about 15yrs ago. They refunded me the cost of the tune. LOL

The only remote tuning I would do is via email with data logging so you can see exactly what is going on with your car in real time. Soloman does this and he would be my go to for the LT1. I use Hp tuners and Lorenz @ LSxPT for my LS car. I would never opt for a mail order tune without any data logging capability. Or take it to a reputable tuning shop and let them fully tune it.

RixTrix

^^^^^^ THIS^^^^^^^^^

A canned tune is just that, a tune in a can.

No one has good enough spidey senses to do a tune by guessing.

Guys don't want to spend the coin to do the job right and purchase a canned tune (that will usually only be close and on the rich side). These tunes are not intended to be run farther than to the dyno.

Without logging data from the current setup it is very difficult to determine what a tune needs. Only on a very stock setup can a tuner guess, and I mean very stock. The first thing guys do is change the airflow Air cleaner and exhaust, this will throw a tune off.

Many think the ECM will adjust to changes, yes it does but not to the extent guys believe, and mostly only in closed loop (which occurs only on a fully warmed up motor at idle through part throttle).

In open loop which includes, cold start, and warm up, anything over a certain throttle, anything over a certain KPA manifold pressure, or other out of norm areas are tuned by fixed tables and not affected significantly by any learned values.

Learned values were implemented to compensate for MFG tolerance variances which by themselves can raise EPA eyebrows, but when stacked up can make a car fail emissions requirements. Learned values don't have enough authority to compensate for mods and don't significantly affect open loop because those areas are outside the EPA's mandates.

In the end my point is canned tunes or Base MAPs are nothing more than a starting place, purchasing one for daily use can be nothing but a crap shoot.

To condemn a tuner for poor results on anything but a totally bone stock car is nothing more than blame shifting, the real blame is the end users uninformed expectations or unwillingness to go the required distance to achieve results.

Be glad you got a rich tune as it was safe and your motor didn't not eat itself up!
For a tuner to accept any level of responsibility for a poor result is a direct indicator of their desire to provide top notch service.

BALLSS

FWIW I have had a few mail order tunes over the years as mods changed. Have had my now 383 H/C auto to T56 tune since 07. All by Ed Wright.

If I ever had a ? or concern Ed would have me do a data log on a few specific parameters and send that 411. In every case it was something "wrong" on my end which Ed was helpful in identifying. The tune was fine.

I have since been on dynos a few times with "LT1 tuners" and in both cases nothing was changed as all was spot on.

I would agree that a qualified tuner with car on the dyno would be best but I have had very good results with Ed. He has sold his shop/dyno but still does mail order IIRC.

I did meet Brian several years ago at our National meet in Vegas during "evening parking lot gatherings" (which were quite colorful and heavy alcohol and the usual debauchery that goes with that) and very quickly decided he was a %$(* off. Don't know his skills but as a person I don't care for him. He spoke very badly of his f-body customers. With that said several people use him and are happy and he is still coming to the ISSCA Nationals doing tunes on portable dynos. Perhaps in that type of environment where there are several eyes on him...he is good.

bowtienut

iTrader: (1)

Wow. that statement right there makes me seriously question your judgment. I do believe that's the first negative comment I've ever heard regarding Bryan's character/personableness, etc. I've also met him and talked with him many times. Mistakes?....sure, everybody has made mistakes, but character? ...sorry man, you are in a very tiny minority with your opinion on that!
I've used pcmforless since 1999, and Bryan has nailed everything I've asked him to do for me, and gone above and beyond with the tweaking before I could do it myself. On Keith, after a couple of attempts communicating with him, I decided he and I were never going to deal well with each other.
I do know that Ed is good, but in my case he grossly overstated his experience with a particular vehicle I asked him to mailtune.....couldn't even get the trans parameters right on a bone stock tranny after two attempts. Ended up being a complete waste of $350. I had to ship it back to him yet one more time and have the stock tune reflashed into it. No agreement to refund any portion of that $350. I saw Bryan a short time later after he bought the software to tune that vehicle, he played with it for 20 minutes and it ran and shifted beautifully. No interim test driving whatsoever; nailed it first time.
So you see, everybody has their favorite, and usually for good reason

dw456post

I am one of the customers that is still pissed after a year. I swapped my GTO from a 6 speed to a 4L80. I needed the GM auto program installed on my computer. Keith said that they do about a dozen of those a month. So I paid $70 to send my computer overnight. About a week later I called on the progress and he said they would have to look for it and get it done. I included a page of everything that I had done to the engine/trans and what I wanted to get done. At the top of the page in BIG LETTERS I said "Please do not change the engine tune". Finally I received it back, cranked the car, drove down the street, speedo was way off, didn't run right, and the converter would not lock. I called Keith and he said they knew what they were doing and I had a wiring problem. OK, I was pretty sure the wiring was good so I spent $600 and bought HPTuners and looked at the tune. The 6 speed tune was still in the computer along with the wrong pulse count and of course no tcc lockup on a manual trans tune.
I called and told him what I discovered. Spent another $70 to send it back. They returned it with the auto tune and a bunch of excuses why they didn't do it the first time. Installed the computer, got my trans tables set and drove it around. The car was running crappy again but I didn't know what to check at the time so I drove it. I got a local guy to look at the tune and he said it looked like a stock tune out of a 6 cylinder---lean, lean, lean, and I have a blower motor. Long story short, pistons were cooked and I bought a new short block. I asked Keith by e-mail if they wanted to pay for the new short block or pay to rebuild the one they screwed up! Guess what???---NO REPLY
I'm telling everybody that these guys don't give a **** what they do to your setup. It's just get some money and send them whatever, we don't care. I don't care how good a tuner one guy at the company is, if somebody else does the tune and there is NO quality control, to me it means the whole company is CRAP!!!!!!!

waltsfastz

iTrader: (4)

Solomon Did mine as well. I was very hesitant to do a mail order but I wanted to get a rough base until I found a dyno. Solomon was very, Very professional and helpful. Took him about a week and when I loaded it I was amazed how well it acted. Wideband is spot on and The driveablity was very surprising. And like said If I ever get to make some runs I can log it and he said he would make adjustments.

BALLSS

I am expressing my opinion after meeting him.....like you.

You may have also been there when the ISSCA NATS were in Vegas. Prior to meeting Brian I had heard several stories about his tunes that were crap according to those customers. Often in the transmission area. He was relativity new to tuning then. Guys like Zimerman and Ed were the go to guys back then and I chose Ed. I have found Ed's services to always be spot on, prompt and responsive to any ?'s I had. One time my PCM showed up all shiny and new looking. I emailed Ed and thanked him for cleaning the PCM. He said it was a new one as mine "fried on the bench". he said it is just a cost of doing business and gave me a new PCM. I recently contacted him after 9 years (last time he did my tune) asking if he could set my IM's to show ready all the time. He replied and said yes. I sent him PCM along with my cc 411. he made the changes and only charged me shipping.

So we both have + opinions on who we use. Yours was - based on Ed's service and mine was + based on the service I got from Ed. My opinion is - after spending several hrs over a couple of nights in a "social" setting with a group of ISSCA people including Brian at the evening parking lot gathering at the NATS.

If "you" are satisfied with his work and character fine.

bowtienut

iTrader: (1)

ah yes......preconceived notions never help you in "meeting" someone

I didn't have that before doing business with Ed. I was told he was the master.
Anyway, my point is not to badmouth either Ed nor Bryan, just to point out that you can find dirt on anybody if you look for it.

Someone else's point about the other guy at pcmforless.....I hear you. Yes, sadly that reflects on the whole organization.