tjwong

Well my best bit of advice to you is to acquire more cash. I am going through my reserves like it was water running out of a leaking faucet. If you are talking about HP Performance out of New Mexico. I know them as well. Just be prepared for long delivery times on their kits. I used to live in New Mexico, loved it there and sorta wish I was still there. Only there isn't too many jobs there for me and when I was living there I was traveling for work any way so it didn't make much difference where I lived. It was an outdoorsmans paradise. I hunt big game, and prime elk hunting was literally minutes from my back door. I also ride dirt bikes, I cut a 55 mile loop around Mt Taylor near my home, it was like my own personal track! Spent all summer one year with a chainsaw in my back pack carving out that trail.

As for Mustang software vs DynoJet software. It's just like any software. Some like Lotus 123 and others prefer Excel. Once you get use to the package it is easy. I have used both, and both has their plus's and minus's. But now I prefer Mustangs software, I was given their new Power dyne software which runs in another directory and it seems to be a bit better than the old 7000 series software. I am getting a new control panel after the first of the year which will allow me to use a wireless system which will enable me to use my laptop while I sit in the car. Also I can add more IO which allows more instrumentation to be added with ease vs the old system which is a pain in the butt to add new sensors. Having most of my engineering career specializing in process controls, adding additional instrumentation to my dyno was easy. I got lots of spare sensors and other parts I saved from my paper mill days, not to mention all sorts of scopes and other measurement devices and test equipment.

Baxters do not sell specialty blower kits or turbo kits. They sell all the common stuff. Although I know the do special order stuff for their customers. They have been selling Edelbrock, MSD, Hooker and other name brand parts at discounted prices, only to compete with Summit and JEGs. I know, I have to try to price match against them, let me tell you when we do, we don't make much. But something is better than nothing, and it pleases me to take away some of their business, well at least indirectly because Baxters also owns Performance Warehouse where I get most of my local parts.

Fast Specialties may or may not be well trained I don't know. The big woman that is one of the owners used to work for my shop before I took over. She was around when I took delivery of my dyno, and watched me do all the excavation, concrete and electrical work to install it. I think that is why they went with an above ground dyno with a lift. As of today we are direct competition with them. I have had a few of their customers come to me for tune their GM cars after they messed with them. One of our customers that went to them lost a engine because they installed a oil gauge or a some sort of fitting in a oil line that broke, which caused the engine to loose all of its oil which well, you know what happened next. They ended up buying the guy a new engine, he owned a SRT4 if I remember right.

I wouldn't want to live in California, no way no how. My girlfriend wants to live there, she can if she wants to but not with me. Besides that I would'nt get along with the local seed eaters down there. I love everything they hate. Besides I don't like their gun laws or their politics and every other ANTI this or that they have.

I met Robert this last year at PIR. He seems like a nice guy, just didn't say much to me. I think he is trying to break into the viper market as well. I work with one of the local Viper tuners that works out of Timberline Dodge. We dyno tune them for them at our shop. We tuned a Novi 2000 blown 03 a couple weeks ago, it made 644/622 on my dyno. Pretty impressive to say the least. I posted it here a couple weeks ago, I am sure its still up.

You will get a lot of "kids" that will come and gawk at parts and you will get lots of ooohs and aws when you are tuning a nice car. I have a $350k 1940 Ford street rod I am tuning this weekend. I have people coming in just to see that car run. I got used to that, I just wished they would spend more cash in the shop

Chung Ho has been coming to our shop since this last year. Plus we both think that TQ Freaks inflates their dyno numbers so that everyone gets a big number. You know how that goes, everyone wants a nice number. He has come to realize that tuning with a dyno equiped with a PAU is the only way to go. Once you get a dynojets drums up to speed, the car is just going along for the ride. There is little to no load on the engine any more. Where as a dyno equipped with a PAU can apply continuos load on the car just as if it was going down the road. Or you can use it to simulate hills, I have dealers sending me their problem cases where they can't find problem because they can't get the car to act up in the shop or find the problem when it shows up during a test drive. All I have to do is throw my dyno in road sim mode, connect my scope to the ignition, my scan tool the ALDL port and go for a drive. It is as easy as that. In that respect the dyno is a invaluable tool for diagnostics. We get $125hr for that service. And we get it easily because by the time the customer comes to us, he has been to other shops or dealers already that can't find the problem.

Also having a dyno with load bearing capability is imperative for tuning speed density fuel strategies, this is for either OE or aftermarket such as Accel, FAST or other systems. Speaking of speed density tuning. It isn't really hard to do, its just timing consuming. And that is with OE or with the aftermarket stuff. Currently as I mentioned earlier I am tuning a 40 ford street rod. It has a GM MEFI4 controller, and it is speed density only and batch fire for that matter. I have hours and hours in this car. It wasn't all just fuel and timing, there was the electronic throttle control to tune as well. By the time I have it done, the bill will be well over $1500 and that is giving the owner a deal. How many of these do I get, not many......so far its all been in the street rod market. The last one before this 40 was a 32 ford high boy with a blown Ardun flat head engine that I sold a DFI system for. Installed, tuned and out the door for about $5000. Tuning the cars is fun, waiting for the next job to roll in isn't

TwoFast4Lv

iTrader: (8)

I must agree with TJ completely here. Many will bite you off at the ankles for a buck and the others have un-attainable expectations of the work you do. A dyno jet is nice but with out load bearing capability's of a eddy current it is pretty much useless.

As far as SD tuning? I have yet to find a singal person who is willing to REALLY pay for it. As some have mentioned it is litraly hours and days of logging and tuning. Add to this the people who do not believe it is real if the dyno does not show it to them. They KNOW the car has more power and it drives like a freak of nature but becuase they do not find a gain on the dyno it does not exist. Many are willing to live with a crappy driving car that makes two more peak HP then they are to have one that drives great and give up those two HP.

It is a hard market and I just try to keep to customers I can truely service when ever I can. I send TJ as much as I can in his neck of the woods.

The funniest part of this whole thread is the people saying the most are the people who would never step in your door and pay you That Being said if you had some thing I or one of my customers needed? I would get it from you

michael402z06

iTrader: (15)

EDIT* Lets Keep it Clean in this Forum *EDIT

howierd42

Not that I should stick up for anyone on this thread, much less this board, but dude, back off.

Can anyone with "SVT" in their screen name really be taken seriously when discussing LSx engines on an LSx site?

And you really do need to watch that language on a public site.

NVME88GT

He has an 02 Zo6 with a magic stick. Everything else he said is true.

howierd42

Indeed he does. But that still does not give license to talk in such a manner.

NVME88GT

Forgive his sailor mouth and look at the truth behind the ugly.

Nate_Taufer

iTrader: (1)

Do not fear the jaberwock. Notice that fact that you guys are D.R.'s

Nate

Nate_Taufer

iTrader: (1)

No offense, but you told me you don't know how to speed density tune. And I was going to go to TJ's shop once winter is over and I don't have to worry about snow and rear wheel drive. So yes I am the "single" person who is willing to pay for it.

Nate

jimbob

iTrader: (4)

Nate....
I was trying to make the point that SD can be done up here and it's great (thought everyone would get that after tuning with Cory SD and MAF, forever), That's what I tune for on Mine and Cory's H2 but we have a lot of tuning time on them...maybe 100 flashes on Cory's rig....Drove just like stock until....bammm come to think of it maybe I can't SD tune......Anyway, Yes, people do tune SD up here (maybe not shops) but I still use a Maf during these months, Next season it will probably come off to see the difference it makes on power. You might also consider going with a 85 mm MAF...Ed Wright PM'd me and said that it only cost him 6 rwhp at 500 rwhp level....(wanted to know hat he thought about losses....)...

Nate_Taufer

iTrader: (1)

That is great that it only cost 6 rwhp, but it's not about the peaks, but the drive-ability for me. I know that I have been running all winter long with very little swing in my l-trims (less than 2 percent). I really don't know how to tune SD to a tee, so I still don't claim to be the man at it. But for big cam m6 guys, there is no reason not to run SD open loop. I just want a shop (or person) that can get my car dialed in with no surge or bucking at all.

Nate

jimbob

iTrader: (4)

Yeah, that's is the great thing about running that way and I might still have to do it...Just for drivability....With the change of gears, I'm getting some nice surge at 2k rpms...Forcing a 13 to 1 AFR or so would get me out of it (atleast at that rpm)... You Ls1 guys can get a way a lot more than these old school lt1's (surge wise)... Back in the day, me and Ryan were first tuning on his old combo 98 car, I had noted how easy it was to tune a 224ish cam and get no freeway surge...."Idle," now that took forever to figure out (damn autos)...

As far as Ed goes..it's just an informational thing...Every car responds different but it was good to see that you don't loose a ton through the MAF.....above 500 though, I would imagine MAFs are just a nice as a Tornado in the intake tract...

Racehead

Huh ? I know of a few who "really" know how to SD tune. Even "I" know how to do it ? Not quickly mind you, nobody would want to pay ME by the hr to SD tune their car lol ! But I, and others here in the NW "can" SD tune a car. I have however learned that tuning others cars via "e-mail" is NOT the hot ticket . I consider Ellis to be leagues ahead of me in the tuning department, so I'd trust him to tune my car. IMO, the one most important trait a potential tuner can have is simply the realization that tuning for the street means drivability, not hp. And that means time, lot's of time. The most important aspect for a customer, is one who understands this. You simply cannot tune a car to a knats *** in a day. It took me a day to "ballpark" my car, and another 2 weeks to get it where it is today, which I consider to be about 98% "dialed". Since it was my first SD tune I'm sure that a guy who does it more often could shave much time off of that, however there is only so many cold starts, driving while still cold with AC on/off, heat soaked starts etc that a guy can do in a day

I agree 100% with the SD tuning for M6 guys here. I ran mine all summer that way and couldn't ask for better manners. I plugged in the MAF ( after some scaling ) for the winter, but I like the SD manners better. I don't know what cam you have, but a portion of the surging and bucking is simply the cam you choose. You can tune alot/most of it out, but you can't make a big cam behave like a stocker. Surging and bucking has been a part of big cams since there has been big cams, and modern SEFI will not eliminated it. For my own ( ASA ) cammed car I still get some surging at 0-4% throttle settings, between idle-1800 rpm while coasting down to a stop. It throttles cleanly from 1300 rpm on up, at ANY throttle settings in any gear at ANY engine temp as long as it's ran for about 1 minute though. I "might" be able to improve on that, but have come to the conclusion that at least "some" surging cannot be completely tuned out.

I DO leave room for someone to teach me something new though ....

TwoFast4Lv

iTrader: (8)

Lets see. You are the guy who showed up for testing(for free) with blown out header gaskets. I gave you a set (which you never paid for) and said you will have much better luck after installing them. You were tring to tune with mechanical problems. Anyone will tell you better luck will be had shooting your self in the foot You take the fact that I did not have the correct Scan software to SD tune your 98 as me not knowing what I am doing. So be it.

After talking to you that day and seeing you since I am fairly sure you would not want to cough up the money it would take to have someone SD tune your car. You can say you will but when you show up at TJs you better bring more then the price of the header gaskets you could not afford

I ahve no Idea why you lashed out at me and I am not lashing out at you just setting the records straight. nothing more nothing less

Nate_Taufer

iTrader: (1)

I pm'd you twice after that day about hooking back up for tuning and you never responded with a day or time or anything. I had one leaking head gasket and I appreciate the new set and told you I would pay you for them when we got back together to tune. I didn't have any cash on me and even asked if you wanted go to the ATM but you said not to worry about it that night. I did buy your family dinner that night too if I recall correctly.

you blew me off though man. I never heard back from you.

When you want me to come down that way and try your hand at SD tuning give me a pm and I will gladly come down there with money in hand so you can see if your tuner cat works properly for 98s. That was what this was all about to begin with. And if you get my car running better than it is I will gladly tell everyone up here that you are my preferred tuner.

Nate

TwoFast4Lv

iTrader: (8)

Well Nate I did not mean to blow you off in any way. We had a great deal of lose in the family between my wife and I. The race we met Eric at, who I will say again is great in person, we actually had to come back to race and we missed the last race taking care of family affairs. Even recently we had even more lose.

Not really an excuse I under stand but I get alot of PMs. Sorry If I missed yours. you are not the only one. I have days I get 50 PMs I have more time to check them now and have been doing my best to reply to them and work on cars

Do not worry about the header gaskets. I had forgotten about them till you posted about my lack of skill's No big. I was just tring to under stand what was going on here. I make no claim to being the best but I know I am better then most.

BTW STILL freaking waiting for MONDAX to release. once they do the intergration will make SD tunning far easier then it is now . Also have you tried different timing curves with a slightly rich mixture to help with your bucking? I hear it may help from the SD guys.

Good luck!

Nate_Taufer

iTrader: (1)

Sorry about your losses. After re-reading my posts I realize that I'm being an ***. Wasn't trying to cap on your skills. I'm sure you're a great Maf tuner but I am just frustrated that there aren't a lot of people who have the ability to SD tune up here (i.e. within 1.5 hours of my door) so I'm just lashing out.

Nate

TwoFast4Lv

iTrader: (8)

Not a problem man. It is all good

tjwong

One thing you guys should know about SD tuning and cam surge. Just because we can tune your car using a new strategy doesn't necessarily mean that we can get rid of the cam surge issue if you have a large cam. Depending on the cam, you can minimize it or perhaps get lucky and eliminate it totally.

There are solutions to cam surge but I doubt that you would want to go that far. One way is to swap the intake for individual stacked induction. It looks way cool but tuning 8 stacks is a royal pain in the butt. It was hard when it was mechanical injection and it isn't any easier (mechanically) with EFI. Having SEFI does help some. As one can tune cylinders individually, within reason.

For one, cam surge is mainly caused be the reversion phenomenah in the intake track due to the overlap of these large cams. How reversion affects the engine runability depends greatly on intake manifold design. And in a MAF strategy based EFI system, revsion is often read by the MAF as additional air flow which means its going to fuel for the added air flow that the MAF thinks its seeing. And yes, MAF sensors will read in both directions of flow. That 40 Ford I was tuning uses a cam that is most likely larger than most any streetable LSx or LTx owner would think of using.

This Dart Iron Eagle block displaces 427 CID, it has Brodix 18 degree heads and the cam is a Comp Solid roller with 268 degrees of intake duration at .050 and .750 lift ground on a 106 or a 108 LSA. What is nice about this car is that with the Hilborn EFI with its 8 individual stacks, there is no cam reversion at all. In fact I can basically tune out the cam lope if I wanted to. This car idles at just under 1100 RPM, and the cam doesn't even sound as bad as a GM 847. In fact it sounds more docile than WS6Freaks car. However because of the large flowmaster mufflers that is on this car, it is very quiet, and you can hear the forged pistons rolling around in the block and you can definitely hear that its a solid lifter cam. The car has just a slight hint of surge, and that is if you just about lug the engine at low RPMs and sometimes in a higher than normal gear. At a 5th gear 2000 RPM cruise, it runs just like a normal car without any hint of a surge. If you drive the car normally or even slightly agressively, you can drive right through without any signs of surging, it just pulls hard and the 7000 RPM red line comes up very quickly, the tach needle appears like Babe Ruths bat swinging by for a home run!

Here is a shot of the 40 Fords engine bay.

bartman22

TJWong:
You are right that Robert Judd is trying to break into the viper market. He bought the ACR from a guy off of viperalley.com. He purchased it when he did, because of the untimely smashing of his C-5. I recall him racing down busy streets in his C-5, happily spraying the 300hp nitrous shot he uses. He told me he hates the viper and prefers corvettes overall. He didn't say a lot to me either, though he seemed to be a nice guy. A few people who met him before me, said he was an ***. Others said he was nice. Everyone agrees he is the shiznit at PCM tuning. I heard his wife is a stripper, who dances at The Dolphin in Portland.

The woman that works at/owns Fast Specialties is, as I recall, Samantha Aldridge. Her dad owns Aldridge Motorsports in East Portland. One of the Fast techs is an ex-Aldridge tech. I think he is the guy who does the tuning for Fast. I have seen a few vehicles that their facility has mis-handled as well. One was a '94 GT mustang. The owner had a Kenne Bell superchanger installed, with nothing else to support it. The guy who owns it is nice, though blissfully ignorant of the damage he was likely doing to the excessively lean engine. He dyno'd at Fast Specialties and had Travis tune the car. The guy proceded to throw on 42lb/hr injectors. This vehicle, with it's lack of mods, would be fine with 32lb/hr injectors. The Kenne Bell on the vehicle was the smallest one available for this hypereutectic-piston equipped car. With an otherwise stock longblock, it would never see the boost or power numbers to warrant such size injectors. While they cured the lean condition, the car would certainly have benefited from a different approach. Simply burning a chip for the car should have cured the problem. Their tech should know that those blowers need extremely unrestricted intake systems to make max power. He should have recommended smaller injectors, coupled with a maf, throttle body and flowzilla inlet for the blower. I am sure you will quickly develope a large customer base of ex-Fast Specialties customers. People hate them for the same reason they hate Aldridge- high prices.

I don't think I would ever live in California again. One of my friends refers to the state as P.R.O.C. (the people's republic of california). Most California state officials would poop if they saw my SKS and a few of my knives.

You mentioned Ground Zero, earlier, as well. The owner, Ralph Friend, lives a block away from one of my friends from high school. Ralph's son, Brian, was in my high school auto shop class. All he did was sit in the classroom and read import magazines. Ralph has owned a few vettes, and is apparently trying to get "back into american stuff." He apparently has an '03 Cobra that nobody has seen. He, or one of his friends, has a D1SC Procharged C-5. Their MKIV supra is at PIR, on occasion. Out of about 10 runs I have seen it make, only one was devoid of tuning problems. Brian Friend has wrecked more cars in the last five years than one can count on both hands.