winters97gt

Mike might know a little more about CXI than I do.

My history. I was one of the first guys around in 99-00 to run a PI headswap on a 2v mustang. The 96-98 GT's had NPI heads/cams/intake. This was a big deal for us. So after swapping the heads, my buddy started one of the first companies to get reground cams. Back then, 2v mustangs did not have aftermarket cams, so the stock ones were ground.

I knew Phil off and on for maybe a year, small things. I had Phil and his shop install the Erson cams for my car in 2000. After about 3 weeks of my car being in the shop and always going up there, I let him know I was not happy that the job was not done, and started to get a little aggresive. He assured me that the car would be done.

Picked it up a week later, and within 30 miles, the motor was toast. The lash caps(or adjusters) that were supposed to go under the lifters, were never installed. Needed them because the cams were reground. He begged and pleaded with me to build me a 500hp NA 2v(which is not possible, and def. not then.). I asked him politely to meet me at a block away(the shop was tucked in behind a bunch of buildings, you had to drive in a lot, make a giant left turn, then a right, never would have known it was there). He refused. Ran in to him a month later at a gas station and almost dropped his skinny Eastern European *** for the delay and not correctly installing my cams and not returning my money. He got in his black tahoe and left.

Later on, I never realized that old lady at the front desk was his wife. Jill, June, or something like that.

Took my car to Strictly Performance in South Houston for an engine swap. I knew Richard and had spent lots of money with them a year before. They ended up jacking my ported PI heads, as I saw them in his office when I walked by after the swap( he said they were toast 2 days earlier on the phone). They were ported by a buddy that was friends with Richard, but that is a whole other story. Bottom line, I don't play ball with any shop that won't let me stand next to my car the entire time it is being worked on. I own my own gym business, and I know about insurance and the bs and risks you take. If you won't let me watch you work on my car, game over for me. Not sitting in some waiting room.

$750 L98

iTrader: (7)

Good grief still no word? And they are a sponsor on the board? I mean after this long you'd figure some one might log on in their spare time and clear things up eh? Crazy..

Ben R

LOL that was a great video. I love the black smoke and spark plugs that come out of the exhaust right before that thing goes nuclear. Chuck seriously was/is/alwayswillbe a terrible tuner. He is lazy, dumb, and overall just doesn't give a **** about the cars he tunes.

kris6273

Agreed I bought his old cts-v and the tune is all over the place if the guy cant tune his own car he sure as hell cant tune other ppls thats just my .02

VinR1

iTrader: (17)

is that the same Chuck that has ads all over Craigslist?

LS1RedZ

iTrader: (19)

Yep. If your posting ads on CL for tuning you have some serious problems lol. Really dont understand why ppl use him when there are MANY great tuners down there like LMR and Gforce. Get it done right or it will cost you your ***.

kornfreak_401

iTrader: (77)

LMAO!!!! CL tune add's!??! really? where?!

jboehm

iTrader: (4)

http://houston.craigslist.org/pts/2157641985.html

winters97gt

imperial07

iTrader: (2)

if i had no other choice between a mail order tune and chuck's, i would still pick the mail order tune. after he tuned my gto it ran very rich, the exhaust tips were always moist with fuel and i was always replacing O2's. LMR ended up fixing all of it and it never had another issue.

n20goat

So is HPE out of business or just relocated.

strokerblackhawk

iTrader: (4)

holy **** that was your dyno he said he paid cash for it....lolol I used to work there very briefly and quickly figured out that phil was a crook. i cant even remember all the **** that went down, ive seen that place install flywheels with half the bolts BROKE OFF IN THE ******* CRANK, and phil said its fine put it back together NOW!!! One of the other crooked things he did while i was working there that i remember very well was a customer with a fox body mustang came in and paid cash for a heads and cam package right after the guy walks out phil leaves for like 3 hours and shows up with a brand new car trailer, needless to say that car was still sitting there when i left. it was funny cause all the cars that were there for major engine work when i first started there were still sitting there 2 and a half months later when i quit.

Oh yea i remember this guy with a white c5 came in looking for some HRE wheels so we put these beautiful black faced chrome lipped 3 piece wheels on the car. customer loves these wheels and all is good so i think, well the guy doesn't show up for like 2 weeks and we had his stock wheels there, anyway Phil sells the ******* rims to someone else and before you know it the owner of the white vette is at the shop asking about his wheels i told the guy straight up Phil sold the wheels well he gets pissed and next thing you know theres a ******* screaming match between him and the guy anyway the guy leaves and Phil starts jumping my *** for something i had nothing to do with at that point i had pretty much had it with Phil so i told that mother ****** just where he could stick it and walked out never to return. i think he did end up going to prison for a while then went back to France. Good ******* riddance.

strokerblackhawk

iTrader: (4)

And FWIW steven and josh (the owners of LMR) used to work at HPE, they were the ones i dealt with originally when i got my 383 installed. i was very pleased with the work they did so i went back but neither one of them worked there anymore and the shop looked like a hole in the wall that was much smaller than their original shop. then i found out steven and josh opened their own shop so i took my car to them for some more work and i can tell you LMR has never steered me wrong in fact LMR is pretty much the only shop ill let touch my hot rod. i've been trusting them with my car since 05 when i got it and they have exceeded my expectations every time i've taken it to them, also the quality of work they do is awesome.

From what ive seen when Steven and Josh left HPE it pretty much went down the toilet.

Zman420

iTrader: (18)

If i was to purposly wanted to **** someones car up without having any part in doing so... i would recommend them to go to HPE to get a cam swap done... then trailer it to ARD to let owen tune it.. THEN trailer it to houston raceway park and have em pump some vp110 fuel into her.. Then push it up to the light and make about 60 ft worth of a glory pass...

03Sssnake

iTrader: (20)

lol

ebk06

iTrader: (5)

Kind of off topic but what I dont get is how so many bad tuners stay in business so long. Over the last 3 weeks I've heard of at least 2 tuners that have frequently blown motors on high end sports cars (one of which was one of the few certified Viper tuners years ago and got fired from the dealership he tuned at for blowing up so many cars) then gotten their names smeared all over the internet. Then went and changed shop names and gotten more customers even though they knew it was the same shitty guy doing the "tuning". People simply amaze me.

kornfreak_401

iTrader: (77)

wooooooow strockerblackhawk... ******* wow. and that was the stuff u saw, imagine all the stuff u didnt see! i'm just straight up in amazement.

J

ysb02

There's a guy on cf.com that got jacked recently at HPE.

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c5-z...l-and-etc.html

minytrker

iTrader: (13)

Just read Chuck's post on the HP Tuners forum......

winters97gt

I qouted that thread earlier