tphan

Steve Kan is one cool dude definitely know his stuff...Alex and Gotham Racing staff rocks! Thanks all!

The tuning session saved my *** from a potential blown engine.
Lesson # 1: Don't assume things are ok when car running good... looking at the O2 sensor car was LEAN!!!! Look fine when DP got installed.

Lesson # 2: Be careful when buying used electronic like ECU. My PFC supposed to have the base map of DP, intakes, catback, and SMIC. Turn out the map was same as stock ECU. A quick “Install-N-Boost” would sure blow the motor.

Lesson # 3: Tuning is everything.

First road test/tune: 10 psi she was leaning out at 11.7, first thing came out of Steve “when was fuel filter changed?” It was 53K miles original.

Second road test/tune (filter changed): did 2 third gear 10 psi pulls AFR look good...so we bump boost to 13 psi, 2 more third gear pulls with AFR shown 11.1-11.3 which was good…however injector duty cycle was in the 90s so we lower boost & stop.

Over all car feel much stronger, responsive boosting pattern, transition between turbos were smooth. Radiator fans were also set to turn on much sooner than stock. Whole time temperature never rose past 180* (well yesterday was quite cool for DFW). AC work fine. Everything works.

Estimated wheel hp was somewhere in 260-280 range…stock base dyno was 212 last year. Will put on the dyno on the 20th...just curious.

Tuning session was well worth. Should have changed the fuel filter long time ago before the tune.

Working on a new budget for a new fuel pump, 1300cc injectors, rail, and ignition box that will have to wait until after the suspension get some attention…little soft at high speed as we found out yesterday.

GoodfellaFD3S

iTrader: (213)

Glad to hear you had an awesome experience . Steve and Alex are good friends of mine, you couldn't have been in better hands!

purerx7

iTrader: (61)

Thought 260whp with dp, cb, intake and smic was a little low, what type of smic are you running?

tphan

On way back to the shop I asked about whp...Steve suggest a 2nd gear pull... but traffic was kinda heavy so I waived.

Anyway SMIC was a Greddy unit.

Buzzardsluck

How long does a tuning session take? I was planning to drive up to Dallas from SA but I would like to get everything done on one day if possible.

BoOsTin FD

If there aren't any problems with the car, and you change fuel filter, air filter, spark plugs etc, it shouldn't take more then an hour.

tphan

I live in Rowlett/Garland area, 50 miles drive, arrived at 10:30 am...Steve installed the wideband and ECU. By 11:15 am we were on the road...back to shop around 12:15 pm. By the time we got to the fuel filter it was around 2:30 pm, took a 45 minute lunch and back onto the hwy. We were done around 4 pm. In between Steve was working on other car, we even took a drive in one of his RX7 (one scary 7).

In exception for the fuel filter...Steve said my car was most easiest to tune...:-) took that as a compliment.

rx705

iTrader: (2)

how did you found out the pfc had stock base maps??

GoodfellaFD3S

iTrader: (213)

steve uses the datalogit and examines the fuel, igt and igl (leading and trailing timing) pressure/rpm charts.

tphan

that is correct, same way the fans got adjusted to turn on sooner...among other things.

if the PFC was installed by me and go boosting afterward I would be looking for a new engine now.

tphan

As for hp I would hold it to 260-280 range...if car make minimum of 260 to the wheels than I pretty satisfy...like to see 280 tho...300 even better but maybe not with stock fuel pump and injectors.