I should be getting mine back from them in a few days. The charged $150, w/a turnaround of 2 days. A couple of things that strike me as weird: (1) They won't let me talk to their tuner, period. (2) I'm being told to dyno the car as soon as possible and make 'small' changes to ensure it runs correctly. Basically, it's not 'ok' to run the car as is. (3) The guy I talked to on the phone told me that the tuner had one message to pass on to me: On my apex'i dual chamber BOV, unplug the vacuum hose that travels from the top left side to the bottom left side of the bov (hose is in a horseshoe shape) and leave the hose hanging from the top nipple while capping the bottom nipple.

Does anyone have any input on how their car ran w/XS tuning? Hopefully I'm overreacting, but the above points seem kind of odd....

 

Ok and then after you do all that I want you to cross 2 fingers on each hand whenever you drive it.. But seriously all of that does seem kind of strange, and I don't see what letting that hose on the B.O.V. dangle is going to do for you, or what the B.O.V. should have to do with anything

 

Hey Goodfellas - ask XS about the timing of the PFC up in the higher rpms - I know they have access to all the parameters instead of only half with the commander but I just got my timing tuned out today and know of a few engines that have blown with the PFCs with timing too high. Apexi adds more timing up in the higher rpms for more of a stock car with 1 or 2 mods to flatten out the torque curve since it drops off up high. Dave showed me that my timing was 61 at 6500 rpms where for my mods it should be around 40. I know some of the XS and SR PFCs have been blowing up on his dyno from these timing maps.

 

I had my car dyno tuned at XS. My impression was that they know what they are doing. But they are kind of wierd... and very tight lipped about everything they do. They are telling you to dyno your car because every car is different even ones with similar mods and they don't want to be blamed for blowing your engine. The blow off valve procedure will keep the valve from leaking under high boost conditions.

 

XS Engineering is the Apex'i Master Distributor. There is no place in the US who knows the PFC better than them. XS helped with the RnD on the US model PFC to begin with.


Machinehead is right. Every FD is differnet. I have seen cars that have the same set up need completly different amounts of fuel. DAMN FD! No FD are alike that's why dyno tuning is sooooo important. Also XS does not know the condition of your motor and we all know how tempermental rotaries are.

 

I would dyno tune instead of sending the ECU out...with a dyno tune, running on the dyno takes out a lot of guesswork. Your injectors might not be working at full efficiency, boost creep, bad fuel filter, fouled plugs, lower compression engine...all these things can't really be taken into account if your car isnt there.

About the tuners not being able to speak to you... i think it's because of a language/communication barrier...

 

Where's the nearest place on the east coast to get it dyno tuned? Seems like you want the person with the dyno to also know the PFC, and CO (XS) and CA (SR) are pretty long drive from NC!

Sorry if this is a dumb question.....

 

Hey Barry,

wow, that isn't good news. I'm assuming they're retarding my timing; I'll have to check via the monitor function. I'm pretty sure if I call them and ask about specifics re: timing, I'll probably get a bullshit answer.

This is all very frustrating; I'm thinking of deep-sixing the power fc...

Rich

 

What all mods do you have??? I would hold off on the dyno tuning, get a datalogit then hit the dyno. That way you can see all the parameters and know exactly what your doing.

Later,
STEPHEN

 

Apex has a few Power Excel tuners and i believe that there are two in the east coast. Contact Apex'i USA to find out the closest tuner near you.

 

I dont know if this is bad or not...but I did see a tuner from XS blow out his motor at the track...supposedly his fourth. His rx ran like crap...pop pop pop...loudest backfires I ever heard...then byby went the motor...he had a full single turbo setup..roll bars...you name it....and his best run was a 13.1

unfortunately they are the only ones doing it...so off I go in another thirty days to do my dyno tuning and will hope for the best.

jason

 

Hey stephen,

my mods are in my sig I'm planning on dynoing w/spyfish in TN in the near future. I'm in Augusta for the next 2 months...do you know of anyone in the area with a datalogit?

 

Well from what I understand XS is the only company with the ability to change the base maps in the power fc. I found this out after buying a "tuned" power fc from SR I am scared to even run my car hard now because the o2 reading is low and the knock sensor jumps around like crazy, I have had a knock reading of around 120. that worried me so my car is sitting until my datalogit gets here ( hopefully in the next week or so) I bought a wide band and will head to the dyno. Hope fully not blowing my engine in the process of tuning my computer which I supposidly already paid to have done. If you can't tell I am a little upset with SR. I bought a power fc then sent it back 2weeks later to have it retuned for larger injectors wich I bought from them and it took them almost 3 weeks to get everything back to me. Oh well that was the last time I will let them bend me over. Sorry there was no point to this I was just venting some.

Nick

 

Yea that was Pete from XS who popped his car. He had some crazy ignition problem that day. Pete is actually on his 6th motor. When you're going for every single bit of HP motors do pop.

Every car that they tune for street is done for the street. They tune it for reliable performance. Well it's an FD so how reliable is that but you know what I mean.

 

Dave at KDR said he is getting the software to do programming on the PFC in 2 weeks. It tok him 2 hours just to go through all my parameters to tune out the high timing maps on the commander - I think he paid $250 for the software from Australia where Apexi wanted $18,000 for him to be a tuner I've bad stories from already tuned PFCs blowing on the dyno because of timing issues - the PFC is a great computer - but make sure you have somebody who really knows what they are doing and have it tuned ON A DYNO - not sent out.

 

Are you sure your not talking about the AEM?

XS and SR are the only power excel dealers....

 

If dave is getting the power fc software that will be the best news i have heard about the pfc in general in a long time. Does anyone know more about this?
I would have to agree that It makes more sense to have the car put on a dyno and then tuned. There are just way too many variables to have the thing mapped 2000 miles away from the car..Goodfellas and others do u choose to have it mapped this way cause you u live far from a dyno? I think its insanity to send it to XS. But i guess we dont have too many options.

mp

 

For $250 from Australia, it sounds like Dave is getting the datalogit...

-Matt
'93 Touring

 

good point

 

Well...I talked to Dave a couple of days ago...He said it wouldnt be a bad idea to send my PFC to XS for a base tune. Then in march Ill dyno tune it at KD....

He didnt say anything about getting any kind of software....But if its in 2 weeks, Hes probably getting the datalogic....

 

I got cornfused about KDR getting that software - he's going to school in 2 weeks to train for the AEM computer software which I think is $18,000 - something like that. I would wait though on the AEM to get all the bugs out - might take a while and a few engines I think Dave at KDR has tried to get the software from Apexi for the PFC but XS and SR are the only ones now that can have it. He'll have the software for the AEM sooner or later though. Maybe it's time to trade.

 

I think the whole PFC software thing is a big pile of crap. Forcing your buyer to pay someone else to prep it on top of the price of the unit and on top of a the price of dyno use is plain crap, period. Let people blow their own engines if they want to.

 

GETTING THE DAtalogit makes sense though ~$250.

Yeah i must say i am pissed i bought this pfc due to the LACK of support after the purchase. At the time though the pfcl ooked like a great choice. AEM and other new ecus will force apexi to change or they are gonna loose alot of market share.

 

As soon as he gets an AEM ECU he will have the software for it. The software that comes with the AEM allows access to everything. I am kind of surprised that they are charging him $18K for a training session. Seems like a lot, but those seminars get expensive quick.

As far as XS tuning a PFC...check this thread out. Why would they screw up so bad? They programmed SPOautos' PFC with negative split and changed the nonseq/seq setting. I am definitely not sending my PFC there.

https://www.rx7club.com/forum/showth...threadid=51562