BDC tuning session Seattle/Tacoma area
okay bringn this thread back to.life... who needs to.get.there car tuned? my fc is Ready.and currently running like *** but she runs.. I knw Aaron cud use new tune with his new engine and possibly ryan too. come on who else?
Full Member
Joined: May 2007
Posts: 140
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From: boise, id
I'm just curious. I've done a trip to Seattle and have my FD tuned by Steve Kan.
Before he tuned my car I had a good conversation with him regarding how many rotaries he had tuned and what his tune vs "not so tuned" ratio was. When I say not so tuned, I mean the engine took a misfortune on the dyno. His ratio and explanations sounded fair and my tune has so far worked for me.
With all due respect, what's BDC's tune "ratio"?
Before he tuned my car I had a good conversation with him regarding how many rotaries he had tuned and what his tune vs "not so tuned" ratio was. When I say not so tuned, I mean the engine took a misfortune on the dyno. His ratio and explanations sounded fair and my tune has so far worked for me.
With all due respect, what's BDC's tune "ratio"?
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 2,897
Likes: 2
From: Renton/Bellevue/Seattle WA
I'm just curious. I've done a trip to Seattle and have my FD tuned by Steve Kan.
Before he tuned my car I had a good conversation with him regarding how many rotaries he had tuned and what his tune vs "not so tuned" ratio was. When I say not so tuned, I mean the engine took a misfortune on the dyno. His ratio and explanations sounded fair and my tune has so far worked for me.
With all due respect, what's BDC's tune "ratio"?
Before he tuned my car I had a good conversation with him regarding how many rotaries he had tuned and what his tune vs "not so tuned" ratio was. When I say not so tuned, I mean the engine took a misfortune on the dyno. His ratio and explanations sounded fair and my tune has so far worked for me.
With all due respect, what's BDC's tune "ratio"?
With all due respect, please tell us what are Steve Kan's tune "ratio and explanations"? I forgot to ask him when my 20b blew up on the dyno.
BDC Motorsports
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 3,667
Likes: 6
From: Grand Prairie, TX
I'm just curious. I've done a trip to Seattle and have my FD tuned by Steve Kan.
Before he tuned my car I had a good conversation with him regarding how many rotaries he had tuned and what his tune vs "not so tuned" ratio was. When I say not so tuned, I mean the engine took a misfortune on the dyno. His ratio and explanations sounded fair and my tune has so far worked for me.
With all due respect, what's BDC's tune "ratio"?
Before he tuned my car I had a good conversation with him regarding how many rotaries he had tuned and what his tune vs "not so tuned" ratio was. When I say not so tuned, I mean the engine took a misfortune on the dyno. His ratio and explanations sounded fair and my tune has so far worked for me.
With all due respect, what's BDC's tune "ratio"?
The reason why I don't have a big truckload of failed engines under my belt isn't because I'm a perfect tuner or or know every single little last inch there is to know about this art but because I take my time and am very meticulous. This stuff is expensive; I know because I own three and spend money on them just like anyone else. It scares me to think I would be handing my car, that I've spent tons of time and thousands of dollars in parts and labor over to some guy I've just met (in most cases), to then pay him to run my car hard and put it at risk. It's quite a thing to ask of someone. So, on this side of things, being the guy who provides this service, I do my best to respect that by doing as good of a job up front at finding potential problems that will hopefully prevent said failures. It is so common to have a problematic setup, in fact, that about 9 times out of 10 I have to fix something or have something changed. I walk into tuning a car with the attitude of cynicism and pessimism as that approach, hoping for the best yet expecting the worst, is what pushes me to try and find stuff up front. In some cases I don't even do the car because there might be a showstopper that prevents me from either starting it or completing it. The idea is to keep the thing running. Some people have claimed I'm incompetent because of it (and I attribute it to disappointment) but they walked away still with an intact motor and a car that still drives. So, for me, it's about the bigger picture and respecting the customer who's spent a ton on his car and is willingly choosing me to hand me his car.
That's my answer. I can't give you a ratio of good vs bad per se; just what I know.
Hope that helps,
B
Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 550
Likes: 3
From: Predominantly educated metropolitan area
I started tuning others' cars in 2002. I was doing my own here and there previously in early 2000 with help from HITman. In that time, from what I can recall, I've had two blow up on the dyno (one from too hot a lead plug and one of unknown reasons - both of those where you're from) and one blow up while road tuning due to a hot plug. The last time that happened was in 2005 or 2006, I can't recall exactly when. It was a while ago. I know of one other that died on a road course event and another about 5 years ago as well. Otherwise, I don't know of or just can't recall any others. Most all of the time these things fail due to something on the outside or in the construction of the setup. A lot of folks don't like to hear it but it's the truth. Even shops screw things up from time to time and me, the tuner guy, has to make all of this hardware mesh together so it can perform the best the hardware setup allows.
The reason why I don't have a big truckload of failed engines under my belt isn't because I'm a perfect tuner or or know every single little last inch there is to know about this art but because I take my time and am very meticulous. This stuff is expensive; I know because I own three and spend money on them just like anyone else. It scares me to think I would be handing my car, that I've spent tons of time and thousands of dollars in parts and labor over to some guy I've just met (in most cases), to then pay him to run my car hard and put it at risk. It's quite a thing to ask of someone. So, on this side of things, being the guy who provides this service, I do my best to respect that by doing as good of a job up front at finding potential problems that will hopefully prevent said failures. It is so common to have a problematic setup, in fact, that about 9 times out of 10 I have to fix something or have something changed. I walk into tuning a car with the attitude of cynicism and pessimism as that approach, hoping for the best yet expecting the worst, is what pushes me to try and find stuff up front. In some cases I don't even do the car because there might be a showstopper that prevents me from either starting it or completing it. The idea is to keep the thing running. Some people have claimed I'm incompetent because of it (and I attribute it to disappointment) but they walked away still with an intact motor and a car that still drives. So, for me, it's about the bigger picture and respecting the customer who's spent a ton on his car and is willingly choosing me to hand me his car.
That's my answer. I can't give you a ratio of good vs bad per se; just what I know.
Hope that helps,
B
The reason why I don't have a big truckload of failed engines under my belt isn't because I'm a perfect tuner or or know every single little last inch there is to know about this art but because I take my time and am very meticulous. This stuff is expensive; I know because I own three and spend money on them just like anyone else. It scares me to think I would be handing my car, that I've spent tons of time and thousands of dollars in parts and labor over to some guy I've just met (in most cases), to then pay him to run my car hard and put it at risk. It's quite a thing to ask of someone. So, on this side of things, being the guy who provides this service, I do my best to respect that by doing as good of a job up front at finding potential problems that will hopefully prevent said failures. It is so common to have a problematic setup, in fact, that about 9 times out of 10 I have to fix something or have something changed. I walk into tuning a car with the attitude of cynicism and pessimism as that approach, hoping for the best yet expecting the worst, is what pushes me to try and find stuff up front. In some cases I don't even do the car because there might be a showstopper that prevents me from either starting it or completing it. The idea is to keep the thing running. Some people have claimed I'm incompetent because of it (and I attribute it to disappointment) but they walked away still with an intact motor and a car that still drives. So, for me, it's about the bigger picture and respecting the customer who's spent a ton on his car and is willingly choosing me to hand me his car.
That's my answer. I can't give you a ratio of good vs bad per se; just what I know.
Hope that helps,
B
--Hank
Steve tuned my car in Iowa. (I used to live in Illinois.) I had such a great experience, I tipped him $50... I'm sorry to hear about your 20B. I cannot even imagine how that felt. Do you have more information about that whole situation??
there's a lot of things that can go wrong on the dyno, and if the tuner knows what they're doing, most of the time they are not at fault. this is why most have you sign a waiver. if you bring a car with old plugs, bad gas, blown gaskets, etc, you cant get mad at the tuner for getting 20 minutes into the session before it blows up, and then charging you for their time - its not his fault you brought him a piece of ****.
every car i've seen blow up on the dyno has been due to mechanical failure - 2 rotaries built wrong, a race engine revved to 10k that had rod bolts stretch, a shitbox civic blowing blue smoke at idle blow ringlands first run into it, and i've seen a few cheap/ebay fuel pressure regulators and stock fuel pumps fail. you can't blame any of that on the tuner.
every car i've seen blow up on the dyno has been due to mechanical failure - 2 rotaries built wrong, a race engine revved to 10k that had rod bolts stretch, a shitbox civic blowing blue smoke at idle blow ringlands first run into it, and i've seen a few cheap/ebay fuel pressure regulators and stock fuel pumps fail. you can't blame any of that on the tuner.