Confused By Response Of Reputable Tuner

[DaveO74]

Hi People,

I may be treading on thin ice here but I will not name names so here goes!

I have been a member of these forums for quite a while now and although I dont post very often (I try not to talk too much about subjects I am not certain of)I read and learn on here most days, some of you guys may recognise me from a long time ago when I introduced myself but I digress.

I will give you a little background to my story. After much study on these forums I have over the last couple of years slowly modded my 33 GTST and almost all of my parts have come from traders on these forums. My engine management is an EMU as when I was in the market for a computer PFC's were VERY expensive and almost impossible to come by.

I contacted a tuner a couple of days ago that was very highly recommended from a lot of people here on SAUNSW and from what I have read in various topics really goes that extra mile to get the "right" tune for peoples needs so I was looking forward to getting what I "asked for" so to speak as my other tunes have been good but not perfect if that makes sense.

Anyway my E-mail to them was as follows:

"Hi,

My name is Dave and I have a 98 Series 2 GTST Skyline (RB25DET) and I was wondering if I could get your advice on some tuning of my E-Manage Ultimate

I have just had my standard Turbo Highflowed by Hypergear (ATR28 450hp Profile) and I am in the process of installing some Nismo 555cc Injectors and the obligatory Z32 AFM.

Do you guys have experience with this kind of engine management and if so would you be willing to tune my car for me?

I have had my 33 for many years and it was originally tuned by XXXX who sort of gave me the flick when I told them I was getting an EMU, then I went to XXXX(who installed it)and they have been very good but I don’t think they really have the time to put in a “full” tune such as cold starts, idle control etc with the amount of customers they have.

I suppose what I am after is a good solid drivable street tune so as to have as much response as possible and a good midrange.

I have heard very good reports about you from many of the SAU boys and they have indicated that you guys are the ones to go to for that thorough tune so can you recommend wether I should get a Basic tune as I have already had it tuned before or the Complete tune?

My modifications are as follows:

Hybrid FMIC

APEXi Super Suction Kit with pod

Custom Air box with CAI(Home Made)

Split Dump and Catco Race Cat

3.5” HKS Cat back Silent High Power exhaust

Exedy 5puk Clutch

Greddy Ex Cam Gear(not sure what its set at-XXXX Installed)

EMU

Hypergear HighFlow

Nismo 555Injectors and Walbro fuel pump

Z32 AFM

Could you also tell me what a rough price would be for both your tunes?

Sorry to give you so much to read I’m just trying to give you as much info as possible.

Many thanks for your time and I hope to hear from you soon.

Regards,

Dave"

So the response I got was:

"Hi Dave,

Thank you for your enquiry and considering us for your project.

Unfortunately, we are unable to offer any tuning on the EMU in your instance for technical reasons based on the modifications listed.

Best of luck and thanks again with your enquiry.

Regards,

XXXXX

XXXXXXXXXXXX"

I repied back to them:

"Thankyou for getting back to me.

I am sorry to hear you cannot tune my car as you personally come very highly recommended from a lot of the guys from SAU (Skylines Australia)

With all due respect may I ask what the problems are with my modifications as I don’t understand?

Do you do any EMU tuning or is that the problem.

As I have stated above I mean no disrespect I would just like to know what my “instance” is so as to avoid having an issue of not being able to get quality work done by a reputable tuner.

Regards,

Dave"

Now I am very confused because it seems as though no-one really wants to touch me and I am starting to really wonder what the problem is.

Do you guys have any thoughts??

As I have stated above I dont walk around acting like I know it all because I dont and I definately dont know the first thing about how to tune a car

Help me put my mind at ease

My 'line in case you are curious

(I wonder if any of you remember it?)

[fatz]

lol

power fc are cheap and easy to tune sell your bangger and buy one

[evil_weevil]

odd...sounds like you have common mods to similar people here. Is there more to it?

Did u get a responce?

[DaveO74]

Hey Chris

Nah no response as yet ,I have spoken to you a few times before and met you in person at a show and shine a while back PM me and Ill give you more info on who im talking about...You may be suprised

[eeiko321]

the E-manage is a Great product!

thats odd.....your in sydney...

you should mention whom you've tried, so others can learn also, By you warning others can help people.

anyhow, have you tried Croydon Racing Developments? i recall them wiring one of those piggybacks on an EVO.

if you want, why not give it a go yourself. it isnt that hard and could be a learning curve for you

theres forums online with instructions:

http://www.sr20forum.com/turbo-guides/1055...-harnesses.html

[DaveO74]

the E-manage is a Great product!

thats odd.....your in sydney...

you should mention whom you've tried, so others can learn also, By you warning others can help people.

anyhow, have you tried Croydon Racing Developments? i recall them wiring one of those piggybacks on an EVO.

if you want, why not give it a go yourself. it isnt that hard and could be a learning curve for you

theres forums online with instructions:

http://www.sr20forum.com/turbo-guides/1055...-harnesses.html

CRD Installed it but didnt give me the cd or instruction manual so i cant even change settings once my 555's and Z32 are in to limp it down there. Ive been given a copy of the program by a certain person but have to wait till i get to work in the mornig to grab my thumb drive and laptop to load it up.

My issue is I wanted to try this tuner as I have heard great reports and they are closer to my place (Dural)

[The Bogan]

Im in the same boat (lol) with my LINK G4 Plug-In ECU, not many people want to touch it, they seem to want to install and tune the ECU that they sell, I wanted a tune a while ago and wanted somewhere close to get it done, the only spot close i found was a shop that had to download the software when I went to the shop to ask about it, they said they should be able to do it, I havent had it tuned yet because it is only a issue when its cold on idle.

Its frustrating.

Mark

[N1GTR]

I bet i know who the tuner is that your referring to.

When was the last email sent? If its who i think it is, expect a response by this time tomorrow. If not, id be making a very polite phone call to him (you'll have to leave a message) just enquiring about the car and if he thinks something has to be changed in his expert opinion. Say you're open to suggestions about further mods to be made and parts to be changed but you just need a gentle push in the right direction

At this stage id be saying the ECU is the drama, but who knows. As fatz says other ECU's are quite cheap these days

[SECURITY]

give unigroup engineering in kirrawee a call - theyve done a fair few EMU's. there is a 'Motor Racing' place in rockdale to steer clear of though, they say they can tune but your power curve looks like ass and all you get are excuses.

the thing which is difficult with the EMU is that it works with the standard ECU so you've still got things like R&R, rev limit, afm clamping bla bla bla to have to deal with to get it to work properly. sure you can get 300kw+ from an EMU but if you hit something like your AFM clamp causing a flat spot then it takes someone who really knows them to solve the problem. URAS in melb and CRD are probably the only places in Aus i would have taken my EMU to.

[GoldZilla]

Unigroup Engineering are in Girraween (western Sydney, about 10mins past Parramatta and just off the Great Western Highway), by the way, not Kirrawee (southern Sydney, near Cronulla)...

http://www.unigroup.com.au/

[DaveO74]

I bet i know who the tuner is that your referring to.

When was the last email sent? If its who i think it is, expect a response by this time tomorrow. If not, id be making a very polite phone call to him (you'll have to leave a message) just enquiring about the car and if he thinks something has to be changed in his expert opinion. Say you're open to suggestions about further mods to be made and parts to be changed but you just need a gentle push in the right direction

At this stage id be saying the ECU is the drama, but who knows. As fatz says other ECU's are quite cheap these days

Sorry had to get some sleep, I may be heading into dangerous waters so send me a pm and we will see if it's the same fella

[evil_weevil]

Joe, did you mean autosport engineering or unigroup engineering?

pm sent Dave

[DaveO74]

Joe, did you mean autosport engineering or unigroup engineering?

pm sent Dave

Pm replied chris

[Kujotk]

hahahah ive narrowed it down to one who ive tried many times (in the hills area) to get them to see my car for various issues.... ive Never been taken seriously by them, they just want to do easy/big profit margin, or complete set ups.....

and there is another one alittle further west from the one i was talking about above and they are worse from my experience.....

my advice is take your car for a drive, dont settle for the hills shops or surrounding areas....

[DaveO74]

N1GTR-pm sent

Kujotk-It is not in the hills district but I know what you mean

[rtune]

all this hinting is ridiculous

imagine a forum devoted to broadband ISPs where you had to type "watch out! don't get it from the company whose name is reminiscent of a goldfish bowl, they don't deliver that speed. PM me for details"..

[SECURITY]

Joe, did you mean autosport engineering or unigroup engineering?

pm sent Dave

thats the one, autosport engineering! i couldnt be stuffed googl'ing

[DaveO74]

all this hinting is ridiculous

imagine a forum devoted to broadband ISPs where you had to type "watch out! don't get it from the company whose name is reminiscent of a goldfish bowl, they don't deliver that speed. PM me for details"..

Mate maybe you should read the forum rules. I have given as much info as I can without naming the tuner or the workshop. After all many of the guys here have had great experience with this bloke and I am not about to warn off guys who are thinking of useing him in the future or risking a ban from the mods.

This guy is known to be one of the best tuners around I'm just stating my experience so really WHO he is irrelavent

[NZM.031]

i know a few workshops up here that wont touch mere tuning alone... if they have done all the work, and know the quality of parts used and installation then no worries, happy days..

if you do the work, supply the parts etc... they dont want anything to do with purely tuning because they dont know whats gone into it, too many people blame the tuner when really, their incompetence and lack of knowledge is causing boost to escape through a dodgy hose joiner because they installed the intercooler in a hurry.. or they got dodgy injectors and didnt clean them before installing them.. etc... things like that.. then when something goes bang, or starts to breakdown... they blame the tuner and there is no proof of anything, so the customer is always right, and the tuner then has to fix any problems to stay out of court... even though it wasnt his fault.

[Beer Baron]

yep, that is often a problem. and it's a problem for the customer too.

if you build somewhere and tune somewhere else who do you blame when things go wrong? it's not always clear who is at fault. wherever possible get the one shop to mod and tune your car. much better results that way and a clear blame path!