Help Jimbo - not urgent but it would be appriciated

[Jimbo2000]

ok long question with lots of points

as some of you will know i took my car out to a new mechanic for my next round of mods, not a lot.. cam gear,z32afm,catchcan,powerfc retune and e-boost retune.

now the problem is when i spoke to him he said it would all be sweet but the morning i dropped it off to him he told me he'd never tuned with a PFC before and had had VERY limited knowledge with the e-boost, also didnt have a clue why i would want to change the AFM as its the same size. :Oops: told him it wasnt about the size but the voltage and tuning resolution with the PFC, looked on here and got a little info for him.

anyway he said he'll give it a bash and after installing and tuning the cam gear (ended up at 5degrees retarded) we managed to pull another 6.5rwkw. not a brilliant gain but at least its something.

next up will be the afm, as i said i got him a little info like what to wire to what etc

and was wondering if anyone could shed some light on exactly what he should be doing

also does anyone have instructions for tuning the PFC in english?

then he could do a bit of study before jumping in and that would make me feel a lot better.

he seems like a competent bloke, bathurst, rally wrx's and so on a specialty, he just has never seen a pfc nor have any of his colleagues hes been chating to recently.

Thankyou

(stressed) Jimbo

[Bl4cK32]

take it elsewhere....

[paulr33]

agreed

[Jimbo2000]

works already started fellas, i'd like to keep it there, taking it back is a last resort.

keep the replies coming guys

thanks

[Guest INASNT]

didnt u check wether the guy knew wtf he was doing before u gave him your car?

Also its pointless reading the pfc manual and then trying to tune it, it all comes down to experience.

[Blitz]

Tune will make or break a car Jimbo.

Having someone who freely admits that they have no Power FC tuning experience is asking for trouble in a big way.

I can think of several cars that have taken the cheaper or easier approach to tuning and ended up with an engine rebuild.

Take it to a reputable tuner.

[rb25]

Take it somewhere else.....

[neil_se]

Yeah, take it to someone experienced. If you don't want to offend him make up some crap like "I've just come into money problems, thanks for doing the camgear i think i need to save some more before i get the PFC and eboost done"...

[paulr33]

as inasnt said, take if somewhere where they know how to tune it. if he does the af ratio's wrong or something like that your engine could be costly to repair

[Jimbo2000]

so the general consensus is to take it back off this fella and that is a serious thought in my mind now

before i do that let me just check you understand and please reaffirm yourselves if you did.

he IS a good tuner with others (eg microtech and so on) and would understand the problems and air fuel ratios etc, just checking the pfc is that much diffeent to al those other ones that would make it that much more complicated.

thankyou

[0HR-30T]

I got my old car (had an EMS ecu) tuned at a place that hadn't had much to do with EMS systems before,but the guy was a decent tuner.The end result was a 'decent' level of tune,but a bit costly,due to him not being familiar on how to navagate through the EMS system with the handpiece,so more time on dyno,so more $$$.....

[sewid]

That's what I would be worried about. What it amounts to is paying extra for incompetency. Just because some tuner doesnt know how to tune a very common ECU, why pay extra for him to learn?

I would take the car and drive very fast in the opposite direction as soon as you can before it costs you.

[NFAA32]

well there is a couple of positives in this.. atleast he a) has told you that he hasnt done PFC's before, he could have been silent and kept the car learnin, then charge you an arm and a leg. B) you obviously have some faith in him as a tuner to keep your car there and he would seem competent in installing cam gears ...

anyway what i would suggest, is if you dont want to take the car back straight away, and you seem like your on good terms with him, maybe ask him, if he can charge half price or something as of your buisness, he is learning a new skill which can help his buisness in the future...

i know when itook my car for an alarm install at local autobarn, he said he will only charge for normal hrs for installation for similar car, as he has never done a skyline before, (he did say bitch of a job) but he now knows how to do them (dropped car of at 8, picked up at 4)

[R31Nismoid]

Wether he is good with a Microtech or whatever is similar, but by no means the same.

It's totally different, and not understanding the AFM thing... well that to me says take the car elsewhere right away.

As Blitz said. A tune makes or breaks a car. If it breaks... you'll be buying a new motor... not him.

[Jimbo2000]

thank you for all the helpful replies guys.

the car is now back in my hot little hands.

we parted on good terms and we arranged that somewhere down the track if he would like he can study the system and use mine to navigate around and learn in his own time, he would get some experience and i would get a free tune. weather i want him to go buggering with it after getting the tune doen where it is now booked in for in a few weeks is a different story

he was gonna charge me a lot when i rang him this morning to tell him i was taking it back (all the hours he was dynotuning the cam gear) i told him i was very unhappy with that and ended up only having to pay for an hours labour...but he detuned the hks cam gear back to where it the original was and since its a different gear its actually making less power than wen i took it in, but i can live with that till next time.

again thanks for the advice peeps

James

[predator]

Admitting he hasn't worked with it before i think was a decent sign. Most won't even tell you that until its too late or until you have learned the hard way.

Still, everybody has to learn somewhere, and if he is familiar with other EMS then I don't see him stuffing things up majorly. The only real reason you would take it there i guess is go "well, look, you're going to be learning off the whole thing, and it may may off more for you in future -- so i want much discounted rates". Paying a tuner to "learn" how to tune a system is asking for trouble.. and unfortunately it happens a lot out there. Reason why i think quite a few people do get ripped by performance workshops.