I finally had my rx-8 dyno'd and tuned... and man... it was a disaster!!

I made the appointment and they had me in their garage waiting for 4 hours until they finally strapped my car onto the dyno. Even after they put the car on the dyno, he was constantly doing other things and basically it took a total of 2 1/2 hours to do everything.

They (i won't mention who/where it is in public) charge $200 an hour and the tuner supposely "gave me a deal" since he only charged me $200 for the 2 1/2 hours it took him to do anything.

So the day was hot, 95 degrees and 85% humidity, and you can check out what modds i have on my car by looking at my signature... but my car dyno'd only 178 whp... which is ridiculous....

I wasn't so depressed with that number because after my modds, i'm keeping up with moddified (not turbo'd) 350's and evo's. There's a huge difference and i actually feel pushed into my seats when i gun it (says my butt dyno). So i kno i gained at LEAST a decent amount.

And as rotarygod posted before... dynos only tell so much.

Anyways.... so after he's done "tuning" he claims he made my powerband a lot more consistant and pulled out 5 more hp where now i'm at like 182-183 whp??

So i'm driving home... and when i'm in whatever gear i'm in, and i put it into neutral, my car stalls even while it's moving... so i either start it back up when i come to a stop or i just pop the clutch to get the car started again if it's dangerous to stop.

That was pretty annoying... but also, at 3200 rpm, my car jolted like no other... in every gear... even if i'm on the pedal 25% and i keep it there, when it hits 3200, my car just starts spazzing out.

So i get home, park in disbelief... (if some of you ask, "why not go back?" they were closing up and keep in mind i was there for 6 hours and i was eager to be out)

Next morning... i start my car and my rpm is jumping from 600 (almost about to stall) then jumps to 2000 rpm constantly... until the engine gets warm...

I realized it was too unsafe to drive when i was stopped on an uphill and when i put my car into 1st gear to go, my rpm drops to 600 and it takes my car a full second to catch (my car is rolling back for this second) and basically, i end up doing a small launch/peel out everytime on a hill... WACk!!

So i took the car back... (made another appointment) and ended up waiting another 4 hours and he just plugged it into his laptop and rev'd the crap out of my car and claims he saw nothing "wrong with it"

Took the guy on a test drive and he tells me it's cuz of my A/C... so i turn it off, and same thing happens (noob!)

He plays around with it so now... my car doesn't stall while it's moving... but now when my engine is cold, and i start my car, my car immediately stalls... so now i gotta keep my rpm at 2k for about 15-20 secs every time i start my car... WACK!!

So i called up the tuner again and now he's telling me i have to pay him another $200 to fix everything.

Screw that... so now i'm gonna head over to KDR in pennsylvania and get this done right.

The tuner also gave me a floppy with my dyno results on it but surprise~~ the data is corrupt and can't read... so i can't post those dyno results...

But for those of you out there who are going N/A performance, dont' let this scare you, my car has become so much faster. Now i pull MUCH harder on my friend witht he silver rx8 who has the same modds as me except the flywheel and interceptor x.

Thats where i'm at right now, i've contacted KDR and making an appointment... i shall post up results from KDR when everything goes down.

 

Was it a Rotary shop? The RB PCM Flash should give similar gains to what this guy is claiming...and best part it is from RACING BEAT

 

would it help if i got the RB PCM flash on my factory ecu AND also tune my interceptor? Or tuning my interceptor x alone is good enough

 

Ohh...oops didn't know you had the Int-X.... Awesome never mind about the RB PCM Flash.

 

Do you have before and after shots to post?

 

wow what a disaster story! hope all gets fixed soon

 

why not post the name of the shop? it'd be good for others to stay away from this guy.

 

If your car is an '04 you could just get the RB flash and lose the interceptor. That might be a bit more.. consistent/reliable.. maybe?

 

anyone in the NE area can just pm, and i'll tell them... i just not rather post it to the public cuz i do understand they need to eat and make a living... they're good with installations and repairs... just that i would never go back to them for dyno/tuning

 

So they **** your car up, then want you to pay an extra 200 bucks to fix their **** ups? Then you don't want to post the name of the place because you say they need to eat??!?!?!

This is why ******** get away with this kinda stuff.

 

what kind of dyno was it..??? if it was a mustang dyno... tahts the reason for the abnormally low amout of Whp..

 

Places like this just **** me off! It sounds like that guy has no understanding of different load levels or come to think of it probably has no idea how a car yet alone his own dyno works and you can tell him I said so! A dyno only shows a few percent of your total load/rpm range which means only full throttle. That is of course assuming he only did full throttle runs as most places foolishly do when it comes to tuning. Unfortunately many people think that a dyno is the be all end all when done at full throttle. If he used his dyno properly, he would have held the car at different rpm's and loads and made adjustments from there. I'm willing to bet he only did runs through the gears at full throttle which would explain why he can't find anything wrong. He can probably only find his head when he wipes. That place definitely sucks. Take it somewhere reputable. I don't see any issues with telling who it is. Save everyone else the bad experience and if the guy sees the thread and has a problem with it and wants to post here to defend himself, let him try. This would be too good to pass up.

On the plus side, your dyno doesn't sound that out of the ordinary. It's where it should be.

 

yeah, sounds like you have a "hiccup" at that rpm level regardless of load. This tuner obviously doesnt realize that you just might want to drive your car on the street. Even after you took him for a ride he wants to charge you to fix it? Thats whack.

 

bhwhahahahahaha!

 

lol yea, rotary god hit it on the spot.

he only did full throttle runs in 3rd gear.

when he sat in my car and tried to fix my problem w/out putting it on the dyno... he just kept full throttle rev'ing my car and said nothing is wrong.

anyways, i got my car done at Mother's in Lodi NJ... the only reason why i didn't want to say it to the public is cuz i kno 1 guy there who's madd cool. But yea... be careful guys if u plan on going there... I mean... they do have sexy rx7's (fds) there but thats about it... service is wack as hell.

the dyno used was "dyno jet"

i made an appointment with KDR for next tuesday so stay tuned!

 

wait.. with the list of mods he has.. he only dynoed 178.. and thats.. "inline"?? dont most dyno.. 180?

 

Unplug one of the battery cables for 10 minutes. Hold brake down for 10 seconds. Hook the battery cable up. Do the reset "test", twice on the odometer. Do the brake pedal reset. Start the car. Turn wheels all left and all right. Let the temp needle hit the middle before you move or speed up the engine. Drive it easy for 20 miles, in each gear. Try to cover all RPM ranges, under light load. It will not stop until you do so. Do you drive your car easy normaly? If so that dyno run really changed your maps. Did they disable your DSC? Thats why I am getting the InterX. From what I understand the stock ECU buffers 7 crank cycles. On the dyno the car should warm up to idle first. The InterX is able to hold the settings the way you want. You may want to drive it hard on the way to the dyno. I am about to get one, just because I have seen how much the ECU can help and hurt. It's just crazy that Mazda would not have one of those switches like use to have in my MX-6, Milinea s, and 929. Power and Normal.

 

Since most mods don't do much in the way of power, don't let that be any judge. It was probably good for a few horsepower. Also remember that it was very hot and humid. I know people will say that correction factors cancel this out but this isn't entirely true. It helps but it doesn't completely cancel it out as many think it does. He probably could have gotten another 10 hp or so any other time but realistically 10 hp isn't going to do a thing for speed difference.

 

I will stay away from Mother's in Lodi (ask RX8for Real) maybe you should try acosta they are on Midland ave in Saddle Brook

 

i've heard some shakey reviews about acosta as well.. i'll make the drive to KDR in penn... we'll see

 

Have you had any trouble with your Nology Hotwires?

Car has to sound mad with the AEM intake, RP midpipe and the Greddy SP2

 

but the mid range gains will have been really well though?

 

no problems wut so ever with the nology hotwires but at the same time, i donno how much good it's really doing. i figure... more spark = better?

as for how my car sounds... my car isn't that loud. gets slightly raspy at 3800 rpm to about 4400 but as for how loud it is, very comfortable for a daily driver IMO.

when i had the b&b exhaust... i was setting off alarms of cars everytime i was within 50 ft of it lol. my friend heard my car coming from rt 46 from his house which is 2 miles away... generally it was ear bleeding loud and i got rid of it although i felt a power loss when i switched over to the sp2

you're right, most of my gains are midrange. when it nears 7500 rpm, it's not too far off from stock... but the car jolts at 3200 and starts really pulling. gotta fix the jolt tho... should be smooth if i'm not on full throttle.

 

I have just heard of some that the Nology wires caused plug melting that is why I asked.

Good to hear someone that hasn't had problems with them.

 

I've heard/read lots of not so good things about Nology also. Seem to be way more gimmick than anything else.


KDR is a good place to take the car. Dave really knows what he is doing. I used to take my RX-7s there when I lived in Philly.