Hey guys,

Had a long day today. Finally installed my electronic cut out, boost controller and map sensor. My tuner and I went to the dyno and put the boost controller(Its a manual one) to not add any boost.

He takes it hard on the dyno for the first run but notice that the boost up to see how much boost the car was hitting. Also after the first time, he set up the boost cut since he saw after the first run that it was set to 42. He sets it at 16 after. Then we take it the second time and notice it hits 16 psi. After that we figured that the boost controller was broken so I ended up instead of trying to boost to 12, just to keep it at 9 since im already here.

We then go another 8 times without any issues and in the end got 360hp at 10psi. At 9.5 I was getting 345 but that was on stock exhaust. They did tell me since I changed my wheels from the ssr type c which weighed 13 pounds to the ap2 v2 that it would drop my numbers. Also now have thicker rear tires. So numbers wise it seems to be ok.

My concern was after the dyno, my tuner recommended me to get a leak down test or a compression test in case since he didnt know how much boost it hit. I then was trying to check if this was something he was suppose to check since I dont want to get charged for this if he forgot to check this setting. He mentioned that he didnt figure changing out the map would change the boost cut. We have a little argument since he thinks im trying to get off not paying him for the retune but all i wanted was for him to do me the favor without charge and get these to test done since I feel, and correct me if im wrong, that he should have known or check this. Im paying an expert to tune my car for a reason.

So he left and I ended up not paying him. I called him after to explain my situation and he then understood what I wanted to get done for free. He said I can use their tools to do it but that they wouldnt do it for free.

Am I crazy in that he should have a better attitude towards me or is he right in that thats not his problem setting the boost cut. I know the main issue was the broken manual boost controller but I would imagine this would be a setting to check before you do a dyno pull since it can blow the engine.

I have a gt30 and we have no idea on how high it could have gone. I have a 8 or 9 pound spring for the wastegate. Should i be worried if on one run it hit 20psi or 25. What should I look for. The engine seem to run fine after but just wanted to check with you guys since im new to the turbo game.

Thanks

 

wow sounds like you need a new tuner. Not to scare you since it seems like your car made decent numbers all said and done but when my wastegate stayed shut when my vacuum line melted and the turbo spooled to the max psi running greddy emanage my motor was toast!

Any decent tuner would have heard it spool like crazy and would have backed off or at least not have gone all out first pull...

 

So in your case your tuner didn't set a max boost cut? Or the greddy emanage doesn't have that feature?

The car seemed to produce good numbers, I'm just scared if something did mess up since that would be my out of pocket expense for something which could have been prevented.. Hope for the best I guess. I'm done raising the boost after all these headaches.

 

In my case it was greddy Emanage didn't have a boost cut feature and I got trigger happy after I installed the kit when I should have been checking things out and easing into it. Nobody's fault but mine.

I would suggest two things. Offer to pay for the leak down but make it clear that you are only having this done since HE overboosted the car on the first pull. The only reason I would bring it to him would be if you planned to have him cover the damages.

Second I would start looking for a new tuner because you may have gotten lucky this time but that sort of mishap can completely grenade the motor. You don't want a person that makes these mistakes and doesn't own up to their actions tuning your car.

 

AFAIK, you get tuned at your own risk, and things can go wrong

they (tuners), don't have any liability to fix your car/pay for damages if they blow it up

 

I don't completely agree with the tuners not being responsible. If the engine blows from use or pushing it is one thing, but like in my case a safety feature wasnt set or let's say the red line, fuel cutout wasn't set and you over rev on the dyno, the tuner should be responsible..

On the first run, he Said adjust the timing and fuel, just not the cut out

 

So if he did that, not sure if that helped with the engine not blowing. He said it was tuned originally very cautious.

 

What should I check. Should I even worry since the engine seems to be fine?

 

i instantly became cautious when you said he did a WAO pull first thing. i would expect that a proper tuner should do a small pull to check that 1)what kind of boost you are currently pushing. 2)whether or not the AFR's are in a good range from the previous tune 3)to listen for any warning noises.... but it seems like he just slapped ur car on and went balls to the wall which seems like a bad sign to me. but i guess thats why i dont make my salary on a dyno... idk. i vote that you find a new tuner and make them known that you want them to be very cautious.

 

This car was tuned VERY meticulously before. The only things that have changed was a 4 bar map sensor and a cut out. I had already explained all the problems that could arise by making such modifications and how much tuning was going to be involved if he wanted the same exact outcome as before. He came by the shop before the dyno to install the map sensor and i made some modifications to the tune such as pulling timing and adding fuel right off the bat along with changing the settings for the new map sensor and having to rescale the load breakpoints and adjust fuel and timing rows accordingly. The boost controller is a cheap manual piece that was purchased in used condition from ebay and installed by him. He said it was turned all the way down and knowing from experience that a cutout isn't going to make a world of a difference on the tune on a 350whp car, I wanted to take advantage of the one hour time limit I was given on the dyno for WOT pulls as well as some partial throttle tuning.

As far as experience and background, I am an AEM certified tuner that works with much higher performing cars such as TD Autowerkes 1100+whp hatch, numerous 700+whp k series street cars, 700+whp KA 240sx's, 800whp evo, turbo G35's and 350z's, SR 240's etc, etc, etc. A 350whp S2000 is nothing out of this world and the only reason you even made anything out of that first pull was because once again, I made the error of trying to keep you informed waaaaaay too much about what's going on. I assessed the problem and there weren't any symptoms of a hurt motor but I suggested that it should be checked just for peace of mind. I wasn't trying to make money off of you which is why I didn't even suggest we do the check up. I just said that it should be done.

Our little quarrel was brought on because of your non-stop questioning before I was even half way through the tuning AND the fact that you were trying to pin this mishap on me first to get a free check up when all you had to do was ask me to borrow the tools.

What caused the overboost was your cheap boost controller purchase....

Anyhow, I see everyone on here is suggesting you find a new tuner and I know how important their opinions are to you so there will be no hard feelings if you do. I would actually prefer that you did.