My Hellion kit and dyno experience, please read.

[Gene]

Well, after driving the car for a couple of months with the Hellion kit, I have come to these conclusions.

Positives: The car is a freaking beast. I love the turbo kit and will never look back. I do not regret the conversion at all. My car gets more attention now than it ever did. It has more horse power on tap than I know what to do with and I get 24 MPG. The MM front suspension is amazing. It handles better than any corvette or exotic that I’ve ever been in. What can I say, its just down right nasty. Now this was driving the car daily for several weeks on 15 psi of boost. I never really took it to kill mode (20 + psi) in 4th gear on any roads since that’s just retarded. I did take it to 24psi the other week on the 17 and almost shit my pants. But, I noticed that my A/F was a little too lean on that much boost.

Negatives: There are not too many. The only issue I really have is with the car stalling on me sometimes due to blow-off valve backwash. This is annoying especially if you are coming to a stop and lose power brakes. It happens every time I drive it and my tuner Jon Lund has tried everything he can do with no solution.

This brings me to my original reason for posting. I thought it must be my WBC sensor since I did run straight 110 Sunoco leaded race fuel at FFW. I noticed my tune was lean on the last run of the day when I had my car turned up to 17psi. Previous runs were 10psi and 13psi (which were not lean, but on the edge of 11.9) I haven’t voiced my concern yet since I thought it was for sure my WBC sensor that I burnt up. Well, I got a new sensor and experienced the same results. So I called Dan and asked him if I can make a reference pull to see what’s going on. Sure enough, my car was going lean on the big end. This pull was made on the stock waste gate (10psi) and made 490RWHP and 535RWTQ at 4500 RPM where Devin shut it off. Not too bad since my car only made a max of 7psi according to my Blitz (logs highest boost made during a run). He shut it off since the car was detonating (I saw proof) and was going lean at the same time.

Conclusion: All this talk about mail order tunes being superior is fine to a certain point. I was an advocate of mail order tunes since the beginning with RWTD. I never had my KB setup on a dyno when I had the LT headers, lower, and all the mods that made it the beast it was. I was just going off the wideband. This was the first time I had the Hellion setup on the Dyno and I’m glad I did. It probably saved my engine. Bottom line, mail order tunes might be fine to get you to a dyno. If it checks out ok on the A/F side and its not detonating, you've probably got your self a winner. Mine on the other hand with the fuel mods it has and the power it makes needs more attention to detail. So take it from me, the previous mail order tune advocate. Get your car over to a dyno and see what it is doing. My car was puffing smoke and detonating when it wasn’t supposed to and I saw it in person. Dan was right; I never could see this in the driver’s seat. Thanks again to Devin, Ernie, and Dan for taking time on a Saturday to show me that I wasn't going crazy.

Now I do have a winner.

[50 BMG]

I was pulling in with the silver Toyota today as you were leaving, sorry I missed ya.

Myself and the rest of us down here @ PSR appreciate your above post/honesty. Look forward to seeing you next week...

[BurnTire]

Turbo is a whole different animal for tuning.

[AZSonicSnake]

glad to hear it got fixed. those guys certainly do kick some ass.

[blacksunshine]

Mail order tunes are ok for some, some people get lucky and then some people don't. If you spend the money on putting all the best parts on the car, the last thing you want to do is melt them away with detonation...

The guys over at PSR are the BEST in town, before I met Dan, NO ONE would EVER touch my car except me(I have control issues), but one day my Welder was on the Fritz and Dan said that he would help me out, I needed to get some sub frames Welded in quickly, and he dropped everything to help me out, this was before he even thought of going into business for himself, I knew at that moment that he IS a standup guy. I have seen his employees dedication to setting up a tune, so that it is perfect...and let me tell you, sometimes it takes hours on end. So how can someone Hundreds of Miles away know what is best for a car, when they don't know Exactly how the car responds to every calculated factor.

[evil04cobra]

Glad to hear you got it looked at Gene. As Jeff said, when it comes to tuning, turbos are an animal all their own. I am not familiar with the mods done to your car, but I am certain that any reputable tuner can get the car in the shape it needs to be. I am curious about one thing, though. You said you saw proof of detonation, and I am just wondering what you saw.

Regards,

Parker

[Gene]

puffing out back and we pulled the plugs to analyze.

[BurnTire]

So how can someone Hundreds of Miles away know what is best for a car, when they don't know Exactly how the car responds to every calculated factor.

They Don't
That is the key to a conservative base tune.
That is why they need you to datalog on a road or dyno pull and send them the results.

I can tell you 1 thing my car and u1arunits are very similar in mods.
We both tune with the SCT's pro racers package with a base tune from RWTD.
When you compare our personal tunes they are very similar.

u1arunit had his car on the dyno a few times and the tuner wanted to know who tuned his car because the tune was perfect and making great power.
Then he answer oh I tuned it myself with a RWTD base.


I will more than gladly stop by Dans for a Dyno pull to see how good or bad my tune is. Then we can post the results here and put this subject to rest.

Yes if you don't know what the hell you are doing, by all means take your car to PSR and get a dyno tune.

For all the changes and multiple tunes I need going to a dyno is not for me.

It is more than about a fast car to me.
It is the satisfaction of doing the work myself and seeing the results.

Quite frankly I am getting tired of this email vs. dyno tune debate.

[u1arunit]

Very well said Jeff and all true.

[Dan]

Quite frankly I am getting tired of this email vs. dyno tune debate.

Im quite frankly getting tired of the PA mentality on this board . I think that all of us here in Phoenix have forgotten that we are all stupid and all the PA guys are god i guess .. ...... Im not the only one that feels this way. it is getting old. People offer advise and help and the PA guys change the subject to something it isnt. this has turned in to a tuner Debate and it went from me offering some dyno time free of charge. To your Boy friend Wold pack saying I am talking shit about John Lund hell I have no clue who that even is. so with that being said Im done and Mikey Ill be seeing you and your little yellow cobra in PA have a good day all