Tunes

I'm not sure where to put this post. Moderator please move it to wherever is most appropriate.

Is anyone in Western Montana doing open road tunes on WRX/STi? I've got all the equipment necessary, with the exception of a laptop with ECU Flash and RomRaider installed. I lost my lap top, which was actually not my lap top, to our daughter who, just because it was her lap top, took it back to school with her. She claims she needs it for presentations and papers. Personally, I think that tuning my car is more important. I don't know what's wrong with students these days.

I have a Tactrix 2.0, and an Innovate Motor Sports LM-1 wideband (which is portable and can be used on multiple cars). I also have two extra bungs for the wideband sensor, in case someone needs to have one put on their downpipe.

I understand doing a tune from technical point of view, but do not do the tunes myself. Tuning is as much an art form as it is a science. I send my logs to a Tune Guru in Tacoma who has tuned hundreds of similar cars, and who tunes professionally for professional rally racers.

So if anyone wants to hook up to pull logs, my equipment and your laptop, please let me know. I'm anxious to finish the tune on mine (which is a WRX with an EJ257/EJ20 hybrid).

i know a guy named alex but it's out in billings mt

Where are you located exactly?

Depending on how far away you are, you could try and make one of the Billings meets and we could figure it out there. I have been tuning Subarus for about 6 years now and I would be more than willing to help if you need it.

Really appreciate the offer. I know some of you guys in Billings do a good job with tunes, but I've been working with a guy in Tacoma (NW Tuning Technologies) for quite awhile. I live north of Missoula, between Evaro and Arlee, which means that it's sort of a wash which is closer, Billings or Tacoma. Spokane is about the same distance as Bozeman.

I don't need help with the tune itself; I just need a laptop to do the logs, and then download the new Flash. I thought there might be a group of people in Western Montana who wanted to log their cars, and we could get together and do a group in an afternoon. They could then send their logs to whoever they trust to help with the tune. There are very few cars in Montana that are built like mine, but there are literally hundreds on the Coast, from Portland to Vancouver, that have similar builds. Dom at Maxwell Power did the first tune on it. All of which means that there is a lot of tuning talent around on the Coast if the tune develops a glitch.

Tuning, I've discovered, is sort of like building a house. You can give the same materials to any number of different carpenters, and they can use exactly the same blueprints, but the difference between the best-built house and the worst will be huge. I am capable of doing a tune myself, but freely admit that my ability is akin to the ability of those carpenters who end up with the worst-built houses. One of the things that makes the tune on my car so sticky is that I'm trying to keep the engine at maximum efficiency but at the lowest power setting possible. The car is a road car, a daily driver, not a car meant for the quarter mile. If tuned for max performance, and with methanol added, it is probably capable of something north of 600 hp. I'm trying to keep it between 300-350 whp/310-330 wtrq. It's not easy.

Well if you are ever in the Billings area and need a hand let me know.

Thanks, man. I hope to make it over that way for the Redlodge run.. I wrote a reply to your tune problems (lean condition at start of run), but I think the site dropped it for some reason.