Just had my PCM delivered from Ion. Plugged it up and the car started up instantly. No fuel smell, no cold start issues like before.

Still need to finish welding up my catback and change the oil, but so far she runs smoother than she did with the old tune (supposedly a dyno tune). Before if it was below 50, the car would have to idle for about 1-2 min before I could even think about touching the throttle or it would flood out and die. Also, idle would be so rich that I couldn't even start the car in the garage before the cloud of fuel would burn my eyes. Going to hook in my wideband and check it out. Last time I tested it with my LM-1, I was getting off the charts rich at idle and 11:1 WOT.

As soon as the weather gets nicer, I'll take it over to Speed Inc for some dyno numbers.

 

that's so helpfull im gonna go with madtuner too i just bought another pcm for my car and im gonna tune it as soon as i get back i will let you know guys

 

This tune is just to get me past Illinois emissions next month. Probably going with an OBD1 conversion after if I decide to keep the car and do a H/C/I rebuild next winter.

So far, seems to be pretty good. I've had great success with PCM4LESS as well, and still going to use them for my Z06 tune this month.

 

i used madtuner for my obd1 for state emissions and i also have obd1 convert what a big difference on a car that doesnt have many mods. any time i called madtuner direct ion has always answered the phone and always answered my questions very professional manner.

 

I had questions about my tune and he refused to answer the phone or return calls. I sent him a couple of emails, all of which he ignored over a couple week period. Finally when I sent him an email saying that I think he did a poor job on my tune, he replied with a smart *** comment not addressing the question, but shooting down the notion that it's possible the tune he did was not up to par.

I just thought he was very rude and isn't the kind of person I'd like to deal with. This was back in 07 though, and from the comments it looks like he is a bit more standup. I also see he has a much nicer more serious website now, whereas before it wasn't nearly as professional.

I sent him flow charts for the heads, my cam card, and I was running 30# ford injectors. The car wreaks of fuel and always has, and my MPG has been garbage. Now I understand with performance cars MPG isn't all that important and that tuners will typically go more rich to be on the safe side and not melt pistons, but a friend of mine with a pcmforless tune and a 306 with 30# injectors had much better results. His car doesn't stink like raw fuel and his MPG is just as good as mine and that's with a 4.10 gear.

I wouldn't use him again and with my experience I couldn't recommend him. When I put the stock computer back in it actually ran a lot better, but I was told that running 30# injectors on stock computer is a very bad idea, so I put the stock injectors back in and it ran even better still.

I have since put the injectors back in with the tune because as annoying as it is, he did set the rev limiter to 6800 and to make the most of my cam I need to go to 62-6300, as it seems it never runs out of breath but down low it isn't so tough.

Just my experience.

 

I took my car for a test run today, so far a big thumbs up. I only put about 10 miles on it, but crisp throttle response, good in traffic. I've got some cleanup to do of the interior and exhaust, but so far I'm happy with it compared to the past tune that was on it. I haven't had a chance to call and get any info from Ion about what was on there previously though.

My only concern is the Air Bag light is on and I can't remember if it was on before I sent it in. I connected it to my buddies SnapOn scanner and it couldn't connect to the module, so I doubt the tune had anything to do with that.

 

Hmm, very odd. I've used him since 2003 and had pretty good results. The only problems I ran into with my car were mechanical issues. Tuned alot of cars and combos with his mail order stuff. Ion has always been willing to work with me on issues and communication was excellent.

Now, on to some things that concern me about what you've said.

With a heads and cam car you probably need 35-38lb injectors to run 80% duty. 30lb'ers with good heads and cam will be at 100% duty. The fact that it ran better with a stock computer and better still with factory injectors makes me think there are other issues happening. There is a very low chance his tune was so poor that it ran better with a stock PCM and injectors. What else did you check to verify that it was the tune? Did you pull the A/F raio? Have the injectors checked?

I can't excuse your experience but those things just don't add up to me.

Furthermore I've talked to Bryan before and had him look over a tune I had from Ion, just to see if it'd be worth having him give it a shot. He said he wouldn't change anything about it. That shows me two things. #1 Ion's tunes are pretty good. #2 Bryan is honest and didn't want to take my money. Both tuners are good in my opinion.

-Dustin-

 

PCMforless got my general tune right on via e-mail order, I was impressed but did not eliminate the "stall wall" adjustment in my e.c.m. even though i listed that i was running a 3600 stall. Had to buy Tunercats and make the adjustment myself.

 

Without knowing how much power the car is making, you can not assume that 30# injectors are not enough for this car and are assuming that it makes a certain amount of power. This setup was guesstimated to make about 350 or so HP, which a 30# injector is suited just fine. If this car is making 400+ horsepower I would be surprised.

You think there are other issues happening because of the instance with the stock tune, yet you have not seen nor been in the car to say this. I understand you want to defend a business that you had a good experience with, as I do as well, but the fact is every good business does poorly to some customers and it's just the way it is.

As good as many businesses are there are always customers who are not taken care of as others are. You totally ignored the fact that he never responded to an email or phone call then go on to say how often you spoke with him to insinuate that I am not telling the truth or I am incorrect in what I'm saying, but it's the truth. Perhaps he ignored my emails and phone calls because he half assed the tune and he knew it. Why did that notion not cross your mind? It is because you have a preconceived notion about this person and nothing anybody says could convince you otherwise and you will instead find faults in the person with the complaint instead of giving in to the plausibility that perhaps he did not perform well on a customers tune or that his customer service was a 0.

Edit: I did not have these injectors tested but I bought them off a friend in a local car club who had bought them brand new and with his tune from Livernois, he was told to go with a 42# injector for his supercharged mustang, so I got these off of him having only been on his car for a few months. They were pretty much brand new.

 

No offense, but...

The fact that you ran a stock PCM with a heads and cam car..
The fact that you ran stock injectors on a heads and cam car..
The fact that you "guesstimate" to make 350hp..
The fact that you ran second hand untested injectors..
The fact that you didn't seem to look else where for issues with your motor..
The fact that you claim the tune was bad however have nothing but bad MPG and gas smell to support you claims..
The fact that after all this time you still haven't got a better tune..

..tells me that you either don't know what the problem is or don't care, regardless of your tuner experience.

Perhaps he wouldn't return your calls because you blindly blamed the tune and he knew he couldn't reason with you

-Dustin-

 

Aiming to be a ******** now, are we?

I put the stock PCM in as a method of ruling out that it may not be the tune.

Again, I ran the stock injectors on a head/cam car with the stock pcm to rule out the tune.

The fact that I guesstimate tells you what? Many people with cam cars run 30# injectors, it isn't off the wall to believe that putting in a fairly mild cam will need more than a 30# injector.

Fuel injectors - right because everybody who buys a second hand injector from a person they trust runs out and pays somebody to test them. You're starting to stretch as you run out of things to nitpick at.

Where are you getting that I did not search elsewhere for problems?

All of what you say is assumption with very little knowledge of me, my car, what kind of tune he did, and how the business to customer transaction went down. You are a nuthugger who is butthurt about your boy.

And where do you get off claiming that I "blindly" blamed the tune? All I did was send him an email asking a couple of questions pertaining to if it was normal for me to have lost my low end and to have a strong smell of raw fuel.

You have come off as very ignorant in everything you've said. You have entered into a thread and given your 2 cents, which we are both entitled to do, yet you shoot down my experience because of yours, and make blind assertions as to the situations, and assume the worst on my end in an effort to defend your boy. What do you have to gain? Better yet, what would I have to gain by discrediting him?

As a matter of fact, I find it odd that I had attempted to call the number he has listed several times and did not even get a person to answer, yet you claim he answered everytime.

It's as simple as this.

When I put the tune in, my bottom end felt laggy, the car ran rich and wreaked of fuel.

To rule out the tune I put in the stock PCM and injectors and did a test run, in which the car had it's low end back and the stench of raw fuel was gone.

I didn't think it would be a good idea to run it like this, and it had an SES light which I could not stand.

I put his tune back in, and the raw fuel and laggy low end was back.

I figured that it was a mail-order tune so sending it back out somewhere wouldn't yield better results and I'd need to put it on a dyno to square it up.

Getting a car tuned on a dyno was going to run me at least $500, and I have never gotten around to wanting to drop that kind of money on getting it tuned.

Now go ahead and give me your version as to why everything I just said is a fallacy and let me know what you assume probably happened

 

OK.... this went in the crapper. No need for calling people names, even if you don't like their posts.

If this gets restarted, heads will roll.