Thread: CFT tuning
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Old 04-01-2009, 05:10 PM
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Racer_Jim
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FWIW, this was back in 2005 (oh my time's flying by).
Brought my one of a kind AWD turbo Storm there to CFT to be tuned, since I was told Rolo was awesome with a haltech, and came recommended by a few isuzu people.
So I get there and he starts tuning away for a couple hours. Mind you I asked him to be conservative, I live in Sarasota. After about 5 pulls he finished tuning and the highest HP pull we get on my t3/4 turbo at 20psi is 220 hp... Piss poor I thought, but the fun hadn't even started yet. So Rolo decided he's going to go take my car out on the street to make sure its running ok. BOOM! Blows the engine up. Tells me he thinks the timing belt blew. It's not, its his tuning mistakes that were only present under street load.
Now I take some of the blame, the exhaust side of the turbo and the downpipe were both way too small and likely elevated EGT's. But I have gauges for that which I thought he would be watching as he tuned. So I tow the car back to a friends house and have to get my dad to rent a trailer to bring it back to Sarasota. Plus Rolo still charged me ($150 I believe).
End result was one huge broken ring land on #4 piston, bent valves, broken spark plugs embedded in the head and 3 out of 4 pistons, and a car that's been down nearly forever.
I'll stick to tuning myself.
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