My Tuning experience blew my motor and led me to sell my 03 cobra..

[vector]

Originally posted by F8l Vnm
Well after 1 dyno run and a reburned chip that he did before he got there my car put out 507 Rwhp and 499 Tq. To be perfectly honest with you there was never a dyno session it took longer to get my car on the dyno and off that the actual session itself.
Got on the freeway and the car felt really strong but was not pinging even more.
I ended up paying another $250.
So thats when I started to add a little of race gas everytime.That seemed to take care of the problem and I never got on the car during the day after that for weather reasons.

you should have stopped right there

i would say its just as much your fault as is his.... if any of it is his

and why the hell would you pay to Fix your car then trade it in

that makes no sence what so ever

you are replacing all of the parts in ? and could do it with the right stuff


Just to trade it in? if i have to some day replace any of the short block parts its going to be with the best parts and ill be damned if i am going to trade it in after paying for that

i fell bad for you but i dont know what to say

 

[Shadowgray03]

Not to stand up for shaun, but cmon you HAVE to take some responsibility here. ou made how many dyno puylls before you say you ever saw your A/F? Thats just plain asking for trouble.

What ended up being the problem with the car? You say you spent some money fixing it and then tradedit in, if it was fixed then why did you trade it in?

Also, as far as I know red diablo chips can not be programmed by anyone but diablo. What that means is that Shawn was simply picking from a list of readily availabel tunes and burning them to your chip. This isnt necessarily a bad thing IF he took the time to furnish Diablo with all the specs on your car so they could make a probper tune, but like so many tooners, they would rather not pay diablo for a tune and would rather pocket the $$$ and pull a tune they have already paid for.

 

[Forbidden Snake]

Did you fix your car before you traded it in? Or did you just put it back to stock and traded her in? Just curious.

 

[brasil]

Why would he have to check the AF graph for himself? Wasen't he paying the tuner to do that? It is the tuners responsability to make sure that the car is running properly, the Af's are safe, proper timing, etc... That is what they are getting paid for and are suppost to have enough knowledge for a safe tune.

 

[RedfireVert]

No A/F graphs from Shawn!

Originally posted by Shadowgray03
Not to stand up for shaun, but cmon you HAVE to take some responsibility here. ou made how many dyno puylls before you say you ever saw your A/F? Thats just plain asking for trouble.

F8L doesn't have the A/F graph because Shawn does not datalog that info. Shawn's procedure is to monitor the A/F in real time during the pull. It's a wacky procedure, but Shawn seems competent at it.

Pyro, Combatstang, and I have had our cars tuned by Shawn with no issues. There is little doubt that Shawn has the skills.

 

[Griffin]

a 12:3 A/F ratio is not dangerously lean. Have any dyno sheets to post up?

Running a 3lb upper and a 8lb lower on a Eaton...... What did you expect? And if you are pinging you get out of it and get it fixed immediately, not drive around on it.

 

[mike79]

What was the timing at?

 

[cobrapete03']

Originally posted by brasil
Why would he have to check the AF graph for himself? Wasen't he paying the tuner to do that? It is the tuners responsability to make sure that the car is running properly, the Af's are safe, proper timing, etc... That is what they are getting paid for and are suppost to have enough knowledge for a safe tune.

Yes, you should check the A/F ratio for yourself..>Tell me this: Do you ever check your fast food order before you leave the drive-thru even though the fast food worker tells you everything is in the bag? Same principle here, sometimes you have/need to take a personal interest in things if you want them to turn out right...Ask questions or if your not sure, bring a friend with you that is more familiar with the setup/car/A/F ratio...A certain amount of responsibility rests in Shawn's lap to give you a good tune but similarily for the owner of the car to make sure the results are delivered as advertised. You should look over your A/F graph as intently as you do your car after being parked alone in a parking lot for a bit to make sure no damage occured while you were away...


-pete:coolman:

 

[Pyro]

Sorry to hear about your problem but I, like others, had my car dyno tuned by Shawn and had no problems at all. He WAS late once but so was I. When you play around with those kinds of HP numbers, you cant go home and start tweaking and expect all the parameters to be safe. We're not talking about 200-300 rwhp here. These cars are producing crazy numbers and as such, you cant go home and do some backyard wrench turning AFTER a tune was done. IMO you were playing with fire by adding more boost without having it tuned first. After Shawn tuned my car for my mods, I DID NOT touch it and so far, all is perfect and it feels perfect. My only problem is I want more power but I'll be damn if I dont tune it before testing it on the highway.

As far as Shawn, I've had other "tuners" and enthusiast look at my car and even checked out my dyno graph and can attest that it appeared to be a good tune. During my dyno run, there was no AF readout but I stood right over the meter watching it at Shawns advice but you cant expect him to babysit everyone like he did me. I just did my homework and was inquisitive so he accomdated. I believe that Shawn has way more happy customers than unhappy ones. The unhappy ones are just more vocal. I once talked to an unhappy customer of Shawns as I waited my dyno time. Let me tell you, he was CLUELESS about cars. (sorry if it was you). It sounded like he just read a few posts on this board and went straight to a catalog and ordered away without knowing what each mod actually did in his car.

I think that with this car (and it's HP potential) many people, including myself, have come out of the woodwork with minimal knowledge of boost, blowers, etc... and are treating it is like the 5.0's of the past. It's like giving a missle launcher to a kid who previously had a bb gun. He or someone may will hurt. In this case, it was the car. Lets learn from this post and treat our cars (and vendors) with more respect. DO YOUR HOMEWORK before you go mod crazy and take some responsiblity. IMO, this cobra was way too modded to be farting around with by an amature (the owner). This aint your daddy's 5.0.

 

[2814v]

Thats a sad story, I'm sorry you had that happen to you. But I think this show's, dont get greedy with the power. The more you modd your car the more you better know about it. There are people on this site that can do almost all thier own work on thier cobra's, I will leave the monster power to them. I only know a little compared to them, so basic modd's and a 3.1 or 2.93, with a very conservative tune is all I am comfortable with.

 

[Whitten]

Problem I see here isn't with the tuner...it is the person who the car is being tuned for. If an engine is pinging, the engine is incuring damage of some sort. There is no blame to be put on the tuner if you continue to drive the car like it is. You ever here the expression hurt me once shame on you hurt me twice shame on me? Well that is what we are dealing with here. So often people get so preocupied with making numbers on the dyno that they fail to realize they may be cause more problems for themselve, and just like so many other things they want it then...now....yesterday. Let me break it down, you put way to much boost on the engine, it was running lean because not only could the stock fuel system not keep up, but you were building excess heat with a blower that was never intended to be spun that fast. I lay te blame squarely on your shoulders for buying every mod you could afford, or not afford and not doing the research, besides the fact that the tuner is not responsible for that vehicle... you are. Unfortunately in the world of high performance engines there cannot be warranties or guarantees, unless you have paid a very qualified engine build alot of bucks. Sorry bro, but I want to hear his side of the story. If I had a dime for everytime a guy blew his motor up and blamed it on the tuner I would be able to buy your car. But don't get down, or get upset with everyone there is alot of up sides to this. You have learned alot from this experience, and undoubtedly more than you ever wished to learn, but I implore you to learn more, and really understand your vehicle and the limits of it's drivetrain, you will be better for it, and you will spend less money in the long run. Learn to do those small things like replace the blower, do full exhaust, or maybe re build the rear end, in the end you will be a better owner.

 

[Pyro]

Re: No A/F graphs from Shawn!

Originally posted by RedfireVert
F8L doesn't have the A/F graph because Shawn does not datalog that info. Shawn's procedure is to monitor the A/F in real time during the pull. It's a wacky procedure, but Shawn seems competent at it.

Pyro, Combatstang, and I have had our cars tuned by Shawn with no issues. There is little doubt that Shawn has the skills.

Amen brother!!!

Absolutely no problems. As I said in a previous post, others checked out my car and have even taken it for a spin and said it must be a pretty good tune because it was strong and had no signs of problems such as driveability, plug wear, mileage, in heat, in cold, at altitude .... Oh, and I've abused my car lately and still not a single problem. :rockon:

 

[combatstang]

I go to lacr and trap 114- 116mph... at over 5000 elevation ... so thats pretty damn strong!!!

Im very happy with shaun...

 

[RedfireVert]

Originally posted by combatstang
I go to lacr and trap 114- 116mph... at over 5000 elevation ... so thats pretty damn strong!!!

Im very happy with shaun...

That's awesome. I figure that's 117-119 corrected. Btw, it's more like 2,800 foot altitude.

 

[VENOM98]

Originally posted by F8l Vnm
Hey guys just wanted share my "Shawn Ellis " Tuning experience with you all..
I purchased my Torch Red 10th ann. coupe in Sep of last year. Like many of you I was this was my dream car , I was in shock for the next month.
The moding began , I had a local shop bolt on the Basics and after about 3 months I was of you Shawn Ellis to get my car tuned.
With the pulley, exhaust , chip ,intake, t-body , mass air /mafterburner etc. My car was able to get 469Rwhp and 489Tq.
When I left his shop I paid almost 600 that included the red diablo chip and about 1 1/2 hours of his tuning.
On the freeway ride home I noticed the car would ping just a tad.
So i just figured it was kinda hot.
As I drove the car more I realized that that car would still just ping and now it was starting to stall once in a awhile at red lights and it never did that before.
I called him and he said that it was ok .
About a couple of months later I added the Apten and water pump and after about 2 times of his flaking on me for another dyno tuning session we met up at another local shop to use thier dyno since he dosent own his own dyno and that shop he works
in was busy.
So showed up at 12 Noon when he promised me he would be there at 10 am.
So I lost about 2 hours but it was ok I was so excited about my new mods that I didnt care.
When he got there I let him know again that the car was pinging and to tone it down just a tad maybe a little more fuel.
Well after 1 dyno run and a reburned chip that he did before he got there my car put out 507 Rwhp and 499 Tq. To be perfectly honest with you there was never a dyno session it took longer to get my car on the dyno and off that the actual session itself.
Got on the freeway and the car felt really strong but was not pinging even more.
I ended up paying another $250.
So thats when I started to add a little of race gas everytime.That seemed to take care of the problem and I never got on the car during the day after that for weather reasons.
Than I added a 3.10 upper along with my 8 lower I also had an Idler ..
Fast foward about 2 months , I got a hold of him after about 1 week and we meet up again .
This time at the shop he was working out of.
Once again he was late , and I was on the dyno for 1 run and less than 1 hour and the car made less hp but more tq. but the Dyno graphs really bad , my tq just dropped right away.
I made 469.00 Rwhp and 529.00 rwtq.
So he said that I was spinning the blower too fast.
Let him know that the car was pigning and thats when he looked at the chip and played with it once and stated that it was ok now.
Left the shop and paid another 250 more dollars.
got back and took the 3.10 upper of and drove the car and the "Re done " chip was still pinging after he stated that the chip was now a little less aggressive , keep in mind that the chip he burned was just for my 8 lower.
About a month later I went to a local dyno day and my car put down 480.00 Rwhp and about 485.00 rwtq and my This was the first time that I saw my A/F ratio and it was at 12.3!!!
I was so upset and that it the gentleman that was runing the dyno day let me know that car was runing dangerously lean and for me to becareful.
So I waited about a month never got on the car after that and took of my mass air and mafterburner off and called him for another dyno tuning session , once again he was last about 45 min and I let him know that the car was pinging.
So we got it on the dyno and the car made less than it ever made 460.00 rwhp and about 480.00 rwtq.
So than we both figured it was the mass air and mafter burner that made me lost the hp and tq.
He than took out my chip and stated that since I took out the mass air and mafter burner he can go more aggressive with the tuning.
After reinstallign the re- burned my car now made about 440.00 rwhp and about 450.00 rwtq.
Than we let the car cool for about 30 min and he took out the chip and put my original program back in .
At this point I was starting get really upset, my next run was 415.00 rwhp and about 420.00 rwhp give or take and than thats when of the owner of the shop that he works out of let shawn know that something was wrong.
At this point I was late to work to I called a taxi and paid almost 75 dollars to get back to work and left the car there.
The next morning They charged me 200.00 for the dyno time
and I had to pay 125.00 to get my car towed back to my local shop.
After opening the motor all 8 of my pistons were fried , my rod bearings were bad and 1 of my rods had gone bad as well.
I was so upset to hear this because like most of you I work hard for money .
I ended up waiting about 2 months and had the shop fix the car .
At this point I was so broke that I had no choice but to put this car back to stock , and traded it in.
I spent a lot of money fixing the car and trading the car in was one of the hardest things I have had to do .
I loved that car.
I want to let you guys know that shawn was nice enough to lend me his screw driver whenI needed it on 2 separte occasions and also offered me some pizza one of the days that I was there.
The guy was so into getting me his quote "THE NUMBERS THAT YOU DESERVE" that my car blew up on his dyno and ultimatly was the downfall to my Cobra.
To this day he has never called me to apologize or even given me some kinda apology.
I have sent so many of my buddies to him and given the man so much business.
Funny how imature the man is all he did when I was there was bad mouth other shops and tuners and I remember when He had another unsatisfied customer he "Made fun of his wife"??
Great customer service huh???
Sad because the people he works with and the moderators on his his boards are so cool with me and great guys.
This was my experince with the man , some of you may have had great times with him and or a bad experince with him but I was just stating my experince with him.
In my heart I truly belive my car pinged to death and that is why all 8 of my pistons were fried.
Remember now any one that knows a little can make numbers
by adding alot of timing and a lean A/F and that is what happend to me.

After reading your story I have to admit that there are several flaws and exclusions of info. You had tuned your car twice with Shawn, once at Superior, and once at Brother's performance because of Superior being closed on Christmas week. You changed you combo several times after both tuning sessions without informing Shawn. You changed to a PRO-M 95 after being tuned at brother's and is the main reason why your car pinged at the dyno day at Powertrain dynamics. Changing a mass-air meter after a tune is a big no no.....:nono: You alter the EEC-IV's ability to measure load and thus affects timing and airfuel. Let this be a testament of what happens when one does not retune a car after changing mods, Mass air meters, etc...........:rollseyes

The bottom line is there is nothing wrong with Shawn using Superior Automotive to tune vehicles at. The facility is by far the best equiped to handle any situation and is staffed by employees that have more than 30 years of engine bulding and tuning experience.................:bowdown:

 

[combatstang]

2800 is the standard, but the night i went there it was 5700 with the elevation wheather factor


Marc

 

[bassin247]

Anyone that drives their pinging car is a moron. If it pings don't drive it, it's that simple.

If you get a tune and you F with things you know nothing about and your motor blows up how is it the tuners fault?

 

[VENOM98]

Originally posted by combatstang
I agree with you 100%, except, Shaun knows very much what he is talking about..


Just to let everyone know, Shaun was beginning to get a bad rep in So Cal, because of this guy, he went around telling everyone how shuan blew up his motor... bs!!

Apteen is his name, i may have spelled it wrong.. whatever... but after blowing his motor, he goes to X2C motorsports... and they build him a new motor, then he goes over to Steve at power train, and yes agian, blows his new motor...

Dude, you really need to stop bashing on shuan.. u playing with your car after a good tune destroyed your car.. not him...

stop talking sh*t

Marc

Its funny how that was left out. So that is why the trade was made? Obviously if the car was running right after the rebuild and Powertrain's tune there was no reason to trade.........HMMMMM.

 

[maddrabitt]

what kind of sense does it make to pay someone to tune your car and then as soon as its done you go home and dick with it? If your expert enough why pay someone to do the work in the first place. 20+ pounds of boost on an eaton, smart move.......

 

[VENOMOUS 10TH]

Man what a :loser: !
Take responsibility for YOUR actions.
Driving while pinging, removing and adding mods after dyno tunes, what did you expect!
Don't blame the tuner, blame yourself...