EJ20Legacy

A review of Equilibrium Tuning of Davis, CA:

I tend to write novels. I’m going to try to keep this succinct so people actually read it, while trying to give Ed of EQ the due acclaim he deserves at the same time. However long it gets, I'm not going to add fluff so I promise it will be worth reading!!!

This is the third tune I have had on my car. It is, by far, the best.

I would highly recommend Ed to my closest friends and will always be going back to him for future tunes. I honestly believe that there is no way on earth my car could possibly be tuned better. This IS the best tune my car could have.

Ed could not have had a better impression on me as a tuner or as a person. He is an incredibly nice and up-front guy. He is honest and speaks his mind. He encouraged me to point out anything that did not feel absolutely perfect while he was tuning. I get the distinct impression that he literally cares more about the cars he’s tuning than most of the customers that own the cars do. He is a perfectionist. You will NEVER hear the words “good enough” out of Ed’s mouth. It is never good enough unless it is absolutely as good as it possibly can be. He spends the extra time that other tuners wont, don’t, or can’t.

So I’m pulling away from a stop and slowly accelerating up to 3rd gear like I would from any stop sign. All of the sudden I realize my car is running REALLY smoothly and it feels great. I look over at Ed and say, “did you mess with the partial throttle maps? My car feels really smooth!” He says I’m the 3rd person to ever notice. [Ken, btw, noticed it on his car later that evening immediately after Ed flashed his car with a base map, without being told that was done either]. I can’t believe I was only the 3rd person to notice… it’s like a night-and-day difference. NOBODY messes with the partial throttle, daily-driving maps. Tuners just don’t take the time to do it because it’s “not important.” I thought all Subaru’s were just a bit lumpy because of the boxer engine. Nah uh. Turns out the stock timing maps SUCK. Just looking at the visual 3D graph of the maps, it was more than clear why. My car is so smooth (and it even feels more powerful) at partial throttle when out of boost now that I feel like I’ve traded my Subaru in for a Lexus. No joke. This is one of the three things he did that other tuners don’t care about that made me incredibly thankful I went to Ed.

Ed explained everything to me while he was tuning. He showed me the numbers, graphs, everything and explained what it all meant. That was cool.

Oh yeah, the other two things he did that I really appreciated were: he tuned my start-up throttle correction so the rpm’s wouldn’t dip to nearly stalling like they have been ever since I installed my very light flywheel. Actually, even stock it dipped too much. The car now idles significantly smoother when cold and it never comes close to stalling when I start it. Much better . The other thing was that he custom-tuned the throttle sensitivity for me. I didn’t even know that was adjustable. Turns out you can change how boost comes on with throttle application. I wanted it a bit more linear than it was… before it would basically make full boost at anything over 50% throttle. It was a bit touchy and a bit hard to accurately modulate. Ed asked what I thought I would prefer, and then tried a couple different settings so I could choose what I wanted. I love how it feels now. Just by pushing the pedal a certain amount, I can accurately make 5 psi if I want 5. I can make 9, 12, 15, 17… whatever I want with controlled throttle application. It’s great. And mid-turn it’s much more controllable. Adrian and I were chatting about an oblong throttle body pulley to make throttle response more linear… Ed did that with tuning .

My VF22 used to hit 18 psi at 3750 rpm. It now hits closer to 19 psi at 3450 rpm. Tuning. Even though he didn’t have to, Ed spent A LOT of time getting my turbo to spool earlier and do so with perfectly controlled boost. It pegs my target boost number and holds it. It hits and holds it without spike, despite the earlier onset of boost, in every gear. A lot of the time you’ll get tuned on the dyno in 3rd and see a spike in 5th… not the case. It’s perfect.

My A/F ratio is better-controlled now. My maps are smoother.

Ed, btw, is a computer science engineer. He has created engine management solutions for other cars and for the WRX. He writes software and creates hardware devices. He wrote the road dyno software that he uses, which is extremely impressive. The results from this software are shocking. It produces numbers and graphs that look nearly identical to a Mustang dyno. Takes into account weight, tire size, gearing, coefficient of aerodynamic drag, frontal surface area… it’s craziness. He really, really knows his stuff and he truly has a deep and intimate understand of the EcuTek software and the WRX ECU.

Not really sure what else to say. The guy rocks. His tuning rocks. He’s talented AND he cares. He puts the time in because he is sincerely concerned with giving every single one of his customers the absolute best tune he is capable of.

I could not be happier with my tune. The results are great, the car is quick as h3ll. It’s also smoother than ever. It feels wonderful. Like I said, I am confident that there is no way a better tune exists for my setup.

Jeremy

--- I will be hitting up ATP to get a dyno run done and will post the results vs. the Cobb Stg 2 dyno I did there. ---

btw – for those of you who know who tuned my car last, I have nothing but respect for him. He is also an incredibly talented tuner and I’m confident he could have given me a tune of the same caliber given he took the time and effort to do so. It would be unfair to compare the numbers between the two tunes because I asked for (and received) a very conservative tune when I first put my VF22 on, and I changed a couple parts since. The thing is, there is no way on earth a big, busy shop could give my car the attention that Ed did. Just not possible. Ed’s the man.

The following graph is a before-and-after on the day Ed tuned me. I have no clue how the numbers would compare to the Mustang… we weren’t sure on some factors for the Legacy whereas Ed has all the technical data for the WRX, so these numbers aren’t necessarily accurate. For reference, I made 248 whp on the Mustang so…. But I was there [at EQ] for a tune, not a dyno <<< I'm not sure it's the best one, either, cuz I remember making over 260 at some point. Anyway, not that important.






On a side note: I'm in San Jose. If you want a ride, you got it. If you've got questions, post 'em. Ed more than deserves a chance to show you what a legit dude he is! I'm a very happy customer, as I think every single one of his customers has been...



EDIT: Just got the A/F graph:



^^^ one of the flatter, better-controlled AFR graphs I think I've ever seen, btw....

TitanSTI

iTrader: (4)

very good review jeremy!

EQ Tuning