So a buddy of mine just got his Evo back from GST Motorsports and he recommended to me that I take my car there to get it tuned. What I want to know is what kind of results can I expect from getting that done? Is it worth it?

 

you will get a safe tune unless you tell him you want to pushed to the max which noone would recommend, i got around 270whp from just a vf30 from Mike @GST. highly recommended. and plus there are multiple threads already about different tuners around the bay area.

 

whats done to you car, cause I tune is something that you need done with any mods to your car.

 

Other than Prodrive springs and a rear strut tower bar, nothing.

 

How much would something like that cost? And is there any thread in particular I should be looking at, or should I just search for "tuners"?

 

 

well you would need a to some kind of EM like a cobb AP or you could go with a open sourcwe tune from Ed at Eqtuning. You can still get great powere out of a bone stock car with tuning. It will cost about $900 with a AP or $300-400 with a open source tune from Ed at Eqtuning

 

Aren't we supposed to recommend that he saves up a couple of hundred extra bucks for a downpipe so he can get an extre 20 whp?

Saqwarrior...if you plan on modding your engine further I would suggest waiting until you can afford a downpipe before getting a tune. You will make a lot more power and won't need to pay for another tune once you do finally get a downpipe.

If you want to keep a stock motor and exhaust then just a tune alone will give you great results.

p.s. You won't go wrong with Mike at GST, his day-job is tuning race cars so he'll give you a powerful AND safe tune.

 

Ya hold off on the tune till you at least get a downpipe. It'll definately be worth it. I would say just wait till you get the entire turbo back.

We all know you'll eventually do it... EVERYBODY does it. haha.

 

Yeah, I want to stick with stock, at least for a while. I'm actually pretty happy with the power; this is the first performance car I've owned, as I always looked at cars as just transportation in the past--motorcycles were where I got my power fix.

 

Save yer money then, it's not worth tuning your car if you don't have any power mods. (unless you don't ever plan on getting any)

If you are planning to mod, I would advise investing in cobb's AP because you can flash base maps on temporarily. Then when u decide for a turbo upgrade u can get it tuned for bout 200 or 300 using your AP. Well worth it.

 

I plan on having Mike @ GST tune my WRX after I get my Mad Dad down pipe so he can make me a delicious Stage 2 map and smoother Economy mode.

 

You'd need some kind of engine management. Like an AP2 and tune time with Mike. So figure with no further parts $800.

You'd get no more than 20hp and 20tq. But what you would get that is worth it is a safe running car. The factory tunes are built to go boom if you drive hard.

 

dito
wait till you get a TBE, then get the tune

 

Wow.... I'm trying to stuff my face with that bag of popcorn. To keep quiet... I'm sure to get flamed over this.

I can tell you a few things that have happen to me.

1#
I heard allot of good about a local shop. So I went to it had a dyno tune ended up in a giant mess and a blown motor and a 7 months of B.S. to get it resolved. Even so picking my car up I had yet another problem. I should have sued them. I took a better path and had my car fixed else where.

2#
Went to another shop to have parts prices change as last minute, or they just dropped the ball all togther. Sad because I really liked that shop. They are just having a huge learning curve a head of them. I'm sure they will do just great once they get those bugs worked out.

3#
Went onto another tuning shop to get dicked around because I have a rebuilt motor from the above shop. My dash has a few pieces still out, And if they do not have a perfect motor they dont tune. So if your leak down is not perfect, Time to pull and replace the engine. Well hello... No one has a "perfect 0-2% leakdown" engine. I feel that two things happen with this shop.

They were pissed I had another shop do some high $$ work and they didnt get it.
Or
They are more into replacing motors that dont really need to be replaced.
They could have had in the future done some major work for me. I was very impressed with my 1st dealings with them. But blew it on the email I got blowing me off.

I now go outside the bay area for a tune.

If I had a list of upgrades to make a path.
Fuel pump would be 1st
A good tune would be second.
Both working togther will wake your car up a bit, Also help with the lean condition that can happen from oem rom file.

Then from there you can chart in to deeper waters..... Turbo, Downpipe,

Both Ecutek and Cobb lock your ecu. You cant get in it unless you take your $800 investment off. So be aware of that. You also have a catless uppipe, So you dont need one of thoses...

If your looking for a install shop to get work done, Or just call and get some simple or complex info.. LIC Motorsports is the only place to go. The are very detailed not only in their mechanical work. But offer the best customer service and paperwork I have ever seen in the Car/Motorcycle service world.
Their place is spotless and I get daliy updates by phone and email on the progress of my service.

You can read about my car and make judgement if you like.
PM me for more details I'd be more then happy to share.

Also just as important
Results may vary,,, person to person, car to car and shop to shop.
Every shop has a bad day....