Originally Posted by Bobby Hill

O snap chicken nice catch wtf?

Originally Posted by irrational x

not to mention he doesn't know the names of the tests performed nor any pictures of damage.

If re motor needs to he pulled as tuner x says why did tuner x agree to tune it?

Originally Posted by tkmotorhead

i love this stuff. those compression #s dont indicate anything. i have seen the same thing for years now. if #3 had 90psi i would be concerned. also its pretty funny that your sweeting an engine problem then decide to hammer 21 psi to your stock pistons.
what was wrong with the intake valve? so far since i have been around subarus i have yet to see an intake valve failure. oh but wait, that awsome meth and water your putting in your intake is corrosive. what is that going to do to your valve seats.not going to make a good seat.
what was the leakdown % i have seen perfectly even compression #s and when a leakdown is performed found one hole at 30% and the others normal. but when the engine was pulled 2 cylinders had broken ring lands.. on a stock ej257. both compression and leakage tests are guides.
what ever bla bla bla
i wonder what kinda guy would want to tune an engine that is supposed to be damaged. thats what i call a hand grenade.
lets take the engine apart and see the truth.

Originally Posted by Spike_916

Do not go to DBTuned unless for service, bolt-ons, or mechanical issues, but don’t let him tune your car. My car (Original Owner) is an 06 STi with about 41k miles currently on it. Paul has been the one and only person to touch my car. He did the entire install and tuning that was done (Mods listened below). Also it took Paul a month to finish the install. I started to notice some issues with my performance, boost levels, and my Aquamist kit. My boost was at .11mpa which is 16PSI, Car felt like my stock STi, and my Aquamist kit DDS3 was showing 8 bars when it should be 5-6 bars.

I decided to take my car to a very-well known tuner last Saturday who asked to be anonymous to avoid confrontation. We will refer to him as Tuner X. First thing Tuner X did was perform a compression test to make sure everything is ok. Keep in mind Paul is the only person to ever touch my car. Compression test came up as follows:

Cylinder 1 - 130
Cylinder 2 - 136
Cylinder 3 - 125
Cylinder 4 - 136

That’s 9% off tolerance, below the tolerance call for 7% by specifications. Then they start to check the cam gear to see if it slipped a tooth since one bank (Cylinder 1 & 3) was off. Cam checked out perfect. Then they ran another pressure test on the valves to determine if it was a ring or a valve issue (can’t remember what it was called). It turns out it was the intake valve in cylinder 3. We checked the spark plugs and found signs of bad detonation. Tuner X advised me about the issue and told me it will have to be pulled out and need repair. Also keep in mind I was out in the garage working with them so I wasn’t going off what was on paper and I helped them perform the tests. I know you can argue about the methanol mixture but I’m very detailed and **** about my water/methanol mixture, I’ve been very consistent.

My call was to ignore fixing the damage for now since it really isn’t severe but not good at all. Tuner X hooked up his laptop and cables to see how Paul’s tune ran out on the street. Tuner X could only do one pull before he had to bring it back in for extreme detonation and knocking. He showed me the log files and pointed out each line of data that showed detonation. When I originally left Paul’s place with my tune my graph showed 285hp - 318tq @ 19PSI. This is really low for my setup on a mustang dyno. Paul’s answers for the low numbers were “Some cars just don’t make boost”. Tuner X showed me the actual power graph of Paul’s tune which showed 281tq – 262hp and took until 4000rpm for full spool, that’s above and beyond horrible

At this point I told Tuner X to double check the car for any other issues since I lost trust in Paul. Paul has outstanding mechanical skills since Tuner X was impressed with his install and found no other issues.

Tuner X removed my Stock Boost Control Solenoid and placed in an NBC Manual Boost Controller. We did as many pulls as we can perform before I started to run out of water/methanol. We did several 2nd gear pulls, 3rd gear pulls, and 1-4th gear pulls. My car now puts down 348tq – 281hp @ 21.5PSI and is quieter, more responsive, and power you can definitely feel. I could have gotten more power but we forgot to change out the Aquamist jet since Paul put in the smallest jet. Like before he showed me the log files of his tune and my car was running as health as you can get (besides the damaged that was already done by Paul). No knocking or detonation.

I know Paul has a large following and people may attack me for posting this but I know what I felt, saw and know. I am not here to knock Paul as a person or a mechanic but as a tuner. Paul has great mechanical Skills and a very nice guy to talk with, just he can’t tune. Trust me when I suggest you look for another tuner.
__________________________________________________ _______________

Mods:
*Cobb Turboback Exhaust w/ Cat
*Cobb AccessPORT v2
*Perrin Up-Pipe
*Perrin Headers
*Denso Plugs
*Walbro Fuel Pump
*Aquamist HSF-5 Water/Meth Kit

After Paul:
*NBC Manual Boost Controller

Originally Posted by wrxisthebest

So, this story is starting to sound like S^2's problem back in the day with my car and Tuner X claiming major problems... hmm.. actually sounds exactly the same lol

Originally Posted by Mr. Xevious

do you see a pattern forming?

Originally Posted by Bobby Hill

O snap chicken nice catch wtf?

Originally Posted by offseasonmvp

That is a nice catch. Think before you post. Many hungry eyes are praying for a mistake...

Originally Posted by ryansti

Yea that was a nice catch.

Originally Posted by irrational x

If re motor needs to he pulled as tuner x says why did tuner x agree to tune it?

Originally Posted by Mr. Xevious

do you see a pattern forming?