i-Club - The Ultimate Subaru Resource - EQ Tuning Install & Tune Day Experience

[QUOTE="PROcede;3326416"]I made it to EQ Tuning at 10am on Nov 16th just in time for my appointment and was greeted by Ed and his employee. I had been nervous the whole drive up there expecting the worst case scenario which was my motor wasn't any good for pushing it further. You might ask why i was thinking this since my car is fairly new. I had no issues with my car at all it's been tuned for 20k miles and the car doesn't eat any oil that i've noticed, i do all my oil changes every 3k on the dot or before! I was just scaring myself into this paranoid state because i've had friends blow motors with only 10k miles on the clock.

Break down of what i was doing
[*]Compression Test[*]Leakdown Test[*]Fix EBCS[*]Fix boost gauge[*]Install ID1000's[*]Tune 91[*]Drain Tank/E85[*]Tune E85

Everything before the tune went fantastic. Trusted my car to these guys and they got everything done right the first time.

Tuning

91
My goal for the pump tune was to make safe power without pushing the car to any specific number. I told Ed i wanted a tune i could track on without having to worry. Repeatedly i said no emphasis on making power on 91 since it's unpredictable as i've noticed ever since fall/winter hit. Ed took my words and went with it and did his thing. After the first couple runs i was already impressed with what numbers it was making on a SAFE tune. I even saw Ed's eyebrow raise on my initial pull because my car put down higher then normal numbers on 91 with ease it seemed. My Final numbers on 91 were 292HP/317tq. This map will hopefully never have to be used but i have full confidence that if i ever need to use the pump gas map i will be very content still.

12/5/12
I've had a little time to actually use my 91 map and from what i could tell it's identical in smoothness to my E85 map. Everything feels exactly the same minus the crazy amounts of hp/tq lol. Even on 91 Ed's tune really has woken the car up from my TP map that put out only 264/277 on his dyno. I still can't stress this enough about how smooth his tunes are, you really have to get a ride in someones car to experience what i'm talking about.

E85
Ed and his team helped drain and flush my fuel system of any 91 i still had left after tuning. We then started adding E85 in a gallon at a time to make sure it gets through the entire fuel system and dilutes any remaining 91. We did this for a while to make sure it was all gone and i'd be safe.

I've always heard this is the magic stuff that really makes your car come alive. After seeing my buddy Paul (Silverbullet415) with a built STi gain almost 60-70hp off fuel alone made me do some hard thinking if i wanted to convert. I thought about it for the last couple months and asked a lot of questions to fellow members that attend meets and such. With everything considered i decided to finally go ahead and do it to see what my girl will make.

Run after run i was so shocked at the power i was now achieving, it was incredible i was making 300hp+ 350tq+ easily! Ed chuckled at me after his first two initial runs because he saw me say "Oh ****!" while staring at his computer screen. I was stunned at the power that was being achieved and the fact that those numbers surpassed what i expected by far! I honestly was expecting somewhere in the ballpark of 320hp/350tq and i got 351hp/405tq on my highest run. Ed spent some more time fine tuning it once we settled on a good number to de-tune it to because my stock clutch started slipping. Ed told me this is one of the most conservative E85 tunes he's done so that makes me feel confident that my car still has more in her if i ever want to go there but reliable enough to not have to cross my fingers every time i do a pull.

12/01/12
I've got to drive the car for a couple weeks now since the tune and the power E85 brings is unreal. I seriously wish there were more stations available so everyone could use this stuff. The main difference i found between Ed's tune and my old Torqued Performance tune was the way power came in, with TP i felt like the power came all at once and with Ed's it's so linear it's almost like an N/A pull. Seriously my 5th gear feels like what my old 3rd gear used to feel like on my TP map. Keep in mind this is my low boost 16psi map with a slipping clutch lol! It's nice to have crazy passing ability on the highway without having to downshift.

Impressions of the tune
I can honestly say this has been my favorite "mod" since buying the car. The way the car drives is insanely smooth. I commute from Daly City to San Mateo everyday and morning traffic sometimes is a royal PITA. I did not have any prior experience with cars tuned by Ed in normal daily driving scenarios, only WOT situations and aggressive driving which are crazy! Ed sure knows how to make cars fast. I was hoping Ed would be able to keep the daily driving attributes of my old Torqued Performance stage 3 map but improve on my WOT situations and aggressive driving side. My E85 map from Ed goes above and beyond any OTS map with e-tuning could ever do. I am now a firm believer that pro-tuning is and will always be better then e-tuning because their are so many variables that the tuner has to account for and can only do it in person. The tuner also needs to have massive amounts of knowledge and experience with the fuel/weather/ect that's predominantly in your area.

Any subaru owner looking for someone with experience and knowledge to tune their car look no further then Ed and the crew at EQ Tuning. I've become a EQ fan and will continue to seek advice with Ed about my modding future with this car should i choose to get power hungry once again. Ed thank you for making my car into such a great daily driver and really waking her up with power. Thank you to you and the crew for spending time looking over all the little things in my engine bay you and I weren't 100% happy with and having them fixed and even staying late to do it! A+ customer service!

I'll rock the vinyl proud.

-Rob

My build thread.

[URL="https://www.i-club.com/forums/ongoing-projects-31/procedes-wrb-journal-241930/"]https://www.i-club.com/forums/ongoing-projects-31/procedes-wrb-journal-241930/[/URL][/QUOTE]

How much did it cost to get all that done?