Austin' 818C Build

[Dave 53]

I hate to be a buzz kill and I'm not a tuner, but I'm seeing red flags.

You've got to tune around the hardware on the car at the time of the tune. A tune that requires the rev limiter to be set at about 6,350 rpm (is that the case?) is not a proper tune. A tune that requires such restriction on rpm is by definition, not safe or reliable and is at best, temporary. I'd keep a very close eye on the boost as you drive it and if it goes over about 18 psi, you are out of the safe and reliable zone.

A EWG is not the solution either. It's a bandaid covering up some root issue (like a bad tune). Are you sure the waste gate is working? Did you physically see the levers moving?

The fact that he took so long to tune it and that he didn't immediately pick up that there was an issue with fuel pressure is a red flag.

I'd find a different tuner. Many call themselves a tuner and very few are. In Northen California, EVERYONE in the Subaru community knows that Travis at Snail Performance is the man. The undisputed guru and only NorCal tuner that will ever touch my car. Find the Travis of Texas.

I hate to come off so negative or like I'm some sort of know it all. I hope you enjoy the car, but again, I'm not a tuner, but I don't think the guy you got is either.

[Raven225]

I hate to be a buzz kill and I'm not a tuner, but I'm seeing red flags.

You've got to tune around the hardware on the car at the time of the tune. A tune that requires the rev limiter to be set at about 6,350 rpm (is that the case?) is not a proper tune. A tune that requires such restriction on rpm is by definition, not safe or reliable and is at best, temporary. I'd keep a very close eye on the boost as you drive it and if it goes over about 18 psi, you are out of the safe and reliable zone.

A EWG is not the solution either. It's a bandaid covering up some root issue (like a bad tune). Are you sure the waste gate is working? Did you physically see the levers moving?

The fact that he took so long to tune it and that he didn't immediately pick up that there was an issue with fuel pressure is a red flag.

I'd find a different tuner. Many call themselves a tuner and very few are. In Northen California, EVERYONE in the Subaru community knows that Travis at Snail Performance is the man. The undisputed guru and only NorCal tuner that will ever touch my car. Find the Travis of Texas.

I hate to come off so negative or like I'm some sort of know it all. I hope you enjoy the car, but again, I'm not a tuner, but I don't think the guy you got is either.

I understand some of your points so i want to explain a bit better.

After doing the cold start/low load tuning to get the speed density portion nailed down. he informed me that he was noticing some oddities with the fueling. (I do not have a Fuel pressure sensor) so He asked what kind of regulator and fuel pump i was running. I showed him the regulator and he saw that the boost reference nipple was not in use. So i rectified that situation and that fixed the fueling issue.

Once he started doing high rev pulls on the dyno he stopped and said he needed to look at how I had plumbed the boost controller because he was getting some over boost/boost creep. We both inspected and agreed it was hooked up correctly. So he suggested we by pass the Electronic boost controller to see if it was not functioning properly. This resulted in slightly less boost creep because the waste gate was effectively open as soon as any boost started building in the system. (this is how i understand it, I may be wrong.) The IWG was opening, I verified it was swinging open by watching it during two runs.

Now I do not understand what you mean by saying an EWG is a bandaid. The root cause is my IWG is not by-passing enough exhaust gasses to keep from building too high of boost. EWG were literally designed to fix that issue by providing a much larger bypass of exhaust gasses. An EWG of proper size would allow me to actually use the electronic boost controller how it was meant to be and have features such as boost by gear and such.

I am fully aware that the tune and car are not perfectly safe/reliable at this time because I could potentially over boost and have detonation if I hit WOT in the later gears. That is why I said I needed to make some changes and go back. I am completely confident in Jay Are Snow's tuning capabilities, He is a well respected tuner in the Houston area for Subarus and Miatas. I appreciate you taking the time to point out some red flags and after re-reading my post I can understand some of the concern. I think that the two issues arose from my lack of experience. I kinda knew the bigger turbo might mean I need to go to EWG set up, but I did not want to spend the money if I didnt have too.