Rochester

iTrader: (9)

Four days later, and I'm still waiting to hear back from Moncef Faik. Not sure what to do except wait some more and try again. I mean, just because I'm finally ready with my long schedule, it doesn't mean he's actually available, or even in receipt of my email. Technology problems, life, death and vacations happen, the lack of reasonable out-of-office notifications notwithstanding.



I don't know. Still hoping for the best. Let's see what happens. But something has to happen one way or the other, because I'm ready for the next phase of this project.

backman_66

Eugene @ Enthusiast Auto Care! 😀

Bravo at

Maybe try his Instagram ... If you don't have one (I don't have one), then maybe one of us on the forum can just reach out to him and pass the message.

Rochester

iTrader: (9)

I'd like to push through with a decision made and see where it takes me. Feels a few days too soon to be looking elsewhere, like Eugene, or Seb at SpecialtyZ. I chose Moncef for reasons described at the beginning of this thread. However, my Spidey Senses are starting to bother me, I'll admit that. Also, I had an email today from someone I trust quite a bit, with comments on the situation that gave me reason to pause.


That's not a bad idea, and I may do that. I don't and won't have an instagram account, although my children certainly do, and I do recognize that it's totally normal for a lot of young people and small businesses.

However, passing data files back and forth means email, and we're both using Gmail accounts that have connected successfully a few months ago, so... again, I don't know. I'm completely in the dark here with conjecture.

Rochester

iTrader: (9)

FWIW, Eugene's Yelp reviews: https://www.yelp.com/biz/enthusiast-auto-care-concord, with simply a ridiculous amount of praise and gratitude. Wow.

And a glowing review about Eugene on the370z.com: http://www.the370z.com/tuning/128946...auto-care.html

And his Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/infiniticare, not that I have FB, but there it is anyway.

After sleeping on this situation, I think I'm coming to a new plan. Still need a little more time for it to settle in my head, tho.

BULL

It's more common in the tuning world than you think. You find someone who does really well at this and at times knows how to alter certain safeties to provide the highest/best/fastest and the rest becomes demand. He's only one person and because of marketing is what people now want. Even if he had the time he would not be able to provide support if things were to go wrong in the future. You can't expect a tune to be perfected in one session since the vehicle will see different variables in your hands that the tuner wont be able to see. Sadly this is something they dont factor in upon quotes, some provide support afterwards for free some decide to skip because they just dont have time or were not expecting the session to develop issues which took from the time promised.

A great tuner wont be one for too long. Go with whoever provides the best support and communication, on the other hand do your best at learning the software since the learning of this ware will help shorten the waiting times and clarify communication exchanges.

You'll probably obtain a fast answer and solution if you described a: My car is acting weird at high rpm if it's explained as "I registering some bucking between 6-7.5k rpm while at 1/4 throttle and AFRs are very rich during those.
This already tells the tuner he needs to tune 1/4 throttle past that RPM which not most people do because it's rare for drivers to be in that range.

RobC7

Rochester

iTrader: (9)

After 5 days, Moncef got back to me this afternoon, and said he's so busy that he's scheduling remote tunes, offering an 8:00 AM slot a week from now.



Why would you schedule a remote tune? It's REMOTE, for Pete's sake. There's no dyno, no shop, no schedule to coordinate; just maps and data logs, rinse and repeat until the tuner and the driver are satisfied.

What am I missing? I must be missing something here, trying to understand this.

rotarymike

iTrader: (4)

I'd guess that the initial time appointment is more for a conversation about where you are in mods and what you're looking for in output. Seems like all the well-rated tuners spend decent time on that, as much as the map tweaking.

Rochester

iTrader: (9)

End of day today, I made a decision and reached out to Eugene. Let's see how that goes.

[edit]

He replied in 14 minutes, LOL.

[edit]

I hired Eugene. Money has been exchanged, and we've been emailing back and forth already quite a bit. Awesome.

Dzionassi

If i would be a tuner... I would reject anyone who is asking for a tune with short arm intakes. . Anyways, I think you made a great choice.

SwiftKit

FWIW, I emailed Moncef in regards to some general questions I had back in March. Took him about 4 days to respond
Watched a video last week on someone's experience getting admintuned, apparently he isn't the nicest guy (Maybe caught him at a bad time, who knows)
Your experience will definitely have an impact on me when looking for a tuner (Still have to find a car first )

In any case, a tune does have a hefty price tag and it's best you feel comfortable with your tuner before dropping some nice change. Interested to see if you think it's worth the price tag, keep us posted

Rochester

iTrader: (9)

I can't and won't speak to Moncef's personality, since I didn't hire him for the tune, and didn't really interact at all. I'll say this, if I lived in the Houston area, I would absolutely be banging on his door for a dyno tune. Anyway, moving on...

Spent a fair amount of time on the phone already with Eugene. First impressions... super nice guy, who is extremely technical, and very professional. It's a little overwhelming, actually, but it's the path I'm on and I'm going to see it through.

He already created the first tune file, which is actually just a "blank" (for lack of a better word). Essentially, it's a tune without any custom settings, as a baseline and a means to get the license (RaceRom?) into the ECU. Once applied, I will reach out to him for instructions on collecting the first session of data-logging, so that he has an image of how the car is running un-tuned. He wanted me to install it this evening, and even offered to walk me through it, but it's late and cold and pitch black out. I mean, I'm east coast, he's west coast, LOL.

Also, one of the software components he relies on heavily is something called DropBox, and unfortunately I can't get DropBox installed on this old Windows 7 laptop. So now I'm thinking of commandeering my daughters brand new Windows 10 laptop for this project. Pretty sure I'm going to get push back from that idea.

2.2Lude

iTrader: (1)

Hell yeah dude, I’m glad you already had a good first impression of Eugene. Not that he needs anymore positive press lol, I’m still looking forward to your tuning experience and documentation with him.

Rochester

iTrader: (9)

This morning I applied the base-map to the ECU. Note the "Standard Tuner Licence" in the ECU (with British spelling, no less, LOL). This also updated my ECU version to 1NX4C. It took about 10 minutes to transfer from the laptop to the car, after which I had to turn the ignition off/on a few times according to pop-up instructions. At the end it "cleared DTCs", whatever DTCs are.

I have to say, it was kind of unnerving clicking that "Program ECU" button for the first time, then watching the % Complete progress click ever so slowly from 0 to 100. But like I said, this is the path I'm on, and it worked. Afterwards I was able to restart the car completely normal, as if nothing had happened.

Now I reach back out to Eugene and discuss getting a large-file datalog for normal driving conditions, as a baseline. Not sure until I talk to him some more what exactly he wants me to do, but this initial license installation feels like a critical first step.