I told myself I would give it a week before writing this up to let the emotion die down, so here it is...
About a month ago I called an UpRev certified tuner and scheduled my tuning appointment. This shop is about 250 miles from home but had installed and tuned a Boosted Performance turbo kit using the same EBC as mine (HKS EVC-S). On the phone they immediately remembered the car, the kit, and had nothing but good things to say. Scheduled the tune for about 3 weeks out. I asked for a ball park price with the understanding that it would merely be an estimate. Received an answer of $500-$600. Was planning on $750 so this seemed fair and didn't raise any flags. I asked if I should be there by 8a and expect to spend a full day. To which both questions were answered with yes.
The day of the tuning appointment arrives and it's snowing and raining (which I waited over 2 months trying to avoid) but I leave the house at 4:30a anyway. Arrive at the tuning appointment and meet the tuner (who also happens to be the business owner and the same person I spoke to on the phone). I tell him I'm here for the tuning appointment, he looks at his books, recognizes my name, and asks if its an UpRev 370Z appointment. I reply yes and he asks, just intake and exhaust? I reply with no, and give the same description, so-and-so's car, you did the install and tune, yada yada. He asks about the tune on the car. I tell him there is a base map and it's locked. The other BP car they had done had a very conservative tune (460HP) at the customers request and I stated this would be a good starting point and that I would be happy with anything over 500 HP at 10-11 psi, but would leave the end product to his comfort levels. One of the other guys in shop scoffed at these numbers saying "dynos are heartbreakers" and "that won't happen without a built motor and race fuel".
We get the car pulled onto the dyno and they spend the next ~1.5 hours tying the car down. The entire time the shop owner complained about how low the car was and that's why it was taking so long. I told him to take his time, I wasn't in a hurry, and appreciated him taking the extra effort. Once tied down, 30 minutes or so was spent trying to fix a loose wire on the wideband for the dyno. It was obvious they knew about this ahead of time. No avail. Wasn't too concerned as I had one in the car that could be monitored during pulls.
Finally, around 10:30a we take a pull on the base map. Car makes 448HP and 405 ft.lbs at an AFR of 10.5 at 8.5 psi. This is on the 7.25 psi wastegate springs with EBC off, so I'm guessing Tial has some calibration issues. This is what peak recall on my boost gauge and EBC has been reading since day 1 so no real concerns, just worth mentioning.
Base map results:
The car is beast, there is a full fuel point and 3 PSI to play with. Should have no trouble hitting 500+ HP.
So now he opens the map on his computer and tells me it is password protected and asks for the password. I explain again that it is locked and we need to start from his base map. He throws a fit about this so I try calling R/T on a long shot that they will give me the password. Whomever I talked to on the phone was very understanding and sympathetic, but would not release the map. I know the reasons they won't and fully respect them and their justification. I was merely calling in an attempt to appease the tuner.
At this point, I learn that the gentleman that tuned the other BP car was the resident UpRev expert and has since passed in a motorcycle accident. It then becomes very evident that while extremely knowledgeable about tuning in general, my tuner has limited experience with, and actually hates, UpRev. So we pull up "the back to stock" map against the other BP tune he has and compare each of the parameters side by side to see what exactly was tuned on the other car. We copy everything over to a map with my ECU model (it was different than the other car so we couldn't just load the other map).
After copying the map over, he attempts to flash my car and gets an error message that stumps him. Sooo he calls UpRev and they don't even know what he is talking about and say they will call him back. I offer the suggestion of returning to stock using my laptop and then he could try. This works. So we are ready to make a pull with his base map. The car spits and sputters at sub 9 AFR, wont rev out, and runs like ****. He stops and proceeds to tell me that he is going to have to build a map from scratch. This will be VERY expensive. And that if we are going down that route I might as well get a hotel room. He has also never even seen this EBC so once we get the car tuned at wastegate pressure, its another ball game.
At this point (~2p), for a variety of reasons, I tell him to take the car off the dyno and I will just cut my losses. Soooo in the end, I'm out $100 in fuel, a day of vacation, 500 miles on my car, a 6 hour detail down the drain, and $450 of "tuning" time lost.
Needless to say, I'm not thrilled. But I'm also a bit stuck. There is a local UpRev tuner in KC. I've heard good things. I've heard bad things. They are great with Subi's and Honda's, but I have only heard of one testimonial on UpRev (albeit it was a 370Z that made 326 HP with intake, exhaust, and tps). My plan is to talk to them personally and see how comfortable they are with UpRev and the car setup then go from there. They were my original option, but I figured using someone more familiar with the kit, with a base map, would be better......
My hesitation now is that if the tuner doesn't deal with UpRev often, I'm setting myself up for failure. I'm 1,600 miles from R/T and 2,000 miles from Specialty Z. And while neither option is off the table, it would be ~$1,500 to ship the car to either and a ton of mileage/wear to drive.
I'm open to any and all suggestions...
