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Steve is a great guy at etunez but hes not vit and never will be. Ive known Steve since 2011 and he tuned my 8th gen Si. In my opinion, he tuned it decent but didnt fully tune it , he never tuned the iat comp table so the fueling adjust when temps are cold outside and when asked he said that had be tuned separate and asked for more money. So at that point vit was working for steve and i emailed him about it and vit took care of me. Vit left not real long later started his own business. Vit was the best in my opinion, when he was done you knew it was right.
Billsrdx,
I've had great luck with him so far. His tunez are very inexpensive tho so i would not be too concerned about spending another hundred bucks. Although VIT sounds like an amazing tuner, his customer service was awful.
I've been running an E-Tunez map for around a year now with zero issues.
Decided to upgrade a few more parts
Modifications: CP-E Xcel Acura RDX Air Intake ATLP Performance Exhaust System TurboSmart Kompact Dual Port BOV
DW300 Fuel Pump RV6 DP
DW 800cc ETS intercooler Hondata FlashPro
Tuning for E10 as well as E85 this time. She seems to be loving the new parts so far . Other than getting sprayed in the eyes with gagoline during the fuel pump install, totally worth the money .
Let me know if anyone has questions surrounding my setup. As far as performance bolt ons, pretty sure i have them all. I have not done the blouch turbo upgrade. Only would upgrade that if mine fails for whatever reason.
I live at about a mile above sea level but the rdx is still hauling at the moment. One last note, reading other threads, there is always a comment about the RDX being slow. There is always going to be faster cars, that have three times the displacement than the rdx. But don't hesitate to put some money into yours, because you'll still smoke 90% of the grocery getters out there. Plus when ski season comes around, you wont see them on the top of a mountain pass
New guy here, but not new to performance cars, hondas, or tuning. I was really unhappy with my ETunez tune on my K20a EP3; I went through 11 revisions with Steve and he was unable to reduce the knock I was seeing, and then I got this cal...
It took Jeff Evans all of about 4 iterations to reduce my knocking to near-zero. Caveat emptor.
Super nice guy, very responsive, but he was not doing my motor any good.
(Sorry, that last sentence was very unclear. STEVE is a super nice and responsive guy. Jeff Evans (Evans Tuning) is also pretty responsive and has convinced me he knows what he's doing.)
New guy here, but not new to performance cars, hondas, or tuning. I was really unhappy with my ETunez tune on my K20a EP3; I went through 11 revisions with Steve and he was unable to reduce the knock I was seeing, and then I got this cal...
It took Jeff Evans all of about 4 iterations to reduce my knocking to near-zero. Caveat emptor.
Super nice guy, very responsive, but he was not doing my motor any good.
$0.02,
FC
I can totally understand your concern feral. I am by no means very technical surrounding tuning myself... maybe one day. Based on one of my last datalogs for e85 I have has zero knock counts on his tune. Here is a screenshot at full throttle. While there is some k retard and k control. Pretty sure that is more preventative then anything.
Had a good experience with Steve, quick responses and pro service. Got my tune on the Thursday, datalogged on the weekend and had my revised file by Monday!!!
I feel like you always leave perfection in the table if you don’t dyno tune. I would at least want to street tune. You guys all feel good with just an electronic tune?
I feel like you always leave perfection in the table if you don’t dyno tune. I would at least want to street tune. You guys all feel good with just an electronic tune?
I think it depends on what you are going for. If you want the most power possible, maybe dyno is the way to go. But for street driving, i think flashpro is perfectly fine.
On another note pushing the limits on the dyno is also going to break more parts for a daily driver.
Modern tuning via flash modules with data logging capabilities to include factory wide bands and Bluetooth is a game changer, especially if you grew up with OBD 0/1 and s300/Neptune/Crome etc.
Street tuning and dyno tuning go hand in hand now. Most tuners will do both to get the most out of a tune and really fine tune partial throttle drivability. I had both done. I can’t fathom not tuning nowadays, especially when tuning a stock RDX will net you better results than all the bolt ons combined with just a basemap. Blows my mind really.
Right. So those are base maps meant to get your car drivable enough to either get some data logs to send to a tuner or to drive to a dyno to have your car tuned or both. Hondata will tell you that to if you ask them. That’s why I said a tuned stock RDX puts down better numbers than a full bolt on RDX with just a base map. Why do I say that? Because Derek from IMW has taken the time and effort to show the community the results. Not to mention getting rid of all the drivability headaches with modifying the MAF system by incorporating speed density tuning along with it.
That’s why I said it blows my mind that people are willing to spend the money on the hardware but not the software. The hardware gains are negligible without the software. It’s even stranger to spend $700 on a FlashPro, but not $400 for at least a street tune. Hell, you don’t even need the hardware. Derek made incredible gains with just an intake and now it’s not even needed with speed density tuning, it’s way more reliable, and no codes.
It would be one thing if the gains were a mystery or people were just saying to get your car tuned because it seems like the right thing to do, but the numbers don’t lie, on the graph and at the track. Leaving a boat load of power, reliability, and drivability on the table for being unwilling to drop another $400 after spending thousands never ceases to amaze me.
I guarantee anyone with a first gen RDX will be instantly amazed at the results achieved at IMW. Single greatest mod you can do to a 1G hands down and I have them all to compare and back that up.
Last edited by Mr Hammond; 05-08-2020 at 12:00 PM.
I have the k&n intake, ets tmi, dw 800cc injectors, dw 340lph fuel pump, rv-6 down-pipe/mid-pipe, atlp cat-back exhaust, and of course the flash pro 800cc injector tune. I know it’s a base map not custom but it’s good enough for a daily driver. I plan on dyno tuning it but want to stay local as possible...
That’s the thing, it’s not really good enough for a daily driver. In fact, it’s that much worse if you’re daily driving on a basemap. Not only are you leaving tons of power on the table, but more importantly, you’re leaving efficiency, economy, and reliability on the table. There’s a reason you’re throwing codes when you’re in boost in the upper RPM range. Likely the same reasons everyone else fought before speed density came along.
If you’re having trouble finding a local tuner with an AWD dyno, find one that is capable of pulling a fuse and running it FWD. If you’re worried about a local tuner skills or familiarity, email tuning is equally as good and in some cases better since you’re tuning based on the actual driving conditions you’ll experience everyday. It’s very easy with FlashPro. You press the data log button, you drive around, you connect to a computer, download the data logs, and email them to a tuner. They email you a tune. You go threw a few cycles of this and that’s it. You’re done. Idle will be better with the 800s (I have them), partial throttle drivability will be loads better, and best part, much more HP and TQ, like actually smile-inducingly noticeable.
I’ve got no dog in this fight other than I hate seeing people skimp on the most important thing and miss out. You don’t feel like doing it, so be it, but humor me: just out of sheer curiosity, what is it that motivates you to spend gobs of money on the hardware, but not a few hundred bucks on making it all worthwhile?
I was using the K&N basemap on my 2008 for awhile. My mods are basic; K&N short ram, ETS top mount, ATLP exhaust, and TurboSmart Kompact. It ran ok. Decided to stop modding and get an online tune with Steve at ETunez. After 7 revisions, my car is running very smooth and responsive.
08-16-2019, 12:12 PM
. Other than getting sprayed in the eyes with gagoline during the fuel pump install, totally worth the money 
.
