Jeeez, I feel like I'm getting tag-teamed by the Forged choir boys~ Lol! :-)

I'm comfortable with the accuracy of my numbers and would love the opportunity to validate them against a neutral third party DD run (since my DJ pulls aren't good enough for you).

(I mean this as respectfully as I can) but Forged messed enough **** up on my car with shoddy installs and not taking responsibility (and making me fix their mistakes on my own), that I learned a few good lessons.

So - I'll go with a neutral third party. Non-negotiable. Call it a 'trust' thing... Maybe at some point in the future we can re-establish a relationship and move forward. I would like that. But until then...

I'm pretty sure Balanced Performance has a DD... I'll give them a call.

 

then, i have to call BS... i don't see this as a "trust" issue, but more of an issue with a grudge that you're carrying... you know as well as i do that there is NO WAY that sharif could or would do anything deragatory to your car... you know the atmosphere and you know we are all crowded around watching while dyno pulls are made... you also know sharif's character and to even insinuate that he would do harm to your car just goes to show your true character... and you also know that he has no "hatchet to grind"... he's tried to take your worries and complaints and handle them as amicably as possible... in truth, it seems like you're the one with a hatchet, and you're swinging it every chance you get by taking snide pot shots...

if the truth were anything near what you type, i would agree with you on this subject and you know it... but, let's look at what you call mistakes:

1) Stoptech Stage II = air in the lines... this can happen (and does) at any shop... it was resolved SAME DAY before you left... no saftey issue...no bad customer service issue...

2) Random Tech High Flow Cats = i can't speak on this one as i do not know the whole story...

3) HKS Hi Power = HKS is responsible for this mistake... sharif has no control over their quality control... you did well by finding the problem on your own, but popping and sputtering *are* a part of aftermarket exhaust due to back pressure...

4) MREV 2 = as i showed you in your other post, you actually have it connected IMPROPERLY now...

5) UTEC = can't speak on how it was installed as i didn't see it... but, i can tell you that when adding the MAP selector switch to my car during the race fuel tune, i saw how my UTEC was installed and it had the proper end connector and was grounded properly... mine was installed before yours, so i can't imagine that they arbitrarily changed their UTEC installation habits to do the shoddy work you describe...

in the end, E, i have to believe that you have no intentions of settling your beef with sharif amicably or proving your claims of tuning prowess and you'll continue to trash talk in your own round-about way... that said, i'll leave you to your posts... i thought you were a pretty cool girl who i could have a good rapport with and enjoy what we all, on this forum, love... but, it turns out that all you are really here for is the gossip...

EDIT: nice edit of your original post... trying to sweeten things up a bit, i guess...

 

Then call BS J... Fine by me. You're a cool guy, but a bit too much of a choir boy... I have nothing to prove really. Just sharing my Forged experience. Your mileage may vary. I got my issues fixed elsewhere, so now I really don't have any issues. But I do have a right to express my personal experience.... I even provided my new dyno chart, tuned parameters, and lots of pics in the below thread... It's not gossip, and it's obviously not good enough for you. So - What can I do?

https://my350z.com/forum/intake-exhaust/273185-hks-improving-on-perfection.html


1) Stoptech Stage II = I brought it back to you because I found air in the lines. Michael tried to convince me the "spongy" feeling was "normal" and it would go away if I drove it awhile. So I went out and "bedded" the new pads to the new rotors. That didn't help. Michael looked at it again and insisted the "sponginess" was "normal". That was unacceptable to me since it felt worse than oem. So after much hassle, I finally got you to re-bleed the brakes . And it was verified there was in fact air in the lines. The E-brake was still out of adjustment (Too loose). Michael said it was "normal" and adjusting it was too involved to warrant the effort. I verified with the dealership the adjustment was out of spec. - Finally got it fixed at a different shop.

2) Random Tech High Flow Cats = I tried to bring the car back for this, but I was told it was my problem: Michael stripped one of my brand new 02 sensors during the HFC install and you capped the bung with a plug & it kept throwing a CEL code. You took 0% responsibility for it. Cost me an addition $200 to replace. I even offered to go halves on it with you, but you took 0% responsibility for it. So I went and bought a new one at the stealership, and then Sandy told me you wouldn't install it because "we don't do warranty work". So I had it installed elsewhere.

3) HKS Hi Power = I didn't bring the car in for this because of the hassle you gave me on the Brakes and HFCs. So I emailed you with the symptoms & AFR's with no response until much later. Then I followed up with a phone call. You told me the "popping/ sputtering" sound it was making was "normal" for a free-flowing exhaust & told me "to go enjoy my car". After much investigation on my own, I found a large exhaust leak on Bank2 between the HFC and Exhaust via a smoke compressor. Fixing the leak your shop missed helped, but didn't remedy the larger problem so I kept digging... I ended up finding blockage in the H-pipe and Canisters through a different shop. I had the blockage and leak fixed by a performance fabrication shop (Very cool guys).

4) MREV 2 = By this point you had made it pretty obvious you weren't going to support the mods you installed so I didn't come back for this... The Bypass valve was incorrectly installed. Michael routed it to the throttle body, when in fact it should have been going to the plenum (I verified this with Motordyne as they walked me through the Forged install on the phone, Great customer service). I fixed it on my own by taking the bypass valve out. But - The truth of the matter is that you installed a Copper TB Heater that I never ordered. I ordered the Copper ISO 5/16th spacer, but you installed the Copper TB Heater instead. That's what got me looking at the install. You got the order/ parts mixed up, so now I have a "hybrid" install. Motordyne said this "hybrid" install should still work fine, but that I ended up buying redundant parts I didn't need.

5) UTEC = Again, by this point you had made it pretty clear you weren't going to support the mods you installed so I didn't come back for this... You grounded my UTEC to the underside of the dashboard panel mount by wrapping the bare wire around the dashboard mount. It looked pretty shoddy, so I ran an ohm meter on it while road testing and found the ground was fluctuating ... So I crimped a connector to the end of the wire and relocated the ground to the chassis (per TurboXS, Great customer service). Now I'm getting a good consistent clean ground. While I was at it, I also ran a dedicated ground from the ECU to the same chassis grounding point.


6) Only if you fix the tune you did where I'm getting a fairly consistent knock event @ 3500 that results in my timing getting pulled.... Nevermind, I easily got this taken care of by installing a TXS Tuner & teaching myself the finer points of UTEC tuning...

There's really nothing to settle now, since I pretty much had to go and fix the above cr@p on my own...

But -- Given the current situation, I think a neutral third party would be the best alternative to run some DD pulls, than a shop with a conflict of interest or a hatchet to grind. If that's not good enough, then just take my standing DJ/DD numbers for what it's worth... I was just trying to help the OP with tuning his utec maps since I now have practical experience in NA fine tuning.

If you think I'm the one with the hatchet to grind, then I'll do ya'll a favor and stay away from Forged (which if you haven't noticed, I've been doing anyway).

 

as i have said in every other post that i've made re: vendor bashing... EVERYONE has a right to post their personal experience...and people should bring their complaints or worries to light... and no one should be immune...but, E you are totally off-base here... you and sharif are biased with your sides... i've the luxury of being on the outside looking in... and you KNOW i would agree with you if i thought you were being 100% honest... but, even with me proving to you that some of your posts are BS, you continue to regurgitate them over and over again like some whiney child... you once told me that you didn't like drama or speaking publicly about bad experiences... your posts have shown otherwise...

and we both know that a neutral third party is not needed... that's such utter crap and it's your lame excuse to keep the "heartbreaker" from showing that your tuning skills aren't what you're making them out to be... the true test would be to return to the same dyno to compare the results...

and i wasn't speaking of your tuning when i said that you were only interested in the gossip... i was speaking of how you continually mud sling in every freakin' post by using snide comments or quotes or taking pot shots... instead of being mature and stating your side once, you hack up posts with repetition... this is what i meant by gossiping... and honestly, you should really take that to the hair salon... (my one pot shot)

also, i'm all for people learning and doing for themselves... but, to even begin to insinuate that you have "practical experience" with tuning...C'MON!

i'm done hijacking the poor OPs thread... to the OP, my apologies... E, enjoy your car...

 

And all I wanted to read about was knocking whilst shifting ..... !!!!!

 

Hmmm... I like the Forged link in your sig... You're neutral on the outside looking in alright...

Here, let me help ya out a bit J... Re-dyno'ing on Forged's dyno is meaningless since Forged did the original pull almost three months ago. Things like humidity, barometric pressure, ambient temp, tie down pressure, tire pressure, engine temp, dyno usage/temp, etc all affect the tune and /or the dyno's numbers.

The only way to do a comparison the way you are suggesting is to do two pulls on the same day, same atmospheric conditions, same dyno, very close to the same time, with all the same dyno settings. Now that isn't really possible at this point, is it?

The different conditions account for enough variance to render a direct comparison on the same dyno useless. So with that being said, any dyno will work for our purposes, whether it's a DJ, or a different DD.

Look, I've offered to take my car to Balanced Performance's DD (Ie. Their Heart Breaker). If you'd like to be present during the pulls, I'll let you know when & where. If that's not good enough, then what can I do to help ease your mind?

Well, I've posted up my tuning parameters and DJ dyno pulls to this thread... I'm not insinuating anything - I pretty much proved it. Is that not good enough for you either? It's not rocket science ya know, once you get over the fear and mysticism of tuning. And now I regret paying $375 for a tune that I was able to do better (10whp to 16whp better). But live & learn. That's why we're all here.

Would you like screen shots of my actual timing & fuel maps instead of my tuning spreadsheet? Would that be better proof for you of the tune I'm running? If you'd like, I can even post up the tune Forged did on my car & you can see how much further I tweaked it... Ooops, is that 'vendor bashing' again? Okay, scratch that...

Somehow, I doubt that...
I really don't like fighting with you, J... I've always looked up to you, and respect your adoration of Forged. Unfortunately I don't feel the same at the moment, but hopefully that can change for the better in the future... Hopefully my Forged experience will be the first, last, and only bad experience Forged has.

 

How did this thread turn into monkeys throwing $hit. No offense to anyone, but if possible can we stick to the topic at hand.

 

PM sent, E...

your apology is above... i hope you saw it...

 

PM replied...


I apologize too....

Back to the OP's thread. :-)

 

Thanks! So from what I've gathered lowering the IGN to about 22-23 around 4k should solve the shifting knock. Does that sound right to everyone?

 

I would try that. Run some logs with the engine under load, shifting, etc & see if you're getting knock/ pulled timing. If you get knock, (and are sure it's not false knock) you can back the timing off a bit, and/ or richen up the AFR for that load point. I always tune in small increments, and I try to change one parameter at a time (so I can easily change it back if it didn't work so great). Another option for shift knock, is to try setting the Open to Closed Loop Delay to (2) in the Open Loop Fueling Menu. That helped me.

 

I think I found one of the bigger problems. On a third gear pull my afr stays high 12's maybe dipping into the 13's around 4k, but through 1st & 2nd it is definitly leaner, typically staying in the low to mid 13's. Probably why the knock only occured on shifts and not pulls.

 

Sorry if I missed this but are you FI or NA?

 

back to shift knock..........

has anyone gotten the open loop to closed loop delay to help with the shift knock. I have it set to "1", but I still get it.......I haven't changed anyhting in a while because all the USB ports on my laptop took a ****.

 

N/A forever

 

I still had knock after setting it to 2, but it seemed to help a little. I now have engine flare on shift though so I think I'm going back to 0 or possibly 1.

 

Is your timing flaring during shift? I've noticed sometimes in my logs that my timing will advance (or flare) to as much as 39 degrees on shifting (as an extreme case). The Open to Closed Loop Delay pretty much eliminated the shift knock for me... If that didn't help for you, maybe your AFRs are going too lean during shifting... Although a lean condition when momentarily letting off the gas shouldn't cause knock... Are you running oem plugs?