Bit long, but hey, I don't care. I'm deliriously happy I seriously was considering hanging a sign off the rear of the Zed on my way home similar to the "Just Married" ones instead with "Just Tuned". I've fallen in love with the Zed all over again. Its like being in a dark room and having someone suddenly turn the lights on. Little back story, bought the Nistune board from Chrispy's last group buy. Installed it myself on the day it arrived and had been driving around off the tune that was already on it since way back then. Even before I installed the Nistune board, I had been running a custom burned ROM 90TTZ had made for me about 2 years ago and it did the job, it wasn't anything special, just had a few tweaks here and there. First thing I noticed with the Nistune board, the car felt very laggy, unresponsive. Which I expected as it was probably running a super safe / standard tune. Another member (boo5t) few weeks / months ago brought up the name "Toshi" as a highly regarded tuner for the Skyline crowd. I was curious. Decided I'd give him a shot, based on his reputation. I was anything but disappointed. He kept stressing to me throughout the day that if I wasn't happy with the results he wouldn't charge me. Who the heck does that anymore? Toshi recommended we road tune instead of Dyno Tune, his main reason being that there are no surprises when you finally drive away, you know how it'll perform on the road. The other thing was you could more finely tune the sub 3K RPM maps based on real world load. I was skeptical at first as I was worried about Police and Traffic, but the road we used was mostly deserted, long and clean and for the higher speed runs, used the Freeway. Basically the setup was, I was driving, he was in the passenger seat with his laptop and previously before we had left his house he had fitted a Wideband O2 sensor to my exhaust and a Knock / Ping microphone to the engine block, for obvious reasons. We'd drive out to certain places / roads and he'd ask me to do a pull from xxxx RPM to xxxx RPM. Started out with 2nd gear, winding her up from 2K RPM to 6K. Followed by 4th gear runs on the freeway from 3K to 4K RPM. Lastly 3rd gear runs from 4-5K then the last few pulls from 3K to 7K. We started around 11am, finished close to 4:30pm. After a few pulls, I'd pull over and he'd work his magic on the laptop. Then it was off again for another pull. She did ping a few times in 4th gear and in 3rd but it was quickly sorted out. Did have a bit of an 'oh shit' moment, half way through the day, the cable for the Knock / Ping microphone had started touching the exhaust and well, you can guess what happened lol. Went back to his place, replaced the Mic and got straight back into it. Mods: - Stock Engine Internals - Stock Manual Turbos - Stock Fuel Injectors - Full Turbo Back exhaust (2.5" then past Cats, 3") - Japtek SMICs - HKS EVC4 Boost Controller - One Piece Aluminium Driveshaft - AMS Lightened Pulley set It was tuned at 1.1 Bar (approx 16 PSI). That was the safe limit of the Turbos that we found, past that, they just ran out of puff too quick. At WOT the AFR ratio it was tuned at was 11.5 which it held remarkably well. Had no fuel delivery trouble at all. End result, no more flat spots, stupidly responsive (swear its like driving a small 4 banger...) power delivery is smooth and fast. Can't wait to throw her on the dyno in a week or two and see that power curve :zlove: Some pictures, aint all that great but hey, pictures are pictures... Pretty much all he used, not seen here is his laptop and battery pack for the Wideband O2. Battery pack. Only used to power the O2 Sensor. As the Ciggy lighter was used to keep laptop charged... Little bit of a side note, found out this Toshi guy used to do those crazy ass Jap mountain runs when he was much younger back in Japan (some 20 years ago he said), which I thought was pretty awesome, and which was made ABUNDANTLY clear when I told him to take the Zed for a spin on the way home after we finished, LOL. :br: Anyhow, I will be updating this thread soon when I get some Dyno results. I made 211.3rwkw well over a year ago. If I had to guess, I'd say its around the 220-230 mark, but power delivery is SO much smoother and faster. MoulaZX
You know, years from now when you finally bite the bullet and pull your engine out, you're going to realize I was right this whole time... lol. Its your Turbos man! If you want I guess you could take it to him? Give him a call if you really want, I can msg you his number later? MoulaZX
LOL. Yes please. PM me his number. I'll just do a few more assessments/check just to be sure as engine pull is my last resort. Thanks man...
That's a great read and quite a prop for the nistune boards, but even more so for the Obi wan/Miyagi tuner - I can hear the solo flute of mystery in my head as I type. Thread subscribed to so I can see your dyno results. 'Big ups' on how you describe the feeling of "Just Tuned".
that sounds like SO much fun! +1 for pricing and contact details. I've got some form of programmable ECU and could go a tune personally...
I know right? The whole time I was with the guy I kept thinking the same thing lol. Hes a top bloke, very nice guy to deal with. His English isn't that great but he definitely knows what hes doing. He took quite a bit of time before and after the Tune to sit down and explain any questions I had about the maps and what sort of Tune I wanted, I.e Pure Racer setup for Track runs, Balanced (the one I chose) or Best for Fuel Economy. He was also kind enough to both show me the maps, both before and after shots to show the changes he made. Not at all. His usual fee is $500, to socket / install your Nistune board + Tune. He charged me $450 but I think it was cause he liked me and maybe as some sort of gesture that would carry over to the 300ZX crowd? Bare in mind though, my Zed was the first 300ZX he has tuned in 3-4 years, and on that note, hooking that Microphone onto the engine block was such a pain in the ass. Had no room from the engine bay up top, had to jack the car and hook it up from under. His policy for 2 or more Tuners as a 'group buy' is that he'll charge $500 first up, then once the second guy comes around he'll give back $100 to the second guy, unless I've misunderstood it. Boo5t could elaborate more as he had more dealings with him about pricing. Unless boo5t pulls out, hes next up for a Tune in a week or so I think. Get this, he was telling me he tuned this guy's Skyline half a year ago. The guy was cool with it, then out of the blue decides 'nope, don't want it anymore' and Toshi agreed to give him his money back, as thats his other policy. Isn't an easy thing to do, so on that note alone, have respect for the man. See above for pricing. As far as I know he only deals with Nistune boards and PowerFCs. You could give the guy a call and ask if you'd like. Let me know, I can PM you his number. MoulaZX
that's bloody good!! I bet you're bang on too regarding what the dyno will show, just a few more RWKW, but the smoothest power curve :br: makes me want to head on a road trip to Sydney
Good to hear Emile, I am going in next week. I didnt have spare ECU and i could not pull mine out to get socketed ready for the tune. Toshi has sorted this for me and arranged one, what a champ. Very excited though for this. How is the fuel economy now? Regarding the mountain runs...doesnt surprise me lol. What was he doing when you let him drive?
P.S that is indeed correct. If we got 2 ppl in the group buy its $400. Other wise $500. Since i will be going next week this will make it $400 really for anyone else interested. And this is not some 2 hour job as you can see he spends alot of time on the car. (11-4.30)
The biggest thing was he kinda zoned out, had this real serious look on his face... oh and went screaming through the bends and twists. Occasionally he'd snap out of it and say something along the lines of 'No like, too fast, too much power too fast'. Apparently power comes on too fast in the Zed now which he didn't like as you couldn't really feather the throttle, cause if you press it just that little bit too much, Turbos kick in and it wants to throw its ass out on the bends. Which I guess makes sense which why a really powerful NA makes more sense for the pro 'Mountaineers' lol. He goes 'If my car, I retune... Power too fast. No like. Great to have fun with on straight line' which is exactly what I wanted so he goes 'Oh no problem, you'll have lot of fun with this' as he mashes the accelerator again. :rofl: Oh and yea, its not a 2 hour job. And for me personally it wasn't so easy. Spent most of those 6 hours roasting in the sun. Was a very hot and humid day and couldn't turn on AC except for those few minutes when we pulled over. On the bright side though, feel more confident now that its been tuned for a hot Summer day so not worried if I hammer it on another hot ass day. Wouldn't recommend the road tuning to everyone having said that though. No chance to check on Fuel Economy. Too early. Will let people know in the coming weeks after I've done a few tanks. I do know it took about 5/8 of a full tank by the time we were finished so good idea to top up before you go over to him mate. MoulaZX
Hi Emile Thank you for on Saturday and this thread. When did you take photo? Anyway sorry for my English. OK I have to explain about ecu tune before start tune. Because if customer not happy I do not charge or I will retune. This is my policy. So I need talk to about power , fuel consumption , go to race track ,safe tune , power tune , about AFR (richer is safer and leaner is more power.AFR12 is more power but I adjusted AFR 11.5 for his car for safe.) etc. Then I will make map for your expectation. eg:if customer choice race map for make power and i did not explain about not good fuel consumption , customer will complain to me 2-3 days after. Price is real time chip tune ( I will use emulator) from $500 (std turbo std injector , std AFM)include socket chip.(socket and chip $50 labor $450) Power fc and nistune tune labor from $450 2 or more car same time book 'group buy' , I will discount $100. eg;First person pay $450 , next person pay $350 then I will cash back $100 to first person. So my labor from $350 Normally start 10 AM finish around 3-4PM. So I can tune one car a day. My email j-tech@tpg.com.au Ph number 0410490049
not my car but give this chap the Thanks he deserves folks. good to see people like this around and happy to help with his skill sets.
Yes, a very warm welcome Toshi , you are going to be a big hit around here. It looks like you might get a few free holidays around the country, with people flying you interstate for the use of your skills.
So how do you go about tuning timing guys? Not to piss on your parade or anything but i only read about getting your AF ok here. Noting about timing. Thats where the power lies. And Mostly where you blow up engines. When the engine knocked, how did he fix it? Just knocked of a few degrees until it stopped knocking? Og just richened her up? Let me jus say this. Without some very sophisticated equipment (which costs alot of money) the only way to tune a car propperly (especialy timing but also fuel) is on a dyno. And not on a interia dyno. The only way to be sure about timing and fueling is to look at power output when tinkering with the maps. Got an acurate powergauge in the car?
