My Dynotronics experience; Thank you Specialty Z

dP3NGU1N

So my experience with Dynotronics has been less than stellar. Joe is an infuriatingly pleasant soul to speak to on the phone but his service simply doesn’t match up, unfortunately. I started my journey for a retune last July. JULY 2015!! And to this day I have not gotten a “you’re good to go” from him. In fact, there is basically zero feedback from his end other than providing a file.

The following is a transcript of my interactions with him. These are real and time stamped so you can see how long it takes to get a response. Throughout this process I try to be as civil as I can. I’ve only modified my name out of the transcript, which is silly in retrospect but I was already half way through when I decided it wasn’t worth the effort….. so I finished doing it anyway.

I want to make it clear that I do no dislike Joe, but he can take bloody forever to do things. His excuse is always that he has too many customers and requests; to which I can only say, good for him.

Because the transcripts are images and very long, I'm going to include them using spoiler tags so you can hide and unhide as you go.

Page 1: First contact

Page 2: The Follow Up

Page 3: Missing in Action


You will notice that in the final post. I never get a follow up. And I likely never will.

It finally came to the point where my knock sensor was going off way too often. So I bit the bullet and went to Seb and Specialty Z, who took pity on me and didn't charge me too much for a dyno tune.

I will allow the results to speak for themselves.


279whp is the dynotronics tune. 5 minutes later Seb had me sitting pretty at 293whp



End of the day 299whp. 20hp gain, no more check engine light. Sweeeet. I'm not interested in the numbers themselves, just the gains and making the car drivable.

Seb is a magician, be like Seb.

If any one has any questions, go ahead and let me know and I'll do my best to answer them.

Cheers!



Untitled-1.jpg Untitled-2.jpg Untitled-followup.jpg Untitled-3.jpg

baselinevssztune.jpg denny5thgear.jpg

__________________

35% Hooper Optik | Takeda Attack CAI | F.I. HFC | Hotchkis Sway Bar | Stillen 24row | OS Giken Super Lock LSD | TK Shift Knob | EVO-R Carbon Diffuser

ARrado15

Good to know. I'm planning on getting a BP kit, and am about 5 hours away from them. Hope to get a good ECUtek tune with them

__________________

RumbleFish

Seb and his team rock!

I'm headed back for an EcuTek tune soon myself.

__________________
How far, this...Utopia?
F.I. CBE V2/Stillen G3 CAI/GTM 25R OC/EcuTek tune (Specialty Z)/ KW V3's/Stillen Sway bars/SPC rear camber kit/Z1 FUCA/Mich. PSS4S 255/35-295/30

darkphantom

that 299 whp is with all your bolt ons?
haven't done a baseline on mine, but I wonder what I could net with my Ark CBE, HFCs, CAI and a tune.

__________________
'13 PW M6 | Takeda | ARK GRiP V2 | H&R

dP3NGU1N

Many people get much higher. Depends on the dyno used. However, most important thing to consider is gains vs. final number. Number is always going to be variable car to car.

But to answer your question directly: I have takes a CAI, fast intentions hfc, and ark cbe.

__________________

35% Hooper Optik | Takeda Attack CAI | F.I. HFC | Hotchkis Sway Bar | Stillen 24row | OS Giken Super Lock LSD | TK Shift Knob | EVO-R Carbon Diffuser

Patrickz34

You can expect anywhere from 300~315 WHP

__________________
Motordyne E370, Berk HFC, Stillen G3, SPC Camber arms
Ecutek Tune by Sebastian @ SpecialtyZ, Z1 34 Row
Swift springs, Morimoto RGB Halos, Vordoven Forme 9

Patrickz34

I got tuned by Seb last week and made 310 WHP 268lb TQ. But as you said whats important is the increase over the entire curve.
I have Berk HFC FI CBE and stillen g3.
Just reading your ticket history with that other tuner got my blood boiling. What utter **** of customer service.. Sounded like he was giving you the run around. As busy as Seb is, he will always get back to you within 24 hours TOPS and is amazing at what he does. A true gift to the VQ community.

__________________
Motordyne E370, Berk HFC, Stillen G3, SPC Camber arms
Ecutek Tune by Sebastian @ SpecialtyZ, Z1 34 Row
Swift springs, Morimoto RGB Halos, Vordoven Forme 9

helidriver

I'm at the same point with Dynotronics, and it's frustrating because I was part of the initial group buy he did 3 years ago. Ive now been trying to get a retune since November for the exact same reason you mentioned with no success. I just got off the phone with Joe and he basically told me I was at the bottom of a 4,000 file pile. Really, after 7 months? Looks like it's time to find a new tuner. JTran, here I come.

ANMVQ

I stared a thread a year ago to stay away from Dynotronics ..

Can agree with Seb also, very much on point no matter how busy he is!

__________________
14 Q50 AWD, ARK, ECUTEK (SEB), Takda,

BOLIO 671

Seb is the man....Thank goodness there are still some people out there that do good business and have quality customer service.

__________________
2013 Nismo Z34 / FI TT #091 / IG: @lilzilla_z34

dP3NGU1N

I was a part of the same group buy. Unfortunately it seems the old adage that says you always pay for cheaping out rings true here.

__________________

35% Hooper Optik | Takeda Attack CAI | F.I. HFC | Hotchkis Sway Bar | Stillen 24row | OS Giken Super Lock LSD | TK Shift Knob | EVO-R Carbon Diffuser

jrb55gh

As a Dynotronics customer with a stock 370 etune and about to install hfc and cbe I am concerned with the detonation issue in this thread. A couple of tuners and probably more on this forum have found the way to make additional power without detonation on 93 octane fuel. I have been thinking about what they may have done differently than Dynotronics to achieve their results. I have done some research on preventing detonation with a given fuel. Charge temperature, pressure and burn time seem to be the big hitters. There are several adjustments that can be made to intake and exhaust valve timing to address these conditions.

Since the exhaust cam is not adjustable on the 370, the exhaust valve opening and closing times are locked in. The compressed charge temperature and pressure must be controlled by the intake cam timing and duration. Charge temperature can be reduced by increasing intake valve overlap with the exhaust valve when the exhaust system is free flowing. The idea here is reduce the compressed charge temperature by purging the hot spent combustion gases from the combustion chamber at the end of the exhaust stroke and beginning of the intake stroke with cool fresh charge. The other way to limit compressed charge temperature is by late closing of the intake valve for a given rpm. This lets some of the charge drawn into the cylinder during the intake stroke to flow back into the intake manifold before the intake valve closes. This also lowers the compressed charge pressure.

The late closed intake valve reduces the amount of charge inducted into the combustion chamber and limits the amount of power that cylinder can make. But that smaller charge with ideal timing and 93 octane could possibly make more power than a fully charged cylinder with limited timing and 93 octane fuel. That is the trade off.

The concept is straightforward but implementation requires much dyno time to determine how much valve overlap, intake closing after bottom center, ignition advance and air fuel ratio is required at each rpm to get maximum 93 octane power. That is a large number of variables to juggle, but it has been done by auto manufacturers such as Mazda in their Skyactiv (14:1 cr) vehicles and even NASCAR engine builders in 16:1 cr engines that are required to run a restrictor plate. Probably some of the 370 tuners have done it too.

For those that want to learn more about this technique research: Atkinson thermodynamic cycle.