Well, alot of people have been asking my opinion on Billy's (FastKatt) custom street tuning work lately, so I decided to do a write-up for everyone to check out.
So far, I've had nothing but great experience. He's alot of fun to work with, and has helped me take my car MUCH farther than I ever could have with a simple canned tune, like ZZP or Intense.
We'll start off with the first round. After my topswap setup, I needed a good tune to run the car properly, so we came up with a decent base tune to flash onto the PCM before we started the custom work. When he got there to start the tuning, we swapped the base file on, but the car would not run for more than a few seconds due to a major vacuum leak (which I didn't even know was there, he found it for me). A few days later I got the car working, and was actually able to drive on this base tune smoothly for a couple weeks with no problems. Which is incredible, because topswap setups are a P.I.T.A. to tune properly, and he got it right on the first try.
Finally, I found some time to get out to Rockford and do some custom tuning. We did some scanning, after a McDonalds run of course , and I was maxing at around 6 or 7* of KR. After two hours of scanning and tuning, there were one or two areas left that were maxing at .5* of KR, but he was able to tune most of it out, so now I've gone form 6 or 7* to a max of .5*, but most areas currently have 0* of KR due to the tuning. We were actually able to add some timing in certain areas. During this session he also fixed my lean fuel issue, I haven't seen an SES light since we finished. I've also seen a very noticeable increase in gas mileage and performance.
These tunes aren't just for people with highly modified setups, or even modified cars at all. Even on a completely stock car, a good tune will increase your performance, gas mileage, and transmission life. So even if you're not interested in performance mods, it's WELL worth it just for the gain in MPGs, and the increase in the life of the famous 4t65-e transmission.
What sets him apart from the rest is that he doesn't just simply use the DHP Powetuner application like most tuners do, he use a mix of a few different scanners, and some extra tables allowing him to do a much more advanced tune than most. He also answered and explained all the questions I had along the way, so I learned a thing or two in the process.
Cliffsnotes: Helped me find and fix problems I didn't even know were there, got my topswap tune down just right, killed my KR, increased my MPGs, and best of all increased my performance, and had alot of fun in the process. Thanks FastKatt, awesome work. Looking forward to seeing you again in the spring!
Originally Posted by FastKatt
