Hammer Down

So lets start from the top to understand it all. Just got a turbo kit for my f22b1 motor. Not having any knowlegde of boosting Hondas, I asked for a Professional Tuner. Mark Brauning was recommended by a good friend of mine . Just from here-say. So I go to Brauning Motorsports . Get there about 10:30 am. After sitting around for 4-5 hours and nothing being done. They finally get a sec. And asked me a few questions. One was what has been done to motor . I replied all stock except I was informed when I bought this LOW mileage motor from Japan, it was Sleeved with Cast Iron Sleeves. And 550cc injectors. Ask me what boost am I looking for. Well talking to many , many , many other boosted accords, with my application I should get 14psi from my turbo. Most of them had 250 to even 335 whp on all Stock motors, so Brauning replied thats alot of boost on my motor. Comp ratio was way to high. Said my comp ratio was like 10.2:1. I replied it has 8.8:1. I know this . He argued it was not that low. Whatever. So he proceeded to hook up the Gm 3 bar map sensor. Sets a base map for the S100. Pulls it up on the Dyno. Makes about 10 Dyno power pulls, no more, burning the chip each time. OK HE'S DONE !!! Ok 233whp on 14psi from a t3t4oe, and 231fpt. I thought it was a little less than others on the same page as me . So ok I pay the 640 bill. Go to leave and yeah I hot rod it leaving . Coming out of third gear, BOOM, and the white cloud appears. So I drive it back, PISSSED OFF !!!!!!!!! They acted immediately like the tune had nothing to do with it, before I said anything. So I said FIX IT !! And lets get some upgrades so I can run 25-30psi on my motor. Come to find out my piston ring lands broke as they said after the motor was taken out and disassembled. The list of upgrades include, Darton Mid Sleeves, Carillo Rods, Weisco 9.2:1 pistons(stating with those I will lower the motors Compression which is ideal for boost), ACL bearings, rings and gaskets.

After expediting the machine work and parts, I get my car back in about 3 1/2 weeks. Which is good turn around time from what I hear. Excited about my built motor, so I can get on it and get some real power from the motor, I go and get it Saturday. He said " I set a base map for the ecu so you cant hurt the motor. Its in limp mode, retarded the timing another 8 degrees and raised the fuel flow to 30% richer so you cant hurt the motor during break in time. I said ok I dont want to hurt my motor thats for sure. So I pay the 5900 bill, and leave. Uhhhh WTF I can barely accelerate . I mean the car is running like DOG SH*T, definetly not what I was expecting after 6k. I dont make it a 1/4 mile and turn it around. Another thing is I didnt have a cover on my ECU. So I approach Mark Brauning and say " my car runs like sh*t. He said that is normal and its going to be like that until I break in the motor. I just agreed thinking he might have known what he was talking about. I drive the POS home 1 1/2 hours . I park the car and leave it alone for about 4-5 hours. Oh yeah another thing I used one FULL tank of fuel driving about 90 miles. INSANE !!!! I go to start my car and NOTHING, won't even start. I call Mark and he says the fuel is so rich its going to foul out my spark plugs. I replaced the plugs and nothing changes. OK he thinks its the ecu, so I drive 3 hours on a tuesday night to get my ecu. I need my car to drive to work . The rentals was killing me for 4 weeks. I get another ecu and hey the car starts and works. He said " I will give you the same tune you had when you were dyno tuned at 233whp, but I will make it alittle bit richer so it helps the rings seat. Piston rings need the fuel to help them seat." Ok the car runs a little better but trying to take it easy on the throttle and the car is just jumping and studdering like crazy !!! You have to give it full throttle to accelerate and not jerk you around so bad. Then my idle goes crazy, I lose all power and the speedo goes crazy and bounces all over the place. I take it back once again on that friday.

So getting up there about 10am, they start trying to fix why the car runs so horrible, 4 - 5 hours later he trys to send me home with a car thats in worst shape now then it was in before I brought in there. So I argued til I was blue in the face and after getting to a stage of cussing everyone, thats when the attitude changed. Ok a tech started working on the car, just looking at it, a few wires on the harness is messed up. That should have been addressed when the motor was installed, not to mention when the motor was installed the oil return line was pinched against the fan shroud cutting it and leaking oil all down the oil pipe. When I picked up the car on that Sat. he said my car will be smoking for a while from where I blew it and dumped 2 quarts of oil down the exhaust, so I never paid much attention to the smoke. Well after checking through the motor one day and saw oil all over everything, I saw the line all wet. I see they had to break more of the fan shroud to get it in there, but I didnt have that problem thats for sure. So then I was looking at the car and trying to figure out the idle and why it wouldn't stay running. Also the egr valve went bad they say, so the tune was off from when he tried to tune it earlier. It still drove horrible. No speedo but vtec. They proceed to retune it on the dyno and it pulled on 156 whp at 9psi, UHHHH something doesn't sound right. I was just so happy to see my car stay running so I can drive it the hell home. I left that night at 8:30pm with a 150 dollar bill, what tops it all, the car still runs like crap , no power . So I need someone who can actually tune a car !!!!! The customer service and workmenship is horrible, from my experience. Tried to blame the cars actions on everything but what they have touched. You know, my car was acting fine when they got it and it hasn't ran right since Brauning motorsports touched it !!!

idriveahonda

Damn that was a novel.

Good luck getting it fixed.

Dang Yo

first off running really rich on break in is bad because you will fuel wash the cylinders and the rings will never seat.

VB2NER

+1

Joepiper151

welcome to the world of boosting a honda, i've had very similar situations with another company. U need to get it done right by inline pro or atleast a big racing company.

Jarrod

Yup.

Sucks when it happens to a built motor.

black6gen

+1

Also, i just got my car back from dyno inc. and they did a great job with tuning my boosted d-series.

Samuels

Sorry to hear, I don't know whats going on truthfully.. I know they are very knowledgable people that work thier thats for sure, hopefully everything works out for you..

I'm just glad my car runs its ass off..

My motor runs flawless not a hiccup and was built last spring.. Mark just retuned it on c16 at 421hp and 275tq on 23psi with stock sleeves.. I think Mark is 1 of the better tuners that has ever touched my car, i don't have a clue about the rest of whats going on down thier but i've been reading alot of negative stuff lately dunno ..

I<3Strippers!

seriously, dyno inc is on point, they treat everyone with respect and are very knowledgeable

Hammer Down

Well Mark isnt touching my car ever again .There is no reason why he made my car run so crappy. It will go somewhere else . Just gotta trust someone . Tired of wasting money.