Faast

Every few months if not weeks,we hear some one blowing their E55 motor. To get some insight into these tuners is why i decided to start this thread.
So far we have the following tuners working on Mercedes.

Jerry = Eurocharged/LET
Jeremy = OE Tuning
Marcin = Speedriven
Aleks = Elite Performance
Cory = Kleemann
Hartmut = RENNtech
Andy = MHP
Wayne = Powerchip

With no offense,what me and i am sure others too,would like to know is,besides Kleeman and RENNTech who have plenty of R&D to back up their products,what kinda expertise and background do the other tuners have to take on projects like $25,000+ E55 motors.

I have never heard of Tuners blowing motors in Porsches,Supras,BMWs and other performance cars then the Mercedes and yet we continue to go with these tuners,why ?


I would like to know what kinda Educational/Technical background these tuners have that enables them to tune these performance cars ?

Please comment.

blackbenzz

Really?

930chas

+1.

It happens with all marques mentioned plus some. All part of the game in trying to achieve more powaaaa!

All you can do is perform your research. Search this forum, PM members with exeprience, talk to potential tuners, and if you go with a tune, monitor your motor's vitals, and unfortunately you will still have no guarantees.

beauphus

i hear of it quite often as well. there is no such thing a risk free modification and tuning is no different. anytime u reach for additional power, performance, or push a car past its specified parameters u are reducing its mean time between failure. that being said it makes no sense to stretch passed what is safe or acceptable - which is where having a competent tuner comes into play. all the tuners you mentioned have exhibited some skills and it really boils down to who you feel comfortable with. truth is i think they are all pretty good but pricing and availability is vastly different for each. for instance:

renntech most likely wont tune your car if you have other components besides theirs (company policy) and is probably less affordable
kleemann only gives box tunes - no dyno tuning. have to mail in your ecu or fly your car to denmark
jerry seems to offer an affordable tune and has great customer service (so i have heard)
jeremy is competitive with pricing and holds some of the records for fastest 55k and other platforms

from my perspective its extremely important that whoever you choose they have plenty of experience on the 55k and tune on the safer side to prolong your enjoyment of the vehicle. any tuner that doesnt due this is asking for a death wish because the moment one of their tunes is the potential cause for engine failure the word travels fast (albeit through PMs and hear say). service after the sale is always a huge plus too

Bramage

There is a wealth of information on this forum covering every aspect of the topic. There are also big camps with passion around thier tuner. I am one of those.

This thread will likely turn into another "Battle of the fittest", but my advice is the same as above: Do your research, and make your decision on that review. I just finished my Zeitronix / Dashdaq data logger tonight, with the sole intent of trying to push the envelope a little more. A box tune will in most cases be very safe, as they do not tune too agressive in in that format. To get the most, you need to do it on a dyno (or track),. and after that, have a way to monitor. That is as safe as it will get

Good luck, enjoy the new power the tune will bring.

emoving

Benz-O-Rama

I'll see your and raise you two

emoving

LOL, when we go to bed and get up tomorrow, it will be like 10 pages!

Faast

You are all missing my point.

I have played with Turbo cars for many years now and i currently own a Porsche Turbo and have been on P-forums for years.The only time you hear people blowing their engines,if any,is when they are going from 450 to 750+ hp not to mention the abuse they are putting their cars thru.

I have never heard of any Porsche blowing an engine with just an ECU tune,which always seems to be the case with our E55's ?

My main question still remains un answered :

Besides,RENNTech and Kleeman,what technical education/experience/R&D these other tuners have that qualifies them as a tuner ? I am not trying to be smart here but would like to know where do all these tuners ( not just mercedes one's) pop up from ?

Thanks

emoving

Why don't you call them all and get their degrees and history and report back?

blackbenzz

The E55 comes with 469hp stock. Even stock engines blow. Yes some tuners are better than others. That's why you have to do your research before trusting your car with someone. And even then have parameters set in place so you can verify and watch that everything is going as it should

Evolved8

Has anyone heard of Tony previously from LET/Eurocharged?? Any insight would be great... The E55 Iam picking up this weekend has a tune form him on it. Just trying to gather some info... also Do any of you guys run Widebands in your cars??

GHAZAN

The real question is did they pass C++

AMGPilot

He was involved with Revo when they were sued by APR for theft of intellectual property...

AgSilver

Assumption is the mother of all f*** up's. The argument that is being put forth is that engine failures are a result of re-tunes. How many 1/4 mile runs might there have been on these failed engines?

slownrusty

Not a true statement, Kleeman dynos your car pre- and post- modification at their North American HQ in Colorado Springs, CO.

Their ECU tune is a safe tune that does not necessarily extract every last hp but is a safe tune to ensure reliability and longevity while complimenting the modification(s).

I have about 10runs on the Kleeman Dyno in CO.

ELITE_KOV

Or stay stock and worry-free?

Tony the Tuner

I am here if you need me you can pm me or email me at tony@buckhead-imports.com

I have been a dealer of REVO I have never been employed by them, love how this stuff is made up.

I have been in the tuning seen for years now, tuned everything from Subaru to bmw to Mercedes, bla bla bla. First off tuning is tuning and its not rocket science as most make it to be. What makes things much more different are the platforms the makers decide to use and other variables within the ecu. I really dont think mercedes blows up more then any other car that is in the quest to gain over 100bhp its apart of the game and even at lower power gains you just never know when things are going to let loose.

I take the time to study an engines ecu along with its internals before I even touch it on the dyno and then hours of R&D and datalogging goes into dyno or road tuning a vehicle. No one needs c++ to tune a car but as a IT professional by trade it does goes a long way to help achieve safer and more acurate tunes when dealing with the newer ecu platforms. These are a few things that I do to prepare on new platforms I cant speak for everyone else. I have a nice write up you might want to read email me if you want a copy tony@buckhead-imports.com

skratch77

Kleemann does custom tuning!

Jakpro1

My only input is that Porsche has been turb'ing cars since 1974. AMG has been using forced induction in production cars since 2003. I would hope that nearly 40 years into it, Porsche has just about every single flaw in the engine down.

No way around it, there will also be problems that arise with the new twin turb'd AMG's until they work out the bugs.

Faast

Isn't the concept the same whether it is a mercedes,BMW or a Porsche. Engines,however have different tolerances.
I would also say,a tuner must have enough knowledge and R&D to make all mods work together taking into account the engine's limit and should always go slow with the power extraction.
Unfortuntaley,people like to rate tuners on their level of power extraction even if it pushes the drivetrain to it's limit.
A mail order Box Tune has never been safe any ways.
Yes you are right,Porsches have been making Turbo cars for years but it's only now that they are making reliable 600+ HP. In our case,the E55 is out just 6 years and we are already pushing it to 700+ power lever.
May be we should slow down until we figure out the limits of our engines.

AMGPilot

never said you were employed by them, just involved with them which is what a dealer would be....

Context and reading comprehension, those also help when you are a "Tooner"

Tony the Tuner

Context and Reading comprehension? What does this guys thread have to do with REVO? Or the question about me?

So I was really a dealer when those things went down with REVO? Tell me you know it. And why was that information irrelevant? If you can tell me when REVO had that go down and then tell me the dates I was a dealer I will back up your false statement and say im sorry.

On to the next.

ELITE_KOV

This thread is going downhill ... QUICKLY.

Mods will probably shut it down ..

Bramage

Maybe I should have worded that better.. these threads never go anywhere... POPCORN is the best policy!