shmaptoe

ive tuned i think right around 10 motors, about half of them being my own.

only one of them blew up. my stock sleeve lsvtec cracked the #3 sleeve at like 15 psi, 8000 rpms in 4th gear pulling on my friends turbo s4 on a 20 degree night. i knew the setup had creep issues and i was only running 450's and a stock map sensor. the afrs were good for what the fuel system can handle, but the creep i had that night was enough to destroy the motor.

udaredme

first car i tuned was last year..i put a sohc vtec zc in my 93 civic, left it NA and tuned it, sold it to my cousin after that..cars still running strong..1st turbo motor i tuned was my crx..its been a month and it hasnt blown up yet..

hackish

First car I ever tuned was my Subaru Impreza 2.5RS with an Electromotive Tec2. That was back in 1999. The tune sucked and didn't make any more power than the stock ECU but I did learn a lot. The first customer tune I did was in 2000 on a turbo integra LS. The car ran for 5 years before the guy removed and sold his kit. It's still in this city running around somewhere.

As for popping an engine I've blown 2 customer engines in the last 7 years. One was from an SDS breaking the pickup trigger and firing the engine about 60 degrees btdc. The other was a turbo mustang and an owner who wouldn't listen when I said it wouldn't take 15psi. The block split from the lower intake to the oil pan. I tune anywhere from 10-50 setups per year.

All the jobs I do require the owner to sign something saying he understands that we're pushing an engine past what it was designed for an anything can happen. It's like taking your dog to the vet for an operation. No matter how careful the vet is sometimes they will die anyway. A tuner is seldom "responsible" for a blown engine even if it's his fault.

Many people can "successfully" tune a car with only basic knowledge. The reason you pay big bucks to have a good tuner map your car is that their basemaps have a lot of hours and in their tuning they know how far something can and should be pushed. I've even intentionally blown engines in my own cars just to see how much detonation they would take. A lot of it too is having the experience to know that funny noise was a misfire or a ping and to know and understand what's causing it and how to fix it.

-Michael

Gavin

First car was my 280z, with MegaSquirt. I had it set up with fuel only at the time (stock Vac/mechanical advance). I was amazed at how simple it was and how well it ran, before and after tuning.

Second car I tuned was a BMW 318 running Motec (Amazing!) and then a Civic running a top of the line Hondata (shoot me). Both were on steady state dynos. That was at EFI University which I highly recommend.

integ401

First tune was my Gsr. Tuned it N/a just to learn. Did ALOT of reading on pgmfi.org . Using crome with a innovative wide band and auxbox and a ostrich rtp. Cars pulls but has some flat spots.

vang

first tune I did was on a friends semi built high compression turbo b18a1. having no experience other then reading tuning articles I think I did really well. Raced a couple low 13 sec. eclipses and pulled them by a good car. Later on in the night, the motor mount broke, oil pan kissed the road, piston cracked from all the vibration. Re-built the motor with same specs but never got to tuning it again. Just traded it off to someone for a car.

second tune I did was on my own d16z6 at 15 pounds of boost. Runs super strong and still runs strong. Dont drive it anymore since it's snowing but as soon as spring hits, I'll have it boosted beyond 20 pounds...

Walter

wow..u had good first experience tuning those cars..