First, I wanted to say that I have no business affiliation or financial interest in European Performance Labs whatsoever. I wish they'd let me buy stock in the place because I'm convinced that they're incredible at what they do, but bottom line, I'm just a happy customer.
So, coming from the Audi world I had a couple of close friends who have worked with Tony and Dave over at EPL. I believe the direct quote was that Tony (nerdhotrod on here) was a "mad scientist with a laptop/tuning genius". I was planning on a unique build (K16/16g hybrids) which I don't think anyone else has tried, so I didn't think Off-The-Shelf tuning would do the trick. When you make the decision to do truly custom dyno tuning (not just logging and e-mail tuning) there aren't a lot of options, so I was happy to have such enthusiastic recommendations for a nearby shop.
Tony and I decided that it was best to get an absolutely bone stock baseline before touching anything else on the car (we're talking stock BPVs, stock paper air filter, stock exhaust, stock everything!). In the interest of full disclosure, this is a 55k mile car and it just had the 60k mile service so I was running on new plugs, filters, oil, etc. (and a full tank of Mobil 93 Octane). I was a bit bummed that I was going to drive from NY to CT to do one dyno pull and then turn around and drive home (because I'm still waiting for my hybrids to arrive) so Tony offered to flash my car with his K16 flash to tide me over until my turbos come in. It made the trip a bit more worthwhile.

Long story short, here are the uncorrected results on their mustang dyno (note, this is the same dyno from the East Coast Dyno day last month):


Here are the corrected results:



Anyway you slice it, I picked up 80whp and 100wtq and the curves are incredibly smooth. In fact, Tony made a few on the spot tweaks as the first flash was spiking to 1.2 bar and made 509wtq (uncorrected). I was very pleased to know that Tony wasn't after a peak number and wanted consistent, safe, reproducible power. The above charts were made at a steady 1.0 bar and the AFRs were gorgeous. Power is one thing, but safety and reliability were priority one. As you can imagine the drive home was a blast, there was more power everywhere. An additional perk that I didn't expect, was how the throttle response and rev response off idle were transformed. The car is much more rev happy and a much more enjoyable car to drive (even aside from the power). Also, correct me if I'm wrong (and I'm sure I'll hear plenty about it if I am wrong), but isn't this the largest percentage change at the wheels that anyone's documented for a flash with back to back dyno runs? I'm floored to be making as much power as some are making on flash + exhaust. Needless to say, I am very impressed with the abilities of the folks at EPL and I am very excited to retune once I get my hybrids.

All the best,
Michael

 

About the AFR curves, which one is the flashed one?

 

The one that stays between 12 and 12.5 through the powerband.

 

the flashed one must be the AFR that settles quickly to 12.0. All my EPL graphs have always had afr that drops and sticks smoothly at a pre determined ratio. thanks


Suman

 

im confused
youre making 509 whp on k16s ?

 

looks like 409/474 awhp/tq to me (SAE corrected). I think he meant 509 TQ with the 1.2 bar on the flash. Im assuming you hit 1.2 bar because you have a restrictive stock exhaust? Goes to show u how even OTS programs need tweaking!


Suman

 

This is his own custom tune and not one of the usual suspect flashes?
How much did he charge you?

 

I think you may have misread the post.

I made 423awhp; 491awtq uncorrected (over a baseline of 339awhp, 389awtq, uncorrected) and 409awhp; 474awtq, corrected (over a baseline of 327awhp, 375awtq corrected). As mentioned, The car did make 509awtq on one pull, but that was while spiking to 1.2bar.

Yes, all of these numbers are on stock K16s with 55k miles on them.

 

Yes, Tony's own homebrew. He even uses his own software to do the flashing.

As for the cost, my price involves a retune after the hybrids and some other work and parts, so it's not apples to apples. I can tell you however that it was VERY reasonable. Give him a call and I'm sure he'll sort you out.

 

Thanks for the info. Great numbers for sure.

 

Very impressive. And for stock everything nonetheless!

I'm curious to see what others have gained from other OTS flash like giac, apr, uvm, fvd, up, revo, etc..

I'd have to agree with you on EPL being stand up guys. I've had nothing but great experiences in dealing with Tony.

 

See Woosh's numbers for UMW, but no baseline there...just TJW and no TJW with the holes getting bigger (modified OEM exhaust). One day. One tune. One car. Meant to compare TJW hole sizes...so note this please. It is nothing more. The "shape" of the curves is key....and the boost is not 1.2...it is 1.0 in the UMW k16 tune. There are good reasons for this.

Bottom curve is stock. Top is big whole TJW...about 2". See the thread:

https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/...t=78446&page=3


Note the flat torque 3500-5500...and flat max HP to redline.....for me, that is a very important feature...just me. Less "peaky"...this is 1.0 bar and NO MORE. Protects things from breaking.....one can fry an engine with too much boost..if the ecu protection is off via the tune........without the right other stuff like fuel supply...

I estimate 459/459 with no risks to the engine with the TJW mod...to the wheels...we considered this 539 at the crank. Only a k&n filter....k16's... About 430 atw for both HP and torque at 1.0 bar.....curious what your software would be at 1.0 bar max.....only.





JB

 

Wow, congrats. This is more than what I got on Tony's dyno in December with GIAC and exhaust!

I can't wait to see the final results

 

JCB,
I think your post misses 2 important facts:
1. My flash IS at 1 bar max only. The dyno plots in my post were made at 1 bar (the 1.2 was a brief spike that was tuned out in the next batch of custom changes and did not re-occur. That dyno plot was stronger but I did not post it). I only mentioned it to be clear that Tony would not tolerate the car even having a brief spike above 1 bar for safety sake. Please re-read my post.
2. Woosh mentions in post number 37 of your Modified OEM Muffler post "As I mentioned before my baseline before the UMW was repeatable at 388Hp and 401TQ" (see the same link you sent me (just scroll up a bit): https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/...t=78446&page=3)

My baseline was 327/375. It is clear that the dynapack dyno that Woosh was using was measuring high relative to the mustang dyno I was using (as is generally the case with dynapacks). Woosh's final number (on race gas, with the exhaust hole and a K&N) was 459 HP and 460 Tq. A gain of 71hp and, more importantly, 18.3%.
My gain was from 327 to 409 and was an 82hp and 25% increase. The differences in torque are even larger.

I have no doubt that Kevin has a very impressive tune. In fact, if I wasn't going to do a custom dyno tune, I probably would have bought his software. However, I don't think you've disproved my conjecture that my chart shows single largest dyno confirmed percentage increase in hp and tq from just a flash. Your implication that Tony's tune was not running enough fuel (please look at the AFRs) or was running boost over 1 bar are just plain incorrect.

Also, FYI, I think your crank hp figure for your car is a bit optimistic. Assuming Woosh's baseline of 388hp is correct that means (as the stock K16 car has 415hp) his car has a driveline loss of only 6.5%. I think you'll find that the actual number is much closer to 20% and that the dynapack was reading high. Also, what is the math behind your 539hp figure?

 

Seems a tad peaky to me especially when compared to the UMW example. Might be a bit tedious to drive after a bit. But to each is own.....