• Wiring—The engine harness should have NO exposed wires. Also, DO NOT twist and tape wires together. Take the time to solder them!
• Codes—Do not come for an appointment if you a check engine light on.
• Exceptions to this are o2 sensor code, o2 heater code, and knock sensor code.  These will be disabled at your tuning session.  Please view our tech article on how to check your codes, and what they represent: Click Here
  
• Battery/Alternator—Should be charging 13.5-14 Volts at all operating conditions.  Exceptions to this are race cars running a 16V battery or a crank pulley that underdrives the alternator (i.e. Fluidampr race pulley).
• Fuel Pumps—DO NOT install the pumps if there is dirt, debris, or rust in the tank. If there is rust in the tank, replace it. You will starve the engine of fuel if you leave junk in the tank.
  

• battery to chassis
• transmission case to chassis
• valve cover to chassis

• 8:1-8.5:1 compression: 150-170 psi per cylinder
• 8.5:1~9.5:1 compression: 170-210 psi per cylinder
• 9.5:1~11:1 compression: 210-275 psi per cylinder
• 11:1+ compression: 250+ per cylinder (highly depends on cams being used)

Valve Lash

Timing Belt

1. Needs to be installed properly.
2. Should have minimal to no slack. If it is too loose, you run the risk of skipping a tooth or running incorrect timing.

• Oil pan
• Cam seal
• Distributor seal
• Valve cover gasket seal
• VTEC solenoid seal
• Oil filter
• Oil sandwich adapter

*All of these leaks will need to be fixed before tuning.*

Turbo Systems

• Make sure you have secured your pipes so that they do not blow off at a tuning appointment. If the pipes aren’t blowing off on some of the 600+whp cars that I’m tuning then they shouldn’t on the 250-300whp cars either.  Use silicone hump hoses where applicable and t-bolt clamps.   Also, have a ridge or bead welded to the edge of the charge pipe so the clamp has something to bite to.  All Evans Tuning and Full Race turbo kits will have this done for you.
• Make sure all of the bolts are tightened, in particular, the exhaust manifold bolts. This is considered an exhaust leak and you will lose power as a result.
• Make sure the o2 sensor hole is big enough to fit the common wideband sensors.
• Make sure the blow off valve is tight. Do you want it to sound “cool” or work properly?
• Be sure to use the proper oil feed and return lines and that they are installed properly.
• Turbo shaft play. Don’t expect that you can come to an appointment and make 500hp with a turbo that is shot. Get it rebuilt or buy a new one!
• LS/VTEC—DO NOT USE brass tees inline to feed an oil pressure guage, turbo oil feed line, and LS/VTEC line. There’s too much volume and not enough pressure. Say goodbye to VTEC!

GT/Ball bearing turbo: All water cooled ball bearing turbos must use coolant lines.  Oil is only used for lubrication, not cooling on a GT turbo.  If you do not run separate coolant lines in addition to oil lines you can ruin the turbo seals and/or bearings.  Garrett GT turbos should not see more than 40psi of oil pressure.  Engines can see 70-100psi at WOT and over 80psi cold depending on oiling system and weight of oil being used.  As a result, you need to run an oil restrictor on the turbo in addition to the one it already comes with. 

Exhaust: All turbo cars should run a minimum of 3” downpipe, test pipe, and exhaust.  Those looking to pass visual inspection should run a gutted 3” hi-flow cat. 

All motor and supercharged b and d-series motors can run a 2.5” exhaust.  A 3” exhaust is not necessary, but will not hurt power if it is used.  All motor, supercharged, and nitrous k and h-series motors should use 3” exhausts.

We do not recommend catalytic converters on any turbocharged car.  If you must run a cat to pass visual inspection, we highly recommend gutting the cat and essentially running a test pipe.  If you come to a tuning appointment with a cat on the car and not hollowed and we suspect that it is creating a power loss, we can gut it for you, but it will not be done for free.

DO NOT COME WITH A ONE PIECE EXHAUST, AND EXPECT TO HAVE WORK PERFORMED ON ANYTHING THAT INVOLVES THE EXHAUST! (ie. downpipe, muffler, 02 bung, cat, etc.)

Intercooler: We do not recommend using cheap eBay intercoolers.  Many eBay cores are braised, not welded.  The cores are not nearly as efficient as Garrett and PWR.  Do not have cracks and/or pinhole leaks.

Ignition: We recommend OEM spark plug wires/coil packs for every application.  If running MSD, we only recommend using the digital series, not the analog.  Make sure you have the proper coil to go with the digital 7 box. 

Cap/Rotor: New OEM cap and rotor are recommended unless running an ignition amplifier box, such as MSD, M&W, etc. 

Spark plugs:

B-series, D-series, H-series, and NSX:

• Pump gas: NGK BKR7E-11
  
• Race gas: NGK R5671A-9
  

K-series, s2000:

• Pump gas: NGK BKR8EIX-11
• Race gas: NGK BKR9EIX-11
  

Recommendations on plugs are the same for all applications (i.e. turbo, all motor, nitrous, supercharged).

**Please note that anyone running a Hondata s300 or Kpro must use a resistor style spark plug.  If you do not do this, you will have performance and datalogging issues.**


OBD Conversions

What you'll need to go from OBD-2 to OBD-1 are the following:

• OBD-2 to OBD-1 conversion harness
• OBD-1 ECU such as p28/p30/p72/p75/p06/etc
• OBD-1 injector clips if going with aftermarket fuel injectors

What you'll need to go from OBD-0 to OBD-1 are the following:

• OBD-0 to OBD-1 converter harness
  
• OBD-1 distributor
  
• remove resistor pack if using saturated style injector
  
• OBD-1 ecu

**We have conversion harnesses, injector clips and ecus in stock.  Please email for availability.

Miscellaneous

• I have a Dynapack Dyno. I take the wheels off of your car to tune the car. Do not come to the appointment without the wheel lug key if you have locking wheel lugs.
• Bring extra spark plugs if you don’t want to pay for them. New spark plugs are NOT included in the tuning rate.
• Make sure all fluid levels are up to par. No oil, no engine. No coolant, overheating issue.
• Bleed the coolant system before you come for the appointment. If your car is overheating, DO NOT come for the appointment. I cannot tune a car that is overheating.
• Make sure you have brakes on the car that are suited for your power level. I street tune every car after tuning on the dyno and I should feel safe riding in your car. It goes fast it needs to stop fast!
• You NEED to have an o2 bung in the downpipe/header in order for me to tune your car.  On a turbo car i prefer the o2 bung to be at least 18 inches away from the turbine housing discharge.  I need at least 2 feet of length from the o2 sensor location and opening of the exhaust.  If I do not have at least this much distance the o2 sensor cannot read properly due to oxygen contamination, which will make the wideband read leaner and tuning will be not be correct.
• Check to make sure that your o2 sensor is able to be taken out at the time of the tuning appointment.  With heat cycling o2 sensors tend to "stick" into the threads, especially if anti-seize was not used prior to installation.  We get many cars that come into tuning appointments that close to an hour is spent trying to remove the o2 sensors due to rusting/sticking.  If you are in doubt, loosen the o2 sensor before the tuning appointment to make sure its able to be removed with ease at time of tuning.  Hourly labor rate will be charged if o2 sensor is not able to be removed easily.
• Please make sure that the o2 sensor hole is opened up the entire diameter of the threaded bung.  Alot of headers and downpipes are only opened up enough to allow for a honda o2 sensor to be installed.  I use a Bosch LSU 4.1 wideband oxygen sensor to tune with, the tip of the sensor is the entire diameter of the threaded bung.  If the hole is not large enough, i cannot install my o2 sensor.  With a portable die grinder i can modify the hole, but you will be charged a fee (please see rates page).   
• We can tune an automatic car, IF and ONLY IF, the transmission is able to be locked into a particular gear.  The dynapack dyno calculates horsepower and torque by knowing a single gear ratio.  If the automatic transmission shifts into different gears while under a load, the dyno cannot provide the proper load and cannot calculate horspower/torque.
  
• Make sure you have the correct size wastegate spring in your wastegate (turbo cars only).  You can typically more than double the rated spring pressure with a boost controller.  An electronic boost controller will allow more boost to be achieved in comparison to a manual boost controller.  If you only plan on running pump gas, use a lower rated wastegate spring and run a boost controller to turn up the boost.  

Fuel:

No matter what fuel you are tuning on, you will need to have a half tank of gas in the car for the tuning session.  This usually equates to about 5 gallons of gas.

• All motor (street or race car): 10w30
• SC, Turbo, Nitrous (Street car): 10w30
• Track only cars (turbo): 20w50

Non synthetic oil should be used on all applications.  We recommend Valvoline VR-1 on race cars.  Any brand non-synthetic for street cars.  OEM Honda filter or Puralator filter are recommended.

Oil Change Frequency

• Turbo: ~2000 miles (1000 miles if run harder)
• N/A, Supercharge, Nitrous: ~3000 miles

Track cars: After every race!

Summary:

If you are experiencing any or all of these problems and want to know how to fix them, please refer to the following thread: Click Here!

If after reading this you still don’t have the answer you are looking for, make a post about your issue on the forum and get some advice. If you still don’t get the answer you are looking for, send me an email at tech@evans-tuning.com

Our job is to tune your car, not fix everything that is wrong with it. If you come to an appointment with a car that is not working properly you may be asked to leave depending upon the severity of the issue. If the problem is minor enough to be fixed at the shop during the day, we can fix it, but NOT FOR FREE. You wouldn’t work for free and neither should we!

Please note that while we added a bit of humor into the checklist, we are very serious about how we feel on these issues.  If you choose to ignore the things we’ve said and then show up to a tuning appointment with a problem, one of two things will happen.  You may be asked to leave, fix the car, and bring it back when it’s ready.  You will lose your deposit and will pay for any time spent working on or tuning your car.  The second scenario is that we may choose to fix the problem for you; however, you will be charged for all work performed.  Please refer to our pricing page for all potential costs associated with your tuning appointment.