A new AEM Standalone ECU was installed and now it’s time to tune.
Today we tune an EVO.
Tuesday, January 31st, 2012Turbo kit modifications
Tuesday, August 16th, 2011
Direct “bolt-on” products from aftermarket manufactures are a lot of times, less than perfect. In this case, the intercooler piping was far from fitting correctly. After conferring with the customer, we decided to modify the piping as well as the intercooler to fit nicely on the car. The kit now fits, and the project continues.
Powder coated brakes
Tuesday, June 7th, 2011
Here are some brakes that we had powder coated for a customer with an Evo. The customer was not happy with the custom fade that most evo 8′s get on the calipers. I am showing this because with brakes you do not want inside touched with any sort of powder where the pistons ride or they bolt together. All coatings add material to any surface that they touch and because brake pistons are precise, they will not work if any material is added to the inside surface. You can see that a rebuild kit is needed when having this done. The pictures do not show them finished, but they show where you do not want the coating to touch.
EVO bov and ignition upgrades
Tuesday, May 31st, 2011
Here is an Evo that came into the shop on the stock weak ignition system as well as a weak blow off valve. We then proceeded to swap the ignition system with a Buschur coil on plug setup with cdi. The stock bov got replaced with a Tial 50mm unit. Unfortunately today I do not have any fancy dyno numbers to prove what this setup did, but I will have them shortly. Both of these items do not make more power on their own, but they have the ability to let the car run more boost without issues, resulting in more power.
Turn Colt Turn
Tuesday, May 3rd, 2011
Modifying spindles are not just for getting more steering angle on a drift car. They are modified in this case to adapt spindles from a 92 Mitsubishi Galant onto a 89 Dodge Colt. The point where the tie rods mounted needed to be flipped 180 degrees.
First we made jigs to hold the tie rod mount at the correct angle when we would cut it off to flip it around. Then we cut and v-notched the spindles. After that we welded them in the new location. Finally, making them look near OEM with the grinder and some black paint.
03′ Evo 8: “We can rebuild it. We have the technology.” And it won’t cost 6 million dollars!
Monday, June 7th, 2010
The air cooled Evo 8 that we took in a couple weeks back is now ready to start getting put back together. We have ordered all of the parts we need and the majority is here now. The only part we have not received yet is the FP Red turbo that is going on in place of the factory unit. We ordered a new complete short block from Mitsubishi, this was actually cheaper than purchasing an empty crank case, crank, oil squirters, and all the other little bits. We are removing the factory pistons and rods as well as the factory bearings and replacing them all with upgraded versions. The pistons are Ross drop in 2.0 litre 8.5:1 compression ratio slugs. Connecting rods are Eagle H beams rated for over 650 whp. ACL bearings will replace the factory rods/mains/thrust bearings. While we are in there a balance shaft eliminator kit will be installed too.
This engine already had some head work done and we will be re-using the GSC 272 cams and Ferrea valve train. Ball Engine Parts and Service has already replaced the 4 valves that got damaged and completed the refresh on the head. This engine work along with the FP Red and an upgraded FMIC should yield in the neighborhood of 400 whp on straight 93 octane fuel and nearly 500 whp on race gas after tuning. We have removed the AFC-Neo and will be doing a custom tune using the Batlground re-flash software. Not going back in the car is a water/meth kit, we have suspicion that this kit might be to blame for the engine failure in the first place.
Stay tuned as this build progresses. We will be posting updates as the build comes together. Please enjoy some Muzak while you wait.
Introducing the Dual Pass Air Cooled Mitsubishi 4G63!
Wednesday, March 24th, 2010
Being in the business of performance and speed, we have seen our fair share of engine grenades. This instance of catastrophic failure ranks up there with the BG Evo Incident. If you are not familiar with the BG Evo Incident, it involved a significant explosion in the Hello Kitty Evo engine bay. Dan was whooping a guy so bad during a race that when it let go it shot pieces of block through the losing cars windshield. Its not often that you can cause collateral damage when its your car blowing up.
At any rate I had to share this, my sympathies to our customer. He knew what had happened before he dropped it off. I tried to have hope that it wasn’t as serious as he described. The tear down and rebuild process has begun and when it returns we will have a new animal prowling the streets.
Lining them up and knocking em’ down. 11 cars in 5 days
Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010
This past week Batlground was working at full capacity. We had as many cars as we could fit in the building (14) and a few in the lot. By the time Friday rolled around we were literally running around the shop. On top of the long term project cars that we had been working on there was still daily appointments coming in. Everyone wanted their cars back for the weekend. I would too, it was an incredible Atlanta spring on Friday and Saturday.
First of all the Prelude project is a wrap! The car was finally put on the Dyno for a break in tune after a wiring issue popped up with the oil pressure sensor and BCM (Body Control Module). It was also the only car not picked up on Friday. He did make it in today for delivery and the only person happier than our customer is his mom! She was very thankful to be able to get her car back. Thank you for your business and patience Brian.
We were able to deliver the 2000 Accord engine swap. Our customer was able to locate a 2000 Accord EX motor with only 11k miles on it! It really was like having a brand new motor to work with. No oily, greasy, grimy mess of a motor that I either have to clean or bathe in for the rest of the day. Pretty straight forward swap. Stock for stock, with only a adjustable cam gear and distributor to swap over. There was a minor set back at start up when the injectors from the new motor appeared to be frozen. We tried to free them up but ended up swapping over the old set.
A Nissan 240sx (S13) came in with a CA18 swap already completed. The customer had a running car but it was not running right at all. After a general inspection of the vehicle and its wiring, Justin was able to identify a couple problems in the wiring and set up. The MAF wiring had to be adjusted as well as the MAF being relocated further away from the turbo inlet. The ignition timing was off and the S-AFC 2 settings needed to be adjusted. Some tuning will have to be done before delivery of this car. It is already running a hundred times better though.
The MR2 with wiring issues was figured out and fixed. The final problem to be solved was a faulty fuel pump relay. That customer will be returning in the future to get some tuning performed when his engine management arrives.
A long time customer of ours had a small incident with a concrete barrier in his Supra. After the car spent time in the body shop getting new panels and frame adjustment it came back to us for some much needed general maintenance. We finished up all of his mechanical issues and it is now ready to move back over to the body shop for paint.
Monday and Tuesday we saw a Civic with clutch problems. We thought we had it figured out when we found the master cylinder leaking. Unfortunately the car returned the next day for us to find that the slave cylinder was leaking as well.
On Tuesday a Turbo Del Sol came in for some spark plugs and general inspection of the turbo system. The car had not been making boost, and we were going to do a boost leak check. Upon inspection though we found that the turbo was merely hanging on to the manifold and not tight. The waste gate was leaking badly too. What we saw next I have never seen before in my life. The outlet of the waste gate had been blocked off. A plate had been bolted on to the outlet of the W/G! Apparently whomever had previously owned the car was afraid that the open dump of the W/G would blow exhaust into the turbo inlet. How this D series motor and turbo survived infini-boost I have no idea. We were able to fix the issues of the car that night and made sure he got home. This Del Sol will be returning for some much needed tuning as well.
A 2003 Mitsubishi Evolution came in on Wed. to get some maintenance and performance work done. A set of GSC 272 cams, SuperTech valve springs and retainers, ARP head studs, Gates high performance timing belt kit, new OEM timing belt tensioner and pulleys, and a OEM water pump were installed. After the labor was completed Dan custom tuned the car with our re-flash software. At 20 psi on the stock turbo he was able to achieve 346 AWHP. Good for a deep run into the lower 12′s at the strip.
Thursday we brought in a BMW 540i. This customer wanted a new exhaust from the manifolds back. I had to fabricate a new “y” pipe on the passenger side due to a previous shops use of some 2″ crush bend tubing. This was a fun and challenging project. All stainless piping was used to match the factory quality. The “y” pipe section was 2″ tubing that collected into a 2.5″ section before entering the factory CAT’s. The CAT’s then exited at 2.5″ before collecting into a single 3″ pipe. I installed a 7″ round, 20″ long, Magna Flow resonator and that plumbed into the 5″x9″ oval offset in/out Magna Flow muffler. I was a little worried that the car maybe a little too quiet but after cranking it up I found that it had a really powerful sound while free revving. Definitely a more aggressive note than stock but not an annoying growl at lower to midrange cruising.
Friday I over booked us and we were scrambling to try and keep up. Justin had to take the day off and that really put the pressure on Dan and myself. Along with finishing up the BMW exhaust, tuning the Evo, and breaking in the Prelude-we had a Lexus ES 300 scheduled for some exhaust work after one of the flex sections in the factory “y” pipe decided to break in half. After fixing that section we found that the other flex had cracked as well. Our customer decided to come back another day for that one. We also booked a 09′ Subaru Impreza WRX for a down pipe installation. Dan and I tag teamed that one to try and give us some breathing room near the end of the day. By this point customers were showing up to pick up their rides and Dan had to get back to tuning.
All in all a great end to a great week here at Batlground. The weather is getting warmer and everyone seems to be getting the itch to get their cars started, fixed, or finished before summer time. Race season has already begun, our LS6/350z is up and running now, my KA24DE-T motor is nearly finished at Ball Engine Parts and Service. It will be immediately assembled and installed back into the car. Look out when all 3 of the BG cars are tearing it up at the track and on the streets (legally of course).
418whp Evo 9: Gremlins!
Tuesday, February 9th, 2010
The owner of this Evo has been here before. He used to own a Subaru STi that Dan had tuned. With this Evo he already has a GT35r turbo, turbo manifold, intercooler upgrade, full 3.5″ down pipe to 3″ exhaust, Open Edit ECU flash software and had already been tuned at another shop. Upon arrival here he was making in the neighborhood of 365 awhp. We were told the car was having ignition problems. It was throwing random multiple missfire codes, it was breaking up on the street and during dyno tuning. Apparently this had been going on for some time because the car had a HKS Twin Power installed, and at one point the previous owner of the car told our customer to gap the plugs down to .024″! There is no reason to have the gap that low with this set up, unless you were trying to band aid a problem.
Dan started tuning and right away the car was breaking up. After a few more pulls Dan changed the spark plugs to a copper type instead of the platinums that were currently installed. The copper plugs were a heat range cooler also, and this definitely helped. There are a lot of little things that can greatly affect how a cars runs. Spark plug type, heat range and gapping are all small things that anyone who is changing their own spark plugs should be very aware of how it could affect the performance of the car. Dan tuned this car for a total of 3 hours. Unfortunately there were still some ignition gremlins that will have to be addressed at a later date. Even with the mechanical issues the car was having, Dan was still able to significantly improve the tune. Nothing was overlooked, he made sure all aspects of the tuning were done right. Not only did it make 50+ more horse power but the mid range was stronger and all the driveability issues it had were addressed.
The next time we see this customer, we hope to be able to uncork the car and see what its got. Maybe the next time we see him he’ll bring us another different car to tune! Can we make a request? Dan has been itching to tune a twin turbo vette. Think you could make that happen? Nothing would make us more pleased than to flat line the Dyno with 1500 whp or more.
Batlground Tuned E85 Evo 8
Wednesday, October 21st, 2009
Our customer brought us his Evo 8 after we had the opportunity to tune his brothers Evo X. If you are unfamiliar with the result of the Evo X let me get you up to speed. Stock Evo X with straight 93 octane, bolt on FMIC, Cat back exhaust, and reflash picked up 96 Whp and 125 Wtq for a very impressive 351 Whp and 363 Wtq!
So our Evo 8 customer is on the dyno for a E85 tune. He had already taken the car to a well known competitor of ours and was not happy with the results. The car was not making the power it should have been and the turbo was not performing as well as it should have been. We again are using the Batlground custom reflash. His mods included a FP Red turbo w/ adjustable wastegate actuator on stock manifold, 272 Cams, HBC manual boost controller, FMIC, 3″ down pipe and 3″ exhaust. We also added a second fuel pump, a Walboro inline 255 lph, that is engaged by a Hobbs pressure switch @ 4psi. After doing some baseline pulls we figured out that the wastegate was not producing the boost level we wanted.
After an adjustment on the pre-load we were back in business and what a huge difference that made. Not only did it make and hold boost significantly better, the turbo spooled 1000 rpm sooner than the way it came in! This is a mistake, that is commonly made and should have been recognized by the previous shop, when installing a new turbo and/or adjustable wastegate actuator. So make sure, you or your prefered shop, properly adjust the pre-load before installation and before final assembly. To our customers delight we were able to acheive a WHOPPING 462 whp and 452 wtq! Really, words just do not describe properly what kind of difference this was over what the other shop had given him as a completely finished product. I will let the dyno comparison speak for itself.
