Fluid Motorunion Thoughts

rocket5979

Gearhead
Nov 15, 2005
6,576
18
Round Lake, IL
I am looking to resolve my stalling issue, which I believe might be due to me needing a tune.

They are great when it comes to fabrication but when it comes to designing forced induction systems, sizing turbos for a project, or custom tuning Fords with SCT then my impression has been that they still have some things to learn. I don't know what their level of GM custom tuning experience is.
 

Hubbard 0

TCG Elite Member
Sep 29, 2009
4,358
28
Chicago, IL
My old boss has a supercharged M3 that we took there for a full dyno tune and later some emissions and maintenance work. They were one of the only places that could a custom tune, not just a generic flash. Their facility is overwhelming, their work unbelievable. They have their 7 series with an M5 motor, their custom lifted X5, their nitrous M cars, airbagged VIP cars.

When I showed up the lady that sits up front gave a full tour, talked about how busy they are, and about their constant expansion. They're on the expensive side, but I'd say they know what they're doing.
 

willizm

Very Nice, Very Evil
May 13, 2009
12,829
10,148
The Woodlands, TX
I went there last year to have some bolt ons installed since my TA was taking up most of my time (and lift). I had a bad experience and won't go back.

Among other things I had cattless downpipes installed on my 335xi. When i went to pick up the car the idle at startup was ruff and choppy but after 30 seconds it would even out. I took it home and every time I'd start it up the car would idle ruff for about 30 seconds and then be fine. I did some research and it turns out that when you first start the car the ECU monitors off of cylinder 1 on the front dp. What ended up happening is they swapped the o2's so that it was now reading off of the second dp for the 4 cylinder. the o2's are color coded. I jacked the car up, took off the undershielding and low and behold they had them backwards.

This is where they get shady. I call them up about it. They blamed the tune which at that time was a cobb accessport. I uninstalled it and had the same issue. They said it requires their custom tune which would cost around $1500. I told them that didn't make sense because 90% of people run a JB4, Proceed, or Cobb without an issue let alone run it on a stock tune. This is the time where I figured out the o2's and explained it to them and told them I'd send them pics. They told me to bring in the car and if I was wrong and wasted their time they would charge me double time. I was furious, but I knew what it was. I brought the car in, they switched the o2's and the car ran fine. They handed my keys to me and said "yeah that was it" smugly. I was still pissed that they wanted to squeeze $1500 out of me for a shitty tune and double time if I was wrong.

They are all good up front, but if you have an issue, they turn it against the customer and wash their hands free of any sort of liability. Not exactly what the expectation of customer service should be in the performance industry. If you want something done right, do it yourself. I'm done taking my cars to people unless it's for a tune.
 

Jean Ralphio

beautiful, clean coal
May 28, 2008
16,781
68
I went there last year to have some bolt ons installed since my TA was taking up most of my time (and lift). I had a bad experience and won't go back.

Among other things I had cattless downpipes installed on my 335xi. When i went to pick up the car the idle at startup was ruff and choppy but after 30 seconds it would even out. I took it home and every time I'd start it up the car would idle ruff for about 30 seconds and then be fine. I did some research and it turns out that when you first start the car the ECU monitors off of cylinder 1 on the front dp. What ended up happening is they swapped the o2's so that it was now reading off of the second dp for the 4 cylinder. the o2's are color coded. I jacked the car up, took off the undershielding and low and behold they had them backwards.

This is where they get shady. I call them up about it. They blamed the tune which at that time was a cobb accessport. I uninstalled it and had the same issue. They said it requires their custom tune which would cost around $1500. I told them that didn't make sense because 90% of people run a JB4, Proceed, or Cobb without an issue let alone run it on a stock tune. This is the time where I figured out the o2's and explained it to them and told them I'd send them pics. They told me to bring in the car and if I was wrong and wasted their time they would charge me double time. I was furious, but I knew what it was. I brought the car in, they switched the o2's and the car ran fine. They handed my keys to me and said "yeah that was it" smugly. I was still pissed that they wanted to squeeze $1500 out of me for a shitty tune and double time if I was wrong.

They are all good up front, but if you have an issue, they turn it against the customer and wash their hands free of any sort of liability. Not exactly what the expectation of customer service should be in the performance industry. If you want something done right, do it yourself. I'm done taking my cars to people unless it's for a tune.


wow, what a joke.
 
they do good work as state but thier business side lacks.

had a friend go there for titanium exhaust on his vette, he thought they said 500, but i guess that was just labor only. he thought it was parts and labor, or else he wouldnt have went. Then they proceeded to say, oh thats just labor, and we said we would let you know titanium pricing for parts. they never called and confirmed any pricing with him before the work. So they call and say its done, and hes like 500 right.. they are like uhhh no thats just labor. and then they said we'll talk when you show up, while on the phone saying maybe itd be around 700 then instead. We get there and they slap him a bill for 1300.

now hes furious cause they did all the work without even telling him a price like that, where he would have said screw it and not have done it. Then they have thier little business cards that says present with your work and get 10% off and he grabs one and is like ok well at least give me 10% off ,and they tried to pull some bs like, oh well you needed to present that when you first showed up, not now.

they ended up agreein on 1k total but still very bogus on the business end. The exhaust ands welds are great but they lack other areas.
 

rocket5979

Gearhead
Nov 15, 2005
6,576
18
Round Lake, IL
I suppose I will bother expounding upon my previous post since I have more time.

They tried to put a twin set of Garrett VNT-25 (think T25 compressors with variable vane turbines) turbos on a modular 4.6 engine not long ago. If they knew anything about mapping compressor and turbine maps they would have realized that those are just too small to properly support an engine of 4.6 liters in displacement whether for a street or especially a track combo. I warned them of this during the build but they chose to continue. When they made shit for power and had other issues they decided to replace the turbos with something a little more fitting. I seen that as a newby mistake when it comes to building a custom turbo system.

Another time during the same build they had a VERY tight bend, roughly 130 degree, in a charge pipe that also reduced in size about 1" before immediately going into a slot style MAFS afterwards. Anyone that is real familiar with forced induction design and tuning for it will know that you try to minimize charge pipe bends and size transitions immediately before the MAFS so as to prevent non-laminar airflow across the electronics skewing readings. It is a big no-no. I warned them of this too and even let them know my background of experience so they didn't think it was just some random forum idiot telling them what to do. They still disregarded the advice and ran into issues later. Later they went on to make around 325-ish rwhp on this combo which is a complete waste of money for the customer having spent probably at least $6k+ on the system; if not more like $10k+. A custom twin turbo combo on a modular 4.6 engine should not be putting out such horrifically low power regardless of what the excuses were.

My suggestion is that if you need something welded take it to them but if you need a turbo system made then you had better get everything sized correctly and the general routing of where the pipe and bends should go by someone else first and then perhaps take it to them for the welding work. They have allot of potential for the future but whoever designs their forced induction systems and tunes the cars has a few lessons to learn.
 

sickmint79

I Drink Your Milkshake
Mar 2, 2008
26,896
16,605
grayslake
they do good work as state but thier business side lacks.

had a friend go there for titanium exhaust on his vette, he thought they said 500, but i guess that was just labor only. he thought it was parts and labor, or else he wouldnt have went. Then they proceeded to say, oh thats just labor, and we said we would let you know titanium pricing for parts. they never called and confirmed any pricing with him before the work. So they call and say its done, and hes like 500 right.. they are like uhhh no thats just labor. and then they said we'll talk when you show up, while on the phone saying maybe itd be around 700 then instead. We get there and they slap him a bill for 1300.

now hes furious cause they did all the work without even telling him a price like that, where he would have said screw it and not have done it. Then they have thier little business cards that says present with your work and get 10% off and he grabs one and is like ok well at least give me 10% off ,and they tried to pull some bs like, oh well you needed to present that when you first showed up, not now.

they ended up agreein on 1k total but still very bogus on the business end. The exhaust ands welds are great but they lack other areas.

aren't there laws regarding auto work and estimates like this? i thought there were...
 

willizm

Very Nice, Very Evil
May 13, 2009
12,829
10,148
The Woodlands, TX
They quoted me on one time and rate and when I went to pick up the car the rate was different with a few extra hours on it. I understand that shit happens and if a customer changes his mind mid job it can impact the hours it takes, but this was an intercooler, charge pipe and downpipes only job. I dropped it all off and didn't bug them until it was done. It took them longer since my car is AWD and the down pipes are a PITA, but that's not my fault when you tell me "we do this work all the time". I think shops should stick to quotes unless something outsides of the scope of the job comes up or the customer decides to make changes mid job.

On a side note the one guy that is their tuner needs to get the hell out of there. Talking with him, he seems to have a great deal of skill and I can tell is nothing like the people that run that shop.
 

rocket5979

Gearhead
Nov 15, 2005
6,576
18
Round Lake, IL
I unfortunately have heard more of these stories than positive ones after researching this weekend.

The 4.6 engine was that the Explorer build they had going?

Yep. They tried blaming it on transmission tuning issues and that they were running low boost but I took it as a cop out. The owner of said Explorer was not happy with the results.
 
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