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Hilton tuning


gypsymoose

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If you're running a stock setup or have modest modifications i'd go with a proven tune like IPD.  

 

If you have more wild stuff going on,  fmic, larger injectors,  turbo upgrade, etc...then i'd highly recommend a tuner who can adjust for those type of changes.  Hilton, JZW, ARD, etc....

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but IPD's price...... stage 1 hilton is 350 bucks compared to IPD's 895 dollars. plus i always hear how modest IPD's tune is compared to others. 

 

This is true.  But good tunes typically aren't cheap, cheap tunes typically aren't good.  I guess it all depends on how aggressive you want to be with a car that's 10+yr old and probably has over 100K.  

 

A lot of people dog ARD tunes,  but my T5 is tuned by ARD,  and it also ate a 6.0L GTO for breakfast this morning from a 0-70mph sprint.  

 

Maybe different on P80's vs. P2's.  Neubar i think has a Rica Tuned 00' R,  maybe he can weigh in on the P80 tunes. 

 

My old 99' R grenaded on a stock tune with minor bolt-ons at around 150K,  bent rod, burnt valve.  I will say though, it was a quite a "testy" motor in stock form however.  

Correction.  Neu has a speentuning tune,  i was mistaken. 

correction,  NEU has a SpeedTuning tune on his 2000.  

correction,  NEU has a SpeedTuning tune on his 2000.  

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Yes I have a Speedtuning stage 2 tune. I've looked at Hilton and I've heard some good things from the p2R guys but I've never heard of anyone getting it done on there p80. The other company that I'm interested in is out of Colorado??? like XYZ tuning? I believe Conner posted there site originally around here but again no experience or knowledge of there work.

 

As for IPD, there tune is going to be ROCK solid! They stand behind there work and they have Marco from MTE making the custom tunes too. With MTE you can't go wrong. Also you have to look at the softloader option and sending the ECU to compare which is cheaper from company to company.

 

As for ARD, his rep is exactly how he's "developed" it. I believe the words to use for him would be "you reap what you sow"... If you read all the good and bad review about his work or whatever he's does they you'll go in informed about what could go wrong with his work/service. And I use work very loosely, I've always wondered where all his tunes came from.

 

Personally I'll never deal with him again. I haven't made this public but when Lucky came to Carlisle to tune I was the first to go on the list after 9 MONTHS of conversations about wanting a clone and a tuned ECU. I was on board to get one when at the very last minute (the week before) he pulls a bait and switch BS on me. Asking for more $$ to clone. That week I went to Speedtuning and got a clone and a tune for less then what Lucky was asking for his cloning upsell. I'll never buy anything from ARD. Beside everything he sells comes from someone else Turbos=Kinugawa with a ridicules mark up...

 

I'd def try Hilton over ARD, because Hilton IIRC was a frustrated ARD customer. I think the best thing about ARD is that he pissed so many folks off that the market has grown since he's been around to provide better service and products than he can provide. SteveO and Arron are tuners that popped up because ARD.

 

This is my personal take on it, other have been happy with ARD tunes, others are not. I just consider myself 'lucky" I didn't fall for his deception. And I'm super happy about my Speedtuning tune, just wish I didn't fart around waitingand just got the Speedtuning done, I won't have had my tune a year earlier if I did...

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Well put NEU. 

 

I am one of the few out there i suppose that has had a successfully cloned ecu and tune from ARD.  

 

With the cloned ecu i have thought about getting it tuned for my setup by someone like Hilton to see if there is much of a difference. Or just simply having someone who knows what they're doing look into the mapping to see what if anything was changed other than boost.  I imagine it would be more noticeable on a setup with a much larger turbo,  i went with an 18T though because the boost development is similar to the stock 16T that was on the T5,  as well as it's proven performance on IPD's stage III setup for the 98 P80's.  Seemed like a recipe for reliable 300whp, which is really more than enough for daily driving.  I'm sure there is more potential in my setup, and once i'm bored enough with the 18T and the boost bug bites i'll probably step up to the 20T, larger injectors, and then get serious about a re-tune from Hilton. 

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  • 1 month later...
  • 2 weeks later...

it is a 2000 v70r. I've gone with stage 2. so far vary happy with the tune, car pulls a lot harder.  going to run some logs some time this week to see what kind of boost its putting out. i'll mostly post the logs.   i will say this about Hilton, their customer service is awesome. before i even got the tune he answered all of my questions. and during the tuning process any questions i had he responded fairly quick.  the only down side i can think of is that i had to buy my own volvo dice cable.  

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wow this is great info since i'm having them tune my 00VR. it's actually in the shop now getting an estimate for a 3 inch down pipe so i can go with the stage 2 tune in the spring. i have a buddy who has a dice unit that i can borrow. assuming it's a pretty straight forward deal to load it up? curious to see what kinda power your putting down.

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  • 2 weeks later...

so i just uploaded a stage 1 tune last night (downpipe ended being too much money for right now so went with the tune). WOW the car is amazing now especially with the torque delete on the first two gears. customer service was incredibly quick and easy and the car just feels better. idle, acceleration, everything is smoother and more refined. also at redline the gear shifts are really nice and quick compared to stock where they would hesitate a little. extremely satisfied with this tune and can't wait to get a down pipe and go stage 2

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