CapslockAnt

Sorry to start yet another tuner thread, but I'm looking for some guidance.

I'm located in Santa Rosa in the North Bay. I just recently had the harmonic balancer go bad on my 02 C5 Z06 (114k miles). I'm having my trusted local auto shop, who within the past year replaced the valve springs (COMP Cams springs) and installed a trunnion upgrade kit and has performed the majority of service / general maintenance work for my car throughout my ownership, perform the harmonic balancer replacement as well as replace some other misc items (oil pump, water pump, timing chain, etc). After digging through these forums, everybody suggests that now is the time for a camshaft upgrade. My local auto shop has specced out a new camshaft (COMP Cams 223/227,.610",.614", 112 -- if I recall correctly) after speaking directly speaking with COMP Cams and explaining the current spec of my car and what I'm using the car for (spirited weekend driving, occasional road track weekend). COMP Cams has said that the stock tune 'will work' with the new camshaft, but I obviously want to maximize performance and engine stability.

My problem is that my local auto shop does not perform tuning services. I've been digging through these forums to try and find a reputable tuner within the general bay area, and have found a few solid suggestions -- but none that are able to tune my car.

Matt @ GP Tuning is booked 3 months out. Rick @ Synergy will not tune my car since it will be built/upgraded outside of his shop (which is weird because I read a ton of forum posts about people installing parts at Abel Chevrolet and then tuning at his shop, but that's besides the point). I've sent an email to AJ at In-Frame Tuning and I'm waiting to hear back (optimistic about this one since it's right in my backyard @ Napa).

Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks in advance.

lt1z

Try RPM in Santa Rosa

CapslockAnt

I got ahold of AJ @ Performance In-Frame Tuning who said he could schedule me for mid January. Depending on how the car runs on the stock tune next week when I get it, I may wait it out until then. If it runs rough I'll probably see what RPM's schedule is looking like.

Thanks!

Boomer111

Just thinking out loud here I suspect Rick doesn't want the responsibility of tuning a cammed car that he did not install.

Bolt ons is one thing but internal work is another.

I suspect most of the cars Abel sends in are bolt ons or after the so called recall on the Cats for the 08 and 09's. Which was my case concerning the latter.

RichieRichZ06

Rick and I (and Matt at GP) have been doing business together and with mutual customers for years. Rick does not want to tune packages that he doesn't know about. We have a mutual agreement that he will tune anything we install from start to end or builds that we do for mutual customers.

We have a ton of customers that also have us install parts for Matt to tune.

I completely get where Rick is coming from based on some of the 'stuff' I've recently seen installed on customer's cars from other places. It's actually scary some of the stuff we've all seen and it creates liability to have that junk on the dyno.

CapslockAnt

I can totally understand where Rick is coming from, and I'm not intending to not knock him in any way. His work speaks for itself, as this forum is filled with great things to say about the work he does and continues to do. My car will unfortunately not get any magic from him.

The camshaft installed seems to be working fine with the stock tune other than the idle RPMs (wants to stall), which will hopefully be resolved by an idle relearn procedure that I'll perform tonight. LT headers are a possibility in the near future after I get some DMV/smog hurdles out of the way, so I may hold off on the tuning altogether until I can get that going.

Thanks everyone for the timely responses and input, it's much appreciated.

Nosferatu333

did you end up going to see AJ in Napa?

Mad_Dog_1965

Rick - i like to get my c2 1966 Corvette DYNO'ed tune. where are you guys located? i am in San Francisco.

Shinobi'sZ

Sometimes the wait is totally worth it and there is a reason why there is a wait. I went over everything I installed prior to making an appointment, and he looked over my car after I installed my Magnusson 2650 blower. He won't blow up your car and is conservative and doesn't go looking for hero dyno numbers. My 17' Z runs amazing and am very happy I waited two months after making an appointment to get my car tuned by him.

GX427

Check out TBR garage in Sacramento Matt is a cool guy and they’re shop is huge always have 20+ cars and like 11 lifts in the shop a huge sick shop ranging from 400-5000hp cars

GTE

Mine was the 400hp car :-/