I would like to share a bad experience I have had with a tuner that frequents the boards here named Tony Kutlu, (Badog). A few moths ago I set up an appointment to have a single turbo TO4S kit installed at the RX-7 Store and have my car tuned by Tony, who lives in Columbus. I have taken every precaution to make sure my 9 month old Pineapple engine could handle it. The install went great and called Tony up to do the tuning. He came over and we dyno tuned for an hour or two and put down about 430rwhp. He informed me that he had to run home for an hour or so, but would like to fine tune it a little more on the road. He told he I could drive the car around till he was free. I drove the car around for an hour or so and it felt great. The car had tons of power and nothing at all seemed wrong, but I figured that if he felt more tuning was necessary, then we should do it. After he was free, we started off on a Columbus highway to do fine tuning. We made our first stop, he made some changes and we were on our way. Immediately after the changes we did a half throttle run and noticed a stumble around 4-5K. “See if you can re-create that” he says. I pushed the throttle down half way and felt the car stumble again, and then heard a loud ping, and also felt it in the gear shift. We pulled over at a gas station and the car wouldn’t Idle. I knew in my gut that the engine had gone. I called Zavier and told him and he said to meet him at the shop and we would look at it, but Tony said he had to go home and asked to be dropped off at his car. I asked him if he intended on keeping the tuning fee of $400 if he blew the engine, and he said that we should find out if it is blown, then we would talk. We confirmed that the rear rotor had gone. There was talk of the timing being advanced too far, but we sent the engine back to Pineapple to find out for sure. In the meantime I again asked for a refund, and he kept telling me that it wasn’t his fault, although the car has been running great for the last 9 months, and is basically new under the hood and Zavier could find nothing on the car that failed. He again said that we would talk after we hear back from Pineapple about why the engine went. Pineapple finally got the engine and tore it apart and said that it indeed did blow from tuning, and that there was nothing wrong with the internals. Since then I have sent 2 e-mails and left messages for him and he refuses to return my calls or answer e-mails. I am just waring anyone who plans on using him as a tuner that he seems to be a shady character. Hopefully he will see this and respond as of why he feels he is not responsible, even though everyone else involved says he is.

this is news to me and probably everyone else. i'll let him know about it. thank you for being reasonable

have you put this on the evil forum??? i believe some canadians were going to bring up to toronto for a group rate tuning.

I'm sick of this ****.

Sick of what? Sometimes things *can* happen when tuning a car. Thats just a risk you have to take.

ive heard to many good things about tony to say anything negative, all i know is that when i go single next year he'll be tuning my car

Sorry I haven't made myself clear. We've heard too many horror stories about the Store and people still choose to get their **** done there because nobody believes it's gonna happen to them.



Here's what I'm sick of. Everybody on NP automatically knows what Jason and his people do, so why does everybody else come here to tell their tale of how someone at Jasons blew their engine? We all know that this **** happeneds, so there's no need to tell us about it.



You might not like my opinion on this whole subject since I do not own an RX-7, but I'm entitled to it, and I understand very well that things can happen when tuning. But, why does it happen at Jason's most often, and why are his people (his tuners and employees) always on the defensive about it?

Did you actually read the post? Tony does not work for the rx7store. He had the work done there, but the tuning was done by a local guy with no affiliation to the store. Any other brilliant comments?



I have never heard of Jason blowing anyones motor.

Tony absolutly does not work for Jason, nor do they like each other.

Understood. I don't think Tony has any affiliation with the rx7store anymore though.



My statement wasn't directed at you it was just my opinion on the subject

Tony has never worked at the rx7store, maybe you should try and read the post first.

yeah, they are not *togher* at all. and where is a link to one of these horror stories of the store blowing someone's motor? i could probobly find quite a few about other shops. but even then... WTF does that prove? nothing IMO...

I wouldn't say they don't like each other, they just have a different opinion about how a single turbo should be tuned.

I'm not at liberty to discuss details since my lawyer (and friends) said to keep my mouth shut for now.



I will not be victim to $2600 in extortion. Your use of threats and extortion are the issues, Ryan.



The facts are erroneous too.

I'm gonna have to apologize for certain things I said in the above post. I didn't read the thread clearly and it seems that every time someone mentions Jason and screw up in the same post, I tend to go into a fits.



But, what I was referring to are stories like Nocab's, and the NUMEROUS others showing how Jason does bussines. Late deliveries, lies, and general bullshit. Sorry if I offended you Badog, that was never my intention.

Whenever I dyno my car I am made to sign a waiver that warns me of the likelyhood of my engine being blown during the tuning process.



Was a waiver signed before the work began warning Radkins that there was a chance he could blow his engine? If not, he has a legal gripe.



When you are pushing 430RWHP things get pretty shaky thats what made me decide to tune for low HP for a while until I could afford a rebuild if my engine went south.

In my humble opinion:



I think it's quite nefarious that the details you leave out paint a prettier picture for yourself.



Where are the details of the abnormal deterioration of you ALL you oil seals and the traces of high oil temperatures on parts of the engine as reported by your engine builder? Being asked if any sovlents were used in the engine and the whole conversation about using solvents to flush the oil cooler and the possibility that solvents contanimated the oil system?



No mention of spending 6 hours with you and taking a half-day of my vacation time, only to waste over half of it waiting for your "mechanic" to fix your wastegate being put on wrong and your boost controller not working. Then offering to help you out even more, after I put my kids in bed, late into the evening when you wanted tuned for even higher boost.



No mention of the 2 free tunes and email support. No mention of the previous results that you were so happy to brag about in the forums.



No mention that you didn't even have the guts to call me or talk to me face to face about the issue, and send an email DEMANDING, not your tuning fee back, for me to pay ALL you expenses?



You're not mentioning the wavier!



Shame.

I know many people that have never had a problem with Jason. I have also heard bad stories about every vendor. Big deal!



If you dont own an RX-7 why are you on this forum?

In my humble opinion:



I think it's quite nefarious that the details you leave out paint a prettier picture for yourself.



Where are the details of the abnormal deterioration of you ALL you oil seals and the traces of high oil temperatures on parts of the engine as reported by your engine builder? Being asked if any sovlents were used in the engine and the whole conversation about using solvents to flush the oil cooler and the possibility that solvents contanimated the oil system?



No mention of spending 6 hours with you and taking a half-day of my vacation time, only to waste over half of it waiting for your "mechanic" to fix your wastegate being put on wrong and your boost controller not working. Then offering to help you out even more, after I put my kids in bed, late into the evening when you wanted tuned for even higher boost.



No mention of the 2 free tunes and email support. No mention of the previous results that you were so happy to brag about in the forums.



No mention that you didn't even have the guts to call me or talk to me face to face about the issue, and send an email DEMANDING, not your tuning fee back, for me to pay ALL you expenses?



You're not mentioning the wavier!



Shame. [/quote]

Oh my juicy tidbits I wasn't aware of...hope this all gets worked out, and the parties are still agreeable. It's not good to burn bridges. I've burned a couple in 2003, and it got UGLY!

It seems there are two sides to every story. I hope the court system can help you two work this out...

it's always good to hear two sides of the story. https://www.nopistons.com/forums/pub...IR#>/bigok.gif **** happens.

In my humble opinion:



I think it's quite nefarious that the details you leave out paint a prettier picture for yourself.



Where are the details of the abnormal deterioration of you ALL you oil seals and the traces of high oil temperatures on parts of the engine as reported by your engine builder? Being asked if any sovlents were used in the engine and the whole conversation about using solvents to flush the oil cooler and the possibility that solvents contanimated the oil system?



No mention of spending 6 hours with you and taking a half-day of my vacation time, only to waste over half of it waiting for your "mechanic" to fix your wastegate being put on wrong and your boost controller not working. Then offering to help you out even more, after I put my kids in bed, late into the evening when you wanted tuned for even higher boost.



No mention of the 2 free tunes and email support. No mention of the previous results that you were so happy to brag about in the forums.



No mention that you didn't even have the guts to call me or talk to me face to face about the issue, and send an email DEMANDING, not your tuning fee back, for me to pay ALL you expenses?



You're not mentioning the wavier!



Shame. [/quote]

It's to bad I am forced to speak with you in a public forum, but oh well.



1. I am not sure who you talked to at Pineapple, but they specifically told me that there was absolutly no signs of overheating to the engine(which I verified with them today), that is why they were blindly guessing that there were contaminants in the oil, which I can tell you is not the case. I am way to **** about my car to dump **** in the oil or do a sloppy job flushing an oil cooler. I stopped aruing with them about that, because whatever the cause of the oil seal deteriation is irrelevant at this point, and Rob agreed that the oil seals could not cause an engine to blow unless the problem was extreme(which it obviously wasn't even noticable yet), and you were tuning to very lean AFR's.



2. Funny how you sell your services as a "lifetime tune" and when you didn't finish the job the first time and we retuned a few months later, somehow you are suggesting that I should have paid for those tunes even though I gave you an EXTRA $50 on top of your fee.



3. How many conversations did we have where you refused to give me my tuning fee back. I can recall 3. I also did not DEMAND you to pay all of my expenses, please re-read the e-mail. I do regret the wording of the e-mail I sent you, but I had already been told by you that you didn't feel you needed to return the fee, as well as having a little to much legal advise while writing it. Still no need for you to completely avoid me. You know my number, we could be having this conversation privately.



4.and since you mentioned it, lets talk about the waiver I never signed.



5. I don't appreciate you accusing me of extortion and threats. I am not sure what you mean by that, but if you have something to say, say it.

Sorry, I'll leave right now!!! https://www.nopistons.com/forums/pub...>/rolleyes.gif

And the drama unfolds before our very eyes...I'll be checking back to see how this ends...

Double post. My posts dont show up for several hours for some reason.

Check out the forum rules at the top of the forum, they will explain https://www.nopistons.com/forums/pub...DIR#>/wink.png

honestly radkins...I doubt there is a tuner in the country who would give your cash back. How many motors has kdr or sr or pfs or xs blown...how many of those motors were paid for by that shop?



it sucks man...but that is the risk you took. it doesnt always work out well. tuning these cars is like playing with fire. even the best fire breathers get burned on occasion.



i hope you get it worked out man...get that car back on the road.





j

You really think shop charges you for the tuning session when they blow the motor? I don't think so, and out of the hundreds of responces I have got on both forums, you are the first to say that I don't deserve a refund. We will see what the courts say.

So, have the courts said anything? I'm interested to hear the results.