I have surfed this forum enough to confuse myself by all the tuning options available for my recently acquired X50. I have read about K24/18gs, 20's, 26's, garetts, and others, but what I have not be able to find is a list of New York Metro Tuner shops.

I am interested in making my car a faster yet still very drivable street car, not a track/race car and think that I want in the 600hp range from what I have read.

I am about 1:45 minutes Northwest of Manhattan and am looking for a good tuner who can talk me though performance upgrade packages and trade-offs.

Any advice/recommendations/sources would be greatly appreciated?

Thanks in advance

 

Joe,

Congrats on picking up the 996!

EPL is right down the block from you and they have several different turbo options available for the 996tt. They offer "of the shelf" software packages as well as custom dyno tuning for those who would want to reach the maximum potential out of their car and hardware. I would give them a call to discuss your goals and the options to achieve them.

European Performance Labs:
http://www.eplabs.net/

 

I wish I was close to EPL! Go there.

 

Well,

I have been doing my homework for several weeks, spending hours and hours on this forum and other web resources and I pulled the trigger today.

I dropped my bone stock 14k mile 2003 X50 off with Tony at EPL today and when I see it next it will be a very different car.

Europipe stage two quiet
Upgrading the K24s to 18g
DVs
bigger injectors
Aquamist HFS-6
EPL Flash
Clutch Masters Stage2

Can't wait to get it back

 

Joe that car is gonna rip! Pretty close to Mike's (ttboost) wicked fast setup.

You're gonna love it man. Enjoy and be safe.

And while you are doing the clutch, you may wanna consider doing the GT2 slave conversion while you're in there.

 

thanks Flash68. I'll check out the GT2 slave. I missed this one and definitely find the current clutch engagement less than ideal. BUT ... this is getting really expensive, so I'd better stop reading soon

 

which clutch disk did u get?

 

hey joe give me a ballpark figure how much all this is costing you? im thinking of doing the same. thanks

 

With that kind of power I think you definitely should consider some coilovers and sways very soon... for looks and safety

 

Hey OS Inspector,

I am getting the Cluth Masters Stage 2, which I think is full face Kevlar. On the stage three, I know you can get into surface materials, but I don't think that is an option on the Stage 2.

Are there options within the Stage 2 that I should be paying more attention too?

 

Hey dfwerdoc,

Here's my thinking on cost benefit. Since I am new to the board and new to working with Tony, I want to check etiquette before getting into specifics. That said ...

The tune and Aquamist were actually pretty reasonable and offer big bangs for the buck. Tony is very positive on the Aquamist system and I rode in one of his Aquamist setup cars and really liked the setup.

The 18g upgrade, if you are starting with an X50 car, is the most cost effective way to go. If you are starting with K16's you should look hard at more current turbo designs.

By far the most expensive decision in doing this setup was the Europipe. It is 3-4k more expensive than other options, in part because of the current exchange rates, but in also because it is simply expensive. I did not want a loud car, but wanted a more "exotic" sound, and no drown and Europipe seems to fit the bill best. It was a tough decision to spend the extra money, but I didn't want to be replacing my exhaust again next year because I didn't go for what I really wanted. In the end, this is a personal preference and a painful wallet choice.

The second most expensive part is the clutch because of the labor. Given my setup, it more a necessary than desirable step. If I didn't do the Aquamist, I probably would have stayed with the OEM clutch for now.

The injectors were also somewhat optional, and though labor intensive, worth doing in my setup.

DV's cheap and worth doing while it's there.

One thing I found interesting is that Tony didn't feel the need to mess with the intake or hoses, which if not needed in his expert opinion, I appeciate.

That's it for now. More to come. I've got to do some homework on the GT2 Slave option.

 

if i was planning on replacing the clutch for more power id go for the fibertuff disk it holds more then the kevlar disk. cause the only step up from the fibertuff disk is ceramic or multi disk clutch. so it pretty much covers you until you start making more power then the bottom end can handle

 

I think you made great choices here. I would have gone a different route on exhaust based on price/loudness but agree 100% of the rest of it.

I have aquired the GT2 slave parts and will be installing at some point. Its just great to time with the clutch job is why I recommended looking into it. If you can drive a car that has it, I recommend that to help you decide.

The Aquamist is an amazing bang for buck!

 

Thanks for all the good advice on the slave delete option while upgrading the clutch. I talked with Tony today about the pros and cons, and there are both, but given the way I drive the car, I have opted to go for the EVOMS (I think they are the only supplier for this) Slave delete in hope of getting better feel on clutch engagement and therefore better modulation.

More broadly, the car went on the dyno and posted good stock numbers today, so onece she's done, I'll post before and after for those considering similar upgrades. Should be about two weeks from now.

Thanks again for all of the good advice. I hope to be able to return the favors and experiences in the future.

 

Awesome sounds like it will be a beast when u get it back just remember to be easy of the clutch for about 500 miles