tuning

Custom-Code

I’ve had my TT RS since August 21, 2017.  It was a memorable Monday.  The journey has been incredible.  Stock, the car was lots of fun.  I ended up going to our local mountain drive the first week.  The only thing I felt it was missing was more sound.  So the downpipes got put on and voila more sound occurred.  Problem was my check engine light was on.  How to fix it?  Well a tune of course.

I thought of APR.  I considered Giac.  I had purchased the downpipes and by then an intercooler from Iroz Motorsport who was partnering up with Custom-Code.  Well that kind of made my decision for me.  Custom-Code it was.

First it was just a stage 2 pump gas 91 octane tune.  I had lots of fun running some better times with it.  Then I kept talking to others and decided to move to the E70 blend tune from Custom-Code, CC for short.  What a huge difference. Top end was increased dramatically.

While E70 blend wasn’t any different than full E85 for power, I didn’t really like blending pump gas and E85 to make sure that it was an E70 blend.  An injector upgrade was required to run full E85.  At the same time I got a Low Pressure Fuel Pump (LPFP) to support the additional fuel needed when running E85 and to be ready for any turbos or other opportunities.

In reality I was ready to stop with that and was having a blast.  By this time I had been in a CC chat for a while learning new information all the time, talking to the guys and asking questions. Then I ended up meeting one of the local guys who was changing turbos to a Pure Turbos hybrid.  I’ve discussed that process previously.

​Related: Pure Turbos

I decided it was time for a Pure Turbos upgrade.  It was what came to be known as the Pure700.  CC was right there with us, tuning for the new turbo, working on keeping the torque limited to the magic 500 or so pound feet so that I wouldn’t bend any rods and put them through the block.  Wow the car really screamed.  I was super happy with it but decided to build the engine for safety and longevity.

In our CC chat we got to know a lot of people and learned a lot of information.  I got to know Nathan Samuels from Apex Motoring and started discussing build options.  I made up my mind to have him build the engine even though he was all the way across the country.  He is from the Northland, also known as Canada, the Greater Toronto Area to be exact.  I’m from San Diego.
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At the same time Pure Turbos was creating a couple of new turbos which were going to produce more power.  I had decided to be satisfied by the turbo I had but then changed my mind and decided to change turbos at the same time.  Pure Turbos worked on finalizing the turbo development on my car but we couldn’t push the turbo unless the engine was built.  So I drove 2600 miles across the country taking the route through Colorado to get my engine built by Nathan.  I went easy on it for the entire trip.  I didn’t want to break anything.  The new turbo, known as the Pure850, was capable of so much more airflow and more power.

I arrived at Apex Motoring on a Sunday evening.  Nathan was there to let me drop off my car and have it ready to get started.  I had only taken 2 weeks of vacation for the entire build.  Once again CC was ready and available to get me tuned when the engine was back in the car.  Open heart surgery made me a little nervous but Nathan is very knowledgable and put my mind at ease.  The build occurred and then tuning started.  CC worked directly with Nathan to get my tune all sorted.  They started with the E85 tune and then got it all smoothed out then moved to the pump 91 tune so that I would be able to drive back home.  Revisions occurred very quickly as they knew I had a short time to stay.

Custom-Code was so helpful with the tuning that it was pretty much ready to go in the short amount of time I was there.  It wasn’t making the power expected so other changes were made  to the setup and Nathan was working his tail off to make it work.  It ended up that the timeline was just becoming too short for all the updates and changes so I left the car at Apex Motoring to get more updates done and work on the transmission tune as well.  It gave CC more time to tweak new things and get them all working well before I drove it home.  I flew back a couple of weeks later right before Thanksgiving Holiday to pick up the car and drive it back.  

The car ran perfectly 2550 miles back home to San Diego.  It had loads of power as the torque didn’t need to be held back anymore.  Lots of fun on the drive home and lots more fun to be had.  In the next blog post I will talk more in depth about the build and the exciting things I got to learn in the process.

Thanks for visiting and remember to Strive to Arrive!