Any reputable Megasquirt Tuners in DFW?

[Titus]

Can you pass inspection with the AEM EMS? That was my concern when looking at it... (CELs)

He has a 90-93 Miata, which means no ODBII. As long as it is clean on the tailpipe sniffer, he is fine.

[Rob®]

Slightly off topic, but still relevant: If you live in a Texas county that requires emissions testing, can you go to a county that does not (and most likely not a directly bordering county) and get inspected under their standards? I ask because some of my Z friends out here say that you can, but the local inspection guy down the road from me says otherwise (he knew he wasn't getting inspection money for the car I was asking him about either way). For instance, one guy says his cars are inspected in Brazo (?) county since they don't do emissions testing there.

And the counties that do do emissions testing don't care if the CEL doesn't come on when the car is off but the key is on? Not sure if the AEM allows that or not, so that might be another issue as well. I know it is/was in NJ/NY.

[POS Racing]

^ You may get away with it - but the law states:

Is your vehicle required to be emissions tested?
All Texas registered vehicles are required to receive an annual inspection. All inspections include a comprehensive safety inspection; however, some vehicles are required to have an emissions test in addition to the safety inspection.

Which vehicles are required to have the emissions test?

Vehicles registered in designated counties. Designated counties include: Brazoria, Fort Bend, Galveston, Harris, Montgomery, Collin, Dallas, Denton, Ellis, Johnson, Kaufman, Parker, Rockwall, Tarrant, Travis, Williamson and El Paso counties.

[Titus]

Just a guess, but I suspect your Z friends are registering the cars in the other counties, like at their parent's house or something. I know when I was living in California, I considered registering my cars at my parent's address, as they lived in a non-testing county.

[goofygrin]

I tried to do this once... and the inspection place denied to inspect my car because I lived in a different county.

[Rob®]

POS - That's kind of what I was thinking. You could potentially get away with it, but you really shouldn't be able to.

Titus - While that may be true for the younger guys, it is incorrect for the older ones that have said that's what they do. Most are in the San Antonio or Houston areas though, which is why I asked here. Currently my truck and wifey's car are registered and inspected here, but both are OBD2 and pass inspections with flying colors. My Miata is still registered at the FL house, but it's...my Florida car...Every so often I think about registering it out here, but the front plate thing, emission thing, general inspection at all thing, just doesn't have me sold. I'd be closer to making the paperwork easier on myself if the non-emission county testing thing was a known easy workaround.

goofygrin - That's what I had in the back of my mind. I don't want to switch my Miata to TX plates just to have that happen...then have to drive it all the way back to FL to reregister it there.

[MiataProtege]

POS - That's kind of what I was thinking. You could potentially get away with it, but you really shouldn't be able to.

Titus - While that may be true for the younger guys, it is incorrect for the older ones that have said that's what they do. Most are in the San Antonio or Houston areas though, which is why I asked here. Currently my truck and wifey's car are registered and inspected here, but both are OBD2 and pass inspections with flying colors. My Miata is still registered at the FL house, but it's...my Florida car...Every so often I think about registering it out here, but the front plate thing, emission thing, general inspection at all thing, just doesn't have me sold. I'd be closer to making the paperwork easier on myself if the non-emission county testing thing was a known easy workaround.

goofygrin - That's what I had in the back of my mind. I don't want to switch my Miata to TX plates just to have that happen...then have to drive it all the way back to FL to reregister it there.

I thought it was illegal to live in texas and have out of state plates. I would have gladly kept my other plates if that wasn't the case, hate front license plates.

[Rob®]

Correct and incorrect (for any state). Think military, out of state college kids, and snowbirds.

[sloked up]

not wanting to bump old threads at all, but this caught my eye and i thought that i should inform everyone that Steve at PRT Performance in Lewisville is a Megasquirt tuner (along with many other programs). he has his AWD mustang dyno in his shop, and for people that are interested he also has a Mandrel bender.

PM if anyone wants contact info at all.

[jeff_man]

not wanting to bump old threads at all, but this caught my eye and i thought that i should inform everyone that Steve at PRT Performance in Lewisville is a Megasquirt tuner (along with many other programs). he has his AWD mustang dyno in his shop, and for people that are interested he also has a Mandrel bender.

PM if anyone wants contact info at all.

Kan is a great guy but has his cost. You will get a good power band tune but I unless you want to droop over a grand you will need to do everything else yours self. That is true for any tuner.

[MiataMike]

Kan is a great guy but has his cost. You will get a good power band tune but I unless you want to droop over a grand you will need to do everything else yours self. That is true for any tuner.

I can vouch for both sides of this scenerio..

I have gone to Steve for my initial install of my Hydra EMS setup. I have been running it for 4 years or so. I have had him retune my car 3 times after each Hydra hardware upgrade 2.5 - 2.6 - and now 2.7. I have ran many track days on my car without an engine failure (Except for that one missed shift dreaded 5 -2 shift resulting in a bent valve, and even then the car was drivable for many month and mostly went unnoticed).

With that being said, how much is the cost of a new motor (Plus current mods to your motor vs. stock) plus cost of installing new replacment motor/rebuilt motor and down time of said vehicle. (Also see Cosmopower post about exotic rentals)

BTW: just tuning alone isn't that expensive, its only when you have to get Steve to do any other work to your car does it cost more money. Retune $200+ new tune around $500 on the dyno, cheaper for a street tune - $100+

[SirHustlerEsq]

I laud the idea of paying someone for a "street tune" that drives miserably, don't these fibers care about reputation?. There is only one way I'll ever give pack up my computer and go home, it its not a tiered quality system. Then again, it only takes me about 30minutes to tune a car once it gets running, without cold start...that's where you spend the time. I don't see how anyone spends more than 45 minutes on the dyno with a static valve timing car. Thousand dollar tunes are for cars with two VVT cams.