Saying hello...and clearing a few things up.

ILLS

Dedicated LVC Member
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Hey guys I thought I would look you up and see what the LS crowd has been up to for the last year. I see that some of you were/are not happy with me when it comes to being able to get ahold of me to purchase tunes, devices, and ask questions about tech related things. I do apologize for that. I have fallen off of the map lately and honestly I will probably not be able to change that for a few years to come. Anyways, I feel that you all at least deserve an explanation as to what has been happening with me lately.

As some of you may have known I am active duty Navy. I have been in for 11 years now and am looking forward to completing my last 9 years before I can make my first retirement. When I started doing tuning and working on cars for people I was teaching Naval leadership classes up north in the Chicago area. It was a great job to have in the Navy and it also afforded me allot of free time too. At that point in time I had about 8 years in and was giving allot of thought to transitioning out of the Navy and pursuing the KBX Performance thing full time. However, after being in so long it is hard to leave the rewarding career I have built while serving my country. So rather than get out I decided to stick it out till retirement. With the teaching job I was able to dedicate allot of time to helping people on this forum and also even tuning their cars too. I prided myself on providing great service to those of you I was able to take care of on here. Heck, to most of you that had been a big point of going with me tuning your cars. I know that level of service I was previously able to offer has changed dramatically. Though I am sure I could have possibly done a better job of getting back to some of you in a timely manner the real reason that prevented me from keeping up on this stuff as much as I used to has been that I changed jobs in the Navy. I am back in a mobile battalion now in southern MS. Now, instead of teaching leadership classes I am a Construction Quality Control Inspector for the Navy, more specifically the Civil Engineer Corps and Seabees. This job has proven to be MUCH more demanding of my time and also I just don't have the facilities at my disposal down here as I once did in my own place up north. Heck, I even had to leave the wife and son behind in our home when I get restationed down here because of the issues with home sales and economy. This year has been busy for me. I changed stations in January, QC school in early spring, Expeditionary school directly following in late spring, various other tech classes for a few months, Field training exercise for the month of August, and now I have been in Virginia on another job for the Navy for a while and will be here until Christmas. Then shortly after I come back to MS and am able to fly up north to see my family I will be deploying to Afghanistan for 6 months sometime in late January or early Feb. I am not mentioning this stuff for any other reason than to provide frame of reference for what I have been encountering this last year. I have encountered allot of change and that has affected the free time that I have to dedicate to keeping up with emails and phone calls on any sort of regular basis.

There is another smaller reason why I stopped replying back to people on here. It seems that I just kept getting the same PM's and emails from people wanting to know how to do an 8.8" 4.10's w/LSD swap into their LS, or know if I still offered turbo kit for the LS's. Which is funny, because I made it a point to state that I never intended to offer full kits for the LS. :confused: Then there were also some people that had some issues with their cars and decided to assume it was tune related. At first I tried to help those people but after a while it just got to be too much. Especially when I had one or two people insisting that one of the tunes I sent them caused their car to act funny. I have put allot of time into testing the tunes that I provide on many different LS's with different combo's and would have known if a tune I provided would cause an issue. For some reason people tend to doubt things they don't really understand first. Of course not many people understand tuning so that was their natural first choice besides maybe 5 minutes of initial troubleshooting. The funny thing was that some of those very same people claiming that one of my tunes caused an issue with their car also emailed me some time later saying that they had found the REAL cause of the issue and it wasn't even remotely tune related. That kind of stuff bothers me and kind of turned me off to spending as much time as I could afford in talking people through their issues not related to my tune. I really don't mean to sound like a jerk but I know tuning and what it can and cannot cause with a vehicle. Some of the issues one or two people were describing didn't make any sense looking at it from a tuning standpoint. Needless to say after a while it got real old when people would not bother to troubleshoot their own car and instead assume it could only be something in the tune. Since my advice wasn't being taken I decided it best to just remove myself from the situation rather than feeling I was talking to a brick wall.

The last straw was all the smacktalking on this board and even on Youtube and Streetfire where I had posted some videos of the LS with the turbo system. People can really act like fools sometimes. I was also disappointed to look on here and see that people were throwing out all sorts of assumptions as to why I sold my LS and in turn the turbo system I had built for it. I have seen that people assumed that the system "didn't work" which still boggles my mind because a system just "doesn't work" like that, but I will leave that one alone. Others assumed that the turbo system caused my car to "blow up"... That's news to me. The car never had a hiccup when I ran it for one year with the nitrous or the year after it with the turbo system on it. It made darned good power on minimal boost too. That car would have been pretty darned mean if I had put a stall in it and really allow it to launch out of the hole which is where LS's are weakest. Well, launch as well as an LS can; if ya catch my drift. But alas, the G8 caught my eye and I fell in love. I loved the power my TurboLS had but the potential the G8 showed was too much to pass up. I had to have one and within 3 weeks I went from not even knowing what G8's were and planning on going further with my LS to putting my LS back to stock, selling the turbo system for it, and buying a brand new G8 GT off the showroom floor. Since then I have done a twin turbo system on my G8 and on low boost with a REAL conservative tune am pushing 500rwhp/570rwtq and expecting middle 11's at around 125mph trap. It will only get nastier when I come back from Afghanistan. I still have the Kenne Bell Exploder by the way, and will likely always have it. ;) The bottom line is that if I hadn't seen the G8 I would probably still have my LS. I still love that car and it was fun as heck to drive! There was nothing like hitting boost with that turbo and hazing the tires at 40mph in an "old man sedan" like the LS. In the year I had the turbo system on my car I never had any real issues with it. It made great power, was fun to drive, one heck of a highway roller, and still drove like stock when I wanted it to. I am very confident that had I not sold the LS I would have had it in the middle 12's by now. But since I never officially accomplished that then I guess it is just talk at this point.

At this point in time I cannot predict what free time I may or may not have in the near future. Chances are that it will not be a whole lot within the next 9 months which means that I probably won't have allot of time providing tech info or advice to whatever various questions some of you LS owners pose. I am trying to take care of one person here or another there but I cannot promise the same level of contact and access I was able to offer before. If that is something you cannot deal with then I completely understand. Anyways, I seen that some of you were frustrated and I also seen those of you that stuck up for me and attempted to set the record straight. I really do appreciate the kind words some of you have said in a few threads here. I felt I owed it to both "sides" to come in here and say something. I probably will not have time to come back in here and check the replies to this thread...Based upon what some people said in other threads I am not sure if I want to see some of them, honestly. As I said before I apologize for any frustrations my lack of contact has caused. I wish you all the best of luck with modifying your cars and enjoying them to the fullest.
 
:Beer

i know you do good things and a lot of ppl agree with me on that one.
 
:bestwishe :Beer Good to hear from ya ILLS. Hope everything goes well. So whats going to happen with KBX? Was it only ran by you?
 
there now you all know he is alive. Hes kinda ashamed since my LS beat his exploder, but still alive :gr_devil: LMFAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Thanks for checking in.

I have enjoyed your input even when I did not always agree but was glad Lincoln LS owners have had tuning option.

Best to you ILLS and your future ventures.
 
First of all, glad to see you're alive and well. And I appreciate and respect those who choose to serve our country.

Then there were also some people that had some issues with their cars and decided to assume it was tune related. At first I tried to help those people but after a while it just got to be too much. Especially when I had one or two people insisting that one of the tunes I sent them caused their car to act funny.


The funny thing was that some of those very same people claiming that one of my tunes caused an issue with their car also emailed me some time later saying that they had found the REAL cause of the issue and it wasn't even remotely tune related. That kind of stuff bothers me and kind of turned me off to spending as much time as I could afford in talking people through their issues not related to my tune. I really don't mean to sound like a jerk but I know tuning and what it can and cannot cause with a vehicle. Some of the issues one or two people were describing didn't make any sense looking at it from a tuning standpoint. Needless to say after a while it got real old when people would not bother to troubleshoot their own car and instead assume it could only be something in the tune. Since my advice wasn't being taken I decided it best to just remove myself from the situation rather than feeling I was talking to a brick wall.

I can't help but think these 2 sections are directed towards me (and looks like a couple others too). I'll get to the highlighted areas in a second.

I understand why you would be offended when someone says the issue *could* be the tune. That was my case. I did make that suggestion, along with describing all symptoms my car was having while the tune was loaded. I was not under the impression that everyone who gets their vehicle tuned needs to have a background in tuning to troubleshoot any issues themselves. I thought that a novice when it comes to tuning (such as mysself) could rely on the expertise of the tuner.

When I did try to contact you, it was after trying to troubleshoot the issue myself, and I was just running into dead ends. So I tried to contact the tuner, thinking maybe HE could provide some input. That turned out to be a dead end as well.

As far as the highlighted areas: You say that you tried to help out, and provide advice. I'm sorry, but I did not receive ANY reponse as to where to look for the issue.

A member on here who is familiar with tuning helped me troubleshoot in an area I never thought to, albeit sort of blunt, but effective none the less. He also knew what I should troubleshoot very quickly. I did send you the email afterwards letting you know what I found out could be the culprit, thinking that maybe it would be useful to you, since I figured maybe you didn't know what would cause the issue to begin with (since I hadn't heard from you).

But, whatever. What's done is done. I'm over it. But I did feel I needed to post this.

Best of luck with your career in the Navy.
 
Nice to hear from you.

And welcome to the screwed up, aggravating, mind boggling world of customer service. Customers suck period. But they pay the bills!!!!!

I feel your pain in this area, and you have every right to feel the way you do. It really sucks sometimes especially when you are the one with the knowledge and everyone else knows better than you. Damn Aggravating!!!!!!
 
Stay Safe! Wish I knew you were out in Virginia. I've been working out of Annapolis since June. Mostly Military accounts. Been spending a lot of time out at Oceana and Little Creek too. Was just there with DEVGRU beginning of last week. Would have been nice to meet you. No problems with my tune either by the way. Ran a 14.28 on my 19's last spring....I'd say that's working allright.
 
Nice to hear from you.

And welcome to the screwed up, aggravating, mind boggling world of customer service. Customers suck period. But they pay the bills!!!!!

yes. how DARE i expect 2 minutes worth of after the sale support. :rolleyes:

there are always going to be customers that one is not able to please. i.ve never been that type of customer. but i did expect at least some type of communication.
 
yes. how DARE i expect 2 minutes worth of after the sale support. :rolleyes:

there are always going to be customers that one is not able to please. i.ve never been that type of customer. but i did expect at least some type of communication.

I was deff. not directing that towards anyone in particular, just know when you are working with a lot of people, there are some that will wear you down and make it unpleasant overall. I work as a Service Advisor, and let me tell you, I am wore out!!!!

I myself had an issue with one of ILLS tunes, we tried to work it out, could not and I left it as "just my luck thing", never broke his balls, so I too am not the type to bust em. I think if I remember time wise and what he explained about above, you fell into the time he could not do much.
 
ah, my misunderstanding.

i too am in a customer service oriented field, so i am familiar with unreasonable customers. i agree they do wear you down.

i especially dislike the ones who make a big stink just to get something for free.
 
:shifty:

nigerian_scam.gif
 
For those of you thinking its towards you, it may or may not be. I think he was describing a general feeling. Knowing Rob pretty well, he does go above and beyond to help people and a few have frustrated him. But I think its more the pattern that he is describing.

Pete, you had issues after he left. I know myself and a couple of the Mark VIII guys got you pointed in the right direction. But while you arent what this is about you are a perfect example to describe part of what he was talking about. dont take offence buddy, but im going to use you as an example. You know Ive got nothing but love for ya!

Pektel had his car tuned by ILLS, then a month or so later he ran into issues where the car wasnt running right. Pete not knowing the black magic magic behind the tune, thought maybe something in his tune was off. Thats when he tried to get ahold of ILLS who was predisposed of at the moment. I tried having him pull timing but it wasnt working. I forget who it was had him add fuel and the problem went away. It turned out that Pektel was having issues with his fuel pump. The fuel pump going over time has nothing to do with the quality of the tune, or frankly anything that Pektel could have avoided. He saw it sooner because the tune called for more fuel than stock, and was able to trouble shoot with the tune (meaning find the pump using the tune), but the tune had no real impact on it. Now if Pektel was one of those guys who decided to come one here and blast ILLS' tune because it screwed his car up (and he didnt) then it would be EXACTLY what ILLS is talking about. Unless you have experience with tuning and are familiar with what exactly its doing, then its black magic to you and likely to be the first thing you blame. Even if your car has been fine for extended periods of time, its the first thing that you dont understand, and in being so the first to get blamed.

My wife did the same thing to me when I was tuning her car. She got a tank of water filled gas and it clogged her fuel filter and pooched the pump. Naturally she started scream at me for the bad tune. Well the car was fine for two days with that tune and all of a sudden crapped out big time. I had to explain the same thing to her that I just explained to you all.
 
Kind of a wierd post Sean... like was stated above - customers can be difficult - hard to blame them thought - right?

People are absolutely justified in being concerned when someone goes unresponsive - ILLS had major life changes and it couldn't be helped. His customers got anxious and some of them went 'silly' - he explained it all in his post.

Glad to hear from him and that he is ok. Doesn't help those people that paid money and couldn't get a response for months, and from his post he appologized for that.
 
Actually the tune commands less fuel than stock... so when it starts leaning out due to a weak fuel pump the car goes from being in a good lean to a bad lean area... :D


I tried to help Pete and thought he was being pretty cool about the whole situation... but it is frustrating when you are having a problem and get non response at all...

Stay safe Ills!
 
Glad to hear you're ok Rob. Sorry you have to be away from your family. Not so happy to hear I have to eat the loss of money I spent for my 2nd LS' tune, which never worked right. (I was holding out, hoping you'd come back one day :p)

Take care man. Stay safe when you deploy.
 

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