FromZto5

I wanted to give a proper shout out to JDM Engineering out of Freehold, NJ for providing some of the best customer service (and of course a high quality product) I've seen in a long time. Nick and company provided me a series of tunes for my car that started last year, when I went with a smaller 3.6" pulley for my Maggie blower. I now have Tune #8, and we're finally dialed in, with all datalogs being as perfect as can be, short of dyno tuning.

Why are they so great?

Firstly, back in September 2014, Nick and Jim were always there to answer questions from a noob like me. I didn't know much about tunes, or the process about them, except for the box Magnuson tune that came with my kit/SCT. I asked them a lot of questions over the phone and e-mail correspondence, and always responded promptly and with a demeanor that made you feel like you were a valued customer.

Despite having only tuned 1 or 2 Magnuson-charged mustangs, I decided to go with them because frankly, I liked what I heard. From what I researched and heard back from other customers, Jim Sr., their head tuner, has been tuning for a long time and knows his stuff. It was a learning process for them too, for example, Magnuson doesn't have an air intake sensor (IAT2) like the Roush's or Whipples do. So I remember their first tune giving me a CEL/DTC for it, and I was freaking out. We worked through it and all was well.

Since the day I got my first JDM tune, the car has been running so much better. Nick has sat with me on the phone showing me how to update my SCT, download the tune, upload the tune, etc... He showed me how to datalog properly, etc. All of these things, that I wouldn't expect from a tuner. I believe that some other places, you'd just pay them $$$ and boom, here's your tune, good luck with it. Nick didn't have to give me his personal e-mail or send me information in evenings and weekends, but he did. Sometimes, we'd chat over the evenings and on weekends.

So the process got repeated over several months, partly because I store my car over winter. Regardless, throughout the process, Nick and JDM have been with me from Day 1, and have always been supportive. They also helped me through spark improvement, when I switched to NGK 6510's, because of ensuring a better response at WOT. The best part is that on the last 2 tunes, despite having perfected the fuel trims both long and short term, idle, cruise, and WOT... they tweaked my tune to add a couple more degrees of timing (10 degrees now - well, well within conservative estimates) to give me about ~20 whp more. I datalogged for them and everything looked perfect, but they actually tweaked it again to add a little more fuel on top end WOT just to be extra extra safe. Again, things that other folks wouldn't necessarily be bound to do. I like the "conservative" and "safe" blend in my car.

My last and latest correspondence from them stated that everything was "perfect", and that the car is "dialed in"...he would still like a datalog from me a few weeks later to make sure to check up on it and see that everything is still in line and nothing has changed.

FWIW, my car was putting down 521whp and 446wtq on a Superflow dyno. I haven't dyno'd her yet after this last tune, but I should be somewhere between 540whp and 550whp.

In summary, I'm very pleased with Nick and JDM Engineering as a whole. Julie, both Jim's and of course Nick. Thanks again for putting up with a noob like me...I wasn't expecting this much customer service for a nobody like me from timbuktu Iowa, buying a "mail order" tune from them. Kudos.

I highly recommend them for any of your aftermarket Mustang needs/services. Most of you know how **** I am about my car and how finicky I am about great customer service. JDM Engineering meets those needs and then some.

rmurer

Great write up and review.

What was the cost of your tune?

cdiaz1069

I agree. They are a top quality shop. They did my gears and driveshaft last November. It's an hour drive, but well worth the piece of mind which you can't put a price on. I only dealt with Jim Jr. He met me there on a Sunday when they were closed. It was the only day I could drop my car off. Great service.

FromZto5

Thanks Russ. As far as cost, it's on their site, under custom tuning for mustangs. I can pm you too if you like.

Ah, very cool. I'm not surprised that Jim would do that. They're by New York City right? Someday I gotta go. How's the new gears and driveshaft?

cdiaz1069

Not quite that close to NYC. They are in central Jersey, so maybe about another hour to NYC.

The gears and driveshaft totally transformed my car. It's funny how far and how quickly I am ahead of other cars when the traffic light turns green. So much fun.

When I first called them, I was inquiring about shorty headers and an FRPP X pipe. Jim was like, nah, do these instead. He was right. I recently did the headers and X pipe anyway.

FromZto5

very cool. What gears and what driveshaft? 3.73? And you have a V6?

cdiaz1069

Yes, FRPP 3.73 and the DS is from Axle Exchange which is not too far from JDM. Yup, V6.

Stage_3

Yup. They were one of the ones I recommend to people.
Nice write up.