ShadoWerks.com (steveshadows)

[4-20sx]

i have been refunded. Thank you steve.

[ericb382]

I decided to buy a base map from steve since I have learned to take his word as gospel from his posts. His base map service comes with 3 months of email support. I'm trying to learn a little about how to tune, but don't want to blow my motor doing it. In my opinion the 3 months of email support is worth more than what he charges for the base map. Not to mention the maps he sent me were pretty much spot on. There were a couple spots that need a little fine tuning (as with any mail order rom tune that costs a lot more money) and he's working with me very quickly to get these sorted out.

After installing my d-jettro and loading steve's base map, my car was immediately running faster and more flawless than it has for over a year with my old ems. Now every little bit is getting ironed out quickly and I'm learning from the best along the way.

Thanks Steve, I think it might actually be worth making the 450 mile drive to have you dyno tune my car!

[sidedrifts13]

yeah i had a bad experience with him also but he is a nice guy overall

Originally Posted by 4-20sx

Lol how funny. I remember Steve had a special on his remote tuning n I too purchases the gold package. He was very good at convincing me that I should purchase it now cuz this deal might not last. So I did ofcourse. He said he was gonna give me a map then next thing you know he's telling me that I needed to give him my base map n giv him my specs on my setup. So I did. I told him I had a haltech ps1000 n he wanted alittle more money since this was a newest model of haltech at the time. I didn't want to pay more since it's similar to the e11 model and uses the same program. I emailed him back about this. Never reponded to me. I kept emailing him over n over again. About a week passes n still no email from him. I finnaly emailed him I wanted my money back and that's when he reponded. I'm pretty sure others have had goOd and bad expierences with him buy I've certainly had a bad expierence woth him!

[Csomme]

Steve gave me a Base Map on my setup, through email; 550's, HKS step 1 cams, GT2871r, Splitfire coilpacks, and Power FC.


His BASE MAP made around 330whp and was super solid.


This guy is amazing, and is soo damn smart, if you ever have any problems with him, he irons them out fast. He put up with my annoying ass too.

[Addicted2Kouki]

I came to Steve for some diagnostic consultation (I was trying to figure out what was wrong with my car).

He actually hit up my thread on Zilvia offering help.
I met this guy a couple times before and he has always been a real chill person.

When it came down to 240s, this guy knows his shit.
He found my problem in less than 10 minutes of messing with it.

He even got my friends car running perfect since we were all just hanging out.
If you ever have any problems with your SR, this guy is a god/guru.

I recommend him for diagnostic help and I already know his tuning is legit!
I would definitely go to him for both without thinking twice.

I just love the fact that if you ever have any problems with his work, he will usually go out of his way just to help you out.
I wouldn't believe the negative reviews.

10/10
Thanks again Steve.
One of these days, me and Kam are just gonna invite you to kick it just to get you drunk LOL

[inopsey]

Originally Posted by 4-20sx

Lol how funny. I remember Steve had a special on his remote tuning n I too purchases the gold package. He was very good at convincing me that I should purchase it now cuz this deal might not last. So I did ofcourse. I'm pretty sure others have had goOd and bad expierences with him buy I've certainly had a bad expierence woth him!

this exactly what happened with me except the base map sold was a limp map at best and if i didnt have a wideband i would not have an engine after runing this map. i also pruchased the gold services only to get no email feedback and he answered my call once out of probably 20 attempts and messages to call me. to top this off the map i now run looks much closer to the base apexi map than the 'custom' map i paid 85$ for.

but i do believe steve is a good tuner in person but have never had any first hand experience at this.

[Sako]

Steve offers a great service at an incredibly low price. I purchased one of his remote tunes recently, and I was really surprised at how much of a difference it made on my car. It only took Steve two days to generate a map, and he was nice enough to offer any type of support over the next few months. Steve is, by far, one of the most knowledgeable people on this board. My experience with him has been nothing short of outstanding, and I would recommend him to anybody looking for any type of dyno related service.
Thanks again Steve

[boost]

i noticed a nice bump in power from one of steve basemaps.

[shibbyRPS13]

Had some dyno time with Steve this saturday and he is seriously an incredible tuner. He is also a pretty cool dude and im pretty sure he's secretly the lead singer for avenged sevenfold haha. I went there and the car could barely idle and within minutes we were road tuning.. Then went to steady state on the dyno dynamics and finally some solid dyno runs.




setup

s14 sr20det
stock bottom end
gt2871r .86ar
bc 264/264 stage II cams
bc springs, retainers, valves
"light" headwork
circuit sports ras
1.2mm headgasket
stock intake manifold and throttle body
740cc hks injectors
circuit sports fpr
fmic
tubular manifold, stainless elbow, 3"dp, apexi gt spec n1 exhaust
haltech E8
Gizzmo IBC-R boost controller
act six puck sprung, fidanza 10lb flywheel
1 bar
91 octane



1 bar and backing off at 6800 and the hp was still climbing, and the afr's were safe at 12:1. I want to thank Steve for being an awesome dude and a great tuner and Mike at canyon racer motorsports for lending the space and dyno to get this done.
I will be back with race gas soon lets do work!

[rics*project*s13]

i wanna thank steve for the tune he set up for me. on my stock internal and a couple of bolt on's.
mods
z32 maf
split fire coils
550 injectors
isis intake mani
s14 t28
after market exh mani an 3" pipes
power fc
think thats it. but i wanna upgrade turbo and hook up my jucie.
tryn to shoot for a lil over 300hp


i know it needs a better clean up job under hood lol

[final act]

I ordered a custom tailored base map from steve for $82, he replies back fairly fast with okay replies, wish he was a little more detailed about explaining things and answering all my questions but I will try the base map in a day(tommarow) and check the AFR'S and see if it was worth it...
my setup
s13sr redtop
garret t3 t4
pfc
blitz 550 inj
3 inch exhaust
peakboostmani
38mm teal wastegate
stock head
fmic
jun style intake mani
apexi 1.1mm hg
stock bottom
howe rad
act organic clutch
fidanza flywheel
ras

I hope I drive away like the rest of the satisfied customers

[Vatche]

Short Version
Steve did a shit job tuning my car, and I considered him a friend for 7-8 years.

NEGATIVE

Alright, so to start off Steve was my friend for at least 7-8 years, always was a nice guy. He always offered to tune my car when i got a power fc over the years. Earlier this year I was planning to finally get my car tuned. I have been through alot with this car. It took me many years to afford getting the money together for ecu and tune. I was so excited to finally get this done.

My set up is a redtop SR, S15 Turbo, Sti yellow 550cc injectors, freddy intake manifold, front mount, full 3 inch exhaust from turbo elbow, Walbro 255, Apexi Power Intake and everything on the car is up to spec and working, most things on car have been replaced with new. Motor had new bearings and reseal when I got it approx. 30-40k before this tuning, motor only had approx 10-15k when i got it, was super clean.

I had to make a decision for who to tune my car. I had Koji at Drift Speed who is very reputable and well known and reliable, which would be a for sure tune. Or I had the option of taking my car to my friend Steve which I figured would be a bit cheaper since hes not a shop, and he would spend more quality time with me since im his friend and get my car perfect. I wasnt expecting him to work for free or anything I had the money to tune my car right. Over the years I read all his reviews and they were hit or miss. But I figured that couldnt be right cuz i knew him personally. I knew he was a bit hot headed and would argue with anyone on the forum so he had a pretty funny overall reputation. Some people dont like him, and some people swear by him.... I have defended Steve many times at local car meets and told people he was really good at tuning and to go to him to save money. Always got along with him, so I chose to take my car to Steve because I believe in giving business to the little guy to help them grow and he was my friend. And that was a terrible mistake I made.

I went there with my friend Danny who is also a car guy and has had a decent amount of different modified cars over the years. We arrived at canyon motorsports, which was the shop Steve rents his Dyno Dynamics time from. When we first got there my friend Danny brought his miata that he just bought so I guess Steve really liked miatas and they wasted like 20-30 minutes talking about the miata and I was wondering when he was going to start on my car since he told me i had from 12-4, anyway he put my car on the dyno and started to do his thing, I told him before he gets too involved to check my timing because I have never got it right over the years. But my car always ran ok Air Fuel ratio had been checked on dynos previously so i figured timing was somewhat close to right. So Steve checked my timing with the timing gun at canyon motorsports and according to him it was way off. He adjusted it almost completely opposite of where it was and then continued to dyno tune my car. He didnt check anything else. He was hitting low numbers around 225whp, and i told him that I hit 227whp with stock ecu on a dyno dynamics before the power fc, more boost, freddy intake manifold, 550cc sti injectors. He kept saying "these numbers are normal for this setup" and I kept disagreeing with him, I told him this setup should be around 270whp at least. Because I have looked at a lot of numbers of my set up over the years. So he did like 2 more pulls and it came out at 231.5 but the car was popping and running like shit already on the dyno, I was frustrated already at this point because he was ignoring the fact that i thought there was something wrong. It was like 230pm or something and he hurried up and got the car off the dyno all of a sudden and said he wanted to go test it on the street. He drove the car and I was in the passenger seat. The car didnt feel that fast to me, just popping and running like shit. He let me drive it. I told him "it feels slower than before you tuned it..." again he shrugged it off and said i probably had bad compression. that my engine is old and thats why it runs bad, kept trying to blame other factors, and saying it was normal the way it felt. I made the mistake of paying him for his time even though i didnt feel satisfied in any way, because he kept saying it was probably my compression. And Canyon motorsports would do the leakdown compression test for like 150. I told him to hold off on it because I wanted to ask my uncle at his shop if he could do the compression leakdown test for me.

So throughout the next day or so I kept thinking about it and talking with my friend Danny on what it could be, I was trying to think of all the variables. I just couldnt get myself to believe it was the compression, could it be the injectors are no good, or did I install something wrong, because I had done a lot of work to my car before the tune. Then I thought, maybe its the timing, and the more I thought about it the more I really wanted to check my timing. But because I could never figure out my timing myself I decided to go to the professionals for this because if it was the timing then Steve fucked up. So I headed over to Drift Speed pissed off and frustrated because of all this time I spent trying to get this done right. The first thing they did was check my timing using a cheap $15 dollar timing light from pep boys. They said "oh shit this is way off" and then turned my CAS pretty much back to where it was and precisely got my timing where it needed to be and told me to be careful driving my car because they dont know what kind of tune he did and how it would react. At this point I went through a few emails, facebook messages, phone calls and texts with Steve. I told him the timing was way off and his response was something like, nah man its a gimmick they just want to tune your car....I WITNESSED with my own eyes when Steve set the timing using a a digital timing light at Canyon motorsports, and when Drift Speed did it with a cheap non digital light. I asked Drift Speed why the timing could be so off, they said because the SR is distributorless that you cant really use a digital timing light unless you set it up a certain way and even then it doesnt always work. They said you should use a cheap timing light from pep boys or something because they work really well.

I couldnt believe Steve was still ignoring the fact that he might have made a mistake. He offered to retune my car, and I told him that i was gonna have drift speed retune it. He took offense to that and continued with the gimmick thing, and in my head I was thinking FUCK no i am not letting him tune my car again. watching him tune my car I felt like he was not professional at all. He didnt listen to me when i said something was wrong and might have caused major damage to my engine who knows. But even through all that i let it all slide cuz he was my friend. I figured it would work out...

I took my car to drift speed less than a week later and they tuned my car to 266whp and 260 torque which I still felt like they were low numbers, but the car ran perfectly smooth. Pulled hard all the way through the gear. unlike Steves tune which felt like shit.

I paid Steve $380 for what I thought was gonna be 4 hours of good tuning. Instead I got a bunch of fucking bullshit and a headache.

I paid Drift Speed $300 for 2 hours..I got a great tune reliable and safe. And lots of advice and great service.

I told Steve after the Drift Speed tune that I wanted him to pay me back half of the $380.00 because he had to rent the dyno time, which he said he paid for and that he barely makes any money after he pays the dyno guy. I felt bad because even after all this I still wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt and he was my friend. I told Steve that he made a mistake with the Timing and shit happens. That it probably doesnt affect his ability to tune, that he made a mistake and I shouldnt be the one to suffer.

He continued to say Drift Speed tryed to cheat me into a tune and that he wasnt wrong. And he didnt believe me. So I told him to pay me what I asked for or I was going to have to go to the forum. I wasnt even asking for a full refund...which I could have. After MONTHS he finally gave me a $100.00 payment after I was getting ticked off and being super patient. Made me feel a little better like maybe he was gonna own up to his mistakes. And I got patient again and waited for the final $90.00. I even offered for him to make two $45.00 payments to end it. He kept saying money was tight and that he had customers lined up. I kept waiting. In august I sent him a message on facebook with no response.

I sent him a message this week and he responded saying he still didnt believe he was wrong and tried to explain to me the difference in numbers between a dyno dynamics and a dyno pak. Percentages of different number readouts. Which I totally understand, but the problem was not the fucking numbers, it was the fact that my car ran like shit, felt like shit, and was popping all the fucking time. And even the numbers, I dynoed 231.5 for Steve and 266.9 for Drift Speed. I Dynoed 227 on a dyno dynamics before any of this upgrades or tuning a couple years ago... I explained all of this to Steve already. After his latest response I have given up on him ever understanding what happened here. And I get screwed once again. I could take him to small claims court, but I dont know if I really need to go that far... I cant believe it worked out like this but I have had enough. My fuse is burnt out with this shit.

I apologize if this seems over the top, I am not an angry guy, I dont hold grudges or judge people or talk shit really. But I do believe in honor and pride and doing things right. Not screwing people over. I have no reason to lie and I speak the truth. Most conversations were made through text or online so I have everything on record... Hopefully someone learns from this. And for any business Steve might lose because of this post, I dont think it was worth that $90.00 that he should have just paid me back. This whole thing pissed me off and could have been avoided, I still feel unsettled about it because he was my friend. Whatever..

[MADE]

Steve being wrong,....................nah!!

I had some of the same issues, I figured it was just me and isolated but that doesn't appear to be the case. Can he tune yes, but IMO you can spend the money elsewhere can be alot more satisifed. Everytime he has tired to fix or adjust something mechanical on my car it was worse than before.

Anyone looking to do business with Canyonracer/Mike Kondo youre in good hands if he is the only person doing work on your car.

[fckillerbee]

wow. so that STEVE knows....i was going to take my sr there...i've heard good things. Guess i'll be bringing it to driftspeed. thanks for the review.

Steve should have called driftspeed and talked with them. Even a retard should ask the question of how he got 231 and someone else got 266 using the same info

[Vatche]

Steve argued that the 231 on dyno dynamics is the same as 267 on the dynopak. I dont agree. Even if that wouldn't apply.

The most important part was that my car ran like shit with his tune and now it doesnt.

[4-20sx]

Thanks for bringing back up this thread!!!! 2 years later n I still haven't gotten my money back....sHitzz... I guess it's too late to try to get a paypal refund! I do have all his emails still saved though lol

[gotta240]

Regardless of how awesome his tunes may)OR MAY NOT) be or how smart he is(OR IS NOT) said to be, I'd never use him simply because of the way he has acted on the forums and threatened people online. Not the type of business I give money to.

[s13 @ fullboost]

he tuned my car he did a great job in all honesty

[DrIvEsldEwAyS]

..................................

[4-20sx]

Bringing this thread back again just remembered how much I dislike this guy known as "Steve".

[riptor]

steve seems to be getting alot of flack on here from people. I have to say, anyone that can take the time to learn a trade and then use it to make a living deserves some respect. I think that what we are all forgeting here is that all our cars and motors are different. also if you do the calculation, and look at the differences in dynos. alot of the web sites DO say that a dyo-dynamics read a little lower then dyno pacs, and dyno jets are the best way to go. but in the end, if you get a solid result, and the performance you want is reached, why so much h8? i say leave the guy alone if shit didnt work for you..sorry. get over it, yourself, and either take the time to figure it out and fix it or go pay some else to do it. who knows you might learn something about your car AND gain a little knowledge in the process.

ive been working with steve for about 2 weeks now, and i have to say my car hasnt run this good since i took it to the dyno on my FIRST power fc. I also paid steve 85 dollars, I ALSO recieved my timing layout in the mail, and i was suprised at the outcome and result. not only was she running...but good! slight adjustments to fuel corrections and i have my baby back. at this point its just little things, fpr guage, little suspension work, and a quick tune up, and im ready for the rollers!

my hats off to you steve, for being professional, patient, and understanding of my situation, and taking the time to assist in helping me along my journey. i say fuck all the haters and nay-sayers.
you do great work, keep it up!!


regards

-steve

P.S I figured out my fuel correction thingy, i just had to increase the correction with the coolent temp increase, still get a litte surge at idle, but over all she fuking MOVES bro. cant thank you enough!

[silver350z05rb]

I was there when he leaned the shit out of my buddys SR20,now everyone calls him Lean Steve,took it to Gdimensions to fix the tune,they said nothing was wrong,he just leaned the shit out of the motor for some reason.

[riptor]

Originally Posted by silver350z05rb

I was there when he leaned the shit out of my buddys SR20,now everyone calls him Lean Steve,took it to Gdimensions to fix the tune,they said nothing was wrong,he just leaned the shit out of the motor for some reason.

is g dimensions still open? they did the tune on my first power fc?
and steve's map was a lil lean, but i added fuel a she is a happy camper!

[MADE]

I don't think it so much hate. I look at it people post their experiences with Steve and others so members can make a decision based on the previous customers experiences. This is a community to share information, and this thread is just that. I wish this thread was alive when I had my car tuned. It would have saved mY money, but I can say I learned. IMO if someone provides a service for you, you shouldn' have to perfect it.

I will say you notice a trend in this thread and other review threads that I have read, and if it's negative it's up to the reader to determine, what is "hate" and what is reality.

I do agree tuning is an art and I have had well known power excel/RH9 professional shops tune my car, and the results were shitty. Only to be tuned later and wishing I would have known about the last guy the first time.

[Vatche]

Originally Posted by riptor

steve seems to be getting alot of flack on here from people. I have to say, anyone that can take the time to learn a trade and then use it to make a living deserves some respect. I think that what we are all forgeting here is that all our cars and motors are different. also if you do the calculation, and look at the differences in dynos. alot of the web sites DO say that a dyo-dynamics read a little lower then dyno pacs, and dyno jets are the best way to go. but in the end, if you get a solid result, and the performance you want is reached, why so much h8? i say leave the guy alone if shit didnt work for you..sorry. get over it, yourself, and either take the time to figure it out and fix it or go pay some else to do it. who knows you might learn something about your car AND gain a little knowledge in the process.

ive been working with steve for about 2 weeks now, and i have to say my car hasnt run this good since i took it to the dyno on my FIRST power fc. I also paid steve 85 dollars, I ALSO recieved my timing layout in the mail, and i was suprised at the outcome and result. not only was she running...but good! slight adjustments to fuel corrections and i have my baby back. at this point its just little things, fpr guage, little suspension work, and a quick tune up, and im ready for the rollers!

my hats off to you steve, for being professional, patient, and understanding of my situation, and taking the time to assist in helping me along my journey. i say fuck all the haters and nay-sayers.
you do great work, keep it up!!


regards

-steve

P.S I figured out my fuel correction thingy, i just had to increase the correction with the coolent temp increase, still get a litte surge at idle, but over all she fuking MOVES bro. cant thank you enough!

you can kiss his ass and try to back him up with your side of an argument.

but you have all your facts wrong about why people are complaining.


Anyone can say they are good at something. Anyone can say they are a tuner. Its how well they do the job and how much they know that makes them a good tuner or a good anything.

Steve was terrible. Handled business Terribly, the Tune experience was Terrible, watching my car on the running like shit on the dyno was Terrible, he did nothing to try to fix the problems and kept moving forward even though any normal person would have tried to figure out what was wrong. To this day I will continue to post negatively about him especially to people like you who try to defend him blindly. My car means a lot to me and I would never get over that shit.

he doesnt make a living from tuning, he rips people off.

and if you would understand that the numbers difference on the dynos was not the problem. the problem was that the car was going to blow up the way he tuned it, and ran perfectly every other way when he wasnt involved.

half the people who posted good reviews about him messaged me after my original post and brought up things they weren unsure about but didnt know any better because they were uneducated with the tuning process and trusted him.

I wouldnt waste my time bitching normally, but this deserves it.

[riptor]

^^^^^^hahahH, i love my lil monster too. At the end of the day his settings worked for me. Ill give him a good review because of that. I needed help, and he did just that. Yall wanna. Bitch and moan go ahead. Ill be here enjoyin the smell of tire smoke and basking in the knowledge i gained! And as the good book says "every big hitter has to start in the shitter" ROFLMAO!!!!

[yingiang]

Steve is an awesome guy, he built me a map for my SR20DET setup. He responded to my emails in a very timely manner and has always helped me out on what I needed. He is a very professional man. It shows through his emails and his responses.
I would recommend to anyone.

[steve shadows]

Hi Vatche,

Unfortunately I didn't get an answer on the offers I sent you a while ago trying to reconcile this with you.

To refresh your memory, I offered 3 possible solutions to get this matter resolved. I never want any of my customers or contacts to leave unhappy.

• 1. I can retune the car for free which would have to come out of my own pocket for the dyno rental time.
• 2. I can run the car on the dyno-dynamics to prove to you the output is less than a Dyna-Pack also for free.
• 3. I could repay you the money I made on the dyno session outside of what I had to pay the Dyno Dynamics owner.

To 420-SX - If you can please forward me the paypal ID for the transaction I can get you a map or a refund asap. I do not have any emails requesting help in any matter like this within the past year or so. If I missed it any other way I sincerely apologize.

I strive to provide the best possible tuning services and support to people who need them and if there is anything outside my scope I refer the business or do anything I possibly can in my power to help people in the community anyway I can.

-Steve

[Vatche]

Steve. I feel sorry for you. For one, you are not to post in your review thread.

Secondly I dont want you to ever touch my car again thanks.

Third, I made a deal with you to pay me back half. I even offered payment plans since You kept saying it was hard to come up with the money I paid you. If it was up to me I would want every penny back but I got over it. Because I got sick of dealing with you. I think you just forgot what all went down man. I have all of your responses saved just in case you want to go back and try to put it on me.

If you want I can post them up on here too. You are making yourself look like an ass again Steve. It was October of 2011 when I made my post about this experience. At the time all you had to do was give me $90 and I would have let it go.

And I am sick of trying to explain your mistakes to you. You fucked up on the tune. You fucked up on owning up to your mistakes, you fucked up on trying to fix the situation. And now over a year later you bring it up again?

Originally Posted by steve shadows

Hi Vatche,

Unfortunately I didn't get an answer on the offers I sent you a while ago trying to reconcile this with you.

To refresh your memory, I offered 3 possible solutions to get this matter resolved. I never want any of my customers or contacts to leave unhappy.

• 1. I can retune the car for free which would have to come out of my own pocket for the dyno rental time.
• 2. I can run the car on the dyno-dynamics to prove to you the output is less than a Dyna-Pack also for free.
• 3. I could repay you the money I made on the dyno session outside of what I had to pay the Dyno Dynamics owner.

To 420-SX - If you can please forward me the paypal ID for the transaction I can get you a map or a refund asap. I do not have any emails requesting help in any matter like this within the past year or so. If I missed it any other way I sincerely apologize.

I strive to provide the best possible tuning services and support to people who need them and if there is anything outside my scope I refer the business or do anything I possibly can in my power to help people in the community anyway I can.

-Steve

[4-20sx]

i have been refunded. thank you steve.