some guys were asking what I thought of the shops around here in the fort hood area. compared to where im from (virginia) their not that great. Im hoping i can get some locals to post their favorite local shops and why they prefer them...so they people in texas can have an opion from personal experience before they trust a stranger with their life and money

 

Nor really local to you, but Japanese Specialist in Austin (Round Rock) is fabulous...

 

anyone in texas or near texas would be great cause ive heard a lot a people asking about which shop they should go to.

personaly i prefer my garage but not everyone has the time, motivation, or technical how to. thanks for your post

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Syner-G-Racing &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">anyone in texas or near texas would be great cause ive heard a lot a people asking about which shop they should go to.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Ummm, Texas is a big, big place. I gave you the name of a shop in Austin (which is in Texas by the way ). You shouild be more specific about how "local" you want it to be...

 

Stay away from Intercrew..........
They stole parts from my old cars.
Honestly, the best for you will be either do it in your own garage or get help from friends who know. That will probably save you money and time without getting screwed.

 

i dont know man about good shops cus kenny tran blew up a sleeved and bullet proof motor and basically said *** u to the owner.his shop is in dallas its called jotech

 

I've heard MZM Performance in Round Rock does really good work, but they are hella expensive.

 

i posted this thread hoping to provide information to people in texas or surronding areas but feel free to post your choice of shop for what ever state your in. this is information people in those areas may want to know. good examples are the previous post...shop name, location, and reason why they would or would not recommend that shop. thank you for your previous posts

 

Kenny is a good guy and wouldn't do **** like that. I've dealt with him since 1996 and has always made things right if there was a problem. JOTECH is by far the best import shop in Texas. That's why Bob Norwood worked with him before joining up with Chris Rado and the "World Racing" Crew.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by accord-euro-r &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Stay away from Intercrew..........
They stole parts from my old cars.
Honestly, the best for you will be either do it in your own garage or get help from friends who know. That will probably save you money and time without getting screwed.</TD></TR></TABLE>

You have got to be kidding me. I was going to have them install my cams and Hondata here in a few weeks. They seemed pretty legit and were recommended to me by Jeff at Import Builders. Do you have any info backing that statement up? I just want to know I am taking my car to someplace that will do a good job and not rip me off. It would suck to have to find another place to go all over again. There are not many shops in the D/FW Metroplex that won't charge you an arm and a leg for install and tuning.

 

i stress...if you have negative statements toward a company to display your concern, post it, but no rumors please. i dont want to waste this topic on disputes. hope this thread will be helpful to some.

 

Jotech Would drive 4 hours + to get them to tune a turbo any day.

 

I am stationed at Fort Hood and I've found no shop in the general vicinity that is touching my car. I will continue to drive to Louisiana to get my car worked on. Not bad mouthing any shop in particular, but my tuner back home is proven. Most of the shops around Fort Hood are there to milk off the post and sell Altezza lights and neon windshield squirters.





Modified by TurboR1391 at 8:52 PM 3/1/2004

 

Carboy, Houston is good also... along the lines of Jotech, but not as famous...

 

hey
Phillip is a somewhat of an honest guy, but.... it he can be sketchy at times. I have dealt with him many times in the past when I didn't know much about cars and have known a lot of stories.. good and bad about him. The question is how honest are his workers. they get new workers all the time, and they are not all neccesary "good mechanics" so I dont know whether or not you can trust them. He is also known to skim through a lot of stuff on an install to cheapen things out. He's the type that if you don't know much about cars but have money, he'll set u up with a strong motor (that cost a lot of course) and then do something stupid as in giving you an LS tranny.

He once sold my friend a tranny and told him it was an ITR one.. and the tranny was a cable. Hahaha..

Well anywyas, as far as him stealing stuff.... I dont believe it would be him, but more likely his assistants, or a customer might have stolen it from him while its at his shop. There are many horror stories that I can tell you about intercrew, and also a few good ones.... , but more bad than good. 1 example is of a 2 -3 month motor swap.... a simple b20/vtec.

Regarding your cam install, he can handle it, but being a person that works on cars myself, I wouldnt trust him installing one for me. just the way I'm. also, spring break is coming for me so i have 1 week off. If you want me to install your cams for you for a fraction of the cost a shop will charge you, give me a holler. I'm far from a newb, and my screename used to be mingchi96, but some stupid mod banned me for posting non ITR related issues on the ITR forum, and that pissed me off, so i kept reposting and eventually they eventually banned.. Bastards.


Modified by mingbling at 7:22 PM 2/29/2004


Modified by mingbling at 7:28 PM 2/29/2004

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by mingbling &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">hey
Phillip is a somewhat of an honest guy, but.... it he can be sketchy at times. I have dealt with him many times in the past when I didn't know much about cars and have known a lot of stories.. good and bad about him. The question is how honest are his workers. they get new workers all the time, and they are not all neccesary "good mechanics" so I dont know whether or not you can trust them. He is also known to skim through a lot of stuff on an install to cheapen things out. He's the type that if you don't know much about cars but have money, he'll set u up with a strong motor (that cost a lot of course) and then do something stupid as in giving you an LS tranny.

He once sold my friend a tranny and told him it was an ITR one.. and the tranny was a cable. Hahaha..

Well anywyas, as far as him stealing stuff.... I dont believe it would be him, but more likely his assistants, or a customer might have stolen it from him while its at his shop. There are many horror stories that I can tell you about intercrew, and also a few good ones.... , but more bad than good. 1 example is of a 2 -3 month motor swap.... a simple b20/vtec.

Regarding your cam install, he can handle it, but being a person that works on cars myself, I wouldnt trust him installing one for me...

</TD></TR></TABLE>

That in mind then, does anyone know of a good Hondata tuner and someone competent enough to install a set of cams, cam gears, valve springs and retainers in the D/FW area? I am going to go out on a limb here and say Jotech is about it, but does anyone know of any others who are a little more affordable and do good work? Help on this would be great. Thanks.

 

Intercrew took 5 weeks to do a motor swap i my car. Simple b20 vtec, the price was good, but communication was terrible. The car was my only means of transportation. I went to the shop and told him what i wanted. A week later when i went to see if It was done, he said " We haven't been able to find the parts you wanted" WTF!!!!! If he didnt have the parts to do the swap he should have told me up front. So i told him to use a different tranny and that I needed the swap asap. 5 weeks later the car was done, however the follwoing day my battery was dead I got a new battery and 24 hours latermy alternator went out. coincidence I doubt it Dont get me wrong Phillip and Ashley are very nice poeple, but Phillip sometimes didn't give me the satisfaction to be able to spend a ton of $ there. I have heard though recently that some nice swaps have left that shop lately so maybe things have changed.

Jotech, well Tony1 was Jotech and he is no longer there so I wouldn't take my car there anymore. They pretty much lost thier whole staff because of management I had quite a few friends who worked there and they hated working for Kenny. Theier prices are so inflated it's redicoulous. At one time I could understand spending the extra $ on labor, but why parts? There are also some horror stories and shady practices regarding Jotech current tuning. I wouldn't let them tune my car, but I would let tony1 tune, afterall he was Jotech and in my honest opinon Jotech was a shop of the past.

I have learned over the years if you want it done right do it yourself.

 

So it looks like I am stuck between bad and worse. This is such an eyeopener regarding this. I wonder if anyone in the Metroplex is worth going to now. What about Alamo Autosports in Arlington? Any dirt on them? I just want these cams installed and my Hondata tuned where A) my car runs fine and B) I am not going to pay an outrageous price for it. If need be it seems like I will have to take my **** to Austin. Don't want to as its around a 4 hour drive compared to 2 and the traffic is the worst, but unless I want these things to go to waste, I might have to. Hit me back with any info on Alamo Autosports. Thanks.

 

ive personally never been to alamo but ive heard nothing but good stuff from locals that have. justkeep in mind that everyshop will have thier stories but u should be able to determine if its bullshit or not. like i said kenny tran blew up my friends aebs block because he went way too lean and the sleeve cracked. pushed his car off the dyno and said sorry. and notice im not the only one that says he cant tune.

 

The only thing I have personally seen come from Alamo was a friends ls swapped crx. A day after he payed $4,500 to have a Greddy turbo kit installed and tuned the engine blew up. It was running at minimal boost and still blew up. Now one thing you have to remember is that the shop only does what it is paid to do and if there was a problem with the engine before the turbo than only the owner is to blame. Other than that I have only heard good things from people on here and seeing all the fast cars they build. The thing I feel weary about with Alamo is that they do more turbo cars than anything. I have never heard of them building an all motor car but thats not to say they haven't. They are just way more experienced in modifying factory turbo cars like GST/GSX Eclipse's.

If you are talking about just working on cars than the only place I can recomend is Dealer Alternative. They used to be Hondamotive untill Honda made them change their name. They do great work as far as fixing cars. As far is modding cars they can do anything minor like the common bolt-ons. They could do the cam install but you would have to find another place to have it tuned. The owner Steve use to have a 98 ITR with a JRSC and has been wrenching on cars since he was little. He's a funny **** and is always telling stories about his childhood antics. There staff is very knowledgable and will help you in any way. They will even take you to work or pick you up while your car is there for the day. There name is exacly what they are. I will never go to another dealer unless it is warranty related. Sorry this is so long so I will wrap it up. There # is 817-870-5096. They are in Fort Worth on 2701 White Settlement Road.


Modified by Mires at 8:39 PM 2/29/2004

 

ive been stationed on west fort hood for two years and rarely did i go to a local shop just because i prefer to get some use out of my own tools. and even when i did it was just for some advise to critique my own decision. the prices are high and it seems the testosterone level is a little to high especialy when they tell me 240psi is to much pressure from a compression test on my 96 B18c itr (jdm). i let them see my helms manual which states 270psi to be nominal and the minimum 135psi they still claimed it was way to high! they offered to give me a discount and only charge me 1400 bucks just to replace my piston rings! thats ok my friend ill do it myself when i actualy need to rebuild my engine this is why i started this thread, to many people are getting bad setups and info. plus i figured everyone could benifit from hearing these type of stories, but try to stay away from the "I heard and he said" stuff. stick to the personal experiences. thanks

 

I'm extremely lucky in that one of my close friends is an excellent tuner. Unfortunatly for anyone who doesn't know him, he doesn't own a shop or offer his services to the general public.

Shops to stay far, far away from include:

Jotech in Garland - most of my friends went there when the scene was young. Every single one of them has at least one story about why they suck ***. I wouldn't let them work on my ******* lawnmower.

VSV in Carrollton - bunch of ricer assclowns. These guys fucked up a header installation by unnecessarily cutting and (poorly) splicing the wires to the O2 sensor.

Intercrew in Plano - I've made the acquaintance of some of these guys, at least a few years ago. Shoddy and shady.

Good shops:

Norwood Autocraft - These guys work on cars worth far more than our Hondas. My tuner friend gives them his highest recomendation, and for me that's good enough.

Alamo Autosport in Arlington - They sort of specialise in turbocharged cars, mainly DSMs, but they have dealt fairly and honestly with everyone I know who's gone to them and have their own dynomometer.

 

what about deep stage motorsports iv heard alot of stuff about them but the guys are realy nice. i dont trust any one with my car but they seem to be the dominate shop in the fort hood area. im curious to hear about their ****. i have a few my self from friends. lets hear um.


Modified by Syner-G-Racing at 5:24 AM 3/17/2004

 

I wouldn't recommend carboys who couldnt even do a simple valve adjustment on my car and wanted to CHARGE me to "fix" my car after they messed it up . End results, I had to pay a Honda mechanic to redo the valve adjustment

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by quikB18B &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Intercrew took 5 weeks to do a motor swap i my car. Simple b20 vtec, the price was good, but communication was terrible. The car was my only means of transportation. I went to the shop and told him what i wanted. A week later when i went to see if It was done, he said " We haven't been able to find the parts you wanted" WTF!!!!! If he didnt have the parts to do the swap he should have told me up front. So i told him to use a different tranny and that I needed the swap asap. 5 weeks later the car was done, however the follwoing day my battery was dead I got a new battery and 24 hours latermy alternator went out. coincidence I doubt it Dont get me wrong Phillip and Ashley are very nice poeple, but Phillip sometimes didn't give me the satisfaction to be able to spend a ton of $ there. I have heard though recently that some nice swaps have left that shop lately so maybe things have changed.

Jotech, well Tony1 was Jotech and he is no longer there so I wouldn't take my car there anymore. They pretty much lost thier whole staff because of management I had quite a few friends who worked there and they hated working for Kenny. Theier prices are so inflated it's redicoulous. At one time I could understand spending the extra $ on labor, but why parts? There are also some horror stories and shady practices regarding Jotech current tuning. I wouldn't let them tune my car, but I would let tony1 tune, afterall he was Jotech and in my honest opinon Jotech was a shop of the past.

I have learned over the years if you want it done right do it yourself.

</TD></TR></TABLE>

yea , I was referring to tony1 too not at jotech as a whole. I didn't realize he left. All you really need a shop for is tuning and heavy labor. Most of the stuff you do can be done with a helms manual and a brain. I find it hard to believe that mechanics are smarter than me.