Merlin Tune in 2L 2012 Manual "activ" sedan- review

[bumblebee]

This arvo i had the pleasure to meet forum member "merlin" and let him weave his magic with my ECU.
My lancer currently has a RA air snorkel and it has been wrapped in gold reflecting heat tape.and the round air inlet from the air box past the MAF sensor down to the throttle body.
Also has K&N air cleaner fitted
I have more wrapping to do with the reflection tape yet and a few other mods to do under the bonnet to get a bit more out of this motor yet.
We had a grand chat about a few different ideas i had to get a bit more out of it as well as a few ideas Merlin had and when i get them all done it will be quite nice.
I have also enlarged the hole infront of the air intake infront of the radiator somewhat.i have a cover from rainbow pen on its way to cover it upand help force air down its intake also.
There is also an air scoop under the bonnet behind the grille to help force air upwards.
I also have extractors from RPW that are wrapped in thermal wrap installed also.
Setup wasn't too hard. Had to pop the bonnet so a test lead could be mounted and another lead was connected to the service plug on the drivers once that was setup and laptop loaded with some tuning software we went for a drive and did a few tests working the gears and throttle thru its paces.
We were blessed enough to find a very long straight flat dirt road and we did a number of tests on it and watching how the car performed and doing some tweaking along the way.
It was then back out to the highway again and stand on the throttle and man it was a different car to drive. It even sounded different. Got to the speed limit like it has never done before.
We did some testing and tweaking at the cruise speed of 100kmph and it has been setup now so that with the cruise switched on it uses about 6.2 to 6.5 lites of fuel to the 100 kays travelled.
But those figures are not set in stone. When we did that the air temp was 26 degrees.
We went on a decent drive of a few hundred kilometers and tested and tweaked a little more.
On the way back the air temperature slowly dropped to about 23 degrees.
As the air temp dropped the fuel ecomony improved. At 100 kmph it was about 6.1 litre of fuel to the 100 kays.
At 80kmph it was 5.4 litres of fuel to the 100 kays travelled
And at 60kmph it was 4.8 litres of fuel to the 100 ays travelled.
At all of these speeds i had the car in 5th gear with the cruise switched on
So my fuel ecomony has improved vastly over what i had .the power of the car has most definitely improved.
We had some machinery to over take and they were at 30 kmph and i slowed right down behind them on the tar and overtook them in third gear and held it flat and man it just pulled like a trian to 100kmph. No hesitation at all.no flat spots. Just go.
Brilliant
There is a pretty decent hill area we went to and it is a 100kmph zone and i had the cruise set and let it attack the hills.
Normally it would start the climb with the cruise on and the speed would drop off noticeably before it corrected itself.
Not this time. Just attack the hill and it fed the throttle on and just kept climbing and never battered an eye lid.
Man i was sold right then and there.
Absolutely brilliant.
I can not recommended the tune by merlin highly enough, honestly it has made a world of difference to my vehicle and i am extremely happy with the results.
Merlin was a world of information and knowledge and im so glad i had the opportunity to meet him and learn from him and tonight i have started to make a few changes under the bonnet that we had discussed earlier today.
If you had been sitting in the fence as to weather or not you should get the car tuned now is the time to say "ooohhh yeesss" and get it done already.

[ReeceCozaa]

yeah thanks now i REAAALLLYYY want my car merlin tuned HAHAA, super keen to get this done

[jjb]

Great write-up there bumblebee. Very informative

I am definitely keen to get a tune up from Merlin now, especially seeing as I've basically done all the main mods I'm looking to do to my little ES, so be great to get the most out of it, and also increase fuel efficiency

Best contact for Merlin? Search him on here and private message?

[Lancer1993]

I've been wanting to do this for 2 years, but the timing hasn't worked out or its the lack of funds $$$.

[ReeceCozaa]

what's the best way to contact the magic merlin?

[jjb]

I'm QLD (Wide Bay area), so wonder if we can try to line up a QLD visit for Merlin to tackle a couple of our cars? Just need to know how much money I'd need for it too

[aspir3]

That's a great write up, well done.

I don't know what I like more. What David does to the tune or the conversation we have. He is a really nice man and very knowledgeable. It's very refreshing as most tuners are very secretive and don't like people seeing what they do.

[bumblebee]

I really enjoyed talking to Merlin. There was a few things we spoke about that i wasn't real sure of but he explained it so i could understand it with out me feeling like a complete dummy. Lol.and now i have a better understanding of a few topics so it was well worth it

[Shaun Patterson]

That's a great write up, well done.

I don't know what I like more. What David does to the tune or the conversation we have. He is a really nice man and very knowledgeable. It's very refreshing as most tuners are very secretive and don't like people seeing what they do.

ive never met a tuner like this..