speedfreak391

iTrader: (2)

So I bought a supercharger and all the goodies that go along with it, ya know, LPE twin pump fuel setup, LS9 cam, Cold air intake for the Whipple 2.9, and a couple different pulley's for it. Now I have HP tuners and can do some stuff but I am not a tuner. So I started calling around to get an email tune for start up. I have pricing from $250 to JRE quoted me $755 for a email tune. So after I got off the phone with them I called a local tuner here in west michigan. Can you believe they are $600 for a custom dyno tune! Now I understand that this is time consuming, But WTF? $750+ for an email file? I guess I'm in the wrong business. I wonder what the cost of a custom tune at JRE is?

OK my Rant is over. But I just find this to be major gouging of their potential customers.
Baker got my business!

1998 t/a

iTrader: (2)

The guy I went to is in Columbus Ohio and I think my tune was 450 (I had bolt-ons) was very satisfied with the numbers and the time it took, we were in and out within about 3 hours. Nice guy will definitely use him again....but to your point of being in the wrong business, I agree, I saw at least 5 people come up to his shop that morning and ask for assistance, a corvette owner stopped by had catless y-pipe and headers, wanted to get his codes deleted but was talked into a full tune lol. Only took cash so I'm sure he's sitting pretty.

pdxmotorhead

Buttons pushed $5
Correct button pushed $50..
If you messed with it first $500
If some garage hack messed with it too,,, $1500


Base cost to run a shop with a storefront these days is about 85 to 95 an hour. So to make any money gotta charge about 30 on top of it. They don't know what you've done or what kind of chaos you have for them to deal with under the hood. I see guys dropping 10 to 20 K on a motor then a 600 dollar bill to get the engine tuned correctly?? Does not seem out of line to me.

Heck the guy I use for motor work charges about 2 grand + parts to assemble an engine with some mild machine work (Light touch up on heads guides etc, de-burr block if needed, basically do all the right stuff to maximize the engines performance, bal&blueprint, degree the cam etc...) The upside,, I've yet to see one of his motors die due to errors.. He typically spends about 14 hours per engine or more..

1998 t/a

iTrader: (2)

I agree with the points above, why drop a ton of cash on the motor only to cut ti short on a tune.

RixTrix

I think that more than a few tuners play games.

My own point of view is if you are not going to take the time to learn what you are messing with, you are doomed to be at the mercy of sharks in the pool.

The middle road here is to find someone who is willing to show you what he is doing and why.

I damn sure won't pay for smoke and mirrors.

Now to address the OPs question, YOU CANNOT TUNE A CAR VIA EMAIL!!!
You can raise rev limits. You can remove federal monitors. You can do other utility stuff.
Any changes to fueling are a shot in the dark, either based on what you tell them or based in conjecture and assumption.
Every car is different, a tune for an identical car is just a starting place for another.
A canned tune is just a short cut to the first dyno pull.

Many say "Im not going to run my car hard, Ill be fine with a canned tune." then gets a tune that doesnt start well or is lean in the cruise area, or stalls when the AC comes on with the steering wheel cranked over to lock. Everyone thinks of dyno tuning for peak numbers, this is the easy part of tuning.

The real difficult part of tuning is making it work well at all times, making it manageable, giving it a stable idle, starting well both cold and hot, absolutely no stalling ANYTIME!

These are the things you should pay for not some stupid magical dyno number. Only a hack would sell you anything less. Ethics, scruples, and a strong sense of accomplishment for a job well done are not among the tools used by tools that would.

1998 t/a

iTrader: (2)

I agree with your statement of learning what to do and how its done etc... the guy that did mine told me everything he was doing and i asked a ton of questions. when I get my new car I will definitely be using him again.

Atomic

iTrader: (37)

I charge between 200 and 350 for emailing tuning, but thats not just a one time deal. I do unlimited free retunes, I dont lock mine, and if you have any questions I am glad to answer them. You can certainly tune over email, the other person just has to use the scanner and follow directions. I send out config files I want them to use and give them instructions on how to drive it. Overall it may take longer than doing it in person, but the convenience is much greater, plus the benefit of having someone to ask questions to that answers emails pretty much immediately.

I also do it in my spare time and not my full time job, so my expenses are lower and I dont have to charge much as full shops. Fixed plenty of "race shop" tunes though, so more expensive isnt always better.

Jon Doe

Listen take it from me, this is not the place to cheap out on. The tune that is.

I had nightmare experiances with two Arizona local tuners everyone nutswings over.

If I recall you were quoted like 700
One bozo locally took me for a grand and password protected the pcm.
Finally I did email tune with Pat G in Texas. His is like 400 and not a one time download....its a whole process until its right. Your quoted tune you speak of might only be 1 download.....you need to ask.

You wont find bad review on pat g period.....however keep in mind he has more than 1 business and he is busy
but if tired of false promisses and your stuff aint junk, i dont think there is a better guy for the money.

Gregory

iTrader: (4)

Good tuning isn't something for the backyard mechanic. I have the HP Tuner suite and an Innovate wide band sensor, but until you understand the tables, it's worthless. The older generation engine control modules ECMs were much easier as the tables were simpler and more intuitive. Work on the newer Gen-6 LT1 ECM and you will pause in bewilderment. When GM tuned the vehicle they had all kinds of electronic aids to assist them. I would think the good "mail order" tuner has a good deal of experience hands on with a similar platform.to give them a good starting point. An inexperienced tuner may just turn-off a sensor to eliminate CHECK ENGINE lights. A good tuner will adjust or check six different parameters to fine tune, eliminate the issue. Today's vehicles run amazingly smooth and clean. A good tuner doesn't just sleep at a Holiday Inn. $600.00 is inline with what my local Texas tuner charges for a dyno tune. Keep in mind it may take him the entire day and many pulls to get a good tune. He's shared with me that he's worked on a car for a week to understand how some of the new tables interact.

jaywhitsitt

Who was it? Address?

NIOMARVIN83

The Predator does store 10 parameters for data logging. The laptop connected option records everything. After my cam at wall work and heads were done Diablotoona sent me a tune, I data logged and sent it back. He tweaked it and I am still running it today. As far as cost, a "donation" is appreciated for the tune. I sent $250 but if you do extensive tuning and data logging on the track I know people who gave over $500.