had someone tell me that in order to get a good tune its a 4-5 hour process not 45 minutes on a dyno.....would someone please tell me if this is true or not

 

depends on how much tuning needs to be done, if its an n/a tune or forced induction etc...

 

I take a stab at that! I say at least that long 4-5 hrs.

 

Yup...3-5 hours if you're getting what you paid for. Tuning is about optimizing engine performance...time & effort = results. I can count on one hand the number of cars that I've tuned over the last 20 years that took as little as 1 hour to optimize to the fullest. Most take between 3-4 hours, and race cars with crazy cams/heads/intakes and fussy drivers take 2-3 DAYS of tuning on the dyno and the track (and a dump-truck full of money!). You can make a car run BETTER in 45 minutes, but rarely achieve optimum performance in so little time. As Avaric3 mentioned, the more mods, the more time necessary.

 

If youre just doing a quick WOT-only tune, then 45-60 min. Otherwise the guys above have it right 3-5 hours to vary several RPM and load conditions, read logs, adjust, re-pull... repeat.

 

where i got my car tuned they road tune it for about an hour and 15 minutes then do about 8 pulls on the dyno and its usually done. they did it this way both times ive been there

 

Just cause Someone tunes a certain way at a shop doesnt mean anything. I wouldnt ever say a car is tuned to its optimal potental.

I think what you really need to know is :

If someone is tuning your car how long does it take them to tune your car.
Is the car in perfect shape and ready to be tuned.
Are there any modifications that make the car hard to tune.
Are all the best tools on hand for tuning.
Is a MAF tune going to work for the car, or does it need to be changed SD-

Ive tuned cars in 45 minutes. Ive tuned other cars over days and weeks. Im never happy with the tune on my own car. But my car is a POS and Not a single shop based tuner in town would touch my car without wanting to work on the car first.

 

As said above, it depends on the mods done. Forced induction cars take much longer than bolt-on cars for sure! And it depends on the experience of the tuner. When you have tuned hundreds of LS1's, are very familiar with the software, and have a good starting point for a given combination, it doesn't take as long... yes, each combination requires fine tuning because they are all different, but the closer you are starting out, the less time it takes... Also, little tricks like using scripts to speed up repetative tasks like code deletes helps...

 

Long story short yes it will take longer than a few minutes for a dyno tune.

 

Tuning a cammed or heads/cam car will take well over the typical hour of effort given by a lot of "pro tuners". These guys are out to make a buck, get you through the door as fast as possible. Very often you're going to find nothing but your spark and PE tables modified along with the normal BS(fans, rev limiter, COT, blah blah)

 

It depends on how their tuning it. If it's for WOT only, and the part throttle/drivability is done on the street, then you could probably get the Fueling and spark done in an hour, but that's not giving the car much time to cool off between pulls. If the whole session is on the dyno, then yes, you need 3-6 hours to construct a file from scratch. Could be longer if it's a Nitrous set up.

 

It also depends a lot on the tuners experience. Most experienced tuners have seen A LOT of combos and knows what an approximate VE table is going to look like for the combo or what a particular MAF table is going to look like for the air intake tract and they can get somewhat close right off the bat and modify from there. If they know what they are doing and have seen the combo before they could get it done in a couple of hours or quicker. Bolt on cars are about as easy as they come and I could see an experienced tuner getting those done in an hour. Starting from zero would easily take 3-4 hours for a heads/cam/FI car or longer but most experienced tuners aren't starting from zero.

 

I have seen the air/fuel ratio that is right on the street change on a Dyno. I will always say the dynos are for bragging and not tuning. It does let people do tuning and not get tickets. Do can do tuning faster, not better. I think the way to tune PE is at the drag stripe with no one else there. Idle is any where. For part throttle put a PC in the car and teach the owner to log. After a few trips to work and back VE and MAF are good. But I do not do or a living.

 

after breaking something on my second dyno pull I'm kinda nervous about strapping it down for much dyno tuning...something about busting the transmission housing makes me think the dyno is harder on the car than I am on the street

 

With our Dyno (Mustang MD1100SE), if its going to brake, it'll brake on the dyno. Being a loaded dyno, the forces on the drive train are going to be very close to what you see on the street. Inertia dynos have even less force than what your car sees on the street. We see a couple hundred cars on our dyno on our dyno every year, and rarely have failures, maybe 5 for every 100 cars or so.

Since your car was a hybrid, did you know anything about the transmission before you obtained it?

 

I agree on 3hrs+. FI cars take a good bit longer and they need track tuning too.

 

You can never time a tune.Experience plays a big role.A typical bolt-on car would take me 10-15 minutes on the street followed by 2-3 dyno runs,before the drive I change a ton of tables for my starting point.Is it a bad tune because it was done so quick?No,it's called experience

 

A bolt only car, I agree, they usually take under 2hrs total. That's why I don't charge as much for a bolt on only car as a cam/heads/FI/Nitrous car.

 

from a wrecked car, but the tail housing was from my dad's shop, I sold the factory tail housing to someone who needed the trailing arm mounts since they were going to be in my way

overall my dyno experience was just poor between low low hp numbers for a cammed car, then the tail housing busted second pull leaving my stranded in Ft Smith for half a day until my dad could bring me another one to bolt on

it was a dynojet and the car made a measly 325hp 340tq, I really hope for a good bit more with a street/dyno tune as opposed to the mail order

 

Exactly! I've had people comment that I tuned their car too quick - then I run the summary of changes in EFILive and show them how many tables I changed... that is always an eye opener.