Dyno Question....

As I understand it.....Think of handheld tuner as a software license. If the tuner could endlessly tune without anyone purchasing anything then the tuning companies would make no money. The handheld tuner locks to your computer and allows the tuner to load all sorts of goodness. In addition if you didn't like the tune down the road you would have no backup.

The handheld tuner is a good thing. It is nice to have backup tune options and it gives money to companies that figure out how to unlock our cars. The only downside is you have to pay to play.

You don't need a tuner to dyno the car. You only need a tuner If you plan on making changes to the cars computer.

Greg Barnett said:

Makes sense. If I get a tuner, Do i really need to get it dyno'd? I'm not going to drag race it and will the dyno get me enough more power over the hand held? Tuner is $400 and the dyno time will be atleast another $400. Pretty soon that's alot of money.

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The tuner is only going to make a difference if you have mods that require a tune. If you are just a boltons car then I would hold off on the handheld tuner plus dyno tune because ..... $800 can be better spent elsewhere.

Many people with boltons and gears will get just the handheld tuner with some mail order tunes (ex:bama performance tune from americanmuscle.com) - this will allow you to adjust your speedometer and open up a couple horses (Don't expect massive gains- expect smoothing of different aspects and ~10 ish hp with full boltons). This is half the cost of the full deal because it is just the handheld tuner. As an example- I got a SCT handheld tuner with a 93 octane canned Bama tune when I was full boltons planning to put in cams. It added a little pep. It was most useful 6 months later to dyno tune the car with new cams.

As said above- if you just want to dyno the car to see how much power it makes without changing the tune then no tuner is required if you are just spinning the rollers to see what you are putting out.

If you have upgraded cams/heads, nitrous, or another power adder then the handheld tuner moves into the essential category - a dyno tune using that handheld tuner being the best option.