How Was Your Dyno Tuning Experience?

[FoxMustangLvr]

My questions for those that have been there and done this:
How long was your car at the shop?
Did everything with your engine work properly? Any repairs?
How was communication with the shop?
Did you get to watch? Get advice? Learn anything?
Final cost of dyno tuning?

My car has been at the shop now for 1 week with the weak spark issue and they're supposed to dyno tune it once it's up and running. They haven't even started working on it yet. I'm going to continue to be patient since it's not like I can just go start up my car and drive it elsewhere and this is the only dyno shop in my area. I was hoping that since I made an "appointment" that it meant working on my car would commence very shortly after receiving my vehicle. My car sat out in the rain this weekend, pisses me off.

 

[elarm1]

My questions for those that have been there and done this:
How long was your car at the shop?
Did everything with your engine work properly? Any repairs?
How was communication with the shop?
Did you get to watch? Get advice? Learn anything?
Final cost of dyno tuning?

My car has been at the shop now for 1 week with the weak spark issue and they're supposed to dyno tune it once it's up and running. They haven't even started working on it yet. I'm going to continue to be patient since it's not like I can just go start up my car and drive it elsewhere and this is the only dyno shop in my area. I was hoping that since I made an "appointment" that it meant working on my car would commence very shortly after receiving my vehicle. My car sat out in the rain this weekend, ****es me off.

1 Day
Yes, no repairs
It was only a day
I had to work so I couldn't watch
It all cost me $650 with the chip. If I had my own it would have been $450
Hope this helps and good luck with that shop. Sounds like they are pulling your leg with the spark issue

 

[Onefine88]

I've had my cars dyno tuned a bunch of times over the years. Luckily for me my friend owns the shop and Imo the best tuner in the area. It typically takes him a couple hours or so to tune it and I've never paid more than $350. And that was because I purchased the chip. Now when I need a retune for some reason or another its usually $150 or less. Guess I'm spoiled. Lol

 

[TOOLOW91]

1 day. Like hanging out with old friends. My tuner was top notch and of course our forums own Nick 84ttop came to hang out too. Was there from 930 until about 3. Worked on driveablitity and cruising first then did all the WOT stuff.

 

[FoxMustangLvr]

Lucky f*ckers. I'll just be happy to get a good running car out of this. He said to call back on Wednesday but they're only 5 minutes from my work so I'm just going to stop by and see if my car is even inside the shop at that time. I have to drop off license plates with up to date tabs anyway.

 

[elarm1]

I'd sure be checking up on my "Spark problem" maybe they are just a little overwhelmed right now....

 

[Boosted92LX]

Two experiences.

1st: Strictly Performance in Pearland Texas. These guys had several cars in 5.0 magazine and had the first fox to hit 200 at the Texas Mile, so I has super excited to have them work on my car. The experience was terrible. They promised they'd have the car to me in a week, and after almost three months I gave up and went to pick it up. When I got there the shop was locked up. On a week day. Nobody there. Spotted my car locked behind a fence behind the building, covered in dirt with the hood open. I was pissed. I came back the following week to get it, engine parts rusty from sitting in the rain..

2nd:

D3 performance engineering in Houston, Texas. Top notch, got to spectate, they gave me tips, and support after getting the car home as well. Great guys, great work. I think I paid 500 bucks, and was offered returns for a hundred for tweaks.

 

[GroverDill]

I had my fair share of bad experiences over the years. It seems as soon as the customer/owner is gone the car becomes much less a priority. Sorry to hear about this. My car sat outside more than a couple days at SoCals loved RET and ST

Now I wont leave the car anywhere without me.

 

[mikestang63]

Steve Lee at Thunder AutoSports
1 day
4 hours on the dyno plus a diablo chip
picked up about 30hp and worked out the drive ability issues
Think it was $550-600 total for dyno and chip

 

[A5literMan]

I had my fair share of bad experiences over the years. It seems as soon as the customer/owner is gone the car becomes much less a priority. Sorry to hear about this. My car sat outside more than a couple days at SoCals loved RET and ST

Now I wont leave the car anywhere without me.

If I owned your car it would never leave my presence either lol.

 

[FastDriver]

It just gets worse with time. Find somebody else. Also, spark issues don't take a dyno to resolve.

 

[FoxMustangLvr]

It just gets worse with time. Find somebody else. Also, spark issues don't take a dyno to resolve.

Nobody else would touch the car with all the mods and wire tuck.

Edit: they're going to fix the spark issue then dyno tune it.

 

[hoopty5.0]

Im 1 for 2 with dyno tuning success. Both shops are now out of business.

 

[mikestang63]

Im 1 for 2 with dyno tuning success. Both shops are now out of business.

SOunds like me with marriages... OH!

 

[Gearbanger 101]

Had to go twice with my last dyno tune....never again.

Had the car remote tuned by another tune initially, but it had issues, so I decided to break down and have it dyno tuned at Steeda.

When I got there and they strapped it on the rollers, they claimed my 36lb inectors and 190lph fuel pump with Kenne Bell BAP (boost a pump) were running out of fuel, even though I was only up in the 320rwhp range when it apparently ran out of fuel. I argued that the injectors themselves were rated higher than that and even at an 80% duty cycle were still more than enough for my needs. Even as far as the pump went...guys were making power like that on stock pumps with a BAP wired in, so there wasn't any reason my more than twice as large 190lph pump wasn't cutting it and that there must be some other issue.....but they insisted otherwise.

Of course they had 42lb/hr injectors in stock , so I bought them. Went home, swapped out the injectors and now added a 255lph pump in conjunction with my aforementioned BAP and went back in a few weeks....keeping in mind, this was a near 4hr drive in each direction.

Got it on the dyno a second time....and wouldn't you know it, I was running out of fuel again. In the end, it turned out to be my flat panel air filter not being able to pull in enough air and it was giving my MAF meter an incorrect signal. The tuner said he suspected that initially and that the guy that probably did my original tune likely had it bang on (WTF....then why make me go through hoops and sell me fuel components and for that matter, a dyno tune I didn't need???) Of course they didn't cut me any slack on the dyno rate the second time around.

On top of it all, they stripped the stripped the hex head on my Innovate wide band sensore trying to remove it to insert their probe, so in order to avoid further damage to the sensor trying to remove it, they welded in a second bung.....which they charged me $100 for...WTF.

All in all, it ended up costing me over $1,200 (nearly triple what I was quoted) in dyno time and parts.

Can't say I'll ever do it again. The car eventually turned out all right and finally ran really well, but the back and forth bull and hidden costs were ridiculous. Dyno tuning it just too much of a $$$ racket for me to screw around with it again. From here on out, its remote tuning for me.

Best part about it all, is that the guy that tuned my car, relocated from the Steeda.ca shop in Milton, ON, and is now the head tuner for Bama Performance. Hope he's gotten the bugs worked out since then.

 

[FoxMustangLvr]

@Gearbanger 101 remote tuning, what exactly is that? I think i've heard people doing that with Moates.

 

[Gearbanger 101]

@Gearbanger 101 remote tuning, what exactly is that? I think i've heard people doing that with Moates.

Bingo. When I eventually get things settle with my move, I'll be looking into having the car remote tuned. Probably by Dirty Dirty racing. They've got a pretty nice package utilizing the Moats quarter horse set up.

Moates Quarterhorse with base tune [QH with tune] - $399.99 : Dirty Dirty Racing, Vehicle EFI Dyno & Street Tuning

If I want to see how much power it'll make, I'll wait till one of the shops has a dyno day and get a few pulls done.

 

[FoxMustangLvr]

Bingo. When I eventually get things settle with my move, I'll be looking into having the car remote tuned. Probably by Dirty Dirty racing. They've got a pretty nice package utilizing the Moats quarter horse set up.

Moates Quarterhorse with base tune [QH with tune] - $399.99 : Dirty Dirty Racing, Vehicle EFI Dyno & Street Tuning

If I want to see how much power it'll make, I'll wait till one of the shops has a dyno day and get a few pulls done.

Just read up on that, sounds pretty good but it will cost a bit more than the $399. You also need the Binary editor ($100), EEC analyzer ($65), wideband O2 for data logging ($150+).

 

[hoopty5.0]

Hope he's gotten the bugs worked out since then.

Not according to the tune I accidentally loaded into my coyote a few months ago.

 

[a91what]

BAMA is a load of crap. I have tunes for life which they previously tuned my car with, a9l ecu and 90mm lmaf. They did this multiple times, now I try to send it in to pull the timing down at WOT to 18* total. Wont touch it. It's not like I'm asking for them to tune out driveability issues it ONE table I need adjusted. They say my car is "too heavily modified".