Questions on mail order tuning.

[Alvin]

I hate to hear about stuff like this. I think a couple things are happening. A shop or a guy gets hptuners and suddenly feels qualified to do everything in the supported vehicle list. And the loudest talkers on the internet are the "guru's." I think what makes you a good tuner is flat out experience. Getting beat up by cars for years.. Why won't this one idle, why does this one have a buck, etc.. Adapting as things change. For example it took a very long time before VVE tuning was practical. We had just the basics for 6l80's for EVER. So we had to make that work but its very important to adapt to maybe finding a better way as tables and tools are being discovered/created. You have to unlearn bad methods as better tools come about. For example we had to make MAF only gen4 tunes work back in the day. Bluecats VVE tool didn't exist nor did Hptuners VVE tool. Now that we have those tools, and we've had them for a while now.. VVE should be tuned... period.

I'll also issue a warning against thinking dyno tuning is the best way to have a car tuned. I see a far greater number of poorly "dyno tuned" cars than even reasonably "dyno tuned" cars. I'm not talking about if it just makes good power. I'm saying most of the "dynotuned" cars I see have one value for timing across the board, very few have VVE or VE tuning, most have bad injector data, just rough sloppy work. Driveablity is usually the issue on these cars.

A key red flag would be if the tuner doesn't want your car for several days. Anything supercharged, cammed, etc. MUST be left with me for a minimum of 3 days. Most of the work is done on the street. Only a few hours on the dyno, then a cold start drive is needed to make sure it is going to behave for you when you get the car back.

I think by far the best result will come from email tuning until satisfied. We do a revision (sometimes two) per business day. After 3-10 logs... or whatever it takes to be completely satisfied a dyno can be used to find the last bit of power. (usually less than 10 at that point) and driving the car in person to help find things that don't show up on logs like small bucking or less than perfect idle behavior.

[Nfrnoss]

Alvin: Thanks for the advice. Bad news is money is tight and i dont have alot of time or money to pay someone to do another mail order tune. Im going to have the guy that dynoed a coworkers G8 dyno mine and see if he can at least get it dialed in somewhat better so at least the car can be safely driven. I plan on in the next year moving back to the east coast possibly pittsburgh or va beach. When that happens i wont have to daily the car and ill let someone have at it and really take the time to dial it in. I just need it to be driveable for now.

[WNYHooligan]

I know this doesn't really add anything to the thread but, I used the same mail order tuner after installing a low lift TS cam. It took a week or more to get every adjustment back. When I talked to him on the phone the final time he blamed it on race week and then told me he wasn't even charging me for the tune to remove my blower. I don't have and never had a blower! He was very short and rude the entire time until I questioned if I was even getting the right tune. I will definitely never give him business again and it's unfortunate that Texas Speed recommends him.

[tinindian]

I had the same guy refuse to do an email tune because I don't run a MAF sensor.

[GHuggins]

Probably because from the looks of things he doesn't know how to dial in the VE?