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Thread: Best practices in protecting your tuner's tune, or your own

  1. #1
    Tuner in Training
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    May 2016
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    Best practices in protecting your tuner's tune, or your own

    So I'm sure this will be an interesting discussion. I'm wanting to get input from the general community, and hopefully professional shops and tuners, in regards to the right way (if one exists), to protect the intellectual property of one's tuner, or your own hard work, in the event your car needs to go into the shop. Here's what actually happened to me - and please do not flame me for not thinking about this ahead of time, I feel bad enough already...

    I have a CTS-V with fairly substantial modifications. Along the way, various shops have worked on the car and done the tuning for me. Additionally, I own a copy of HPT so I can log data and diagnose potential issues.

    On a recent road trip, the car started acting up - surging and stalling - while on the highway about 100 miles from home. I managed to clear the codes and nurse the car home. One of the mods I have is an aftermarket (Fore) fuel system. And one of the clear deficits of the Fore setup (which I think is also true with Squash systems?) is the lack of integrated fuel pressure monitoring and logging. In the Fore system at least, the stock fuel pressure control module is completely bypassed in favor of a proprietary one. Well - on the road I didn't have a way to check fuel pressure, but it sure seemed and felt like a fueling problem. When I got home, I hooked a mechanical gauge to the fuel rail and sure enough - at idle the pressure was up and down over a 20 to 30 psi range. Yikes.

    Well, not have the experience, time, or tools/shop to do my own wrenching, I asked around for shop recommendations. Turns out there was a pretty well recommended shop about 25 mins from me. Flatbedded the car to them and the shop owner calls me. Says he's going to look everything over for any mechanical problems. He also advises me that - as seems to be common for most shops - he needs to check the tune and make sure there are no issues if he is going to repair anything and dyno test the car to make sure it's fueling correctly. As is customary, there's a charge associated with that - but I was kinda stuck. Car is down, needs diagnosis and repair, and that's that. So I say ok.

    Prior to the car acting up, and after having done substantial mods to the car and wanting to look at multiple tune options, I had engaged a well known and highly reputable remote tuner. Since I have HP Tuners, my intention was to get whatever mechanical issues were going on fixed, then after I got the car back, then decide whether or not to overwrite whatever tune the local shop had put on the car with my remote tuner's tune (which I have been extremely pleased with). And of course before doing that, letting my remote tuner know as much detail as I could get about the mechanical issues so we could deal with that in whatever way he felt was best.

    Now here's where I screwed up -. In sending my car to a local mechanical shop, I more or less "gave away" my remote tuner's trade secrets. It never occurred to me that the shop could/might copy the tune file and use it as their own. And to be fair, I have no reason to think that the local shop I used did anything unethical - but at the same time, there's no way to know that for sure one way or the other. But my tuner picked up on that possibility right away and let me know his displeasure - which is totally valid. I just don't think maliciously so it wasn't in the front of my mind.

    So that everyone knows, I have NEVER made money an issue in dealing with any shop or anyone else who has helped me with my car. I respect everyone who provides me with quality service, and I totally expect to pay a fair or even premium price for it. I let my remote tuner know up front that I wasn't going to be one of these customers that expected 25 revisions to my tune or who wanted tune revisions each time I changed hard parts for no charge. I know customers that expect 1000 whp and have only $1500 to spend are not the ones that thrill shop owners or tuners. I always want to pay fairly for what I get and I have solid and reasonable expectations. I make sure cost is never an issue. I don't think that has a bearing on this situation, but it merits mention for the purpose of context.

    Finally - my question to the community is: What is the right way - in a situation like mine - to protect your tune, whether it was provided by a pro, or is just one you have worked many hours on? In this case - I would have desired to make sure my tune wasn't lifted by the shop, but also be forthright with the shop and not hand them a car with a "fake" tune on it or something like that. It's a tough question but one I hope you guys have a good solution for so others don't make the same mistake I did. Thanks in advance.
    Last edited by TriTexan; 05-16-2017 at 08:17 PM.

  2. #2
    Banned
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    Oct 2016
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    I couldn't care less who copied my tune or if I had a pro tune it then took it to another shop and they copied it yadda ya...
    My car's custom too (like most cars are which get tuned I'd say), pretty much one of a kind, so my tune wouldn't suit another car similar to mine anyways..

  3. #3
    Advanced Tuner
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    As mr Smith said. Most cars these days are no longer 1 in the same in regards to mods. so a tune dialed in for your car is not a 1 size fits all factory tune scenario.

    That's why i dont see the point in locking these days. Though it does bring in a little extra cash unlocking everyone's ecu's for me.

  4. #4
    Tuner in Training
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mr. Smith View Post
    I couldn't care less who copied my tune or if I had a pro tune it then took it to another shop and they copied it yadda ya...
    My car's custom too (like most cars are which get tuned I'd say), pretty much one of a kind, so my tune wouldn't suit another car similar to mine anyways..
    Quote Originally Posted by Tre-Cool View Post
    As mr Smith said. Most cars these days are no longer 1 in the same in regards to mods. so a tune dialed in for your car is not a 1 size fits all factory tune scenario.

    That's why i dont see the point in locking these days. Though it does bring in a little extra cash unlocking everyone's ecu's for me.
    Thanks guys. Agree on all points. At least this helps me feel a little better and that I haven't missed anything major or obvious.

  5. #5
    Senior Tuner
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    This is a catch 22 situation. While you know for a fact it was not a tune issue {i followed the tune fiasco on the v forum} and the car was running just fine, you found the problem in your driveway, so why would it be a tune issue? I don't see a reason why it would have to be pulled and checked out. I agree with you and G on both sides of this and i find myself in the same situation quite often.
    The most hated, make the most power.
    93 Ranger. 5.3 D1X. 1069hp.

  6. #6
    Advanced Tuner VodeAn's Avatar
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    I only lock controllers in certain situations.

    I have had few issues with people trying to copy my work but usually it backfires pretty bad. You have to fully understand what you are doing to be a successful calibration engineer, otherwise you'll eventually run into trouble.

  7. #7
    Tuner
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    Unless there's competition involved, I don't personally consider it an issue. I know some folks get all "ants in the pants" but I figure you paid for it, so it's yours to do with as you please. As noted, a custom tune/calibration is just that -- custom to the car. It's not like there's any sort of IP theft going on; car A wants "25" in a particular cell, car B wants "23". That's "time on task", not "eureka, I've discovered cold fusion!"
    2007 Z06 (E38 ECM), stock LS7 short block, .030" milled/ported heads, PLX SM-AFR, MPVI Pro