Ok, normally you will pay between $50 and $75 for the dyno runs alone. So that leaves about $175 for the tuning. The cheapest you can get a quality mail order tune from a real tuner for is going to be around maybe $75. That leaves about $100 for the wideband work and a true custom tune.

I know of darn few who will hook up a wide band properly and tweak the tune for that.

But, having said that, I also know of darn few who would do the job and only do 2 pulls.

So it sounds like you got about what you paid for. My opinion is that you got off cheap if the job is actually a quality one.

Darrin

 

The job was quality, they had a number of GT500s and some 03/04 cobras lying around outside the shop. They said they normally charge $400 but gave me a deal cos they had no work this morning. It was a spur of the moment expenditure, lol.

 

just becasue they had those cars there doesnt mean it was a quality job lol, for all you know they could have messed those cars up. but maybe thats why they had them out front? to give people an idea of high end performance knowledge if they have nice cars out front?

 

it was Racer's Edge tuning in Downey, CA

http://www.racersedgetuning.net/contact.html

 

That price is not high at all for an average tune. Honestly it depends on what kind of mods he was tuning for and how aggressive he was going for. If you have a few simple bolt ons and he gave you a conservative tune $250 could of been spent on something else instead of squeezing a few extra ponies out of really nothing. $400 for a tune with a couple of bolt ons is definitely high for sure.

If you consider it like Darrin said, 50-75 for dyno time, I would guess he spent an hour or so on your car (again assuming you have a few bolt ons, I don't really know), then you spent $175 for the tune, it's not a great price but it's not horrible. If the guy has no idea what he was doing then $175 for a crap tune is obviously not worth it. Did he give you a sheet before and after tune? That's how you can tell if it was worth it or not to see how much power you gained.

 

Yea I'd like to see your sheet as well, specifically your A/F ratio.

 

You won't believe how many 'tunes' I have seen where they strapped the car down, did a very minor adjustment to the a/f without turning off adaptive so that they could actually do something real with the MAF transfer function and then adding in a few degrees of global spark before calling it a good job.

By the way, that $50-$75 for a couple of pulls is usually what a dyno shop will charge without putting a wideband on it.

And honestly, for a true tune that isn't just what I described in the first paragraph of this post, that would be a great price. It's a fair price if what they did was make sure it was safe and give you a few more ponies.

It would be nice to see before and after graphs with a/f.

Darrin

 

i agree....$250 is a great price IF it was indeed a proper, quality tune....i paid $350 or $400 (cant remember from Dec. '03) for an SCT custom dyno tune, and it was worth it, because The Man was doing the tuning...so I knew it was gonna be correctly done

so yea, lets see some graphs with a/f ratio

 

Its close to 500 for a tune here in oklahoma. All tunes start from scratch though and he takes his time. I wish The MAN would come to oklahoma or dallas. Especially for 400 bucks!

 

It took an hour or two to do the tune, it wasn't a quick process.

 

Sounds good. Is that stock exhaust?

 

well my local performance shop is tuning mine on thursday and paying 350.
he said will take most of the day. diablo sofware does the maf and timing curves from scratch with a/f

 

looks like they were trying to squeeze out every ounce of HP with that 13:1 A/F ratio.....nothing wrong with that, but a thorough 12.5:1 is safer in case you run into cheap gas, and allows a tad more detonation resistance to the advanced timing that is normally programmed in.

if it drives nice, and i'd also say, that you got what you paid for

also you made a little mistake with your typed #'s.....your car made 263 ft*lbs of torque, not 286....which i would say is pretty on-par....my car when it was bone stock, made 183 rwhp/255 ft*lbs with a thorough 12.5:1 A/F ratio

 

How many miles on yours at the time of the dyno run? Mine only made 172 rwhp and 240 rwtq. Maybe because I am running the stock A/F ratio?

 

I run 89 most of the time, I was running the back end of a tank of 89 and heard some slight ping (less than I was getting with the previous "87" tune), so then I refueled with 91 and the ping stopped.

Did I say 286? I messed up on that one.

The car's bone stock save for an intake (mechanically, anyways-- all the mods are handling related ).

I may yet get a PI intake. I have a set of #24 injectors, but there's no point in upgrading till I'm at least making 300hp.

315RW/TQ is the goal for the car, with HP in the 220 range.

What else have I gotta do to get to that point, considering I'm stock w/a tune and intake? Realistically, how much does one gain from getting exhaust done? I also will not get UDP's (last car 4.6L had Steeda UDP's and overheated cos of them)

 

I may yet get a PI intake. I have a set of #24 injectors, but there's no point in upgrading till I'm at least making 300hp.

315RW/TQ is the goal for the car, with HP in the 220 range.

What else have I gotta do to get to that point, considering I'm stock w/a tune and intake? Realistically, how much does one gain from getting exhaust done?

sorry, but i dont think you'll get close to 315 ft*lbs with a stock short block with an mn12....engine torque is a fundamental quantity that cannot be traded for by giving up something/somewhere else like you can with HP/RPMs.......you'd need vast compression, very efficient intake manifold tuning, and very effecient exhaust gas scavenging and of course a proper tune.....sure the mustang guys can get there with their 2Vs, but they usually have manual trans, solid axle, and a plethora of exhaust stuff we cant use, like long-tube headers

 

My 96 has around 140k on it. I don't know anymore, I've changed clusters so many times, and the ODO doesn't work. I don't know why.

 

I was asking about guitar maestro's numbers.

 

Dont forget boost you can get over 400ft lbs with boost lol. Anyways the deal you got sounds about right. It all depends on the shop. The tuner I go to charges us 60$ for 3 pulls on dyno days (group buy) and that includes AF monitoring and intake pressure monitoring for forced induction/ ODB2 monitoring. Then if you need custom tunes it goes up from there. But ive seen him make 3 pulls on a car an extract a good amouint of perfromance out of the tune and the car was good to go in seconds. John knows his stuff as he has had alot of his personal cars in magazine including his ford powered cummins that was on a cover of a diesel mag.

Im prettty sure these shops are also going to start lowering there rates as there also losing buisness to the economy like everyone else.

 

Does any one know if a place I can get a tune in or around Columbus, Ohio????

PM me if I can't find one I'll need to tow my car out to KY.

 

dude i had 265 ft pounds of torque on my 96 with very little mods.
guted cat's flowmaster catback/march pulleys/ported upper plenum/70 mac t-body/k@n and cai/hypertech chip

 

@1989superchicken

but I'm making nearly 265 rwtq and I have NO mods with the exception of a big K&N cone on the end of stock intake and MAF and a tune and nothing else...

On a different note, the tune's already paying for itself.

Normally I get 200mi/tank and I've gone well over 230 this tank and I'm just now getting the low fuel indicator on the VMM-- the car's more drivable, more responsive and despite having gained 5hp, it's easier to handle and is getting better econ. Previous avg econ was about 13. I'm getting 15. Oh, and the other thing is I've been totally stomping the gas and fuel econ is STILL improved.

 

i decided to go with my tune since im getting the pi swap done