That's somewhat of a catch-22 isn't it? I should gain experience in tuning other cars.... before I go tune other cars? How do you suggest I gain experience in tuning if I shouldn't tune these folks?


Mine wasn't dyno tuned. We did third gear pulls on open stretches of road with no other vehicles around. It's only insanely stupid if you do it in 4th or in traffic.

My friend's was dyno tuned when he put his TVS on.

But it seems that everyone's already made their decision. I see no reason to bother anymore. What are you charging for a tune, by the way?

 

You will need to talk to a shop and find out if they are willing to be open on Saturday for us to use their dyno from about 11am-5pm. You guys will have to pay them directly for whatever cost they charge for the dyno so it's more of an incentive for you guys to find a good deal, and a shop that will actually show up on saturday and not just blow you off.

Mid-end July is fine with me. San Antonio should work, I'll check to see if it's a direct flight. I always hated flying to Houston before flying to Corpus Christi.

Once we get everyone to commit to the same date, then I provide you guys with my Paypal address to make the $50 deposits. Then I buy the plane ticket and other reservations, and I collect the rest from you in person when I tune your car. Total cost to me for tuning is $250 including the deposit. Then you pay the shop whatever they charge for the dyno time. It usually takes 3-4 pulls to dial a car in. I've tuned so many of these things that it's not exactly hard to figure out. I can leave all of the tunes with you guys on your computer, and if I like the tunes then I might make a copy for myself to store on my laptop.

If anyone wants their superchargers ported that's another $100 and that wil have to be done after the dyno for the sake of the shops time. If not that's cool. Ideally it would be nice to leave the same day if flights allow, but I did have to stay overnight in El Paso. It's just cheaper for me to not have to stay the night, rent a car etc.

I charge $250 for a tune.

As for the experience, you do have to get out there and learn. I was lucky that I owned 2 SS/SC's at the same time and was able to play with different setups between the two. Then I moved on to tuning close friends at the track for additional experience. Then, to make sure I actually knew how to tune and not just screw around with cobalts I started tuning other cars, and learned how to tune transmissions etc. Then got into tuning turbo converted cars, and all kinds of stuff. You just have to be willing to go out and do it for free and find willing participants who are willing to put up with your little "oops" moments here and there until you eventually learn it all.

There is some guy in FL who is offering to "Tune" cars too for $150, which sounds like a good deal, but if you read what he calls a tune it is just a settings change to a couple options, and involves ZERO tuning. All he does is lower the fans, remove the governor, and a couple other changes. That's a joke. He probably can't Tune a MAF sensor, or adjust an injector table, or even understand what affects the timing table. Sometimes knock doesn't mean just lower the timing, it could mean something else.

I didn't start charging much money for my tunes until after about 30 cars. Now I'm up to almost 80 cobalts, and then another 30 cars on top of that. Plus all of the tuning I did just to learn how to do it. Obviously if you are using HPTuners you have to charge for the credits when those apply, whether you are learning or not, and that sucks too because it hinders your ability to check things out. But I guess that is the game they expect us to play. I'm still mad that I have to pay $100 per car to some company that doesn't even offer tunes, or any solid advice on tuning.

You're on the right track. You just need to get out there. And you even admitted that you didn't even tune your own car, start there.

 

I can vouch for Psykostevo, he did a hell of a job on my car. Pulled some pretty good numbers out also
You guys wont regret it.

 

Don't Jinx me! LOL!

Invisible was part of my El Paso group. He drove from NM over to El Paso for tuning along with 4 other guys and some Rouch Mustang that I tuned as well.

 

i noticed in there u said charging for the credits... 3 of us already have our cars unlocked. so u would still charge 250 on top of that?

 

If there is a charge for credits then I take it out of the $250 that I charge you. I still charge $250 per car either way. In my favor after tuning enough cars you eventually don't have to pay credits to tune them. If I only charged $150 per car it wouldn't be worth my time to fly to San Antonio. The guys in El Paso saw how hard I worked. I worked non-stop for them from 1030am-610am the next morning with no lunch and a 1 hour break for tacos, then back to porting superchargers. until about an hour after the sun came up. When I come out I mean business, and I expect everyone to hold their word that they will show as well.

"Oh you sendin da wolf?! **** Negro, dats all you had ta say!"

 

well crap then, that means there's not much benefit in us having it already, might as well use ur hp program..

 

Well, you can still save the files to your computer and then use them for whatever good and evil you want. Most people don't get that "luxury".

And in most cases I already have the credits unlocked in HPT, so it might save us all some money to use my cable. I do still need a couple cars to unlock the '05 year, but those are hard to find, and I would rather not pay someone else the $100/car LOL!.

 

I plan on redoing mine to adjust for the weather as soon as I get my own HPT box (my car was done on the friend's). The big issue as far as experience is that there are literally 3 LSJs in Austin including mine, and I haven't been able to track the others down. The closest ones on any forum I've been able to find (and the nearest track) are in San Antonio. The reason I would charge $150 (this includes the $100 in credits) is because I just want to try and get some money back off the initial purchase, as $600 for a kit, then giving away tunes to the three cars within a 200 mile radius = bad, doubly so when you're doing most of the kids in SA.

And no, I would not just do whatever that kid in Florida tries to pass as a tune. First I'd lay a baseline tune (STG 2 or the one I have on my car right now for 60s) down to see how it runs on a 'safe' tune, then I'd go through the tables and make the necessary adjustments to the tables to make the vehicle run as well as possible given the specific mods. If there are any underlying issues with the car, I would look into ways to resolve them, but as my car hasn't acted up in the least, you would be far better than I in that respect. I would probably also do a spark plug check, as most people have no idea what to gap them at for their mods (or gap them inconsistently), and that tends to cause more problems than you'd think.

Naturally, since I own an LSJ and can get experience only with it firsthand, those are the only cars I would feel safe tuning at first. But hey, since it seems like they're all going to pay for you, I'd like to come down and watch you work if that's alright. If I can't do it firsthand, I might as well see how a 'pro' does it and gain experience that way.

 

LOL! I just had to quote that!

As far as watching, anyone is welcome. Some of the fun is not there that you may expect. For me it's a matter of fine tuning rather than writing a whole book. It's quite easy once you get the hang of it, and I'm afraid I make it look too easy. There are a lot of things that I jsut understand and take for granted that someone starting from the beginning might have a lot of questions about. I started by tuning my cars first hand, and that's a great place for you to start. First thing to learn is WHAT NOT TO TOUCH. Then make small changes at a time and see how you like them.

 

um im liking this idea. hopefully i have the headers and downpipe atleast tha would give me full exhaust to get tuned with and help on gas or something

 

are you planning on swapping injectors or making any other changes before hand?

 

um nah not before i know later on ill be atleast getting stage 2 but not before july as far as i know. maybe before july ill have the heat exchanger on maybe tho

 

Wow, you're really doing all the "other" mods first huh?

 

lol what you mean? as the header and downpipe? yea ,the heat exchanger ill need it no matter what when i get staged so im better off getting it on since i have the chance on buying one from a guy that i know that is selling one. cant miss the chance on getting it ya kno

 

mines a 05 model

 

so its 50 through paypals, and the 200 when we all meet up at the shop. I might have you port the supercharger I'm gonna install on my car. Which will be later later later cuz I'm gonna be buying a kenwood DNX7120 in july for 100 down, and pay it off in 6 months. I'm sure I'll pay it off before than though.

 

That's cool, I'd be charging you guys all the same regardless of years and whether you are supercharged or not.

Since you will be doing the S/C later I imagine you could mail it to me when you get your kit and then I can mail it back to you. What supercharger model are you using?

Yes, $50 will be required through paypal once we set a date. Then you will owe me the remainder ($200) in person at the time of tuning.

Keep in mind that you guys will need to find the shop that will open on Saturday for us, and pay them what they want for their dyno time.

 

I'm using an M62 from a ss/sc. I already have it, its sitting in the garage.

and I'll start calling around to see how much people would charge us to rent the dyno

 

I can find us a shop..........any one of my customers.................but it would be in Austin.......

 

Any places open on Saturday anyways? I know here in PHX there is only 1 place and they are cheap. And we found a great place in El Paso that was open all day for us.

 

if u have more balts in austin than we do in sa then we'll go there, but it seems there's more in sa up for this.


i believe the initial place that the op was discussing... (Lethal performance) is open saturdays

 

up to you guys..........there are a bunch of shops open on sat.......it would be free with tools and lifts.........food for thought..........

 

Just say no to Lethal crooks I tell you, plus they lost their best tuner awhile back Cory Henderson