At what point is a dyno tune required? I had my tune done by madz28.com but I keep hearing that mail orders are only good to get the car to a dyno and have the tune done right, is there any truth to that? I know that a dyno tune will be more car specific and you will see more power than just a mail order.

But is a mail order tune just a band aid to get a dyno tune, or is it safe to use for an extended period of time?

 

Mail order tunes are often extremely close, especially on relatively common combinations. The mail order guys have done dyno tunes and seen data logs for a zillion cars, and when you tell them your combination, they check their database and find a tune from a car with a similar combination, and tweak it according to their experience (and your data logs, if you have them).

The more common your combination, the better your mail-order tune will be. They're much better than a band-aid, but they're not as good as a dyno tune.

Bottom line IMO: If you're running forced induction, or running a rare combination, skip the mail order tune and go straight to an experienced dyno tuner. Otherwise, mail order will be fine until you can afford the dyno tune.

 

If you have a pretty basic, common setup, a mail-order tuner should be able to nail it pretty dead-on. As mentioned though, if you start getting into more complicated, exotic setups, then a dyno tune would probably be a better idea. If you think about it though, if you were able to afford a high-end 20K motor build, I don't think the extra cost involved in a dyno tune would be an issue.

 

I completely agree, but I'm being told different by the guys around here so I was just curious.

So basically with my combo with LE heads Ion probably got it really close and I really shouldn't have to worry about a dyno tune right now, right?

Thanks for the replies

 

What exactly is a Mail Order...People tell me that I should get one...

How much do they cost?
How much HP can I get?
Where should I get one?


Thanks!!!


M

 

Go to madz28.com and read the Q&A on the web site.

 

if i were to choose i would go with a person who has a dyno and also does the mailorder tuning. this way you know they have seen and have logs of alot of different setups. this way they can get your tune as close as possible. this is better than sending it to a tuner who just understands what needs to be done when you have certain mods but no dyno. people can read a book and learn about that but the magic is in the numbers you use. a good dynotuner who also does mail order knows what values work best because they have seen the hp numbers from the different numbers used in the various tables. so just be careful of who you pick. i have never tried a mail order so i dont know who is good or not. also a mail order tuner can't tell you if you have knock and can only guess what a/f ratio you are at. a/f is what gives you some nice results over stock when you have it down right along with timimg. in the end nothing beats a dyno tune.

 

PCMforless and madz28 are both experienced LTx and LSx tuners that have real-world dyno experience on tons of cars, and both have excellent reputations and hundreds (maybe thousands) of satisfied customers. Both are also supporting vendors on this board/

Either would be a good choice for any LTx or LSx car. I plan on getting a mail order tune from one or the other, but I'm waiting until I get headers to do it.

That said, when I eventually install a supercharger, I'm going for a dyno tune.

 

I tried a PCMforless tune. A obd1 convert from obd2. The application was a LT1 383 - D1 72#_Inj/ meth_h2o etc. I ended up doing my own tune with "on the road" tests. I'm sure these tuners know alot more than me, but, now my obd2 tune has much better driveability and power than the obd1 PCM(FL). It took some time to understand how to do this (LT1 edit), and, I used a Dynojet WB O2 which is a critical tool. I would like to send my file to PCM(FL) and get their opinion with what I did. B.

 

If you have a wideband, a copy of LT1 Edit (or equivalent), and you know what you're doing, a self-tune should be at least as good as a mail order tune.

 

My mail order tune was pretty close on timing tables but the PE tables (AFR) were off really bad. AFR and Timing need to be done street tuning or on a dyno.

 

The basic rule is the more exotic a setup, the greater the chance the mail order tune won't be spot on. This is what I tell people when they call me.

The challenge with mail order tuning is there is no feedback like on a dyno. We're leveraging our experience tuning the same setup on a dyno. But, I'd say 80-90% of our business is for cars with bolt-ons, which we've had lots of experience tuning on the dyno. The result is a high degree of customer satisfaction.

One of the advantages of being able to distribute mail order programming with our hand-held (GT Tuner) is that we can email updates to the customer, if necessary. Maybe the car should idle a little lower then how we set it up. We can send the customer an update via email. This process of dialing in the tune isn't something that's available with conventional PCM swap services.