k20z1ej1

Sup guys, I have a predicament and I'm hoping for some input from those of you with experience in this department. Long story short I have a turbo b series that will be getting tuned shortly. The shop that tuned my last car did a great job but when I went there recently, they more or less said they weren't comfortable pushing stock block cars past 250whp. Ive spent a lot of time and money putting my car together and I would be disappointed if the end result was <250 whp. There's only two other shops in my town that tune Honda's and I trust neither of them. The next closest shops are 3-4 hours away and one of them seemed less than interested in working on my car. The other one only tunes hondata, aem, and other high end ems'. Anyway. My situation got me thinking about remote tuning. I know D-Rob does it, I think Chris Harris does too. Derf tunes remotely quite a bit and I know a few other reputable guys do as well.

My questions/concerns are as follows.

A) I would feel kind of rude going to a shop and basically saying "I don't trust you on the keyboard, so lemme borrow your dyno and have someone else tune my car." Nah mean? Am I over thinking it? Would it be less rude to go to a muscle/domestic shop and rent their dyno?

B) I feel like a lot of car stuff is sensory and if the tuner isn't present he can't "feel" the car. If they can't hear, see, feel, etc then I feel like details could get overlooked.

C) how much would a shop typically charge to rent the dyno for half a day. I can't imagine it's cheap. Now my 450-500 tune just became 6-800 I could have made out cheaper trailering the car to a different tuner.

D) I guess I would have to get a laptop and chip my own ecu, correct?

That's all I can think of right now. Has anyone had their can tuned remotely or had a friend that did or personally know a tuner that does? I'm curious to hear any feedback. Thanks

spAdam

iTrader: (1)

A) There's nothing wrong with renting dyno time and doing whatever you want with. If the shop doesn't want you doing that, they wouldn't offer that service.

B) Smells and feels are nice and I get your point, but I tune engines based on data. You don't need to be there to calibrate an engine, but it's nice.

C) Depends

D) Sounds like a pain in the ***. Get some sort of realtime setup, Hondata or NepTune are fine. If you're still using CROME and/or chips, you're stepping over dollars to pick up dimes. If you're remote tuning, you'll probably waste $100 of your day f'ing around with burning chips and working with shitty data logs.

My $.02... If there's a tuner who you trust who is 3-4 hours away, take your car there. Make a weekend out of it. If he's worth trusting he'll send you a basemap that's good enough to get you broken in and there, or you can borrow a truck and trailer it. Still cheaper than buying a laptop since it sounds you don't have one of your own. If you decide it's good enough to drive it there. Pull the wastegate spring so i doesn't make boost until you get it tuned.

Relic1

A) done it multiple times - was told no way by a few places, I simply went elsewhere. Found a place that was willing, and they gave me a very reduced rate since I was not using their tuner. You are renting time on a tool, how you use it is up to you.

B) hearing an engine on the verge or pre-det and how the exhaust/intake note changes slightly when the ignition needs a little help is a wonderful tool to get the last bit of power out of a setup, but without it you can get very close. (it also depends on the tuner)

C) how much is too much.... it's a case of price/availability (ie it depends) Call around and get an idea of what your area has to offer. Don't limit yourself to import only shops, I switch off between a suburu/VW/Audi shop and a primarily domestic shop's dyno to tune.

D) that's how most of us started, either we do not trust/know any of the local tuners or we simply want to know. You are not going to get the most out of it right away, but you will gain knowledge and have the ability to change what ever you want when ever you want. Prices, without the laptop you can get in very well for $400(Neptune/Demon Combo). Add the wideband for ~$150 and the laptop.... I use a mid 2000's Dell Latitude and it works perfectly. ($100-150) With a little more investment you can start tuning others and make it pay for itself.


remote tuner - Chris is hard to beat
there are many others, I can't think of their site's right now for some reason (getting old sucks)

Best of both worlds (not the cheapest route of course) go with the remote tuner and pay very close attention to what he does, ask questions. Then later buy your own tuning setup and use the knowledge gained to tune it yourself. (possibly others as well)

k20z1ej1

Thanks fellas I appreciate your feedback. I think I'm going to do a hybrid of the ideas here and have my normal tuner go ahead with tuning it on Neptune, then I'll buy a laptop, take a few classes in efi tuning and eventually make changes to my car and see how it responds. Thanks again guys.