Allmotorteg93

Hi ht I am looking for some advice from people who work on hondas as a career or tune hondas as a career to chime in.
I am attending wyo tech right now went through a buisness course and am moving onto my auto program. I am going to take a high performance class. i really want to work on hondas as my career, tuning espically. Taking the hypo class you learn to **** and polish, tune on aem, operate a dyno, alot about boosting and its more in depth with the engine. This will get me a pretty good basis to work and tune cars but im in need of some more advice on how to get there. i dont have years of experience working on cars and i didnt go to learn about computers. If ANY one has experience tuning cars as their job can you give me some advice on how you got there? how you learned or what school you went to. I wouldnt mind working in a dealership after school but the performance aspect is really my passion. so what should i do to be able to get a job starting out in a tuning garage?

And before any body comments please NO
Saying how wyotech and uti suck, trust me weve all heard it before
and how becoming a tech is aweful and not to do it.. i dont want to hear that. I just want some useful knowledge from people older than I who are out there making a life out of tuning honda's. thank you

SlowB20z

More power to ya son !!! Dont take no **** from nobody

Im not sure how much schooling you have left but if you live somwhere by local performance shops "a select FEW" that fabricate & tune, go in there, be polite, tell them your situation, show them your eager to learn the ropes on your days off from school or work, tell'em you'll work for free. That speaks volumes son !! I know between work & school time is scarce for sure. But You'll probably be a gofer at first but sooner or later one of those shops are going to take you under their wing. This is the best advice i could give not being a tuner but it worked for me once when i was younger
Good luck

7rrivera7

iTrader: (1)

...Wyotech does ****?

Check this out:

http://www.efi101.com/

Allmotorteg93

oh wow haha perfect mistake. and i checked out the link that school looks great. the class im going to take is simaler but most likely shorter too. I live in pa and there are a couple of garages around that do tuning, nothing close enough to aprentice at while im at school but i should go introduce myself. Any body know some other things performance garages look for when hiring a tuner??

98vtec

experience, ems variety, accomplishments, drive.

understanding internal combustion and computer software/ems lingo puts you in more than just hondas. although tuning properly is more than some simple key strokes.

take what you read on the internet with a grain of salt. in this world, everyone is a tuner.

0xenocron

The biggest thing you want to show if looking to get hired is LOYALTY

No tuner wants to hire someone, teach them everything only to have them leave and take a piece of their business with them...

If you eventually want this to be your own business, then be upfront about that...although that might hurt your job prospects.

scmil95eg

Put management on your own car (more than 1 system if possible) and learn, learn, learn.

Then you'll have to get hands on experience with more than just your own car. To do that, personally, I volunteered my time at a local shop. Showed the owner my car. Then I tuned the owners car. Then, one of his customers cars. After a few, I told him how much I wanted for my time. Worked out well for both of us, good friends to this day.

siregcivic

this is very true

I have taught alot of people how to work on cars and how to do a few certain specialty tricks that i have learned on my own over the years of working on honda's.. and now they dont call me to work on their cars for them, in fact they bring on customers that used to be mine and charge a cheaper rate

I learned working on cars on my own because i got tired of paying people lol and have progressed very well with it now I work at a shop and tune cars

I picked up tuning back in 2005 when I got tired of paying an arm and a leg to have my cars tuned lol and I only blew up a few of my personal engines, I will be honest teaching yourself isnt the easiest way but you learn boundaries and limits but I can proudly say I have NEVER blown up a customers car from tuning

Its fun I love working on Honda's / Acuras the efi class used to be in the same building as the shop I work at, they just moved this month to Arizona

just learn everything you can and do your best and when you apply at a shop like stated above if you are loyal and plan on staying with a shop you should have no problems

good luck with your future

Allmotorteg93

Thanks for all the replys, sounds like you guys have some good experience. I was thinking about buying hondata s300 whenever i start my build the school uses an AEM system too.

VegasInvasion

AEM is great for learning. It's highly technical, badly organized, and makes absolutely no sense to a beginner. But once you understand it, you can tune just about anything. Otherwise Crome is good for learning because of the abundance of information on PGMFI, however it does take a lot of tweaking to make it reliable.

Practice tuning, blow everything up, rebuild it, blow it up, rebuild it, blow it up. Eventually you'll find the happy medium. There's no easy way to do it, that's honestly your only option. I don't trust a tuner that's never roasted an engine.

accorse07

How is it badly organized?

98vtec

id consider it a GUI mess, personally.

balbowskie

vegas said it perfect!!! A+++ my friend! most definitely a aem fic (especially on a odb1)is the best way to learn.used it on the first honda i ever built! its how i learned and eventually took it out for the s300 hondata, but Ive never seen a tuner shop that will even tune the aem fic, it forces you to take a deep understanding of what is happening inside the ecu, so that you manipulate the signals in a correct manner. the hondata s300 is user friendly and even starting from scratch usually only takes a few hours, you will have weeks in the fic calibrations. i am from pa also and know how hard it can be here finding guys who REALLY know ins and outs of programmed fuel injection and what nots. in pa we have to teach ourselves or rely on some very crappy tuning procedures. you came to the right place to be set straight, but for real if you wanta learn hands on get the aem fic and start on it. i got my old fic and a jumper harness prewired (even though you should wire it, get a patch/jumper harness by rywire) for a odb1 honda if your interested good luck brother we are here to help but now its up to you, i love questions so feel free to ask just dont get too crazy!

torkh22a

I went through chasis fab and hi po, all i can say is be that annoying guy in class that asks alot of questions. I had Nate and Steve. If your on the dyno, in the engine room, porting or whatever pick their brain. there is so much information within the instructors there its unbelievable.

Onto your origional question, I was in your shoe's 6-7 months ago. the way i went about pursuing my goals was to start my own project. My thinkning is that my project car (del sol) is my Resume, because everything from the cage, engine, chassis, and tuning was all built/done by myself.

Good Luck to you sir

a1320honda

I taught myself. I started with a chip burner and crome and a wideband. I couldnt afford to pay someone who tuned considering the closest place in 2005 was seattle that i knew of. So....**** it. Got a burner, got a basemap from Phearable, and taught myself. I only killed 1 motor learning and it was cracked ringlands lol. Since then ive tuned probably 150-175 cars and have yet to ever blow up a car. But here in spokane, people think 350hp is racecar status. So its easy to to tune low hp cars. I have tuned my own personal car to over 700hp on Crome. Just one of those things you learn to do, so you have no one to blame when **** goes wrong. If its what you wanna do. just read, read, read, then apply. Id love to take an EFI 101 calss as im sure applied theories would help. But i know a guy that was about my level, took an EFI101 class and came back and started blowing peoples cars up cause im guessing he took what he learned wrong or something.

b19coupe

Hard work. Learn everything you can. After school find a job in the industry that will pay your bills. Get your foot in the door. Advanced emission classes and engine performance classes will expand your understanding. Tune your own vehicle as often as you can. Nothing beats hands on experience.
Take everything you hear from internet "experts" with a grain of salt. I literally lol'd at "I don't trust a tuner that's never roasted an engine". I know of a tuner that is eminently qualified by that standard. Not a Honda tuner.

turbociv910

most people dont tune hondas every day. 99% of the shops on here are tuning other imports and domestics. Dont focus on hondas alone, it wont get you very far. If you have knowledge in a little bit of everything(ford, gm, import, etc), thats something i look for when hiring. Being a expert comes with expierence, and an expert has expierence on many platforms. As always, starting at the bottom is the shitty part, a techs assistant is where I started. Cleaning up after everyone made messes, dirty pranks, running errands and generally doing the dirty work. Always take the opportunity to learn something new. Dont be afraid if mistakes are made, figure out a solution to fix them and hopefully you didnt f@%k anything up.

Buy a s300 and tune your car, understand how tuning works, understand the software and what certian features do what. I started with an AFC on my stock integra, i now have a turbo civic wired with a Motec M400 and wired it my self all from asking questions, talking to people and learning from others.

Jrod303

hard work..

nanjay

looks like your on the right track, they'll teach you how to tune on AEM after that get yourself hondata or aem and try to improve your car, take slow progressions. Getting a job...... is gonna be harder.......you need courage and be able to show how determined you are and willingly do the dirty work around the shop. Write up a resume and start talking to shop managers, if you find a shop you really like, then make frequent visits after school or whenever your free. (assuming you have good basic manors) they will notice you and hire you or referr you to someone who will hire you. GL

Allmotorteg93

thanks for all the great replies everybody. getting alot of great info. i have a couple of garages i am interested in and will try and get into there after school. do you think its possible to get ajob as a tuner right out of school or should i wait until i have experience with everything in the industry?

VegasInvasion

Most of the tuners here and 90% of my income is Honda, but I agree most demographics are more diverse.
Your steepest learning curve would be a standalone EMS on a Subaru. Tuning MAF and AVCS on blind maps is a massive challenge, but it makes everything else a cakewalk.

*edit* NOBODY will trust or hire you as a tuner straight out of the box. You'll probably have to apprentice with someone for a while or prove your name at the track with multiple cars, and build your reputation on forums and car meets.

0xenocron

Sorry to thread jack but why would you use a MAF on a standalone? Just make it speed density and tune it like anything else.

And even if you did use the MAF, get the curve correct and it doesnt matter what your cam position is, the MAF Transfer table would take care of any flow differences and keep your AFRs the same even when changing cam tables on the fly.

VegasInvasion

For education. And although I agree SD is easier, measuring air density is more accurate than manifold pressure. Granted the conditions at any given pressure and speed are mostly linear with MAF, I find it easier to reference a turbo's efficiency through air density.

As far as AVCS/VVT, I meant tuning it in general to understand cam timing and the effects on boost and torque, not in relation to MAF.

Allmotorteg93

And that is where my projects will start coming in! going to be building my gsr all motor in july. theres the first spot on the resume haha

VegasInvasion

Gude head package. you won't regret it.