Tune on ectune from a tuner I know is $350 alone... dyno tuned. That's over half your budget... "Reliable" should be tested for more than a month...

 

Record the first dyno run and post the video on here regardless of the outcome.

 

that seems pretty high, I had a crome tune on a dyno on my old civic and it wasn't even $200, and my car was on the dyno/hoist for 4 hourse and then another hour the next day (installed my fuel system at the dyno)

 

Talking about using a good tuning program and a reputable tuner, your looking at at least 350.

 

guess my tuner was well-priced, he would have tuned it for the same price as long as I was using a system based on obd1, he had only done a couple of tunes on aem ems, so he wanted more for that.

for that $350 how many hours do you get?

 

co-sign
i paid 320ish and i think my tuner was being nice since weve known each other for 12 years

 

I took time out of my life for this. Now I hope it fails for wasting 3.2 minutes I will never get back. Your WHOLE theory is BS and you know it OP. This is just like the "CX Racing" review... pointless. There is no control and the hypothesis is weak at best. Saying it may be more expensive if you don't have random performance parts laying around is a joke in itself. I could build a NASCAR engine easily with the parts I have in stock. Does this mean it was free? Wow... truly pathetic.

For all others arguing and are too young to remember- there was a time when real time tuning wasn't possible. We used a single chip and a notepad. Before that we used fancy things called carburetors; yes uneducated children, even for forced induction.

 

Not hourly. It's a full tune. Includes street run to make sure it's all good. Includes ectune license fee. His name is Dk Goodrich in Frankfort Kentucky. Has done numerous tunes on many different cars. Real good guy too.

 

I know that, but if you have a tune that is so complicated it will take 10 hours on the dyni (I know its extreme) he would have to charge more, so how many hours of dyno tuning will he do for $350? or how long did he spend tuning your car?

 

Have not yet tuned my car still in build phase. Almost done. It's a solid $350 regardless of time. He doesn't do mechanic work anymore as he enjoys tuning and makes enough money from it. He doesn't other misc fabrication also. Makes turbo manifolds, down pipes, up pipes, dump tubes. That sort of stuff

 

So lemme understand this. You're talking about putting together a complete turbo kit for $500 (including the tune) for the "budget limited" but to do this you have to be either really REALLY skilled (and a little lucky) at finding deals on everything OR already have the bulk of the parts already stockpiled (so they qualify as free) at the point you decide to start the actual build? Sounds like smoke and mirrors to me.

If I'm wrong tell me what part I'm getting hung up on.

 

I think he is trying to put together the majority of a kit for $500.

 

I know he charges $350 to tune it regardless, but if it takes him under 3 hours, I don;t think its worth it, if he is going to spend 6 hours tuning, its a good deal, that's all I am trying to figure out. I paid the dyno guy, as he had supplied the tuner (used that one guy for all his import tuning, as he did carbs only), and my car spent at least 3.5 hours on the dyno, and they let me install my fuel and exhaust on the lift beforehand, for $200 cash.

 

That's not how I read it.

 

$500 might be doable... for used fuel parts and tuning, lol

 

he has his own wideband gauge and bov, plans on making his own downpipe and buying a used manifold, and is using ebay for eveything else.

 

Doesn't mean that they didn't cost money at one point in time. They have to be calculated into the budget if anyone down the road tries to duplicate what he is doing and maintain the "$500" budget. That's what everyone is trying to get at. Otherwise just say you're attempting to do it as cheaply as you possibly can.

 

my turbo is still going strong

 

Did anyone read this post! Thats right above $500 tuned and runing for two years on crome with no issuses like someone else said u guys to young and pickey dont rember when ther e was no such thing as ectune,neptune! Even hondata was like crome and had to notepad itup and go back to make change!An for anyone who hates one crome its free and it works my car tuned by me on crome makes 528 at 21lbs stock sleeves tuned on the street
And im sorry if yo dont have good luck but u can find sh** cheap these days and stop tellin the guy he's not goin to be able do it on his budget.ive seen my freinds sell whole turbo kits just missing injectors for $300. So u guys just have bad luck!

 

 

There's always that one guy who drives the hooptie that's all ghetto rigged.

 

the .0001% of the boosted honda population has good luck with his 500 budget build. It doesnt work every time with everyones build.

fast
reliable
cheap

we all know this scenario

 

Theres no way it would be reliable if you dont buy a tuned ECU or standalone. SAFCs will only last you so long.

If you know how to fabricate yourself, all the work should be easily done in under $500

 

A not on cost of tuning. XactDyno a local Honda and import tuning shop does turbo tuning for $300 no matter what the setup and power goals. I get hooked up for $250 because I have have Tim the owner tune my car a few times.
As for the Op's $500 turbo build that is not going to happen. Even if you have all the stuff already that you said you have that is still more than $500 right there. The injectors, chipped ECU, fuel pump, wideband, wastegate and BOV is $700-$800 easy right there. You had to buy that stuff at one point so that is money invested in the project. As was said the issues with Ebay turbos id that they are not balanced very well at all, if you are going to the trouble of rebuilding a new Ebay turbo and balancing it you might as well buy a Garrett turbo. You can just go with a better known Ebay turbo like CX Racing or EMUSA since their turbos seem to last longer than others or better yet find a used t3t4 Garrett turbo for $200-$300.
Fast+$$$$= reliable
Reliable+no$= slow
Fast+no$=BOOOMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!

 

what no one seems to realize is that unless he stole the parts he has already, they were purchased with money or by exchange of goods and/or services... which means at some point there was a "cost" involved, therefore this will not and cannot be a 500 dollar setup.

Just because I had a bunch of stuff left over from my last honda build doesn't negate the fact that my turbo was obtained at a cost to me of 1000 dollars....