Jona91

Hello. Im done installing my stage 2 high lift on my 04 silverado with port and polished 862 heads with some headers and i was looking for a good tuner. I seen a shop called std performance in the la area they charge around 400 for the dyno tune. And theres another shop called calspeed performance theyre in bakerfield and they charge 250 for the dyno tune. Why are they different price for the same thing? I seen reviews and asked ppl that got their tune there and both sides seem good enough.

B52Bombardier1

The cost of living is vastly different between LA and Bakersfield.

Rick

smokeshow

iTrader: (16)

They are not the same thing. You get what you pay for, and sometimes you get extra that you don't want. Best bet is to 'interview' them and find out who blows the least amount of smoke up your ***. Ask lots of questions - if you're able to trip them up or they talk in circles with you, find someone else.

Jona91

What questions should i ask? Im new to the tuning thing.

RB04Av

That's a tricky one.

Some tuners will guarantee to spend a certain amount of time; say, 2 hrs; working on your vehicle.

Some will agree to do some certain # of dyno pulls (obviously if a tuner doesn't have a dyno, this option is off the table) and go for max power at the expense of all else.

Some will want a datalog of your vehicle as-is, running through all normal variations of conditions (say, cold start, idle for 30 sec, back down the driveway, drive as if on a 25 mph street for 3 min, get on the freeway gently, cruise a bit, get off, do a WOT pull up the next ramp, etc. etc. etc. so they can see all the "bad spots" in its current tune) and then write a tune designed to improve whatever shortcoming s/he sees in the datalog.

Some will have a "library" of tunes and will pull the one that most closely matches what you tell him/her and sell it to you.

Some tunes are for better gas mileage; some for improved driveability; some for max power; and so forth. Each end goal requires a different approach. The 3rd approach up there is probably best for a street vehicle, although yours doesn't sound like it needs a whole lot different from any stock motor with headers and no other mods. The cam has the most effect on a street tune in most cases. In fact, the "library" approach might do just fine for you, since a tuner is likely to have encountered a motor/vehicle combo much like yours before. Maybe, starting out with a "library" tune, then tweeeeeking it a little bit to dial it in to your truck's datalog, would be the best, quickest, least expensive, all-around most satisfactory solution.

Ask him EXACTLY what he's going to do (not the details of the tune itself necessarily, but rather, how s/he's going to get there) and see if it aligns with your goals.

Jona91

I asked them both how they go about tuning the truck, if they just put it on the dyno and tune it there or if they drive it around and put it on the dyno too. Lets see what they tell me, The calspeed guy tole me he does it on the dyno tune and the std guy never mentioned dyno he said street tune, couple months ago when i asked him. Lets see what he says now. They both have ig accounts and there hundreds of trucks they tuned

so the std guys told me " most of my tunes are 99% street tune, rather use the load of the car to come up with changes to the file. We first set ur tune file with the basic mod file we have then drive the car to log he vital sensor to be able to see what else we are going to change like air/fuel, timing, torque management, ect. lets see what the calspeed guy says

smokeshow

iTrader: (16)

You may want to identify your expectations first. You won't know if they can meet them if you haven't defined them first. How picky are you about maximizing output from your engine? How picky are you about drivability, startability? Without knowing these things and making your needs known, you're set to received the most generic of attempts to calibrate your setup.

Jona91

yea i get you. What would you recommend the street tune by std or dyno tune by calspeed? Ill let them know i want the most power out of the engine.

He told me he will let me drive the truck doing pulls as he uses hp tuners to adjust whatever needs to be changed to meet my needs. He tunes for performance which what i want.