To anyone out there with firsthand experience, Is it viable to start tuning as a side business?

I've obviously got a lot to learn about everything before I start making promises to customers, but I wanted to know if this was something I could make some side cash with?

I have enough interest from friends that could potentially recover the cost of the machine, so I'm not worried about wasting my money, I just don't know if I'm just getting in over my head and just tune my own vehicles.

Any information and experience is welcome!

 

Also, some information about my town.

Pop. 8000 and climbing.

The town is filled with 4WD trucks and people who love Sleds, ATV/UTV, jet-ski's, etc.

The area has also started an iron ore project and a hydro-electric dam project, so the town is now seeing a boom in workers from outside the province with lots of money to burn.

So this seems like a good time to get the tuner I always wanted and make money and make everyone's vehicle a little better.

 

I do it a good bit as side work, but its not something you just grab the software and can tune. im not sure your automotive knowledge, but tuning goes deeper than anything ive seen working in and running a repair shop. not only do you have to know how the car works, you have to know why and how to make it better. Once you figure all of that out you need to know how to work the software and all the knowledge and vocabulary that comes with it. it is possible and i love doing it, but it seems you think you can buy the software and just do it. there is a LOT more to it than that.

 

I appreciate the input

I'm still quite a bit daunted by all the information, but I've been compiling stuff and doing some background reading on some aspects for the past few years. I'm far from an expert though, I'm pretty much a preschooler right now. As for my skill level, I'm a meticulous, but thorough mechanic who has worked on a variety of vehicles in a variety of conditions. As far as my "advanced" skills I have:

-I've "tuned" a friends truck within the parameters of a Diablo Predator, which was fun, but limited. I also had a crash course in tuning OBD-I Honda's using chip emulation, but I never got any further in it due to selling my Honda.

-Rebuilt a few engines (diesel, gas, 4 and 2-stroke),transmissions (heavily built TH350 and currently with a 4L80E), transfer cases (NP208, NP205 and NP261/263).

-I've also done some carb and distributor advanced tuning on older cars/trucks (even though I'm under 30). I jumped at the chance while in school to get a feel for the "cause and effect" of tuning the engine.

-Rebuilt a very complicated mechanical diesel injection pump (Stanadyne DB2 pump from the 6.2/6.5 or 6.9/7.3 Ford IDI's). (I was even told I was crazy to try and pull the whole thing apart in the first place )

-I've done very mild porting on cylinder heads, intake and exhaust manifolds too.

Well, that's my "resume" of sorts (curriculum vitae upsets me). I've only been at this stuff for 8 years though (since I started school), I haven't worked in my field at a dealership or straight-up garage, so I'm not the fastest worker (I worked for a contracting company fixing and building stuff for them), but I'm meticulous and hate not being able to optimize the performance of any engine I get my hands on.

 

I have done it in the past but I wont do big power (nitrous or FI) setups for people because those are much more likely to break, and when the dumbass blows it up the first person they are going to blame is the tuner even if its not the tuners fault. For me, the stress of people bitching and answering questions all hours isnt worth it.

If all the customers want is raise some shift points and line pressure then go for it.

 

Thats about where i was when i picked up on tuning. at that time i wasnt ready to tune others vehicles. i used mine as a test pig to understand what each table did and how to set up different configs and scanning data. it did take a lot of time, but i would say you have the mind set to pursue it for sure! i have delt with a few hondas all the way up to hondata s300 which is still a cake walk compared to hpt or efi live. most of the dedicated systems such as holley, fast, mega squirt, etc. are much easier to work as you dont have to do as much learning of the software to "manipulate" the pcm.

 

That was my plan, I don't think the people around here are looking for maximum performance. Plus there isn't a dyno for at least 2000 miles from here, so it's going to be modest tunes for everyone

Cool, I've always wanted to get into tuning, even just for myself, but if I can make a real go of it, I will have a monopoly on ECM tuning in all of Labrador (that I know of).

Right now, It's full blown winter, so If I get it now, I will have plenty of time to learn the ropes before Spring comes and I can think of working with others.
I'm sure most people aren't looking for big power boosts right now, but there's always those sicko's out there, like us, who don't care about the seasons or silly things like traction

 

No you won't get it by spring unless you have a **** ton of extra time and plan on doing 2 hours of reading a day, followed, by 30 mins a day playing with the software, and have some one who can show you how to use the software about ten times. I wasn't quite as knowledgable as you when I bought the software 3 years ago. However, I am just now getting the guts up to tune other people's vehicles. Just a couple weeks ago after getting very comfortable with my own truck and other early gen III vehicles decided hell I'm getting good at this. I should tune my brother in laws vette. Yeah that whole virtual VE tables smacked me in the damn face like mike Tyson in the hangover part one.

Let me put it this way. It will take at least 15 hours of reading and use to learn just the scanner. If you don't know the scanner really really well don't plan on making a single change.

Diesels are actually really easy to tune on a basic mild level. Next I would start on early NBS trucks. 99-06. Those operate on primary VE and aren't too bad. Picking up some timing and getting rid of torque management is simple enough with VE and MAF tuning being reasonable with some work. PE while seeming simple enough will be the last thing you will want to learn. You need to get HPtuners pro and a wideband setup if you want to tune and get paid.

This all said it can be a profitable side business if you can get the right clients and keep people's expectations reasonable. I didn't believe people who said oh it is gonna take a lot of time. I thought for sure 30 days and a good but of reading I can get this down. I am 3 years and 100s of hours in and am finally getting to about a 3 or 4 out of ten mastery level wise. The guys who do this for a living are way past the 10,000 hour rule on this one and they were lucky to start tuning back when things where still more simple. Good luck and buying the software and right tools will be the best thing you ever did for your automotive wisdom.

 

I do tuning on honda/acura, toyota, nissan, mitsubishi, subaru and pretty much any other vehicle that can be ran off a standalone or can have a daughter board installed. Its not hard once you get the hang of it, but i spent almost 2 years practicing on my own vehicles before i was comfortable enough to accept money to do someone elses.

 

I know Spring sounds pretty short, but that's doesn't even start until late May around here, so I get a few extra months.

The other extra point in my favour is that I already do a lot of research, but my ADHD has me all over the place until I've got something to fixate on. I'm also not working right now (seasonal work) and have no kids, so free time and self/home and vehicular improvement are all I have to focus on, for the most part.

I've been slowly gathering as much info as I can on the subject over the past 2-3 years, but recently I've started to really pick up the pace. I've even started just digging through the free demo version they give you (which is pretty much just the datalogger/scanner version) just to get a feel for it's layout.

I'm gonna start asking around to the local GMT800-900 guys that I know and see how they feel about it and what kind of prices they would be willing to pay, as I don't want to rip myself or anyone off. If I can garner enough interest, I will actually start looking into it full fledged.

I appreciate all the info! I don't have anyone around my area to ask about this kind of stuff, so I'm left with pestering knowledgeable strangers on the internet