Custom Dyno Tuning/ Pros & Cons

[screaming_pc]

I have been hesitant about getting a custom tune for my car. I have heard that tuners like to turn off the O2 sensors and run it so lean that the EGT (Exhaust Gas Temperature) prematurely kill the catalytic converters.

I want to keep this car forever.

What do you think?

If I do go this route I will be getting a custom dyno tune from Dynospeed Racing in Memphis since it is close to where I live. Anyone been there know his work?

[stumbaugh]

Well, the only shop I've heard bad things about it dynospeed. I've heard that they will run the car to rich, bit never heard of a shop running them to lean. You don't need cats anyway!

[Moose]

I know them well... they do standup work if you can afford them, and get in. Call John Bonner. He's the largest shareholder, and the grunt of the business.

I have had several cars tuned there. They just didnt tune the, I rented their dyno and brought my own tuner in.

[racing2fast]

DynoSpeed has GREAT RELIABLE TUNING!!!!

Here's the difference..... Joe ( The Tuner) will not tune your car to "MAX" hp/trq. He will take it to the max, and then back it off a bit so your car will LAST! I spend a lot of time up there, and I have seen MANY MANY Cars come through there, spaz on the price, go else where to get work/tunes, and then see them BACK at DynoSpeed getting the car fixed, and re-tuned. All that because they wanted to save a 100 bucks or so.

Call Joe, or John, and tell them I sent you, They will answer all your questions, and will tune the car to the mods that you have.



One more thing... If your gonna keep your car forever... Might as well leave it stock!!

[Bigjht]

I can't vouch for DynoSpeed because I've never been there, however, I can say that getting it dyno tuned doesn't have much downside besides the cost. The S197 can see very good gains from an aftermarket tune, even on your Bullitt that already has a more aggressive tune on it. As far as the rear O2 sensors they can turn them off or leave them on, just specify how you want it. If you're keeping the cats I don't see why they have to turn them off. For the air/fuel ratios ask for that to be checked when you get it dynoed so they can tune accordingly so it's not too lean or rich. If they are decent tuners this will not be an issue. Personally, I say go for it.

[stumbaugh]

I would go ahead and get it tuned

[05 S281]

My car was tuned by Dynospeed and i'm going to just give a neutral rating for them. I know several people who have had their cars tuned their and MOST of them (not all) have horrible cold starting and driveability issues. Mine being one of those cars. I am not satisfied with my tune and will be going elsewhere when I get a spare moment in time to get it retuned. I know three of the others with the cold starting and drivability issues that have gone elswhere afterwards to get a different tune and kept the same hp and tq if not more and were having no problem whatsoever with drivability. Car starts first time every time without fouling the plugs. My car fouls plugs like nobody's business. They can be changed in about 15 to 20 minutes, but at over $100 a set, its not something I really enjoy changing on a regular basis. I have talked to a lot of people that are not satisfied by them, but I have heard from a lot who are. The two biggest complaints I have heard are the price, and the rich running conditions. I don't want a lean tune, but I also don't want a rich tune that is going to wash down my cylinder walls and cause my engine to wear prematurely. On the upside of Dynospeed, they are very willing to explain what they are doing to your car as they are tuning it, and show you the differences before and after the changes are made. Joe can, and will teach you a lot about your car, but i believe that there are other tuners that will do the same. If you do decide to go to them, be sure to ask him to leave your tuner open so that you can data log if you have problems in the future. He locks out the tuners after he tunes your car and i didn't know that until i left his shop and was having fuel problems. Now my tuner is locked and i had to borrow somebody else's tuner to data log my car and diagnose the issues. Guess what. There is a fee to go back to him and have him unlock MY tuner that HE locked me out of. I WAS NOT PLEASED TO LEARN THIS.

[stumbaugh]

those reasons right there r why I didn't go to dynospeed.

[racing2fast]

those reasons right there r why I didn't go to dynospeed.



Show me one Tuner, that has a 100% Positive feedback among everyone that they have tuned. Your gonna have some issues from time to time, as each car is different and responds differently. That's why HP/TRQ numbers vary from car to car. You take two "stock" car's, and dyno them back to back, and one WILL out perform the other. You take two identical blowers/turbos/nitrous kits put them on identical cars, and you will STILL get different numbers and different issues that may surface. Each car is a "case by case" scenario. All of them requiring a little more here, a little less there to get them dialed in. I have watch Joe tune numerous cars, and I have never seen him let one leave that wasn't SPOT ON in the A/F (Rich/Lean) area's. (Unless their was an issue and another supporting mod that needed to be installed, in which case he would sit down with the owner, and explain exactly what was taking place and a plan of attack) I have also seen car's throw them for a loop, and him spend hours working on tunes getting it right.

Furthermore.... I have never seen or heard of a car leaving his shop, the owner having issues, and him not trying to resolve the problem. And make everyone happy. I have however seen many folks come in with idea's and expectations that were far fetched from the capabilities of their current mod's, and application.

I am really shocked with the neg. feedback I am hearing about DynoSpeed. Im not doubting anyones complaints, or opinions. Im just wondering if they have been re-addressed with DynoSpeed for a solution. I have seen TO MANY car's get shipped to their shop just to let them work/mod/tune them. I have personally seen car's from Louisiana, California, Kentucky, and other surrounding states bring them their cars.


Ohhh Well, I guess you learn something new everyday!



As for the OP.... Find you a tuner you are comfortable with, and pull the trigger!! A dyno-tuned car feels, and drives so much better than with the stock tune. It's definitely a nice bang for the buck! As for O2's, they can be turned on/off with the tune. So if you have cat's, or an O/R X or H pipe it can be tuned accordingly. I know for a fact the drivability of my 2000gt GREATLY increased after a 93 Octane Performance Tune was installed. It was almost like a different car!

[05 S281]

those reasons right there r why I didn't go to dynospeed.



Show me one Tuner, that has a 100% Positive feedback among everyone that they have tuned. Your gonna have some issues from time to time, as each car is different and responds differently. That's why HP/TRQ numbers vary from car to car. You take two "stock" car's, and dyno them back to back, and one WILL out perform the other. You take two identical blowers/turbos/nitrous kits put them on identical cars, and you will STILL get different numbers and different issues that may surface. Each car is a "case by case" scenario. All of them requiring a little more here, a little less there to get them dialed in. I have watch Joe tune numerous cars, and I have never seen him let one leave that wasn't SPOT ON in the A/F (Rich/Lean) area's. (Unless their was an issue and another supporting mod that needed to be installed, in which case he would sit down with the owner, and explain exactly what was taking place and a plan of attack) I have also seen car's throw them for a loop, and him spend hours working on tunes getting it right.

Furthermore.... I have never seen or heard of a car leaving his shop, the owner having issues, and him not trying to resolve the problem. And make everyone happy. I have however seen many folks come in with idea's and expectations that were far fetched from the capabilities of their current mod's, and application.

I am really shocked with the neg. feedback I am hearing about DynoSpeed. Im not doubting anyones complaints, or opinions. Im just wondering if they have been re-addressed with DynoSpeed for a solution. I have seen TO MANY car's get shipped to their shop just to let them work/mod/tune them. I have personally seen car's from Louisiana, California, Kentucky, and other surrounding states bring them their cars.


Ohhh Well, I guess you learn something new everyday!



As for the OP.... Find you a tuner you are comfortable with, and pull the trigger!! A dyno-tuned car feels, and drives so much better than with the stock tune. It's definitely a nice bang for the buck! As for O2's, they can be turned on/off with the tune. So if you have cat's, or an O/R X or H pipe it can be tuned accordingly. I know for a fact the drivability of my 2000gt GREATLY increased after a 93 Octane Performance Tune was installed. It was almost like a different car!

if you will read into my post, I HAVE mentioned that I know several people who are satisfied with them. I also, know many who are not. For the most part, the ones who are satisfied with them are N/A cars. I'm not doubting his abilities, i'm just sayint that I am not impressed with the tune that is in my car, and neither are the others i have talked to with F/I cars. You are right. Not one company will have a 100% positive feedback. Just do you investigating and make your decision from there. go to SVTP and see what all they have to say there. You will find plenty of posts that are both for, and against, dynospeed. My car is still running and doesn't have a window in the block. Thats a plus.

[stumbaugh]

Everyone does have an off day. That is true that no company will be perfect. An actual case happened tonight putting a buddies motor together. Alot of use have been using a machine shop for years and NOBODY has ever had an issue with them. But I guess they got in a hurry and put the back cam bearing in a little cocked sideways. No big deal, we got it fixed, but it just goes back to that one thing. Not everyone is perfect.

[Joe@DynoSpeed]

My car was tuned by Dynospeed and i'm going to just give a neutral rating for them. I know several people who have had their cars tuned their and MOST of them (not all) have horrible cold starting and driveability issues. Mine being one of those cars. I am not satisfied with my tune and will be going elsewhere when I get a spare moment in time to get it retuned. I know three of the others with the cold starting and drivability issues that have gone elswhere afterwards to get a different tune and kept the same hp and tq if not more and were having no problem whatsoever with drivability. Car starts first time every time without fouling the plugs. My car fouls plugs like nobody's business. They can be changed in about 15 to 20 minutes, but at over $100 a set, its not something I really enjoy changing on a regular basis. I have talked to a lot of people that are not satisfied by them, but I have heard from a lot who are. The two biggest complaints I have heard are the price, and the rich running conditions. I don't want a lean tune, but I also don't want a rich tune that is going to wash down my cylinder walls and cause my engine to wear prematurely. On the upside of Dynospeed, they are very willing to explain what they are doing to your car as they are tuning it, and show you the differences before and after the changes are made. Joe can, and will teach you a lot about your car, but i believe that there are other tuners that will do the same. If you do decide to go to them, be sure to ask him to leave your tuner open so that you can data log if you have problems in the future. He locks out the tuners after he tunes your car and i didn't know that until i left his shop and was having fuel problems. Now my tuner is locked and i had to borrow somebody else's tuner to data log my car and diagnose the issues. Guess what. There is a fee to go back to him and have him unlock MY tuner that HE locked me out of. I WAS NOT PLEASED TO LEARN THIS.

I remember this car however, I never heard anything back from you concerning issues with cold start. I am more than willing to look at your car again at no charge to you to figure out what is going on with it.

As a tuner, it is extremely important to me to get feedback from my customers. This is the only way I can gauge what kind of job I am doing and how pleased the customers are with their vehicles. There are a lot of explanations for problems after a tune especially with a cold start problem.

Most of the cars I tune are driven from their point of origin which means that they are up to operating temperature when they arrive at my shop. I never get to see a cold start up problem unless the vehicle stays over night, and I can start it up the next morning. This is why feedback is extremely important to me.

As far as locking a tune file, sometimes I forget to load a programmer with options. I do not do this on purpose unless I have an individual that doesn't need to be modifying his tune...you know the kind? This is to protect the customer from himself and me. This is not the case with you. I can e-mail you your tune file with the options if you wish. Send me an e-mail if your interested: joe@dynospeedracing.com.

In addition, I cannot lock out your Xcalibrator so that it will not datalog or scan engine codes. All I can do is keep you from changing the options in your tune file. Again, John and I strive to please everyone however, that is an impossible goal without good feedback.

If you would like to have your car re-tuned at no cost to you, please give me a call at the shop 901.373.1197 so that we can arrange a time.

Thanks,

Joe

[stumbaugh]

Well my opinion about dynospeed has changed. Sorry for the bad comments. It shows everyone how far u guys r willing to go to make things right
[quote="05 S281":sbghc09t]My car was tuned by Dynospeed and i'm going to just give a neutral rating for them. I know several people who have had their cars tuned their and MOST of them (not all) have horrible cold starting and driveability issues. Mine being one of those cars. I am not satisfied with my tune and will be going elsewhere when I get a spare moment in time to get it retuned. I know three of the others with the cold starting and drivability issues that have gone elswhere afterwards to get a different tune and kept the same hp and tq if not more and were having no problem whatsoever with drivability. Car starts first time every time without fouling the plugs. My car fouls plugs like nobody's business. They can be changed in about 15 to 20 minutes, but at over $100 a set, its not something I really enjoy changing on a regular basis. I have talked to a lot of people that are not satisfied by them, but I have heard from a lot who are. The two biggest complaints I have heard are the price, and the rich running conditions. I don't want a lean tune, but I also don't want a rich tune that is going to wash down my cylinder walls and cause my engine to wear prematurely. On the upside of Dynospeed, they are very willing to explain what they are doing to your car as they are tuning it, and show you the differences before and after the changes are made. Joe can, and will teach you a lot about your car, but i believe that there are other tuners that will do the same. If you do decide to go to them, be sure to ask him to leave your tuner open so that you can data log if you have problems in the future. He locks out the tuners after he tunes your car and i didn't know that until i left his shop and was having fuel problems. Now my tuner is locked and i had to borrow somebody else's tuner to data log my car and diagnose the issues. Guess what. There is a fee to go back to him and have him unlock MY tuner that HE locked me out of. I WAS NOT PLEASED TO LEARN THIS.

I remember this car however, I never heard anything back from you concerning issues with cold start. I am more than willing to look at your car again at no charge to you to figure out what is going on with it.

As a tuner, it is extremely important to me to get feedback from my customers. This is the only way I can gauge what kind of job I am doing and how pleased the customers are with their vehicles. There are a lot of explanations for problems after a tune especially with a cold start problem.

Most of the cars I tune are driven from their point of origin which means that they are up to operating temperature when they arrive at my shop. I never get to see a cold start up problem unless the vehicle stays over night, and I can start it up the next morning. This is why feedback is extremely important to me.

As far as locking a tune file, sometimes I forget to load a programmer with options. I do not do this on purpose unless I have an individual that doesn't need to be modifying his tune...you know the kind? This is to protect the customer from himself and me. This is not the case with you. I can e-mail you your tune file with the options if you wish. Send me an e-mail if your interested: joe@dynospeedracing.com.

In addition, I cannot lock out your Xcalibrator so that it will not datalog or scan engine codes. All I can do is keep you from changing the options in your tune file. Again, John and I strive to please everyone however, that is an impossible goal without good feedback.

If you would like to have your car re-tuned at no cost to you, please give me a call at the shop 901.373.1197 so that we can arrange a time.

Thanks,

Joe[/quote:sbghc09t]

[Joe@DynoSpeed]

Well my opinion about dynospeed has changed. Sorry for the bad comments. It shows everyone how far u guys r willing to go to make things right

Thanks Showtime. Everyone makes mistakes and I am by no means saying that I do not make them. I have always been more than willing to make the situation right if given the chance.

DynoSpeed has never turned away a customer due to a problem with a custom tune they received from us. The problem, most of the time, is that we never hear back from the customer unless we find a post like this on a forum. There are no hard feelings, just give me a chance to make it right is all I ask before posting negatives information about my company. I think that is more than fair...

[redsvt]

i had one car tuned at dynospeed and i was not satisfied with it at all! take it to bb&t let john goterra do the work and you will be happy

[05 S281]

[quote="05 S281":nf8d6pkr]My car was tuned by Dynospeed and i'm going to just give a neutral rating for them. I know several people who have had their cars tuned their and MOST of them (not all) have horrible cold starting and driveability issues. Mine being one of those cars. I am not satisfied with my tune and will be going elsewhere when I get a spare moment in time to get it retuned. I know three of the others with the cold starting and drivability issues that have gone elswhere afterwards to get a different tune and kept the same hp and tq if not more and were having no problem whatsoever with drivability. Car starts first time every time without fouling the plugs. My car fouls plugs like nobody's business. They can be changed in about 15 to 20 minutes, but at over $100 a set, its not something I really enjoy changing on a regular basis. I have talked to a lot of people that are not satisfied by them, but I have heard from a lot who are. The two biggest complaints I have heard are the price, and the rich running conditions. I don't want a lean tune, but I also don't want a rich tune that is going to wash down my cylinder walls and cause my engine to wear prematurely. On the upside of Dynospeed, they are very willing to explain what they are doing to your car as they are tuning it, and show you the differences before and after the changes are made. Joe can, and will teach you a lot about your car, but i believe that there are other tuners that will do the same. If you do decide to go to them, be sure to ask him to leave your tuner open so that you can data log if you have problems in the future. He locks out the tuners after he tunes your car and i didn't know that until i left his shop and was having fuel problems. Now my tuner is locked and i had to borrow somebody else's tuner to data log my car and diagnose the issues. Guess what. There is a fee to go back to him and have him unlock MY tuner that HE locked me out of. I WAS NOT PLEASED TO LEARN THIS.

I remember this car however, I never heard anything back from you concerning issues with cold start. I am more than willing to look at your car again at no charge to you to figure out what is going on with it.

As a tuner, it is extremely important to me to get feedback from my customers. This is the only way I can gauge what kind of job I am doing and how pleased the customers are with their vehicles. There are a lot of explanations for problems after a tune especially with a cold start problem.

Most of the cars I tune are driven from their point of origin which means that they are up to operating temperature when they arrive at my shop. I never get to see a cold start up problem unless the vehicle stays over night, and I can start it up the next morning. This is why feedback is extremely important to me.

As far as locking a tune file, sometimes I forget to load a programmer with options. I do not do this on purpose unless I have an individual that doesn't need to be modifying his tune...you know the kind? This is to protect the customer from himself and me. This is not the case with you. I can e-mail you your tune file with the options if you wish. Send me an e-mail if your interested: joe@dynospeedracing.com.

In addition, I cannot lock out your Xcalibrator so that it will not datalog or scan engine codes. All I can do is keep you from changing the options in your tune file. Again, John and I strive to please everyone however, that is an impossible goal without good feedback.

If you would like to have your car re-tuned at no cost to you, please give me a call at the shop 901.373.1197 so that we can arrange a time.

Thanks,

Joe[/quote:nf8d6pkr]


Joe, I owe you and dynospeed and apology. PM sent.

[Joe@DynoSpeed]

Joe, I owe you and dynospeed and apology. PM sent.

No problem Christian. Thank you for offering me the opportunity to set things straight. Give me a call if you need anything.

Joe

[Joe@DynoSpeed]

i had one car tuned at dynospeed and i was not satisfied with it at all! take it to bb&t let john goterra do the work and you will be happy

Really, what was wrong with the tune?

[redsvt]

the main thing, we asked for the rev limiter be moved up. when we picked the car up, we were told that it was floating the lifters. soo went home ordered an anderson pms and never had a lifter float. rev limiter is now at 7000. this was on 88 coupe, a9l computer, sct 4 bank chip.
we didnt call back, assuming you guys know the difference between floating lifters and the factory rev limiter. just voted to go a different route.

i wont say that the dynospeed to was way off but i did pick up a tenth in the 1/4 with addition of the pms

also had a buddy go to dynospeed with a 700rwhp gt500. he picked it up, took it home and it would not run after it was up to temp. wouldnt idle and would stumble and die if you pushed the clutch in goin down the road. he put the previous tune back and it ran fine

[adam2kgt]

Not to hijack a thread, but where is Dynospeed located? I will be needing to get my car tuned at some point, and my dad has an '07 he needs tuned NOW!

[ArkansasMystic]

I don't have any experience with them, but they are located in Memphis, TN.

[QUARTER MILE MUSTANG]

The only time i have ever seen the rear o2's turned off is to prevent the MIL from coming on when the car has a cats on it. I cant shed any light on the tuners everyone is talking about because im new to the area, but if your car is being with SCT or Diablo etc... then just get a mail order tune from someone you trust or that has a good rep. and run the car on a dyno and send you log files to them to dial it in or with some tuning software like SCT you can hook up with the tuner live over the internet while the car is on the dyno. Its much cheaper than flying a tuner in to tune a car. One of the GT500 i worked on had a mail order tune from John Lund and it was spot on from the get go. JMS is also suppose to be good as well. Another option is to buy a pro racer software setup and tune yourself. Its actually easier than one would think.