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pcm vs dyno testing? or are they 1 in the same?

Joe m

Joe m

New member
so im looking to get my car tuned befor i do mods to see what i can do with the car stock. was wondering whats the diffrence between a pcm tune and a dyno tune. or are they one in the same? also whats a reasonable price for tuning.? if i take it to vivvid racing which is local here in az they charge 105$ a hour for tuning. any info wuld be nice thanks.
 


nevermind, just talked to the guys at vivid and got it all set. gonna be 350$ for the tune takes about 1 1/2 and he said id see gains of atleast 20hp and 20ftlbstq is this a good deal or could i find it cheaper somewhere else without buying a new pcm and dealing with everything else for my stock car?
 
is your car stock? if so there is no way in hell youre getting 20 more hp/ft-lbs out of it. you MIGHT be able to get it to stop knocking, but i doubt it without some more flow.

be VERY careful who you bring these cars to. not a lot of shops know what they are doing with them.
 
wow, das allot of money geez . . . if i were to get a tune from overkill and then later on a couple months later get a dyno tune. does the dyno tune erase all the info on the pcm and reflash it or does the dyno tune just change certain information on the pcm and save to memory. and if it only changes information in certain areas will i beable to benifit from overkills settings and the dyno settings working together?
 
yea i was just curious. he sounded pretty solid info wise about the car. but i dunno. they deal with alot of high end cars but i also dont want to blow a motor cuz i let some re-re do a tune, and yes my car is stock. but id like it tuned before i put my headers and exhaust on. im building my fwi on friday. and if i do take it to them after i do my mods they charge 150$ for re-tunes.
 
If your car is stock...or even sitting on a 3.4" with exhaust mods and other sh!t...get a DHP PCM from 3800 Performance. Unplug yours and plug the new one they send you in.

Done.
 


even if its stock that would be smarter then paying for a tune? how would i know i have no kr or anything bad one i get it? and would i have to get it reflashed after i put on exhaust mods?
 
and what about [SIZE=-1]Developed with the average 3800 enthusiast in mind, this calibration has been designed and dynamometer tested and proven for the following vehicle modifications installed:
- 3.4” - 3.20” pulley- and [/SIZE][SIZE=-1]*NOTE: This calibration is NOT intended for stock 3800 powered vehicles.[/SIZE]
 
on a stock car the tune will run you very fat (rich) since you dont have the extra boost sucking up the fuel.
 
:th_sign-noway: . yup, my friend got me 17hp with his tune....car was knocking like a muthu....find someone that know 3800's they are different. mods 1st then tune. ex. u tune it, then throw on mods, then ur tune is off, get it?:th_thumbsup-wink:
 
dyno tunes aint cheap. but i would not want just a dyno tune, i would also want them to drive the car around and tune for driveablity. they will probably not tune out part throttle knock on a dyno.

but on the other hand dyno tunes are bad ass. they can run the car flat out in a safe enviorment and get the most out of performance, if they know what there doing. honestly, if they really know there tuning, they could get your car dialed in.
 


dyno/street tune is the best way to go(not the cheapest) but do your mods first

If i could have found a tuner around here i would have went custom instead of a shelf tune
I called a few shops that do mustangs and one guy said an engines an engine i can tune anything and then said it would e 500 bucks for that i could buy a tuner and learn my self
 
if anything, i would look for a shop that does some gm stuff. the gm and ford tuners are a little bit diffrent, but like said, if they know how to tune, they could figure it out, but im sure you would have better luck with a gm place. specially if they do some boosted cars.
 
my friend that tuned my car was used to his blown GTO. he said our cars act similarly, but not exactly the same. he did a great job dialing it in and we never once made reverse progress (if you tune a lot you run into a flash where you actually get worse than it was before until you finally dial it in correctly). that being said, i would never want my car to be tuned on a dyno. it would have acted like **** on the street if my car were tuned on a dyno. i like being able to tune it for real world use.
 
i agree it needs street tuning also.

luckly most shops around here will do street tuning, then a dyno tuning. only downside is they hold your car for 3-5 busniess days, sometimes more and it cost around 500$$, thats if they dont have to fix anything, exhaust leaks or what not. but its worth it if you cant tune.
 
thx for the info guys! and iv been googling trying to find a gm tuner place in az, and all if found so far is all jap crap. some have little exp with gm some have none:/ pretty crappy i must say.
 


if youre willing on taking the time to do it i would just recommend buying HPTuners for $500 and tune the car yourself.
 
yea i plane on doing that in the future. but right now ill worry about my mods to get to a 3.4 before i do that:) i know of 2 people out here that may be able to street tune my car somewhat for me.
 
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