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How Much Have You Paid for a Custom Dyno Tune?

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Ebnash

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Discussion starter · #1 · (Edited)
I have had multiple custom dyno tunes across a few different cars and to date, the most I’ve paid is $500 and I live in the Bay Area, California.

Just recently, after adding injectors, killer b header/uppipe, fuel pump, pressure reg, boost solenoid, intake, and AOS, I paid $300 for a re-tune to cover the changes since he did my original custom dyno tune.

That said, I saw another local shop who was taking deposits for dyno tunes when Delicious Tuning would be visiting. I paid my $200 deposit without even thinking about it. Just interested in how a different tuners results might be. I get an email from said shop, and they want to know what mods I have on my car so they can give me a quote.

Told all the mods above, plus a downpipe for a 91 octane only tune. Mentioned I had already had a tune but wanted to try someone different.

I got an email response back saying that for my car setup, it would be $1540 for tune and half day on Dyno + $99 for car inspection since they did not install the parts.

Holy shit! Over $1600 for a custom dyno tune? I didn’t ask for a half day on the dyno, but maybe that’s what delicious typically does. Went on the Delicious website and I’m seeing the highest price for a Suble tune on service page is $450. I’m assuming that is a dyno tune?

Am I out of line to think $1600 is too much for custom tuning?

It would be cheaper for me to drive 800 miles round trip and get a hotel + tune at his actual shop in SoCal.
 
#2 ·
Your mods would take 2-3 hours on the dyno plus ~1 hour on the road to verify. And that is if we didn't already have a map for that setup, if we have a base map (which we do), you're looking at an hour on the dyno and 30 minutes or road follow up. So no base map ~$600 and base map ~$270.
 
#3 ·
All major tuning shops here in Colorado are $600 standard with a $100 deposit. Some are $400 and $500, but the big name ones are the most expensive. Re-tunes if the shop has already tuned your car is $150 per hour. Flex-fuel tunes from the two top shops here are $1000.
 
#4 ·
That sounds like alot to me buddy. Here in my area NY/NJ and even CT, tunes are ranging anywhere from $400-$600 on 93octance. Not sure what E85 tunes go for but ive herd close to 1K but not exactly sure if that accurate or not.
 
Discussion starter · #5 ·
So I asked shop to explain the cost and the response was that Bill from Delicious wants a half day of Dyno time to get things perfect on the tube and they have a Maha dyno, which I guess is very expensive and accurate? I still don’t see the value, but I do want to try another well known tuner.

I feel like the tunes from my current shop are not very focused on drive ability. I feel like maybe that is achieved by simply spending more time on the tune
 
#6 ·
$500, MAYBE it was 550 by Mike Botti when he was @ EFI, for a pretty standard 93 octane rotated 30R setup.

Half a day is absolutely ludicrous.
 
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#7 ·
A shop above just agreed though estimated $600

Anyway 400-600 for first tune. Much less for a retune by same shop and tuner.
 
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#9 ·
That's way too much money for a 91 only tune with common bolt-ons and stock turbo..

I've heard good things about Travis @ Snail Performance in the Sacramento area. I reached out to him about a flex fuel tune a while back and I believe he quoted ~$900. But it's common for flex fuel tunes to be several hundred dollars more since they have to tune for 91 (or 93) and E85. He's probably who I'll be going to when I'm ready since he's local.

It's a lot longer of a drive, but Ron @ Phatbotti Tuning does great work. He did a flex fuel e-tune on my '16 WRX for $500, but that was 2 years ago. Unfortunately he's become quite popular which has inflated his prices (supply & demand). He charges $800 for a single fuel (91) dyno tune now.

I'm sure there are other good/decent tuners in the area, but these are just the two that I'm most familiar with.
 
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Discussion starter · #12 ·
joshua@arcflashllc said:
Most tuners should have off the shelf tunes for all common injectors, E85, etc.. ( I know we do). So charging for a complete from scratch for every tune is a little odd.







Haha, we don't even pay for that since we have our own dyno.. :D
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Josh,
My original Tuner, GST Motorsports charged $500 for 1st tune when I had only a Downpipe. When I brought it back for all the additional modifications, it was $300 for updated tune.

The reason I'm looking around, is because I feel like he is not putting much into driveability.

When I looked at Mann Engineering site, they showed that Will from Delicious Tuning would be visiting and they were taking deposits. I have heard good things about him, so without even thinking about it, I paypal'd $200 deposit to secure a spot, but then came to find out that my tune would cost over $1600 with mandatory inspection fee. That seems ludicrous, even if we are in the Bay Area. After writing the original post here, I've done some internet searching and found that he (Delicious) charges big money for tunes. When I went on his site and saw $450, I didn't realize that this was for only for E-Tunes.

Mann Engineering has the Maha Dyno and Will just comes and uses it. Probably gets the lion's share of the $1600+ and just pays to rent the Dyno during his visit. Either way, I will not pay that much for a tune.

I am looking into Snail Performance and need to have a phone chat about tuning. It's on me that I went back to GST for another tune, because I wasn't thrilled with the 1st one and went back to my OTS map from Cobb, which was quite good, in my opinion. GST felt like Cobb's AF target's were too lean...
 
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