Tuning recommendations??? (Hand held?, dyno?)

Orgawesome_98coyote · Apr 30, 2015

Alright looking for a little advice on which is the best/cost effective way to go about tuning a slightly modified 98 2v. The car was completely stock when i got it. I just swapped the cams for a set of npi bullet cams and done a pi intake swap with accufab upper plenum. Next is a offroad xpipe, 2800 stall and the j-mod shift kit. That will likely be about all i do to it basically before i start to tune besides probably a CAI and hopefully a little bigger throttle body

my question is can i get away with a hand held tuner and if so what are the best options? Ive called a local tuner that said it would be like $380 for a tuner then $450 if it needs dyno tuned and something else. Ended up quoting me like $1,100 bucks on it. Im not trying to get dime store cheap but im not building no 11 sec 2v either lol. I have a coyote im ultimately trying to get parts for that.

Burninriverdiver · Apr 30, 2015

I've heard lousy and good comments on the bama sct tuners.... I said screw it and bought the bama sct x4 and got the free tunes for life. It smoothed out the idle of my car with the pi cams, intake and other mods. I am satisfied with the $399 I paid for it and the decent customer service I've experienced. I recommend it for mildly modded 2v's. Just my 2Â¢

lwarrior1016 · Apr 30, 2015

I would find out what program the dyno need you uses and buy a used handheld off somebody. Then get it on the dyno for the tune. When I was running those I had an email tune, and while it did good it never was "just right".

Orgawesome_98coyote · Apr 30, 2015

I was thinking about sct. I also seen a diablo predator that i could get pretty cheap. The car runs pretty good without anything but i would like to know it has something on it at least to help squeeze as much performance as i can out of the mods i have. Heres a video of it after one of its first test drives with the new cams [video=youtube_share;GmpLGcv-D4Y]http://youtu.be/GmpLGcv-D4Y[/video]

Orgawesome_98coyote · Apr 30, 2015

lwarrior1016 said:
I would find out what program the dyno need you uses and buy a used handheld off somebody. Then get it on the dyno for the tune. When I was running those I had an email tune, and while it did good it never was "just right".

I want to say its SCT but im not 100% on that. These guys are only like an hour away so i would like to use them for the convenience.

96blak54 · Apr 30, 2015

The dyno tune is your best bet. Sure you might get lucky with a mail order tune, but most reply with "somethings wrong with the car, blah blah blah. I wont run right". Getting the dyno tune has far more positives than the mail order. If the car was near stock with a cai swapped or catless midpipeb I'd say mail order tune it, but the cams makes one sketchy.

Orgawesome_98coyote · Apr 30, 2015

96blak54 said:
The dyno tune is your best bet. Sure you might get lucky with a mail order tune, but most reply with "somethings wrong with the car, blah blah blah. I wont run right". Getting the dyno tune has far more positives than the mail order. If the car was near stock with a cai swapped or catless midpipeb I'd say mail order tune it, but the cams makes one sketchy.

Yeah i think i will go with sct and take it to our local tuner for dyno tuning. No doubt that its going to be the best route. Just going to have to pinch those pennies lol

96blak54 · May 1, 2015

Yea it does suck. Once youve squeezed the life out of every dollar for 6 months, the water heater breaks...

DropTopPony · May 1, 2015

dyno tune for sure if you added cams or it may never run correctly.

I had some Comp 262ah's in without a tune and it wanted to stall as soon as I let off the gas pedal. Once tuned it was a thing of harmony.

96blak54 · May 2, 2015

Well said!

After installing parts when you drive it, you're expecting a bit of gratification to the expense and labor. All that anticipated excitement along with the cool motor sounds you make while installing the parts, come to a quick disappointing end when the pedal mats the floor.....you think "this isnt much better than before".

When you get that dyno tune and lightly drive away from the shop, ....the car feels brand new!

Wichers123 · May 2, 2015

The strategy tune on the sct hand held will get you far since the cams are not that aggressive. I say no tune needed but a hand held with the strategy tune. Let the car learn how to run and it will run strong after a day of aggressive driving.

Orgawesome_98coyote · May 2, 2015

Wichers123 said:
The strategy tune on the sct hand held will get you far since the cams are not that aggressive. I say no tune needed but a hand held with the strategy tune. Let the car learn how to run and it will run strong after a day of aggressive driving.

Hey hey! Now i can respect that. Nothing wrong with a little optimism and letting it sorta adjust itself with a little help. Forgive me for the possible dumb question but what exactly do you mean by "strategy tune"? Honestly tuning and hand helds are fairly new to me. My previous car was a 86 fox that i had a big carb on so tuning was a bit more "mechanical" lol

Wichers123 · May 3, 2015

The handheld has a option to run a factory based tune that will let the ecu clean up on it own over a few drive cycles. That's how cars work today. It's all based on the factory cells though so if you were radical with mods it wouldn't cut it. But the mods you have would be able to work.