Pretty general question..just trying to get an idea of what a professional tuner will charge to get a finished car on a Dyno to get it dialed in and ready for the street to drive safely. I am using MS3 pro...

General ballpark is fine just trying to figure out what I’m getting myself into.

 

Where are you from?

In Europe it's 500-700€, so maybe pretty equal in dollars?

 

Houston Texas,, US

 

As low as $250 for a "get her going" tune, any anywhere upwards from that depending on the tuner, their experience and knowledge with each specific car. In general I would say around $500(based off 3 shops in my local NY area) with $250 for retunes/adjustments that come up in the future with hardware changes or if a problem arises and you need to go back.

This can vary wildly depending on overhead,If the tuner has a buddy with a dyno, if you have to pay for dyno time, etc etc.

 

I figured as much, I’m hoping the mega squirt has a basic get you up and going mode and from what I read it will actually learn as you drive. I don’t know how effective that is but isn’t this all part of the fun, finding **** out

 

MSR Houston does dyno tunes for MS, you can ask them for their hourly rate/quote.

 

The shop where I used to work was $150 an hour and a standalone tune would normally be 3 hours minimum. Smaller level tuners with less overhead I could see being $300 for a dyno tune. I'd almost be suspicious of paying any less than that.

 

Texas it's $600-1200.

 

Here in Oregon it's $850-1200, including dyno time.

 

Holy moly!!! 600 I can understand but $1200, that’s a big chunk of what it cost for the parts.

 

And you will still have to tune idle and cold starts as the weather changes. Possibly MAT corrections, depending upon how particular you are.

 

That's kind of ridiculous. For $1200 I would expect the tuner to be available to do these ad hoc without any extra charge, otherwise it is not "tuned". It's all these small things that make a tune, not WOT pulls. That being said, I would be more than happy to pay that kind of money to anyone that can guarantee me an OEM or better operation during driving/idling/startup under various conditions.

 

Well, think about it; how can a tuner tune a cold start at 0*C when he has the car and the ambient is 35*C?

Best would be to make a guess.

But yes, the tune should include all of the timing map and fuel map. Not sure about Acc Enrich. But I’m mostly going on logic as my car has not yet seen a dyno.

 

Paying a tuner on a dyno should be in the $100-$200 an hour depending on dyno and tuner. You should be able to tune the car on a steady state dyno within 2-4 hours if you know what you are doing. MAT and cold starts should be able to be tuned if you leave the car over night.

 

Yes $1200 is definitely for OEM like drivability, and tweaks as weather changes. Around here it’s 100F in summer and 20F in winter. As said, impossible to predict how the car will react in those conditions unless you tune in them.

 

I'm here near Dallas. It's not hard to teach yourself all the "drivability" tuning (ie. Startup, idle, tip in...) from this fourm. I got the car driving well off a basemap with the wastegate wired open, then took it to my tuner for a pretty thurough 3hr, $400 session just for spark map and in-boost fueling. Seemed reasonable to me.

Can't speak for MSR Houston, but I've personally heard/seen many bad tuning experiences with MSR Cresson near me.