Originally Posted by
steveo
i've been trying to run a side business tuning, as there is nobody else in my town doing it, it has been easy to find customers. here are some interesting things i've learned with my first batch of clients that you should remember when helping other people with their tunes:
- dynos are totally unnecessary if you are a good tuner and it's not a race car upper limit type tune.......but oh boy do they cut the time spent in half. three or four pulls can replace hours of road tuning. (unfortunately for me, the closest dyno is hours away)
- there is no such thing as a simple tune. 'i just need you to fix some codes' can end up being a massive job. so never quote before you have all the facts
- many people asking for tuning are just a charity case at the total mercy of some hotrod mechanic that went ahead and installed a bunch of crazy modifications, then went 'uhhh... oh... you need to have that tuned too, but we don't do that'
- even after pouring blood sweat and tears into their car, many builders want to separate themselves from the tuning process, and simply don't care about what you're doing as long as it runs well and makes power. if you try to explain even basic ignition timing to someone like that, they glare at you like you are a nerd
- tuning totally unfamiliar engine platforms is almost always done at a loss, even if on first glance it looks like other things you've tuned, and you need to think of it as paying for your education
- people get really upset when you tell them their car is way too broken to work with, or that you simply don't want to get involved because of all the cheap crap they've bolted to it
- the worst vehicles in the universe to tune: anything made by or related in any way to the Chrysler corporation. no joke. next time someone says hemi im hanging the phone up.
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