[SSDanny]

How much did you guys get charged for just an E85 tune? I inquired somewhere and they gave me just an 'estimate' of $550-1100 and that just doesn't sit right with me lol. Also, if you're in the Los Angeles area and got it done fairly cheap, let me know where!

[pinoyscorpion951]

450-600 is the going rate for an E85 tune. The only places I would do it at in SoCal are Cunningham Motorsports in Murrieta, Accelerated Racing Solutions in Rancho Cucamonga and New Era Performance in Agoura Hills.

[JohnE]

Originally Posted by SSDanny

How much did you guys get charged for just an E85 tune? I inquired somewhere and they gave me just an 'estimate' of $550-1100 and that just doesn't sit right with me lol. Also, if you're in the Los Angeles area and got it done fairly cheap, let me know where!

Hi Danny. I'm looking for the same thing in the northern Chicago suburbs. The maker of the tuning hardware is located near me in Buffalo Grove Illinois (HP Tuners VCM). Do you know if I can just buy their hardware and tune it myself? Looks like they sell one device for $349 and one for $499. thanks for any info on this. -John

[TRich2SS]

Originally Posted by JohnE

Hi Danny. I'm looking for the same thing in the northern Chicago suburbs. The maker of the tuning hardware is located near me in Buffalo Grove Illinois (HP Tuners VCM). Do you know if I can just buy their hardware and tune it myself? Looks like they sell one device for $349 and one for $499. thanks for any info on this. -John

If you know what you are doing you can absolutely tune it yourself.

[Livernois Motorsports]

Originally Posted by SSDanny

How much did you guys get charged for just an E85 tune? I inquired somewhere and they gave me just an 'estimate' of $550-1100 and that just doesn't sit right with me lol. Also, if you're in the Los Angeles area and got it done fairly cheap, let me know where!

Anyone charging less than this is most likely not up on current practice.

What I mean by that is sure the tuning is going to be anywhere from a few hundred dollars to a couple thousand depending on the combo and how involved the the companies tuning practice goes.
We include a hand held tuner with all of our tuning.
We sell our hand held starting at $599.99.
Anyone still doing flash only tuning on newer cars is doing the end customer a disservice as the client would need to return to that shop to have the stock file set back up if the end user needs to take the car in for any kind of service.
If the combo is too radical the car would then need to be trailer ed or towed to the dealer.
Vs driving to the dealer and loading the stock file using your handheld...

What kind of practice/quality are in these perceived few hundred dollar tunes guys seem to be seeking?

-When we tune cars they get a thorough inspection before going on the dyno
by a technician

- this includes a bath before the protective wrap goes on the car by our
porter/apprentice tech

-then they get strapped to the dyno with the appropriate sensor hookups by a
technician

-now the calibrator does his voodoo/magic(this is if all goes well on the dyno
and no further mechanical work needs to be attended too. (On our combos
installed by us this goes fairly well. Customer/outside built vehicles this is
about 5-10% chance of going well, they almost always need attention!)

-then the cars receive a pre drive inspection by a different tech

-the calibrator or calibrator assistant then test drive the vehicle to make sure
all is well and that they are happy.

-at this step the car is inspected a final time to ensure nothing has rattled
loose or has been missed.

-finally the car is cleaned before delivery by our porter/apprentice tech

with a process like this how can you do it inexpensively?
Does your local shop follow processes/procedures like this?

I can not speak for other shops out there in the world but we do things a certain way here and have been successful at it for some time.

[TRich2SS]

Lol someone went to the Rotofab school of marketing

Originally Posted by Livernois Motorsports

Anyone charging less than this is most likely not up on current practice.

What I mean by that is sure the tuning is going to be anywhere from a few hundred dollars to a couple thousand depending on the combo and how involved the the companies tuning practice goes.
We include a hand held tuner with all of our tuning.
We sell our hand held starting at $599.99.
Anyone still doing flash only tuning on newer cars is doing the end customer a disservice as the client would need to return to that shop to have the stock file set back up if the end user needs to take the car in for any kind of service.
If the combo is too radical the car would then need to be trailer ed or towed to the dealer.
Vs driving to the dealer and loading the stock file using your handheld...

What kind of practice/quality are in these perceived few hundred dollar tunes guys seem to be seeking?

-When we tune cars they get a thorough inspection before going on the dyno
by a technician

- this includes a bath before the protective wrap goes on the car by our
porter/apprentice tech

-then they get strapped to the dyno with the appropriate sensor hookups by a
technician

-now the calibrator does his voodoo/magic(this is if all goes well on the dyno
and no further mechanical work needs to be attended too. (On our combos
installed by us this goes fairly well. Customer/outside built vehicles this is
about 5-10% chance of going well, they almost always need attention!)

-then the cars receive a pre drive inspection by a different tech

-the calibrator or calibrator assistant then test drive the vehicle to make sure
all is well and that they are happy.

-at this step the car is inspected a final time to ensure nothing has rattled
loose or has been missed.

-finally the car is cleaned before delivery by our porter/apprentice tech

with a process like this how can you do it inexpensively?
Does your local shop follow processes/procedures like this?

I can not speak for other shops out there in the world but we do things a certain way here and have been successful at it for some time.

[JohnE]

Originally Posted by TRich2SS

If you know what you are doing you can absolutely tune it yourself.

Thanks. HP Tuners hasn't got back to me yet. I should have looked at their documentation earlier... but it looks like from their documentation, they already have it figured out:

https://www.hptuners.com/help/vcm_ed...basics_afr.htm

They list the AFR of ethanol. Is it really this easy?

Where does the extra horsepower come from with all things being equal? (that is once you supply the optimum fuel / air mixture) Is it the timing?

In the meantime I'll continue to read their documentation.

Are there other tuning tools out there besides HP Tuners or are they considered to be the best?

[EFI Tuning]

HP Tuners is the most comprehensive tool publicly available.


Tim

[JakeoDaRuler]

Originally Posted by pinoyscorpion951

450-600 is the going rate for an E85 tune. The only places I would do it at in SoCal are Cunningham Motorsports in Murrieta, Accelerated Racing Solutions in Rancho Cucamonga and New Era Performance in Agoura Hills.

Where is that located in Rancho i live here too but i looked it up and it said it was in Texas.

[gmcvt]

You will have to install a flex fuel sensor kit, which will run you anywhere from 250-400. (appx)
If you purchase HP Tuners so that you have the most flexibility, you will need to get at least the mpvi2 which is around 300.
You will then need to purchase 4 credits from HPT for tuning, which is 200.
Then you will pay whomever to tune the car and that can range from 300-600. (clearly this varies greatly)
And then some will require you to have a wideband kit assuming that you are doing remote tuning.
Again, many variables to the tuning scenario, this just gives you a good baseline.

[RLNTLSS]

Mine done by mailordertune..here in temple tx... He diagnosed an issue from the start and did my e85 and 91tune.. on a Dyno.. but he does tons of tunes..i think he's got the fastest camaro in the world or something along that line. I almost went on the route of buying my own HP tuners I didn't want to risk screwing something up and throwing away $45,000 car been very happy with my tune so far makes the car fun as hell to drive on the 85

[TJay74]

There is zero need for a handheld tuning device, sell the customer HPT and send the tune files back and forth. The customer can backup their tune files themself and flash new tunes as needed as well.

No reason to sell someone a $600 handheld tuning device when a $260 HP Tuners module can do the same thing with alot more power.

[JCunningham]

you do not have to buy your own HP MPVI2 if you have a tuner tune your car for you unless you are doing a remote tune and they wont send a loaner out to you. Remote tunes will require a wide band o2. if your doing a E85 tune you should also do a 93 octane (or 91 if you cant get 93) They will tune your car on gas then charge a retune fee for the E85 tune. that combined with a e85 sensor and you will be able to run any fuel. It is nice to have your own MPVI2 though that way the credits stay with you and if your tuner happens to go out of business you dont have to buy more credits to get a retune. Plus you can check out the tune for your self. its pretty neat.

[JCunningham]

this is from 2017 and the op never replied to anything.