Dyno tuning costs

[82eye]

we just got a performance shop open locally with a dyno. for the last decade the closest dyno was over 8hrs away. while it's nice to have one back, the service charges to use it have my eyeballs watering :

$750 straight charge for na engines
$1000 straight charge for boosted engines
add $ 175 for dyno set up and take down
add $250 on top if cams are aftermarket or regrind - how is that even a justified thing ?
add $175 if you want a printout

plus

$175 per hour to have their tuner work with the tune
$115 per hour if you do the tune or bring a tuner in

the printout is the only avoidable charge.
so i get that they essentially have a monopoly, but are these charges anywhere in line with reality ?

[AWDBOB]

In the US, the only “Industry Standard” that I’ve seen more often than not is for factory turbo cars like Subarus, Evos, etc, and is right around $600 for single map, single fuel. A bit more if you have a big turbo or complex setup. That typically includes Dyno strapping. Thats on Cobb or Stock ECU typically. Usually with printout.

Some shops charge additional fees for a mandatory wellness check on the car beforehand, somewhere around $150-200.

If you’re tuning haltech or other standalone, those tunes typically hover/start around $1k.

Different platforms tend to have different pricing as the involvement varies so much, license fees for different ECUs, etc.

The pricing structure that you posted, in my opinion, seems quite odd, and overpriced, but that may be because it’s generalized pricing without emphasis on a specific chassis. If the price was $750/$1k tuned and strapped with printout I’d say that’s more in line with what I see. With all of the add ons, that’s pretty gougey. BUT, tuning is such a car to car scenario that it’s difficult to generalize pricing.

Also, with the EPA breathing down everyone’s neck, I assume formal Dyno tuning done by a shop is going to get a LOT more expensive in the next few years.

[moatilliatta]

You're electric bill is a monopoly.

You're only at the beginning of the rabbit hole.

If you don't need much, find your local group and see if anyone can street tune it. Triple check references, sucks to start all over.

[82eye]

You're electric bill is a monopoly.

You're only at the beginning of the rabbit hole.

If you don't need much, find your local group and see if anyone can street tune it. Triple check references, sucks to start all over.

i don't have to access it, but at one point i was considering doing a standalone ecu with a different goal. the lack of dyno tuning pushed me a different direction. the thing is for the cost of tuning, i don't think it would have been worth it on na. maybe turbo, but still ... ouch !

one thing that factors is they are cdn $ cited.

[digger]

what does $750 get you? is that for a standalone tune from scratch including all the drivability, cold start, idle setup etc and how long is assumed ?

what kind of dyno?

[e30davie]

Time is money, shops prolly charging 100-150/hr. starting a tune from scratch on a potential home built basket case, its amazing they can do it in ~6hrs really.

What you really want to be doing is tuning everything yourself with a wideband and conservative timing, and just getting the wide open throttle sorted on the dyno. Makes life easier for the tuner too, as you have worked out all the mechanical issues. So it wont overheat and leak on the clock $$.

$175 for a print out? wtf? thats hilarious.

[AWDBOB]

i don't have to access it, but at one point i was considering doing a standalone ecu with a different goal. the lack of dyno tuning pushed me a different direction. the thing is for the cost of tuning, i don't think it would have been worth it on na. maybe turbo, but still ... ouch !

An M20 standalone tune can easily be done off the dyno. I've only ever had 3 cars on the dyno in my life, but have had 20+ cars tuned. Most cars are street or remote tuned.

Someone like Jake or John could get your car running great from logs without the car ever seeing a dyno.

You're just going to be let down by whatever numbers your $10K M20 puts out anyway, lol.

Ignorance is bliss

what does $750 get you? is that for a standalone tune from scratch including all the drivability, cold start, idle setup etc and how long is assumed ?

what kind of dyno?

From what I can tell, $750 canadian is the "base cost" of the tune. $925 gets your car physically on the dyno, $1175 if you have a cam(s). And then the tuning is charged hourly at $175/hr from that point. I'd imagine it'd be over $2K out the door.

[82eye]

what does $750 get you? is that for a standalone tune from scratch including all the drivability, cold start, idle setup etc and how long is assumed ?

$750 actually gets you nothing. it's just a base charge. you have to add set up and which hourly fee hourly fee to get anywhere at a minimum. $1040 is the cheapest you could get away with. that would be for one hour of self tuning on N/A engine with stock cams and no printout.

what kind of dyno?

mustang md-1100 se. max capacity of 3000 horse. i know nothing about dynos or whether it is a good one. it's a roller type dyno.

[82eye]

An M20 standalone tune can easily be done off the dyno. I've only ever had 3 cars on the dyno in my life, but have had 20+ cars tuned. Most cars are street or remote tuned.

Someone like Jake or John could get your car running great from logs without the car ever seeing a dyno.

i wound up opting for a sssquid chip. my build is so mild that going to a standalone wouldn't have been any real big gain.

You're just going to be let down by whatever numbers your $10K M20 puts out anyway, lol.

Ignorance is bliss

lol

From what I can tell, $750 canadian is the "base cost" of the tune. $925 gets your car physically on the dyno, $1175 if you have a cam(s). And then the tuning is charged hourly at $175/hr from that point. I'd imagine it'd be over $2K out the door.

that's how i see it too.

[It's Soda Not Pop]

A lot shops will charge you that much and they are straight trash as well. If you're gonna have to pay that much be sure to vet them properly before wasting your time and money with them.

[Digitalwave]

That really doesn't sound that crazy. A from-scratch tune is going to take 5-10 hours, and a shop by itself will probably charge $75-150 an hour. So will the tuner. You can easily end up over $1k-2k all said and done.

Where is this located, by the way?

[82eye]

That really doesn't sound that crazy. A from-scratch tune is going to take 5-10 hours, and a shop by itself will probably charge $75-150 an hour. So will the tuner. You can easily end up over $1k-2k all said and done.



Where is this located, by the way?

saskatchewan. about 250km away from my location. travel would have to be taken in to account. there is a hub dyno getting set up soon at a shop here though, might be a little more reasonable but not as versatile.

[Digitalwave]

Assuming that is Canadian dollars, then, the prices seem even more reasonable to me.

[82eye]

Assuming that is Canadian dollars, then, the prices seem even more reasonable to me.

10 hr quote works out to $2675.

[digger]

it doesn't take anywhere close to 10hrs, a good tuner should have everything that can be tuned on a dyno sorted from a blank base map in less than 4 hrs for a NA.