With regards to “Chips” and “Tuners”, years ago it was the best that most could do to enhance the ignition timing, fuel curve, transmission shift points, etc. It was (and still is) very important that a person verifies that the “Tuner” is ASE certified in both ECM and Transmission programming and IMHO be have current certification by the OEM whose vehicle you want to modify. There are plenty of persons who advertise their programs to be the best and even offer custom tunes, but in all reality, very few actually have credentials in these areas- but that’s not to say that some of these “geniuses” haven’t really caused damage to a few vehicles- just jump over to flatratetech.com and read just some of the comments from the MSE techs! or check out this....
Roush Dyno Tune
Posted August 26, 2012
Bad situation-Need help! - Vintage Mustang Forums
To make an extremely long story short. I need someone to tell me who to talk to for help. I have posted several times and got a lot of help. Got my engine build finished in May. Ran great. Took it to Roush Racing for a tune. It is a 93, efi, 302 with several upgrades. Went to get it from Roush and the water hose had blown and torn up my brand new hood I just had painted. It can be fixed. Drove the car home and it would not start the next day. Finally found the adapter between the TPS and painless harness was missing. Fixed that. It would not idle consistently. Took it back to Roush. They said it was fixed. Went less than 1/2 mile and it was idling at 2500 rpm. Took it back. They were lost. Said to bring it back. Never did since I had no confidence in them. The head of the dyno room called someone else for advice. Took it to a friend who restores cars. He went back through all the wiring (Painless), changed IAC, changed to stock computer, and ran diagnostics. Never could get to idle consitently. Still between 1800 and 2500. Read the forums and found Pro Dyno in Rock Hill, SC to be one of the best. It has been there for 6 weeks now. Changed computers again, IAC, and TPS. Added FPA headers and Magnaflow 2 1/2 exhaust and retuned. Pulled over 300 rwhp, 330 torque and they told me to come and get it. I drove it around the block and it ran great. Was going to get gas across the street and it went crazy again. Then it would not start until I bled the fuel rail. It is still there and they are lost. Only suggestion is to start changing parts which are all new. It is now grounded to the frame=twice, battery, and body twice so it is not the ground. It could be coincidence but I have not been able to drive it anywhere since I took it to Roush in May. Pro Dyno is supposed to be the best and they are baffled. Only way they could get it to idle correctly was to disconnect IAC. I need help. I am totally disgusted. If you need to talk, PM me and I will give you all my personal contact info. Thanks for any help. I am out of options.
Perhaps what is equally important is the parameters that can be adjusted are set by the OEM vehicle software…so there is really no “magic” in what they are doing anyway. The OEM software system is designed to adjust the fuel mixture up to 10% (25% on the 2000+ mod engines).......that’s more than enough to handle most any bolt on mod you could imagine. If you look at the dyno charts from many of these supposed HP/TQ increases, they are typically around 5%-7% at peak rpm ranges…….guess what, 5% is a standard deviation even amoungst mfg dynos..and these "tuners" are not regulated by the same agencies that regulate auto repair shops (in most every state).....there have been numerous "dealers" whose programs when analyized by the purchasers have found Air/Fuel ratio's that "spike" the range too lean or rich, enough to cause engine damage in a long term. Personally anyone who claims they can "tune" you specific engine without seeing it (including the use of direct link to your ECM) is simply, well full of BS. You can take 3 identical engines, pull dyno readings and observe completely different requirements for each engine, not even taking into consideration environmental factors including but not limited to fuel quality, etc.
Now about this new marketing hype that if you have a CAI you need a custom program………….hogwash!!!!!! The only reason for the “custom” program to support the CAI is because the design is poor resulting in false readings from the air intake sensors, etc….period!
IMHO, if you live near any major city there are excellent tuning specialists with dynos who for the same price (if not less) will tune your vehicle taking into consideration your specific needs including environmental conditions, for your specific vehicle. IMHO, the best bang for the buck!
If you are comfortable and understand how to tune a vehicle, you can also do this yourself. There are several software programs available, that “Speak Common English” that will allow you to tune your vehicles ECM. One company is HP Tuners, they have a website….they offer two core programs, one for those who are doing dyno tuning and one for the home-garage mechanic (which is priced at about the same as most of the “canned tunes on the market) …this version limits the span of adjustments as a safeguard against doing something outside of the oem scope……basically, keeps you from doing something “too stupid by accident” (grin).