What is Dyno Tuning?

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A look at the big picture.... Many people shutter at the thought of spending $750 to $1500 to get their engine setup and tuned properly. Accordingly, let us take a moment to remind ourselves how much it costs to build a performance vehicle. Take for instance a car built for drag racing. The following reflects what the average enthusiast might spend on a supercharged small block automatic pushing around 1000 HP:

Clearly these numbers do not reflect the total cost associated with racing. Other items such as car trailers, pickup trucks and tools also need to be considered. However, for the purposes of this discussion, the above estimate of $38,800 is useful since it represents the cost of building a solid, competitive drag car. One interesting point worth mentioning is that race enthusiasts are usually gear heads, and enjoy performing most of the work themselves. They derive almost as much pleasure from building the car as they do racing the car.

In the past, building the car and then taking it to the track to tune it was more feasible. Most enthusiasts ran naturally aspirated engines, which were more forgiving to improper fuel and ignition settings. Strong, oversized big blocks were commonplace, producing nearly the same horsepower as similarly equipped small blocks do today. As of late, the trend in drag racing has been to get more horsepower with less cubic inches. This is accomplished with sophisticated fuel injection systems coupled with superchargers, turbochargers and nitrous power adders. As such, extracting 1000 HP from a 347ci small block Ford is reasonable, even for the race enthusiast on a budget.

Is it still feasible to tote your $38,800 race car to the track and tune it? Let's think about this reasonably,.... you have $11,700 invested in equipment that will need replacement and rework if you nuke your engine. What will you use as a baseline to begin the tuning process? Will you be able to sneak up on the right numbers by making wide open passes? How do you know your idle and low load settings are not adversely affecting the transition to wide open throttle? What measurements or indications are you using to make the adjustments?.... elapsed time, mile per hour, plug readings? Have you ever heard the saying, "lean in mean".... well it's true, until the lean condition melts your equipment. The real question is, how many times are you going to pay $11,700 to fix your engine before you come to see us? At what point does it make sense to invest $750 to $1500 to have us properly setup and tune your engine? This is a rhetorical question.... it makes perfect sense to come see us before your car even sees the track.

Contact Information

13016 Bristersburg Road, Midland, Virginia 22728

email:  [email protected]

phone:  540-752-1600