Remote Tuning Vs. Dyno Tuning

[Alekha]

I'm about to tune my car and I'm very curious if there is a difference between remote tuning and dyno tuning it. If anyone has experience with either or both I would love to hear your advice/feedback!

 

[Evolvd]

Yes, dyno tuning gives the tuner immediate feedback to how the car is responding. It’s also significantly safer than making full throttle pulls on a public road.
Now this isn’t to say remote tuning is bad, but it’s definitely more limited than dyno tuning.

 

[Slopoke]

Remote tuning, you do "Pulls" and datalog. You send the data logs to your tuner, they look at it and will tweak it. You then do another pull and data log, send it to them, etc, til you are maxed out.

Dyno tuning, you do the pulls on a dyno and typically the tuner is in the car with a laptop and tweaks it right away, do another pull, til you are maxed out.

Then you can to a remote/dyno session. Where you are on a dyno, datalog on the dyno, send the log file to your tuner, they send a revision and keep doing that til you have your final tune.'

 

[Alekha]

So in theory can you get the same amount of power squeezed out of the tune with both dyno and remote tuning or is there something more you can get out of dyno tuning the car that you wont be able to do with remote tuning?

Remote tuning, you do "Pulls" and datalog. You send the data logs to your tuner, they look at it and will tweak it. You then do another pull and data log, send it to them, etc, til you are maxed out.

Dyno tuning, you do the pulls on a dyno and typically the tuner is in the car with a laptop and tweaks it right away, do another pull, til you are maxed out.

Then you can to a remote/dyno session. Where you are on a dyno, datalog on the dyno, send the log file to your tuner, they send a revision and keep doing that til you have your final tune.'

 

[Slopoke]

So in theory can you get the same amount of power squeezed out of the tune with both dyno and remote tuning or is there something more you can get out of dyno tuning the car that you wont be able to do with remote tuning?

No, the results should be the same between dyno and remote. The big difference is that doing pulls is cheaper, but you are doing it on public roads and are subject to being busted for speed. Dyno pulls adds cost, but not subject to a speeding ticket. I've not done one in my Mustang, since I'm using the Whipple tune.

I do have experience with a Fiesta ST. I had to do 4th gear pulls for the final couple of revisions. That was accelerate and get to a steady speed in 4th, floor it til redline and then let off of the throttle. My tuner wanted two or three pulls per datalog. In 4th, the speed is well over 100 miles per hour. I did my pulls on a dyno, cost 100 per session, with 3 pulls.

Doing it on a dyno, will give you the results sooner if you have someone in the car with a laptop. If your are able to schedule a remote "live" session with your tuner, it just adds a few more minutes to get a final tune. Good luck.

 

[Alekha]

No, the results should be the same between dyno and remote. The big difference is that doing pulls is cheaper, but you are doing it on public roads and are subject to being busted for speed. Dyno pulls adds cost, but not subject to a speeding ticket. I've not done one in my Mustang, since I'm using the Whipple tune.

I do have experience with a Fiesta ST. I had to do 4th gear pulls for the final couple of revisions. That was accelerate and get to a steady speed in 4th, floor it til redline and then let off of the throttle. My tuner wanted two or three pulls per datalog. In 4th, the speed is well over 100 miles per hour. I did my pulls on a dyno, cost 100 per session, with 3 pulls.

Doing it on a dyno, will give you the results sooner if you have someone in the car with a laptop. If your are able to schedule a remote "live" session with your tuner, it just adds a few more minutes to get a final tune. Good luck.

oh okay i see thats very good to know. i know some great roads around me so i dont think getting pulled over should be an issue lol, i appreciate you

 

[SolarFlare]

If you’re NA or basic boost setup I wouldn’t really sweat it. You probably not gonna get much better than some good street logs

 

[NGOT8R]

I remote tuned on the street and couldn’t wait to get done with it. I picked locations that were free of traffic, but I was still uncomfortable doing it. Triple digits can get you into a lot of trouble. If I ever have to do it again, I would likely log on the drag strip.

 

[Dapepper9]

The main differences are:
safety
price
time
Dyno is safer for the individual and quicker. It's also generally more expensive. That being said, it doesn't mean it's better. There's always an argument for tuning a vehicle in the conditions in which it's going to be used vs a controlled environment. Ideally, assuming money isn't an issue and you have a private track and all manner of impossibilities, initial tuning would be done on a dyno and further refined in the environment of use.

Remote tuning my truck I had to give my tuner at the time a line in the sand. He wanted me to do a 3rd gear pull until it shifted into 4th. 33" tires, 3.31 rear and a 6r80 he had shifting at 7700-7800, it was around 140-150 and I let out. Told him I'm not doing that again, I'll never hit that on the street and also never on a track. We moved to 2nd gear and 40-100 pulls. Also am not using him anymore

 

[Proshop]

Besides the obvious safety concerns that most have mentioned above.. if you do have it dyno tuned make sure your tuner has tuned the coyote platform before or you could have some real issues. That reality is what made me choose the direction I went.

 

[NGOT8R]

@Dapepper9, I know exactly what you mean. I had to log several times for my 93 tune, followed by the E85 tune. Let’s not even talk about nitrous tunes (had to log on a 100 shot a couple of times before stepping up to the 150 shot, which was more logging). Every time I had to log, I kept thinking my luck would run out and I would either be handed the biggest ticket of my life, or find myself in handcuffs. Finally, I asked my tuner if I could make pulls in 2nd gear and he told me that would be fine, as long as I could hook up. Thankfully, I found a concrete on ramp to the interstate with water grooves cut into it that gave me plenty of traction in second gear.

 

[Evolvd]

To be fair, unless you’re trying to eke out every last hp you can’t go wrong being safe on the dyno. Just be willing to accept the risky aspect of you losing your car or your life from an unforeseen accident if you’re out on a secluded road.

 

[LethalPerformance]

Remote tuning is typically done on a dyno. The tuners we deal with can tune a car remotely better than most other tuners out there who have their own dyno. In our case Lund Racing has remote tuned the last 3 of my project cars with 2 of them making over 1100rwhp and running 8's. All you're using the dyno for is a constant medium and a safe way to collect data.

If you have any other questions regarding remote tuning from any of the top calibrators in the industry that we deal with feel free to give us a shout.

Thanks!

 

[Torinate]

I've done both and they each have pluses and minuses. I found the dyno did a great job for finding every horsepower available. I also found that street logs found a lot more of the driveability and low speed issues.

The biggest downside to doing the street logs is the safety aspect for sure. As others have mentioned, doing a wot pull in 3rd or 4th takes a lot of space and you WILL hit very high speeds doing it so be forewarned. I do wish that on the dyno it would pick up the low speed "daily driving" issues that street logs can and do. The dyno can't replicate typical daily driving in traffic with on throttle to off throttle to WOT to etc etc. At least not in my experience. Perhaps other operators can? Dyno is quicker - real time. Add timing here and pull there and zip ding all done.

 

[Livernois Motorsports]

A dyno tune and a remote tune will be very similar, within a few percent of each other.

Some will argue that a dyno tune will have worse driveability than a data-logged tune but they should be about the same if the tuner is worth his salt.

When we do a car in-house we do dyno pulls until we are happy with the power and make sure it's safe then we will drive it on the street to confirm drivability and check shifting quality and several other things. these two processes we do are very rigorous.

But by the end of this process whether it's here on the dyno or sent via the cloud and done remotely it's going to be a consistent and dialed-in file that has been well-vetted before we send it out to the public.

now the emissions testing side is a completely different animal entirely...

remote tunes through us are pretty simple most of the time there are little to no revisions needed from us because of the steps we take before we send our files out to people