I am in the process of wrapping up my build and am wondering who everyone is using for tuning nowadays? The most trusted and experienced tuners nationwide are in ultra high demand and haven't been taking on new clients for a few months. I have put far too much time, energy, and money into my latest build to just take a shot in the dark. Any recommendations?
This is part of the reason I taught myself. Im also cheap as hell. Ive heard people like devin at jm or Ron at rs but have no personal experience with them. I also know people who got etunes/street tunes Graham from some place out in chicago (formally Iowa), though I'm not sure if I would go that route. Mostly because I've been able to fix a 'cruise phantom knock' issue in my tune that all of his customers that I met seem to have. There may be talented people around but I would stick to someone local who can street and dyno tune. It could have been my learning curve but I it takes a lot of minor adjustments to get things perfect and I get this feeling that modern tuners just throw their best maps at it and send them out the door.
Fwiw, Ronnie spent 3 1/2 hours at RS Motors tuning my 2.0/2.5L hybrid in the bugeye. Ronnie works relentlessly at tuning the minor adjustments...getting ahold of him these days is harder than it should be though. Devin at JMA did the last few tunes for me, which i was quite pleased with. But I don’t know how much time was spent on the tune and adjustments. He tunes the JMA cars as well, which are built and putting down pretty big numbers. And DB has always gotten rave reviews from the people that I know that have gone through him for tuning. I have no personal experience with him though. Most of the street tuners are gone. Unfortunately, liability of tuning big horsepower cars on public roads has steered some of the “shop tuners” away from it and onto the dynos. You may need to wait if you want a big name tuner to do it. But if you’ve put a ton of time and money into your build, it may be worth the wait? If i needed a tune today, i would be at JMA letting Devin work his magic on the rollers.
Subaru ECUs are supposed to be pretty good at learning, just drive and let it do its thing... what's the worst that could happen?
Take it to Off The Line Performance in Des Moines. Jr Berrios tunes there about once a month. OTL just got a brand new DynoJet too. Worth the trip
Had my street tune done at JMA a few years ago, finally going back sometime this Spring to get a new tune on their dyno, I've been happy with the current tune but I'm not putting down big numbers though. I have a friend who was super happy with Graham's etunes when he was still in Iowa and my friend was up here. Otherwise, I've heard nothing but good things about RS and Jr from Iowa.
I had my LGT built and tuned at JM and have been very pleased with Devins tune. RS would have been my second choice locally. Now that I’ve moved I’ve learned of more tuners in the area, Graham from Boosted performance is the go-to in the WI/IL area as is JR and P&L. TopShelf in Portage is building a reputation and they’re are dozens around including Endless Performance, APM tuned, 555 motorsports and DynoSource. Do some research and reach out the tuners. You’ll figure out who you want to go with after talking to some and feeling them out. Good luck!
The bestest tooner is Manuel Boostcontroller. Just tell him you want all the boost and he will give it to you.
