Originally Posted by
DanN
Poaching is a bit of a HUGE STRETCH.
To poach, you'd have to sit outside of a tuner's shop and stop a customer on their way in an offer a free tune. That isn't what's happening here.
This is more of a case of your neighbor coming over to help you reassemble the drum brakes on your car; you've taken this project on yourself to learn something new and save a few bucks, only to find maybe it's a little over your head and you've asked for help. Once you've tried it you're likely going to go one of two ways next time - do it yourself again or take it to a shop.
I'm sure that many of the noobs here, myself included, may take a stab at tuning themselves, and might even get help with a tune here - but it will be hard to beat a good tuner with your car on the dyno, and that's worth paying for.
For me, there are no tuners or dynos in my immediate area - it's at least 60 miles to get to one. So I might as well learn something, turn off VATS, etc, and test myself a little. Then, when I'm serious and the budget allows, I'll pay a reputable tuner to get the tune just right.
And I'f I'm lucky I'll get pretty close with the help of the good folks here.. all of whom were at one time not tuners themselves, and likely hoped someone would give them a hand to get started.