View Poll Results: What sort of income do you have as a pro tuner?

Voters
29. You may not vote on this poll
  • < $35K

    5 17.24%
  • $35K to 50K

    6 20.69%
  • $50K to 75K

    9 31.03%
  • $75K+

    6 20.69%
  • I ain't tellin'

    3 10.34%
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Thread: Pro tuners - what kind of money do you make tuning?

  1. #21
    Moderator
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    Me too
    Post a log and tune if you want help

    VCM Suite V3+ GETTING STARTED THREADS / HOW TO's

    Tuner by night
    CPX Tuning
    2005 Corvette, M6
    ECS 1500 Supercharger
    AlkyControl Meth, Monster LT1-S Twin, NT05R's
    ID1000's, 220/240, .598/.598, 118 from Cam Motion

    2007 Escalade, A6
    Stock

  2. #22
    Tuner in Training
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    bedias texas
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    this is an interesting topic,iam not in to obd2 tuning yet , done a lot of obd1 tunning can make lots of power increase but with the increase you always have to consider the reliability of your tune, will this engine run 200000 like it did from the factory. its not just getting the power but reliability and economy if you really get into it.

  3. #23
    Tuner in Training
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    Wouldn't consider myself a pro tuner, but I've done fair amount through email for another platform. Nominal fee, and that's been surprisingly peaceful. Only one bad bone in the bunch, but I am smart and save all emails/datalogs/cals in the event they get silly.

    Locally, I am at my wits ends. One friend who moved to Illinois can't keep an engine together, and relentlessly beats the shit out of it knowing there's hardware issues. Of course it gets back local, and the ignorant saps "always blame the tuner".

    Then another one, got his (friend) car running on MS3x, pretty decently, but some unknown shop owner ( and I know of all performance shops in the area except this guy) gets in his head about a bunch of random shit.....so it goes from me having a meal ticket to tune a serious car (750whp+) with the rep to go with it, to.....nothing. Shop has no reviews, no presence on any forums, and a half ass website. I've already told said person, your car don't start, doesn't run right, kicks a piston out, don't ask me for help. Or advice.

    Local VW kid, can't maintain lambda above 5500rpm due to a weak pump, of course I get blamed. Kills his turbo, but beats the bricks out the car, I get blamed.

    Friend needed his project car running do his daily exploding (2 kids, a wife etc). Barely spend an afternoon tuning it, and has a few issues (ms2 VRT Corrado), and all of a sudden blames the system as the fault. He was in a dire situation, and I did what I could to help. Of course this car has a dead fucking pump rolling around in the tank too.

    Local VW kids want tunes. I offer a fair price, including dyno rental/tune (not off the shelf shit), and all I get is price shopped.

    Evo shop I rent dyno time from deals with the same thing. Strokers. Someone cancels an hour before. Shows up with a barely running car. Car is 3 inches off the ground with stretched tires. Running on 3 cylinders........

    I honestly don't know how you guys do it for a living. There's a few more people I have promised to tune, but after that I am done helping people......and not one of said friends/acquaintances I have ever charged for anything, unless it was credits for Hptuners

  4. #24
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    Looks like some of you guys are making OK money. Over half of the people in the poll are in the $50K+ categories.

    And a few in the $75K+
    Post a log and tune if you want help

    VCM Suite V3+ GETTING STARTED THREADS / HOW TO's

    Tuner by night
    CPX Tuning
    2005 Corvette, M6
    ECS 1500 Supercharger
    AlkyControl Meth, Monster LT1-S Twin, NT05R's
    ID1000's, 220/240, .598/.598, 118 from Cam Motion

    2007 Escalade, A6
    Stock

  5. #25
    Tuner
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    Texas
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    115
    It will all depend on your area and if you can find a niche to fit into. I know guys making good livings tuning only race cars and I know guys who dont tune any race cars who make a good living. There's people making money doing only street tunes, only dyno tunes, only mail order, only email tunes and some who do all of those. Can you make money tuning, yes but it takes years before you get a name established and get enough experience to start making good money IMO. Just getting into tuning to make money is a bad idea IMO, I got into it because I liked it and it was something I really enjoyed. As a by product I ended up turning it into a business and making money doing it.

  6. #26
    Senior Tuner LSxpwrdZ's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by minytrker View Post
    It will all depend on your area and if you can find a niche to fit into. I know guys making good livings tuning only race cars and I know guys who dont tune any race cars who make a good living. There's people making money doing only street tunes, only dyno tunes, only mail order, only email tunes and some who do all of those. Can you make money tuning, yes but it takes years before you get a name established and get enough experience to start making good money IMO. Just getting into tuning to make money is a bad idea IMO, I got into it because I liked it and it was something I really enjoyed. As a by product I ended up turning it into a business and making money doing it.
    Same here. It first started out as a hobby for me. Bought all the stuff to work on my own vehicles and family and friends would ask me here and there if I could do something to their cars and it snow balled into where I am now with my own shop with a dyno and tuning for a living. It's something I've been passionate about for a long time.
    James Short - [email protected]
    Located in Central Kentucky
    ShorTuning
    2020 Camaro 2SS | BTR 230 | GPI CNC Heads | MSD Intake | Rotofab | 2" LT's | Flex Fuel | 638rwhp / 540rwtq
    2002 Camaro | LSX 427 | CID LS7's | Twin GT5088's | Haltech Nexus R5 | RPM TH400

  7. #27
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    Looks like some of you guys are doing alright. 50-75K and 75K+ are the two highest voted categories.

    Depending on area, of course.. $75K in some spots is nothing, and in some places it ain't half bad.

    Now I wonder if these guys are doing mail order, own a shot, tuning for local shops or some combination of everything they can get?

  8. #28
    Senior Tuner
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    Should specify if those figures are gross or net. And if they have a brick and mortar shop is that 50-75K strictly from tuning or all the business run through the shop.

  9. #29
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    True on all of those.
    Post a log and tune if you want help

    VCM Suite V3+ GETTING STARTED THREADS / HOW TO's

    Tuner by night
    CPX Tuning
    2005 Corvette, M6
    ECS 1500 Supercharger
    AlkyControl Meth, Monster LT1-S Twin, NT05R's
    ID1000's, 220/240, .598/.598, 118 from Cam Motion

    2007 Escalade, A6
    Stock

  10. #30
    I used to service and tune Turbo Buicks (an analog meets digital nightmare if there ever was one) on the side, had one bad customer and it all stopped. I have had a guy stop me leaving a car show begging me to tune his car. Heck - my wife even noticed his desperation. Nope do not want the aggravation of tuning for a living, not for all the money in the world. I tune for me (and family/friends) and me alone; but, I do share openly.

    I don't envy the Pros.
    '15 Colorado Z71 | '07 TrailBlazer SS | '87 Monte Carlo SS | '80 Lemans Wagon

  11. #31
    Tuning Addict 5FDP's Avatar
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    I got paid in food for doing a friends 5.3 swapped rock crawler, pretty good if you ask me lol.

    2016 Silverado CCSB 5.3/6L80e, not as slow but still heavy.

    If you don't post your tune and logs when you have questions you aren't helping yourself.

  12. #32
    Advanced Tuner
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    How do guys go about tuning people's cars that are not a licensed vehicle repairer, what happens when the sit hits the fan eg (blown engine), and the customer blames you and wants to brings in a 3rd party to reslove the problem?. It's like any one with a key board can do any thing these days.

  13. #33
    Advanced Tuner Road's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by will15 View Post
    How do guys go about tuning people's cars that are not a licensed vehicle repairer, what happens when the sit hits the fan eg (blown engine), and the customer blames you and wants to brings in a 3rd party to reslove the problem?. It's like any one with a key board can do any thing these days.
    Yeap that's the sucky part. When stuff goes bad the first thing they say is it happened in your shop what are going to do or hey it wasn't like that when I brought it to you. Then to protect your good name you offer to help fix it and when you tear it down you find loose/stripped bolts head gaskets installed backwards heads that have been welded up and all kinds of stupid stuff so it turns into a bigger problem. You have to lay out the rules before you do anything and try to weed out all the bad ones. I don't worry so much about a "3rd party" its the punks running their mouths is the ones you need to stay clear of. So when someone comes in stating they just bought a car and the seller says all it needs is a tune and referred me to you. Either lay down some rules with all parties involved or turn down the job.

  14. #34
    Advanced Tuner Montecarlodrag's Avatar
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    You guys are lucky. I struggle to charge $300 for a tune on a good day. Most people here want cheap tunes that include repair of all mechanical/electrical problems.
    Some people only ask for the price to have a reference, then go with the competition asking a cheaper price than mine.

    I don't tune for a living, but I have a shop and fair base of loyal customers. Most of the work I do is tuning vehicles nobody else can and fixing somebody else's mistakes
    9 sec Montecarlo SS

  15. #35
    Senior Tuner mbray01's Avatar
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    I probably run a 50/50 ratio of cars I do initial tune on vs, cars i have to unf*ck. The flyby night shops are everywhere, and they screw up a lot. There are certain shops, that when the customer comes to me and says "x" did the tune, can you fix, it's the tune cost Plus $125 for a factory fresh reflash. Some of these shops change os's just because they are too lazy to update injector data, or possibly don't know how. But hey they are tuner master extraordinaire.
    you know, the same guys who try to tune around a bad fuel pump
    Michael Bray
    Rusty Knuckle Garage
    Slidell, Louisiana
    20yr Master Tech.
    Advanced Level Specialist
    Custom Car Fabrication, Customization, High Performance.
    GM World Class Technician
    Shop Owner

  16. #36
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    Pretty sad. I don't doubt it though

  17. #37
    Senior Tuner mowton's Avatar
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    Have developed a bit of a nice business with remote Training and Tuning. even went as far as writing and offering for sale a Tutorial which integrates EFI technology, Tuning Technology/How-To and HP Tuners VCM Suite 3.X into a single HOW TO Book.....I get a lot of projects that ran great on the dyno, but have trouble in the parking lot, or my A6 Tranmission fried after having a supercharger installed or won't cold start...etc etc etc :-). In the beginning I thought the bulk of my business would be training but now it appears the tuning is a majority of my day to day efforts. I like the training because I get a chance to mentor beginners (and even some seasoned vets...I'll be the first to admit, I in no way know it all) similar to how I started, and help them with a single repository for information and knowledge. I have clients in many states as well as the UK, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Australia and even South America.

    Will I get rich, no way...I probably spend on average, 10 hours or more on each clients projects. Countless hours surfing the forum and helping out where I can, learning, updating the book etc. I provide Tune evaluation/report, recommended course of action, Scanner setups to support logging; especially for the street and needed filters, collaborative discussion on the tune process/progress, why we are doing what we do etc. I can do this because it isn't my main source of retirement income.....while its a business, it is still more of a hobby and a challenge to keep my mind sharp and healthy. I will say it is rewarding and satisfying to get a setup that has ben passed from tuner to tuner finally running....:-)

    My initial Goal was to deposit $200 a week into the bank on top of my Retirement IRA and Social Security....so far it has increased to $350 and have "several weeks" backlog of deposits for that cold winter (which in Florida never really happens), the book is doing well and inquiries seem constant.

    I would love to have a shop with a Dyno and physically see my clients, but for now, in my current situation, this will have to do.

    Ed M
    2004 Vette Coupe, LS2, MN6, Vararam, ARH/CATs, Ti's, 4:10, Trickflow 215, 30# SVO, Vette Doctors Cam, Fast 90/90, DD McLeod, DTE Brace, Hurst shifter, Bilsteins etc. 480/430

    ERM Performance Tuning -- Interactive Learning ..from tuning software training to custom tunes
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    [email protected]

  18. #38
    Ed,
    I have to say, seeing you help on here, help me, and just generally showing knowledge and a willingness to help, is the reason I came to you directly. Although I am not 100% tuned yet, you have been helping me get there, and probably after a little more of your time, I will have a much better understanding of how to tune properly! Thank You!

  19. #39
    Advanced Tuner
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    Ed, is it possible that I can obtain a copy of this book? PM me the info please sir. Thanks!

  20. #40
    Senior Tuner mowton's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by jaydubb71 View Post
    Ed, is it possible that I can obtain a copy of this book? PM me the info please sir. Thanks!
    PM sent...thank you

    Ed M
    2004 Vette Coupe, LS2, MN6, Vararam, ARH/CATs, Ti's, 4:10, Trickflow 215, 30# SVO, Vette Doctors Cam, Fast 90/90, DD McLeod, DTE Brace, Hurst shifter, Bilsteins etc. 480/430

    ERM Performance Tuning -- Interactive Learning ..from tuning software training to custom tunes
    HP Tuners Dealer- VCM Suite (free 2hr training session with purchase), credits and new Version 2.0 turtorial available
    http://www.ermperformancetuning.com
    http://www.facebook.com/ERMPerformanceTuning

    [email protected]