Kessels Tuning Dyno Preparedness
At Kessel’s Tuning, our goal is to provide you with a tune that will extract the most WHP/TQ from your vehicle, while maintaining reliability and as much "stock" drivability as possible. In order to do that, your car must be in good operating condition and be ready for the tuning process. To help achieve this goal and keep your costs to a minimum, we put together this quick Dyno Information list for the benefit of our customers who are coming in for tuning and/or dyno pulls. The list has been compiled to explain some of the routine issues we have encountered, as well as how to avoid them.
If you come to an appointment with a car that is not in proper working order there are two options: The first is you have informed us that there are additional issues. In this case, we will assess the required repairs and give you an estimate. The repairs will then be made and your vehicle will be tuned. By scheduling extra time to address the additional repairs, we can finish your vehicle in a reasonable time frame. In the second option, if you are unaware of, or don’t inform us about potential problems, we will start uncovering them as we tune your car. In this case, we will stop and give you an estimate of what the cost will be. Customers will be charged a portion of the tuning rate and/or the shop's hourly rate for the time spent diagnosing why the car could not be tuned or could not be tuned completely. Additionally, since we were not aware of additional problems, and did not schedule extra time, we may not be able to finish your tune on the same day. In this case, customers may find it more cost/time effective to leave the car with us for repairs. Many of the issues that surface are simple to fix and we may very well be able to do so on the same day as the appointment.
CEL (Check Engine Light):
If you're Check Engine Light is on it’s on for a reason and the chances are you have a problem. Find out why your CEL is coming on and either have the issue fixed, or let us know ahead of time.
Charging System:
A proper operating system should be charging at 13.5-14.8 Volts under all operating conditions. Exceptions are race cars running a 16V System. IF YOUR ELECTRICAL SYSTEM REQUIRES VOLTAGES HIGHER THAN 15V PLEASE BRING YOUR OWN CHARGER If we have to stop to recharge your battery there will be an additional fee for any down time we encounter. We do have a Snap On 30a Constant Power supply but it does not always guarantee to provide enough power for batteries with SUPER high resistance or dead cells. We do not want to charge you an additional fee, we just want you to have a working battery! We can not complete the ecu flashes if the battery is not working properly.
($150/hr calculated by 15 minute intervals)
($37.5 per 15 minutes)
If our 30a charger cannot get the vehicle started within this hour (Unlikely), it will be unstrapped and have to be rescheduled when the vehicle has a proper battery installed. These prices may sting a bit; but the battery is the MOST important part of ECU tuning and it can be frustrating for everyone when dealing with this, which is more common than you'd think.
Fuel Level:
MAKE SURE YOU HAVE AT LEAST A HALF TANK OF GAS - if we have to put fuel in your car you will be charged for the fuel and time to do it. If you are doing a flex fuel tune, you will want to start with fresh 93 octane in the tank. The 93 octane tuning will be performed first, then you will switch to ethanol. If you are doing a dual fuel tune and need to drain the fuel from your tank, YOU MUST bring whatever you need to drain the fuel AND BRING CONTAINERS TO DRAIN THE OLD FUEL INTO. It typically works best to have some sort of a long hose with required fittings to run the fuel pump and drain the fuel from the fuel pressure regulator or something along those lines. Please do not leave your old fuel here, we cannot store it for insurance reasons.
Valve Lash:
Make sure the engine has proper valve lash for the camshaft(s) being used
Throttle Controls:
The gas pedal, throttle cable, and throttle body should move freely and return completely. The throttle body should not bind or stick and the throttle stop should be set. The cable should be adjusted so that there is adequate slack without being sloppy and the bracket should be mounted firmly with all appropriate hardware.
Clutch Issues:
Make sure the clutch you are using is rated for the torque capacity that your vehicle WILL BE MAKING not the power it is currently making. Don’t use a stock clutch or equivalent if you're running a supercharger, turbocharger, or nitrous-equipped engine.
The quoted prices for tuning, are for tuning only and DO NOT include any mechanical or electrical repairs or diagnostics. Any additional work needed to be performed during your dyno session will be billed at our hourly shop rate of $150/hr. Unforeseen things do happen on the dyno, so we always suggest you have additional funds available on top of the tuning price, just in case. Depending on the severity of a needed repair, we may or may not do the repair for you and each situation is handled on a case by case basis. We will discuss with you once we get to that point before we perform any work.
Show up on time for your appointment. This obviously means don't be late, but it also means don't be too early. We do a lot of grudge race cars, that do not want anybody else around to see their cars on the dyno. If you show up an hour early to your appointment while we have another car on the dyno, it puts us in a bad spot and we will have to ask you to leave, we do not want to have to do that. However, we do not allow people to just “hang out” at/in our shop so please just show up at the appointment time.
Cancellations/rescheduling. We try to schedule our appointments in a way that eliminates cancellations/rescheduling. it can make scheduling a little frustrating I know, but its far less frustrating than having to schedule each appointment a bunch of times, which used to happen endlessly. If something does come up and you need to reschedule please let us know AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. If you are a no call / no show and then try to reschedule again in the future (yes this happens) you will be required to pay your full tuning amount when making your next appointment, which will be non refundable.
Have realistic expectations. Believe it or not, not everything you see on facebook or youtube is true. Make your horsepower goals realistic, and also keep in mind different dynos read different. There are tons of shops that are known for manipulating dyno numbers, and particular brands of dynos make that very easy to do. We highly suggest not getting caught up in the numbers.
If you come to an appointment with a car that is not in proper working order there are two options: The first is you have informed us that there are additional issues. In this case, we will assess the required repairs and give you an estimate. The repairs will then be made and your vehicle will be tuned. By scheduling extra time to address the additional repairs, we can finish your vehicle in a reasonable time frame. In the second option, if you are unaware of, or don’t inform us about potential problems, we will start uncovering them as we tune your car. In this case, we will stop and give you an estimate of what the cost will be. Customers will be charged a portion of the tuning rate and/or the shop's hourly rate for the time spent diagnosing why the car could not be tuned or could not be tuned completely. Additionally, since we were not aware of additional problems, and did not schedule extra time, we may not be able to finish your tune on the same day. In this case, customers may find it more cost/time effective to leave the car with us for repairs. Many of the issues that surface are simple to fix and we may very well be able to do so on the same day as the appointment.
CEL (Check Engine Light):
If you're Check Engine Light is on it’s on for a reason and the chances are you have a problem. Find out why your CEL is coming on and either have the issue fixed, or let us know ahead of time.
Charging System:
A proper operating system should be charging at 13.5-14.8 Volts under all operating conditions. Exceptions are race cars running a 16V System. IF YOUR ELECTRICAL SYSTEM REQUIRES VOLTAGES HIGHER THAN 15V PLEASE BRING YOUR OWN CHARGER If we have to stop to recharge your battery there will be an additional fee for any down time we encounter. We do have a Snap On 30a Constant Power supply but it does not always guarantee to provide enough power for batteries with SUPER high resistance or dead cells. We do not want to charge you an additional fee, we just want you to have a working battery! We can not complete the ecu flashes if the battery is not working properly.
($150/hr calculated by 15 minute intervals)
($37.5 per 15 minutes)
If our 30a charger cannot get the vehicle started within this hour (Unlikely), it will be unstrapped and have to be rescheduled when the vehicle has a proper battery installed. These prices may sting a bit; but the battery is the MOST important part of ECU tuning and it can be frustrating for everyone when dealing with this, which is more common than you'd think.
Fuel Level:
MAKE SURE YOU HAVE AT LEAST A HALF TANK OF GAS - if we have to put fuel in your car you will be charged for the fuel and time to do it. If you are doing a flex fuel tune, you will want to start with fresh 93 octane in the tank. The 93 octane tuning will be performed first, then you will switch to ethanol. If you are doing a dual fuel tune and need to drain the fuel from your tank, YOU MUST bring whatever you need to drain the fuel AND BRING CONTAINERS TO DRAIN THE OLD FUEL INTO. It typically works best to have some sort of a long hose with required fittings to run the fuel pump and drain the fuel from the fuel pressure regulator or something along those lines. Please do not leave your old fuel here, we cannot store it for insurance reasons.
Valve Lash:
Make sure the engine has proper valve lash for the camshaft(s) being used
Throttle Controls:
The gas pedal, throttle cable, and throttle body should move freely and return completely. The throttle body should not bind or stick and the throttle stop should be set. The cable should be adjusted so that there is adequate slack without being sloppy and the bracket should be mounted firmly with all appropriate hardware.
Clutch Issues:
Make sure the clutch you are using is rated for the torque capacity that your vehicle WILL BE MAKING not the power it is currently making. Don’t use a stock clutch or equivalent if you're running a supercharger, turbocharger, or nitrous-equipped engine.
The quoted prices for tuning, are for tuning only and DO NOT include any mechanical or electrical repairs or diagnostics. Any additional work needed to be performed during your dyno session will be billed at our hourly shop rate of $150/hr. Unforeseen things do happen on the dyno, so we always suggest you have additional funds available on top of the tuning price, just in case. Depending on the severity of a needed repair, we may or may not do the repair for you and each situation is handled on a case by case basis. We will discuss with you once we get to that point before we perform any work.
Show up on time for your appointment. This obviously means don't be late, but it also means don't be too early. We do a lot of grudge race cars, that do not want anybody else around to see their cars on the dyno. If you show up an hour early to your appointment while we have another car on the dyno, it puts us in a bad spot and we will have to ask you to leave, we do not want to have to do that. However, we do not allow people to just “hang out” at/in our shop so please just show up at the appointment time.
Cancellations/rescheduling. We try to schedule our appointments in a way that eliminates cancellations/rescheduling. it can make scheduling a little frustrating I know, but its far less frustrating than having to schedule each appointment a bunch of times, which used to happen endlessly. If something does come up and you need to reschedule please let us know AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. If you are a no call / no show and then try to reschedule again in the future (yes this happens) you will be required to pay your full tuning amount when making your next appointment, which will be non refundable.
Have realistic expectations. Believe it or not, not everything you see on facebook or youtube is true. Make your horsepower goals realistic, and also keep in mind different dynos read different. There are tons of shops that are known for manipulating dyno numbers, and particular brands of dynos make that very easy to do. We highly suggest not getting caught up in the numbers.