[Mike_ZN6]

If you go to a competent in-person dyno tuner, will you always get better HP/TQ numbers than a custom remote tune?

The popular remote tuners here claim to have the best tunes for specific headers (ACE 350, JDL 4-2-1) with lots of time put into the tune for each different header. Would one of their tunes for the specific headers perform better than what a local tuner could do?

I am preparing to install a JDL 4-2-1 header/over-pipe and get the car tuned. I originally planned to get a remote tune for the car because the shops selling the remote tunes are supposedly the best tuners for this platform. This is proving to be more complicated and expensive than originally thought to get done the way I want (before vs after dyno graphs).

To go the remote tuning route, I first need to pay a shop to let me do some baseline dyno pulls. Then buy the EcuTek cable/license/tune and work through several revisions with the remote tuner. Then finally, go back to the shop and pay for some more dyno time to get the final numbers. This would mean at least 2 days off work and who knows how much time logging/revisioning.

I could instead go to a recommended local tuner. They could do the tune, provide before vs after dyno graphs, and have everything completed in a single day. Because I would not have to buy the EcuTek cable or pay for the extra dyno sessions, going to the local tuner would end up being considerably cheaper.

Could the remote tune possibly be so much better that the additional expense and hassle are worth it? Either way, would the tunes end up so close that there is no practical difference?