• đź’ˇ Fun fact. Whenever you start a thread, TCG Mechanic 5000 (our AI bot) will reply to you to start helping. It doesn't know everything and it will struggle with more complex questions but it can get the thread going and provide valuable information. You can choose to disable it prior to submitting a thread.

LSx tuners in the area?

IZZy

Wheel and tire tycoon
Dec 15, 2007
42,606
15,988
So I am in the process of stuffing an LS motor in a mustang and I will be needing someone with experience with tuning LS cars. Its worth mentioning that I am looking for someone that has tuned boosted, moderate to high horsepower cars and not your average heads, cam, bolt on's type of cars, the car will be running on a BS3 or similar engine management system.

Being a Ford guy for many years I am totally new to the GM game, its quite the learning curve lol
 

IZZy

Wheel and tire tycoon
Dec 15, 2007
42,606
15,988
Straightline Performance in Joliet gets my vote. Speed inc would be second. Both do plenty of turbo and ls swapped cars.

I've heard mixed reviews from straghtline performance but I dont know enough to make an opinion about them, have you had any work done there?

I figured Speed Inc might be the only option, anybody know who their tuner is?
 

willizm

Very Nice, Very Evil
May 13, 2009
12,829
10,148
The Woodlands, TX
I've heard mixed reviews from straghtline performance but I dont know enough to make an opinion about them, have you had any work done there?

I figured Speed Inc might be the only option, anybody know who their tuner is?
Yes I have. I have had my car in their shop for tuning and couldn't be happier. Speed inc is good as well, but I will keep bringing my car to straightline. They have treated me well over the years with all my tuning needs.

I vote Straightline Performance! I have had my car tuned there through 3 stages of my builds, last of which was my turbo build. I was very happy with the results and Mike is a great tuner!

that makes 2 of us turbo lsx cars for them :)
 

OffshoreDrilling

This is my safe space
TCG Sponsor
TCG Premium
HVAC Guy
Aug 28, 2007
39,146
50,295
Homer Glen
Running a BS3, i wouldn't be looking at any of the names mentioned here. Id be asking around on yellowbullet for someone who knows their shit, and consider trailering it out of state if necessary. Im assuming you're talking about a car set up to race, making in excess of 1000hp at the crank. Id have one hell of a time letting joe schmoe at any speed shop tune something up like that, when 90% of his experience is cookie cutter LSX builds.
 

nick122590

TCG Elite Member
Jul 10, 2011
2,008
6
IOWA
Running a BS3, i wouldn't be looking at any of the names mentioned here. Id be asking around on yellowbullet for someone who knows their shit, and consider trailering it out of state if necessary. Im assuming you're talking about a car set up to race, making in excess of 1000hp at the crank. Id have one hell of a time letting joe schmoe at any speed shop tune something up like that, when 90% of his experience is cookie cutter LSX builds.

have you not seen what SP does?
 

IZZy

Wheel and tire tycoon
Dec 15, 2007
42,606
15,988
Running a BS3, i wouldn't be looking at any of the names mentioned here. Id be asking around on yellowbullet for someone who knows their shit, and consider trailering it out of state if necessary. Im assuming you're talking about a car set up to race, making in excess of 1000hp at the crank. Id have one hell of a time letting joe schmoe at any speed shop tune something up like that, when 90% of his experience is cookie cutter LSX builds.

I initially felt this way but after doing a little research I found out a few shops in the area have done high HP LS cars. Looks like the three choices are Speed Inc, Straightline Performance and Sound Performance.

I would like to get a bit more familiar with who their tuners are and what kind of reputation they have, not only their skills but their customer service/personality, I have dealt with some tuners within the Ford world in the past and it seems like tuners in general seem to have eccentric type personalities LOL

I do agree with you about avoiding the cookie cutter type tuners, you are pretty close in your assumption of power level:cool:

Please tell me it's not going in the cobra!

Yes it is!
 

Lead Pipe

TCG Sub-par Member
TCG Premium
Nov 4, 2010
17,602
12,873
[MENTION=3559]School Boy[/MENTION]

Speed is your best bet when it comes to boosted LS. Jim Moran is their tuner and they have set up Andy Essary's T/A which is knocking on the door of 6's and runs in the radial class in the LSX shootout series. There is no other shop around Chicago that can say that.
 

rocket5979

Gearhead
Nov 15, 2005
6,576
18
Round Lake, IL
Running a BS3, i wouldn't be looking at any of the names mentioned here. Id be asking around on yellowbullet for someone who knows their shit, and consider trailering it out of state if necessary. Im assuming you're talking about a car set up to race, making in excess of 1000hp at the crank. Id have one hell of a time letting joe schmoe at any speed shop tune something up like that, when 90% of his experience is cookie cutter LSX builds.


As a person who has done EFI custom tuning on GM and Ford cars for the last 7 years, I disagree with the portion of your statement alluding to the point that those who tune street cars are somehow less equipped to handle the tuning of pure race cars. As any other experienced EFI tuner would likely agree with, tuning for WOT is easy when compared to tuning for driveability. So, since racecars don't necessarily need as much dialing in within the driveability department, whereas street cars do, usually street cars are more of a challenge to tune; assuming it isn't all just cookie-cutter tuning. However, even in the cookie-cutter tuning, you still have to nail part-throttle driving down due to minute nuances between cars equipped with similar/same hard parts. Also, it has become pretty common for Joe Schmo shops and local backyard tuners to tune 4 digit crank hp cars these days, so there is nothing that discriminative about that power level anymore. Sure, 10 years ago 1k+ hp was a holy grail, but now it is just another check in the box on the way to bigger numbers and faster ET's. I am not suggesting that just any local tuner will do, but the idea that to somehow get better quality of workmanship one must travel, is absurd.

If this were my car, and I were looking for someone else to tune it for the 1320, I would be searching for someone with experience with the powertrain itself, as Izzy already mentioned, and also the management system too, whether that be FAST, BS3, Megasquirt, etc. If a local shop can cover that task with solid results then all the better when it comes to any future retuning needed. A phone or face to face discussion with the tuners for the shops mentioned previously will be able to weed out any that the OP feels unfitted for the job.

Best of luck with the search Izzy!
 
Old Thread: Hello . There have been no replies in this thread for 90 days.
Content in this thread may no longer be relevant. Consider starting a new thread to get fresh replies.

Thread Info