Best to tune in winter or summer?

Benjilis

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I’ve reached out and done multiple Google searches but really found no straight answers… so here we go to those that are tuned.

is it best to tune the car in winter or summer? It’s currently 40-55 degrees here in the Midwest and I’m about to get an e50 flex tune.

what will I experience come summer when it’s 100+ degrees out?

If I tune when it’s 100+ degrees out, what would I experience come winter?

should I get separate tunes for these conditions?
what have the tuned people here experienced?

Edit: yes I’ve been asking a lot of questions recently. I don’t know shit about shit. Just trying to learn ??
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Evolution

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Safer to get tuned in the winter. You will make more power and make boost a lot easier/quicker. Always want to tune during best case situations.
 
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Benjilis

Benjilis

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Safer to get tuned in the winter. You will make more power and make boost a lot easier/quicker. Always want to tune during best case situations.
Can you elaborate on “best case situations”?
 

Cptnslo

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Can you elaborate on “best case situations”?
Best case being lowest ambient air temps which means you can get the best timing advance etc
 

ShakaDaKine

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As Bflood stated, datalogging / tuning in an atmosphere that you will most likely be driving in is ideal. While ambient temperature does affect the performance, it's not that critical (unless it's primarily a track car), if your tuner knows what they are doing. If A/F and spark are dialed in correctly, the MAF will do the rest of the work to keep everything in check. The OEM tune is executed in a controlled chamber and designed for a wide range of environmental conditions. When you install a performance tune, your basically narrowing the safety margin that was built into the OEM tune. If your going to be pushing the limits, you could get a tune for the winter and a tune for the summer. I try to tune / datalog when the ambient temp is in the 70s.
 

Bflood

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I would tune in the winter for lower IAT and make more Hp. Ecutek maps are smart enough to adjust to your climate when it’s get warmer.
Not all maps are created equal.. No matter the platform, your maps are only as good as the guy doing the tuning.

At the very least, send your tuner a log for those hot days to make sure everything looks good.
 

Axix23

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Not all maps are created equal.. No matter the platform, your maps are only as good as the guy doing the tuning.

At the very least, send your tuner a log for those hot days to make sure everything looks good.
If that was the case, you would need a tune for every season. Lol These new ecu are so smart that they have iat vs ign retard compensation and a ton more compensation tables. But always good to email your tuner or check the datalogs yourself
 

Tsuki

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If that was the case, you would need a tune for every season. Lol These new ecu are so smart that they have iat vs ign retard compensation and a ton more compensation tables. But always good to email your tuner or check the datalogs yourself
You're absolutely right about how smart the cars are, but I think the point of the post was trust... but verify :)
 

suicidaleggroll

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If that was the case, you would need a tune for every season. Lol These new ecu are so smart that they have iat vs ign retard compensation and a ton more compensation tables. But always good to email your tuner or check the datalogs yourself
Yes, the point is that the car has tables to allow the tuner to compensate for IAT, but unless the tuner actually tunes those tables properly, they don't do any good. You don't need separate maps for different seasons, but you do need the compensation tables to be adjusted properly, which requires testing and adjusting in different seasons.

IMO it's best to tune it in winter, then datalog in summer to adjust the compensation tables as necessary. If you do it in reverse, you could have overboosting or fuel starvation problems when the temp drops significantly below what it was when you tuned. Same goes for altitude, tune at low altitude and then adjust at higher altitude if necessary, doing the reverse can be dangerous.

This is all assuming you have a very far-from-stock setup that will require a lot of hands-on tuning. If this is just bolt ons and a OTS map then it doesn't matter, any respectable tuner should already have all of the compensations tuned to cover all conditions in their OTS maps.
 
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AHP

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With a competent tuner season, temp/DA, etc.. absolutely will not matter. If the tuner suggests otherwise then find a new tuner, IMO. Your factory calibration accounts for all of the extremes and so should your aftermarket solution.
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