im getting a kit from hp tuners to tune up my 02 ss.. my buddies dad tunes peoples cars and **** all the time so hes goin to do it for me.. what are the benefits and downfalls of gettting a car professionally tuned?

 

The only downfall I can see is the price of the tuner. That and if you get a bad tune and hurt your car. Other than that the upsides can be better performance and fuel economy and more power from other power adders.

 

what if you get other mods put in after you get it tuned.. do you gotta re-tune it ?

 

Well what mods do you plan on doing? Obviously if you tune it now for the mods you have, then add more mods, the tune will be off. Unless you only add small things after the tune.

 

It all comes down to your confidence/comfort level with the person doing the job for you. Most people tend to have more faith/confidence in a "professional" tuner. Now having said that, I've seen some "professional" tunes that just make me shake my head.

Now when you say "my buddies dad tunes peoples cars and **** all the time so hes goin to do it for me", I take that to mean that he has spent plently of time fine tuning engine management systems?

 

Yes. The more mods you do after a tune- the more out of whack it will be. Imagine dialing in your car perfectly as it sits now, and then you do heads + big cam- obviously you've drastically changed the flow characteristics of the engine, and the tune will no longer be correct. The same goes for any engine mod- to varying degrees. Obviously the smaller mods make less difference.

x2- the basics of tuning any modern engine is essentially the same, however each engine has its own pitfalls and things it likes that others don't.