SF Bay Area- Mobile carb tuning service. Checking demand.

[705.0Merc]

Hey guys,

I am thinking about starting a side business and want to see what the demand looks like before I get ahead of myself. My idea is to offer a mobile wideband tuning service for Holley carb'd cars. I am an Electrician by day and a car nut the rest of the time....I was looking at starting an Electrical company but my heart is just not in it. Which led me to this idea .....

Specifics:



Meet up, your house/shop in the Bay area.
Install a temporary wideband kit. I am leaning towards the Innovate LM2 with a tailpipe o2 clamp for no welding etc.
Take some basic readings and see where it can be improved upon: gas mileage, idle quality, cruise , wot. etc
Vacuum reading.
Check base timing/ adv timing.
Check spark plugs.
Data log all info.
I want to come up with a way to keep track of the base tune as well as the final tune on an easy to read chart.
Email the datalogging and tuning info to the customer for their records.
Keep a database of all customer cars etc. for future referencing.
I strongly believe in teaching throughout the entire process, no secrets The customer can help as much as they would like, or just watch.
Respect all traffic laws which I do always forever and ever and ever anyways.....

This is just some brainstorming for now.

Let me know what you guys think.

[Rod]

I think its a good Idea, there are very few people that know carbs anymore, and anytime something hiccups on a car they blame the carb or dizzy because those are easiest to see and for most its a little black magic, and often tuning the carb requires setting the timing correctly, I had a lot of cars come to the old speedshop (when I worked there) and complain about the carb and often I could just walk outside and turn the dizzy a little to a better setting and a quick carb reset of float levels and and idle screws and it was 10 times better and we didn't even start a tune.....so getting back to your question , YES, a little tuning and a lesson in carb and timing would go a long ways, I know the guys over at Oles carb and electric have had carb tune seminars once a month for years but I don't think they teach as much as they blame and talk down owners and manufacturers, just from having customers come in and tell me

[qnitro]

Perfect. I need the carb tuned on my 1975 ls2 carbed can you PM me a price

[705.0Merc]

I got the Innovate Lm2 installed on my car and cannot leave it alone. It is a great tool once you figure out how to use it. I went from a performer rpm dual plane to a torker 2 single plane intake, looking for better fuel distribution and maybe shifting the torque up in the rpm band. I have a 1 inch open spacer and a 600dp. So I am re tuning everything. I had violent lean backfire when the secondaries open. So I went back to basics. I disconnected the secondaries and tie wrapped them shut to dial in the primary side first. My lean backfire is only when the secondaries open.
On the primaries only, it pulls cleanly all the way up. I spun 3rd on the freeway,never did that before yikes! My car has never ran this good. I can't believe it is only on the primary side. The log is a partial 4th gear wot pull.

My final primary side tune:
28 squirter with pink cam no. 1 position
.026 ifr/ .0625 iab, idle screws,1.5 turns out, 12.5 inch vac at 800 rpms
68 jet
.020 hsab
.070 pvcr
10.5 standard pv
my timing is at 15 deg locked out on 91 pump
Autolite 24's gapped .028

My current afr readings
Idle: 14-15 A very clean, crisp idle
Crusie: 13.5-14.5 Part throttle cruise gives the best fuel mileage and best driving characteristics.
Wot: 11.5-12.3 When I hit it, the afr's drop to a safe range to prevent detonation and gives peak power for a turbo car.
Red dotted marker line is: 12.3 afr shows the leanest
Blue dotted marker line is: 11.5 afr shows my richest

Datalogging: Hit record and it saves this info to an sd card. After the run, I load onto my laptop for review.
Purple line: airfuel ratio verticle axis
Black line : rpm verticle axis
Bottom numbers are time in seconds for the datalog session. Wot starts at 2-3 seconds. Horizontal axis.

For wide open throttle, the goal is a nice flat afr reading . If it is anything other than flat, some tuning is needed. Could be bigger jets are needed, or the fuel pump can't keep up etc. This allows me to get the tune in a safe range. For max power, data logging combined with quarter mile runs is the best way. Paying attention to the highest mph and reading the plugs after chopping the throttle from a run will tell you what the engine really wants.




My next step is to connect the secondaries. I think the lean backfire is related to the secondary accelerator pump. It is a #28 squirter which may not give enough fuel during the transition of the secondaries opening. I will drill to #31 and see if it is any better.

Stay tuned!
I will be tuning a 66 Mustang with a Holley 670 Avenger feeding a 351w backed by a 5 speed. I will include a full write up with pics.

[Rod]

Stay tuned!
I will be tuning a 66 Mustang with a Holley 670 Avenger feeding a 351w backed by a 5 speed. I will include a full write up with pics.

look forward to seeing the results

[705.0Merc]

I have created a blog for my tuning company. I will post a write up for every car I tune with pics. I want to try and show the process from start to finish. If anyone needs anything, shoot me an email from the address in my blog. Check it out. JLtuning.

[bscott510]

I have created a blog for my tuning company. I will post a write up for every car I tune with pics. I want to try and show the process from start to finish. If anyone needs anything, shoot me an email from the address in my blog. Check it out. JLtuning.

I'm curious to see how your carb tunning is going? I am on the verge of buying a wide band 02 set up to tune my demon carb. I live in Fremont as well and was hoping we could get together and talk some things over. Let me know.

Thanks

[dkopisch]

i think that this is a good idea, people are always scared of carb tuning

[cactuss4]

I've not touched a carb in years and I know my 66 runs pig rich. So ya having someone local and economical to quickly get things set right would be awesome.. As it is now, I start the car in the garage and it's almost instant death!

Tory
66 Chevelle, 396/4spd
Livermore, CA

[no_go nico]

I have created a blog for my tuning company. I will post a write up for every car I tune with pics. I want to try and show the process from start to finish. If anyone needs anything, shoot me an email from the address in my blog. Check it out. JLtuning.

Hey JL,

Are you still tuning? I have a FiTech that could use some love. Let me know