What Do You Need To Have Auto Tune
'The tuning world often refers to stages'
You will often hear tuning companies and car tuners going on about stage 1, 2 and 3 mods. What are these different stages and what do they mean?
This is why the average car tune up cost ranges from $150 to over $1,000 and will depend on which items need to be completed. The timing and costs of the procedures will vary between different models and years, but every Truck, SUV and car needs to be tuned up to maintain safe and effective operation. Fast road cams (need some engine dismantling and will need to be fitted with followers/lifters etc but ideally the engine will need to be remapped). Supercharger kits (these need air intake, exhaust and mapping modifications before they can work at all.). In older cars, a tune-up was needed every 30,000-45,000 miles. Modern cars don't need a tune-up in a traditional sense, Tune-up time: Set of spark plugs and wires for a V6 engine, an air filter and a spark plug socket with a ratchet. Since there is nothing that can be adjusted and everything is controlled by a computer.
We hate to shatter the illusion but they are, in the main, fairly meaningless terms if applied to power gains and cannot reliably be used to explain how much power a modification adds.
There is no consistent difference in part makers between their classifications of stage 1 stage 2 and stage 3 mods.
For some companies
- STAGE 1 - Cheapest options
- STAGE 2 - Pay us more money and get more power
- STAGE 3 - Pay loads of money and we'll build a track car!
For others
- Stage 1 - Single bolt on parts or one time upgrade
- Stage 2 - Two or more parts required
- Stage 3 - Internal work is also needed
Then we get some working to power figures
- Stage 1 = 20bhp more
- Stage 2 = 40bhp more
- Stage 3 = 100bhp more
I've even known some to be the first to offer a 'stage 4 or 5 tune'!
What Do You Need To Have Auto Tune Lyrics
So let's cut through these over generalisations of the terms and explain what most car modifiers and tuners would put in each tuning stage.
So how do we classify stage 1, 2 and 3 upgrades?
Well there are some points that one should bear in mind that differentiate between a 'typical' mod in each stage.
Stage 1 modifications
A stage 1 modification can be added in isolation. This means that a true stage 1 modification part does not require any other engine modifications to get it to work.
What Do You Need To Have Auto Tune Mean
Whilst other mods can help to raise the power gains and realize the full potential of the mod they are not mandatory.
These are at the bottom end of the tuning scene in terms of the overall benefits you will get.
Stage 1 mods are generally a straightforward DIY fit and should work on a standard engine that is in good condition.
Some examples of stage 1 mods include, induction kits, panel air filters, sports exhausts, fuel pressure regulators, a simple engine remap or timing changes, blow off valves/divertors and the like.
Stage 2 modifications
These stage 2 mods offer larger power gains than stage one but will usually require additional work or other parts if you want them to work reliably.
Some of the examples listed in stage 1 can also be regarded as stage 2 mods if they are extreme in their ambition.
A stage 2 mod is usually a DIY fit but many will require specialist knowledge and tools.
Addition of a larger or hybrid turbo (requires a remap and fuelling upgrades as well as potential engine strengthening).
Fast road cams (need some engine dismantling and will need to be fitted with followers/lifters etc but ideally the engine will need to be remapped).
Supercharger kits (these need air intake, exhaust and mapping modifications before they can work at all.)
Stage 3 modifications
A stage 3 modification is regarded by most as a track day or motor sport modification.
Like stage 2 mods they will also need other mods to support them but they are usually far from ideal for road use as we will explain.
Take racing brakes for example. These can tolerate extremely high temperatures but they are pretty useless whilst cool.
On the road you can't afford to have to wait for the brakes to warm up before they operate effectively.
On the track they will run hot through each lap. An aggressive cam profile will also move the power band right up the rev range and cause a very lumpy tick over making the car hard to drive in day to day traffic.
Heavy duty clutches can be off or on in their nature and make driving in slow traffic nearly impossible.
A stage 3 race modified car will also need to be regularly overhauled and serviced. The extra strain put on the cars engine will result in premature engine wear and if a car is used on a daily basis it will become very unreliable.
So to summarize stage 3 mods are the most aggressive and not the sort of thing you want to do on a road car.
You will also need to bear in mind that some tuning companies will just box their parts in packs labelled stage 1,2 and 3 and maybe even 4 or 5.
Such labelling is as helpful as a product number and should not be taken as any sort of guarantee of the power gains or suitability for your car.
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Tuning
Engine Mods, TuningVery interesting. My interpretation from back in the 60′ and 70’s was this:
Stage 1 – Bolt-ON Parts; carb, igntion, exhaust…
Stage 2 – Bolt-IN Parts; cams, dome pistons, valve springs…
Stage 3 – Requiring Machine Shop; boring, stroking, blueprinting…
Until the last few years, I never heard of Stage 4-5-6 (I saw a ‘Stage 8’ the other day!) I consider this nothing more than marketing jargon to attract people who believe that ‘Bigger must be better’. Cheers!thanks for taking the time to write this, normally i dont comment but that had real good structure. I have always wondered and i have never gotten a straight answer from anybody, or actually seen any set definition for staged performance parts. all the highschool kids here have stage 3 all over their hondas and i was wondering where they get the $ for such parts. now i wonder where theyre buying the stickers hahaha thanks again
'The tuning world often refers to stages'
You will often hear tuning companies and car tuners going on about stage 1, 2 and 3 mods. What are these different stages and what do they mean?
We hate to shatter the illusion but they are, in the main, fairly meaningless terms if applied to power gains and cannot reliably be used to explain how much power a modification adds.
There is no consistent difference in part makers between their classifications of stage 1 stage 2 and stage 3 mods.
For some companies
- STAGE 1 - Cheapest options
- STAGE 2 - Pay us more money and get more power
- STAGE 3 - Pay loads of money and we'll build a track car!
For others
- Stage 1 - Single bolt on parts or one time upgrade
- Stage 2 - Two or more parts required
- Stage 3 - Internal work is also needed
Then we get some working to power figures
- Stage 1 = 20bhp more
- Stage 2 = 40bhp more
- Stage 3 = 100bhp more
I've even known some to be the first to offer a 'stage 4 or 5 tune'!
So let's cut through these over generalisations of the terms and explain what most car modifiers and tuners would put in each tuning stage.
So how do we classify stage 1, 2 and 3 upgrades?
Well there are some points that one should bear in mind that differentiate between a 'typical' mod in each stage.
Stage 1 modifications
A stage 1 modification can be added in isolation. This means that a true stage 1 modification part does not require any other engine modifications to get it to work.
Whilst other mods can help to raise the power gains and realize the full potential of the mod they are not mandatory.
These are at the bottom end of the tuning scene in terms of the overall benefits you will get.
Stage 1 mods are generally a straightforward DIY fit and should work on a standard engine that is in good condition.
Some examples of stage 1 mods include, induction kits, panel air filters, sports exhausts, fuel pressure regulators, a simple engine remap or timing changes, blow off valves/divertors and the like.
Stage 2 modifications
These stage 2 mods offer larger power gains than stage one but will usually require additional work or other parts if you want them to work reliably.
Some of the examples listed in stage 1 can also be regarded as stage 2 mods if they are extreme in their ambition.
A stage 2 mod is usually a DIY fit but many will require specialist knowledge and tools.
Addition of a larger or hybrid turbo (requires a remap and fuelling upgrades as well as potential engine strengthening).
Fast road cams (need some engine dismantling and will need to be fitted with followers/lifters etc but ideally the engine will need to be remapped).
Supercharger kits (these need air intake, exhaust and mapping modifications before they can work at all.)
Stage 3 modifications
A stage 3 modification is regarded by most as a track day or motor sport modification.
Like stage 2 mods they will also need other mods to support them but they are usually far from ideal for road use as we will explain.
Take racing brakes for example. These can tolerate extremely high temperatures but they are pretty useless whilst cool.
On the road you can't afford to have to wait for the brakes to warm up before they operate effectively.
On the track they will run hot through each lap. An aggressive cam profile will also move the power band right up the rev range and cause a very lumpy tick over making the car hard to drive in day to day traffic.
Heavy duty clutches can be off or on in their nature and make driving in slow traffic nearly impossible.
A stage 3 race modified car will also need to be regularly overhauled and serviced. The extra strain put on the cars engine will result in premature engine wear and if a car is used on a daily basis it will become very unreliable.
So to summarize stage 3 mods are the most aggressive and not the sort of thing you want to do on a road car.
You will also need to bear in mind that some tuning companies will just box their parts in packs labelled stage 1,2 and 3 and maybe even 4 or 5.
Such labelling is as helpful as a product number and should not be taken as any sort of guarantee of the power gains or suitability for your car.
PLEASE HELP: I NEED YOUR DONATIONS TO COVER THE COSTS OF RUNNING THIS SITE AND KEEP IT RUNNING. I do not charge you to access this website and it saves most TorqueCars readers $100's each year - but we are NON PROFIT and not even covering our costs. To keep us running PLEASE Donate here
If you liked this page please share it with your friends, drop a link to it in your favourite forum or use the bookmarking options to save it to your social media profile.
Feedback
Please use ourforums if you wish to ask a tuning question, and please note we do not sell parts or services, we are just an online magazine.
Help us improve, leave a suggestion or tip
Tuning
Engine Mods, TuningVery interesting. My interpretation from back in the 60′ and 70’s was this:
Stage 1 – Bolt-ON Parts; carb, igntion, exhaust…
Stage 2 – Bolt-IN Parts; cams, dome pistons, valve springs…
Stage 3 – Requiring Machine Shop; boring, stroking, blueprinting…
Until the last few years, I never heard of Stage 4-5-6 (I saw a ‘Stage 8’ the other day!) I consider this nothing more than marketing jargon to attract people who believe that ‘Bigger must be better’. Cheers!thanks for taking the time to write this, normally i dont comment but that had real good structure. I have always wondered and i have never gotten a straight answer from anybody, or actually seen any set definition for staged performance parts. all the highschool kids here have stage 3 all over their hondas and i was wondering where they get the $ for such parts. now i wonder where theyre buying the stickers hahaha thanks again