A good tuner will know what timing the car should have and then watch the fuel ratio whilst running it up . If it leans out he will back off . When I got mine done , the tuner used ear phones as well on the engine to listen to pinging . Hope this helps .
Mines punched and it stinks like fart gas . I'm gonna put 2 catco high flow ones on side by side with my xforce 3.5 inch system . I got told that provided that they are not to far back then they will get hot enough and work .
My one was doing the same thing , Autotech found that the bov spring was too soft and was opening and shutting on light throttle . But if you hear a spring noise , it could be actuator .