I need help with tuning....

Title. I watch all of the YouTubers tune their drift cars in seconds and I have no idea what I should be doing. A lot of the time when I try to tune my cars they end up worse than before. I recently discovered the beauty of RWD (non-BNB) R34's, though, so if anyone has any tips on tuning those for a drift setup that would be great.
I'm running about 550-ish hp in my R34 with full chassis and tire/rim upgrades other than a roll cage.

what kind of drifting, points or tandem?

well by full upgrades,
what Tires are you running?
are you running Race turbos or Race camshafts
what elements (i.e.: camber, tire pressure, gearing) do you try to tune and how do you do it)

also, why no roll cage?

Only run a MAX of 650bhp in a R34. And go no where near cams. At all......ever.

I usually do points because none of my friends play Forza, but I occasionally hop into a user-created tandem race.

I have street cams I think and stock twin turbos, with sport tires at max width.
For camber, I use about -2.5 in the front and -.2 or so in the back. tire pressure is at 32 psi when warmed up, so about 27 front and 25 back (might be higher than that). Gearing I left stock, it seemed fine to me, but I might actually want to make 3rd gear a little longer, I usually end up losing speed rev banging in 3rd and losing power in the low revs in 4th. I didn't use a roll cage to save weight, but I guess that might be useful :/

@darth mong - why no cams? And I'm running well below 650, i was originally running about that amount but it was too powerful for my liking.

well, im not points expert, but i did beat addim0nster's rivals score in the Supra drifter this one time.....

i do use all my tandem tunes for points and they dont go too bad lol

and from what it sounds like you are doing pretty well with tuning. I usally dont do R34s but they are good cars.
A (personal, it might be stupid but i love how it feels) is to run -5 camber on the front and about -1 to -2 on the rear.
make sure your caster is a high as you can go (gives you more lock)
maybe run a touch of toe out if the car isnt twitchy enough.
The bump stiffness and spring settings are usally trial and error for me, i always run lowest ride height but it usually is different from there.

this is just kinda a base to go off of
one thing i have learned thru tuning is that it really is a personal thing for drifting. I know many people who are great drifters and tuners and i hate their tunes because they dont fit my style.

I know what you're saying, I use a wheel and it's really hard for me to make my drifting smoother so a lot of tunes I buy don't suit me. I used to drift with -5 camber, and it looks cool, but it just doesn't feel right to me. Maybe just a little to twitchy or jerky or something.

I think i added a little toe in on the front and toe out on the back (or vice versa?) after watching some of MrAeroHD's videos and softened the springs and all of the stiffness things.

Do you have any idea how to tune the differential? I don't even really know how they work... like what are those percent thingies there for?

i usually do a 100 accelration and 80-90 deceleration but honestly i dont think it does anything
i will point out im on a controller and i might be a little different but i have heard that simulation steering is better on a wheel(?)

and yeh whatever suits you man, and toe out in rear is good for points drifting but i actually keep it straight for all other stuff

I hated sim steering when I used it, it might be more realistic but I heard somewhere that a guy from Fanatec said their wheels didn't behave properly with sim and it was just way too twitchy for me to drift with it. That was when I used 850 hp Supras, though, so maybe now that I've learned not to do that sim might be easier.

haha i think we all went through that stage of 850hp Supras, and yeh I experimented with sim steering on controller and i couldnt get it just right to be competitive, so i dropped it. I do know that TRK does (or used to) run sim on controller tho haha

cams just rape your torque figure, which you need alot of. R34s are pretty twitchy anyway so soften all the suspension parts more than usual and i used to run one with full -camber on the front wheels, -.5 on the back, roughly 2-2.5 toe out on the front with .5 in on the rear. Full castor. But thats just me. Give it a test out at least?

I always run my diff at 80-60. Gives you abit more grip rather than a welded diff when ou've got your foot n the gas. I also run the car slammed at the back but depending on the car 50-100% ride height on the front. Hope this helps!

Don't ever run 650 in an R34. That's just dumb. That car is a bullet with 530. Mine on BNB and in general is 570-580.

Typically, you want semi-soft suspension so that the car can squat when you're accelerating, which in turn gives you more grip.

Race cams give you more grip as well, believe it or not.

I run -3.5 camber in the front and -.5 in the rear. No toe and I think a 3.0 caster. Caster is what helps you transition either stable and smooth or seriously quick. The higher, the smoother the transition. The more camber you run, the less caster you can run.

Sport tires max, don't use race. Also, don't put width in the front unless you absolutely need to, and don't go more than 1 size up.

Ride height should be all the way down. Damping and rebound tweaking deals with understeer/oversteer. I have mine at around 6.5/6, 3.5/3.

Anti roll bars are the same way like springs.

Stiffer front springs will help you transfer more weight quicker, but don't make them too stiff.

You can put sport or race turbo's if you want; I have two R34s, one with stock and one with sport.

A question that will help everyone help you would be, do You drift with a wheel or with a controller?

I always run a rollcage, idk why it just seems strange without it.
I'm not real big into the tuning either so I can't help much really.

Hes on a CSR as stated in his signature.

The best Hp figure for the R34 (IMO) is around 570-590.
I think I have street cams in mine to get the Hp up a tad bit more without having to use a Race Turbo.
Try and stay away from "Intercoolers" and also "Oil and Cooling" They just add unnecessary weight. (Unless you need the weight I.e for VFD to make the tire to weight restrictions)
A Sport or Race Flywheel (With a sport flywheel the revs dies down slower than the race one I think.) Race brakes, ARBs, Race Roll cage, race suspension and race weight reduction.
Race everything for transmission although if you prefer a sport diff it works just as well providing you have the right settings for it. Sport tires 255/265 on the front and max on the rear.

You have the tire pressure dialed in.
As for the gearing on every car I tune I have my own default ratios which are just take away 0.10 on each gear and bump the final drive up by .15 Then you have to fine tune it to your liking.
ARB's Mines are set to 17.90 and 16.20.
Springs I like it to be quite soft at the back. I run roughly around 560 in the front and around 340 in the rear. It gives it the sqaut that Impulse explained.
Camber wise I run -3.2 front and -0.2 in the rear.
Caster I have set at 6.7.
I can't remember the dampening settings I'll update later.
Brake balance I run 55% to the front and pressure 85% I think.
My Diff settings are probably 89 Accel and 64 Deccel

Take note this is all off the top of my head so I'll update it with the proper figures after I get back from my exam.

Nope, that's all wrong.

Wrong, wrong, wrong...

Jokes.