Date: Mon, 1 Dec 2008 21:03:39 -0600
Reply-To: Max Wellhouse <dimwittedmoose@CFU.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Max Wellhouse <dimwittedmoose@CFU.NET>
Subject: Re: Update on the Haltech ECU Hassles
In-Reply-To: <4933D636.7050008@charter.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
If one person actually asks a question, it is safe to assume 11 or 17
others are at least thinking it. Without making a novel out of this
posting, here is the short skinny on the Haltech Saga.
In the year resembling 2001, i was faced with overhauling the engine
in my 90GL. The initial head rebuild had not lasted all that long
and it was time to jump in with both feet. I chose to buy one of
Boston Bob's engines with a few breathing improvements to the tune of
about $2200. Noting the familiar issues with the Bosch ECU that came
from the factory, I was researching aftermarket engine management
systems and found that Gene Berg Enterprises sold a unit called a
Haltech(www.haltech.com if you're real curious). Gene's boy's were
ga-ga over this system and raved about its ability to be custom-tuned
to the individual engine it was managing. At the time, the Haltech
kit was only a couple hundred dollars more than a new Bosch brain, so
I splurged.
Haltech systems are usually used on racing vehicles and not daily
drivers, but they are compatible with most any 1,2,3,4,5,6,8,10, or
12 cylinder engine and a wide variety of ignition systems. The unit
I bought, the then state ofthe art E6S, was run by a simple 600kb DOS
floppy and you simply hooked up your laptop to the ECU and fed it the
info needed to program the fuel and ignition maps. Even with a guy
that sort knew what he was gdoing with a laptop and a VW motor, we
strugled to get it to run at any arpm. Eventually we did get it
running decently, but it was a $400 dyno trip to Omaha's Sublime
Speed shop that got everything dialed in(4hours on their dyno at the
time at $110/hr.). Somewhere I posted on this list that it topped
out at 86 rear wheel horsepower and 104 ft.lbs. of torque. I'm sure
the guys in the shop could hardly keep from snickering at the site of
a VW bus getting dyno tuned.
It ran very well after all that investment, but upon permanently
moving back to Iowa in 2003, we discovered that the van would
gradually not start so well right down to 10 degrees Fahrenheit where
it wouldn't start at all. didn't have that trouble in
Arkansas. Have still yet to figure out how to dial in all the primer
maps and coolant temp maps etc, but we'll figure it out
eventually. For a long period of time, we could not get the old
Toshiba laptop to "communicate" with the Haltech ECU, so we had no
idea what was going on in there. Eventually the ECU crapped and it
had to go back to Australia to be repaired(the newer Haltechs run off
Windows and are much easier to deal with). The rebuild and shipping
set me back about $300 and I weighed that long and hard against
buying an updated model(the E6X). Seems that the USA repair shop in
Socal only can repair the Windows based units and the older ones have
to go "home". Going back to Berg's, they said that there were much
less expensive versions of ECU's out there on the market now and that
they don't fool with Haltech much any more.
Putting the rebuilt Haltech in last spring, the engine ran okay it
seemed, but definitely felt slow in the lower rpm ranges and for a
while I thought the low compression in the motor was the root
cause. At this point, my son has a new laptop and we can't get it to
run the DOS program for the Haltech, so we still don't know what's
going on inside the ECU and not really willing to go to Omaha for
another "expensive" tune up. As of a week or so ago, my son got this
DOSBOX program to open up the ECU and now we can communicate with the
ECU and the one glaring fact is that the TPS isn't working
properly. It gets to about 30% and further flooring ofthe throttle
sends it to zero. How many years it's been that way is a mystery to
us all. The Hit Man guy is simply a website in Penrith that has a
lot of valuable info on setting up these ECU's, but he is a Mazda
freak and although he as done a couple Golfs, the Vanagon is different somehow.
Long story short is that the new TOPS is going in tonight and we'll
go from there. Kinda wondering if the MAP sensor is toast also now.
Thanks for holding my feet to the fire and making cough up a little
history John
DM&FS
>What Australian masterpiece of an ECU? What hassles?
>
>Obviously I have missed something somewhere. Can you give me a
>point of reference - website or something.a little more on your problems.
>
>Thanks,
>
>John Rodgers
>88 GL Driver
>
>Max Wellhouse wrote:
>>Well, since I last whined about this Australian masterpiece of an
>>ECU, I've done a little research, but more importantly, my son's
>>installed a freebie from the internet called DOSBox and it's spozed
>>to let you run DOS programs from even the new Vista system. Well, he
>>got the laptop to communicate with the Haltech(something we haven't
>>been able to do for like 3 years) and after checking a few things
>>out, we find that the Throttle Position Sensor never reads above 30%
>>and shortly after that drips to zero. I guess the MAP sensor allows
>>the engine to run at some level, but I have in my hot little hands a
>>new TPS and will be installing it tomorrow night and hopefully after
>>re-calibrating it, we'll have peace and good once again. Then we can
>>program the idle air control and fool with the coolant maps and cold
>>start primer.
>>
>> BTW, there is a guy named Matt who calls himself the "Hit Man" and
>>he's out of Penrith, and his website and an email or two has brought
>>a lot of light to the problems I'm dealing with. Haltech has been
>>helpful too, but not like the Hit Man. Maybe one more update once I
>>get it all fingered out
>>
>>
>>DM&FS
>>
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