Vanagon EuroVan
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Date:         Mon, 1 Dec 2008 23:43:12 -0500
Reply-To:     pdooley <psdooley@VERIZON.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         pdooley <psdooley@VERIZON.NET>
Subject:      Re: Update on the Haltech ECU Hassles
Comments: To: Max Wellhouse <dimwittedmoose@CFU.NET>
In-Reply-To:  <20081202030339.955342331D6@pop2.cfu.net>
Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

I was one of those 11 to 17 others wondering about your SEM.

Fortunately for my wallet, Megasquirt is available now in a very reliable format with tons of online support and will control fuel and spark on these vans for about $200.

Of course the wideband O2 will set you back another $200 and the wiring harness is about $75, but you can't beat the price for total engine control and data logging of every conceivable parameter. Just to give you an idea of MS part prices- a user serviceable replacement ECU is $18 from DIYautotune.

I dunno about Haltech, but with MS the TPS signal is only used for acceleration enrichment and doesn't affect the engine running all that much. In fact, the fuel maps on most SEM's are heavily weighted on MAP and RPM. Everything else (warm-up, accel, 02 correction, etc.) is just small additives to the pulse width.

Heck, MS now has code that detects transient MAP behavior to trigger accel enrichment. This means you don't even need a TPS (I don't run one). But I'm not trying to turn this into a Megasquirt infomercial, even tho I guess I did.

First thing- Make sure all your sensors are functioning properly. If your unit supports data logging, run a log and look at the temp sensor outputs, MAP and RPM signal . Look for high/low extremes and noise in the signals. These problems will definitely make your van run bad.

-----Original Message----- From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of Max Wellhouse Sent: Monday, December 01, 2008 10:04 PM To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM Subject: Re: Update on the Haltech ECU Hassles

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 >> >>------------------------------------------------------------ >>+ To unsubscribe from the Vanagon List send an e-mail to >>+ listserv@gerry.vanagon.com with SIGNOFF VANAGON >>+ in the body of the message. >>------------------------------------------------------------ >> >

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