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jalalski
Date Registered: 02-2004
Location: SUTHERLAND, SYDNEY
TOTAL POSTS: 29100
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Re: "Piggy Back" ECU
OK Guys,
Here is the full report.
Arrived at AUTOTECH Engineering at around 8am yesterday and was greeted by the guys there and the owner (Spiro)
One of the guys left straight away to get the HALTECH Interceptor from Haltech.
Meanwhile they put my exy on the dyno to get the current power readings.
Sorry about the quality of the pics, my camera died so I had to use my mobile.
The Haltech Miniceptor arrived in a couple of hours and the electrician started wiring it up to the ECU using the ECU wiring diagrams I had printed and the manual supplied by Haltech.
The wiring job was far from being easy, even with the diagrams in hand and it took about 3 hours or so to wire it up and find a good place for the piggy back ECU which ended-up being where the original ECU is (behind the passenger glovebox)
Now that the Haltech was connected, it was time to program it before the car can be started and out on the dyno again for tuning.
Problem #1
The laptop would not communicate with the Haltech for some strange reason and the car won't start at all.
There was no ignition coming through at all and the check engine light came on straight away.
This is the part where I started sweating and getting VERY nervous
Back to the drawing board with the wiring and this time Haltech was on the phone helping them out and they have confirmed that my exy is the first exy to have the Haltech fitted, as they have only fitted this piggy back to the Hi-Octane Racing Turboed exy before.
What a relief I thought and my heart sank even deeper
They have rewired everything and connected the laptop...contact made and the Haltech came-up on the screen.
Problem #2
RPM reading...check
Ignition Timing Reading...check
Fuel:Air Ratio Reading...check
TPS (Throttle Body Position Sensor) Reading, nowhere to be seen and it is giving a constant Full Throttle reading instead
Check Engine Light is still on!!!
The exy can not be put on the dyno and tuned with this fault on board.
This is now around 5:30pm and the electrician (Peter) is on the phone to Haltech trying to work out why the TPS is not coming-up correctly.
Haltech said, clear the error codes, as it would have been caused by starting the car when it was incorrectly wired-up (see problem #1)
The throttle position had to be re-calibrated manually by setting the correct voltage of the sensor....This included numerous attempts to get the correct voltage and capture it on the program controlling the Haltech on the laptop and doing the throttle position sensor learning procedure with Consult plugged in.
By 6:30pm we finally made it and had all readings and settings showing correctly on the laptop.
Time to put the exy on the dyno and start optimizing the tuning and settings.
This is Spiro's job as he is the only one that has the level of experience to get the optimized settings and get as much power as possible from the engine.
The dyno run was done in shootout mode in 2WD mode (my auto exy worked fine in 2WD mode on this dyno, unlike the previous one I used)
The Haltech was temporarily disconnected to get the "Before" readings and then it was time to start tuning.
This involved about 20-30 shootout runs and my exy was screaming its guts off in the process and producing such a powerful sound which I could only imagine a 4 cylinder engine to produce
Nearly everyone standing near the dyno thought I had a turbo in it due to the sound that a CAI made as well as our favorite "the secondary lower intake butterflies and our favorite screws"
I didn't worry about that, as my exy had these butterfly screws locktit/ed at the dealership when I complained about them.
I could never have imagined for my exy to reach 200kms/hour but it did !!!
I kept watching the bonnet closely fearing that my engine is gonna pop-out and bash me for doing this to it. hehehehehe
Anyway, the existing settings I had confirmed my earlier suspicion that my exy was running far too rich (which impacted my fuel economy greatly) it had a setting of around 11.1 which is WAY too rich and this was mainly caused by the CAI as I explained earlier and the incorrect ignition timing.
Spiro told me to jump in the car with him and he started tuning the exy while I was on board. He has done a fantastic job and tuned the air:fuel ratio as well ignition timing for EVERY RPM range all the way to 180kms/hour and the rev limiter at 6,700RPM
Sitting inside the car on a dyno when it reaches 180Kms/Hour is a feeling I have never experienced before and this is the time I think when I pulled a muscle in my back from trying to brake hard in the passenger seat. hehehehe
The power graph started to climb rapidly after every tune and change of setting by Spiro and the fuel:air ration was optimized in the process as well.
We started from 88KW and it only got better and better after that and peaked at 99.5KW (or 133HP)
At the end of the day (errr..night) the total power gain was around 12KW (16HP) from before fitting the Haltech, but the main improvement is in the fuel:air ratio settings and ignition timing which were all over the place and caused me problems.
The Dyno Graphs below show what we have achieved.
Power and Fuel:Air Ratio Readings (before & after)
Power and Torque Readings (before & after)
This an overall improvement of 8% in power after fitting the Haltech Miniceptor!
Spiro got excited and wanted to take the exy for a test drive after this, as he has never seen this beast before LOL
I was in the passenger seat when we hit the highway and Spiro floored it.
I tell ya what, this is the first time I get scared sitting inside my exy, as it reached 140kms/hour in a blink of an eye and with so little effort!
Even the sound of the engine was super quiet and didn't sound under load at all.
We finished at around 9pm and at this stage, I couldn't even stand on my feet after 13 hours of anticipation, worry and then relief
This is THE BEST investment I have made in terms of performance modifications and I will be watching the fuel closely, as Spiro said it will definitely improve....not sure how with all this power under my pedal LOL
I have to tell you that this piggy back will be a MUST for anyone going beyond the full exhaust system replacement modification, as our ECU will reach the limit of self-adjustment as soon as you fit a CAI.
P.S. Spiro saw the throttle body spacer and said it is a very good idea and does indeed work and give results.
So, here you go, this is my story and yet another item has been crossed from my wish list.
I have to be honest and say that this will probably be the end of the road for me in terms of power mods.....to THIS engine
Last edited by jalalski, 20/Nov/2011, 7:09 am
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5/Sep/2007, 7:11 pm
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Revhead Kev
Date Registered: 10-2006
Location: Mona Vale, Sydney, AUSTRALIA
TOTAL POSTS: 6355
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Re: "Piggy Back" ECU
Excellent Jalal.
I also will be considering this when my Xtrail comes off the lease and I can fit a CAI.
I will be very interested to hear your fuel economy figures before & after fitting the piggy-back.
I am interested to know what Spiros thinks about an ECU reset once the piggy-back is fitted.
Last edited by Revhead Kev, 6/Sep/2007, 12:20 am
--- Kev X450(c) T30 Guru
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6/Sep/2007, 12:19 am
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jalalski
Date Registered: 02-2004
Location: SUTHERLAND, SYDNEY
TOTAL POSTS: 29100
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Re: "Piggy Back" ECU
quote: Revhead Kev wrote:
I am interested to know what Spiros thinks about an ECU reset once the piggy-back is fitted.
I have already asked him this question
The principal of having a piggy back connected to the factory ECU is to fool the ECU by sending commands to it through the Haltech piggyback and only for specific paramaters (example: fuel maps, ignition timing..etc) When the factory ECU is re-set, it will only re-set the rest of the codes and not the ones being controlled by the Haltech.
So, if I take it to the dealer and they plug in their Consult to perform the standard ECU re-set procedure, it will not impact the Haltech settings in any way.
The only way to have the Haltech re-set is to use a dedicated terminal interface through a laptop and a special program. I currently have this terminal hidden away near the Haltech ECU for future tunes and re-sets, as well as software upgrades.
Last edited by jalalski, 6/Sep/2007, 6:03 am
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6/Sep/2007, 5:40 am
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jalalski
Date Registered: 02-2004
Location: SUTHERLAND, SYDNEY
TOTAL POSTS: 29100
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Re: "Piggy Back" ECU
quote: Canadas FarEast wrote:
You could very easily surprise a lot of guys at a traffic light with all the performance mods you have done.
Cheers
I have been doing that for the last 2 days driving to work and back and I must admit it feels good when you see someone pulling-up at the lights next to me after I "surprised" them at the first set of lights, honk the horn and signal me to talk to them, for them to ask what sort engine is in the exy and followed by a comment "awesome looking car" hehehehehe
I just hope I won't attract the attention of the boyz in blue
In terms of fuel, this tank will be for "field testing" only I will start measuring the fuel economy from the next tank.
I also forgot to mention that my car was tuned based on the fact that I am using 98 octane fuel only, so there is no turning back now to a lower grade fuel!
Last edited by jalalski, 6/Sep/2007, 11:04 am
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6/Sep/2007, 9:30 am
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jalalski
Date Registered: 02-2004
Location: SUTHERLAND, SYDNEY
TOTAL POSTS: 29100
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Re: "Piggy Back" ECU
Thanks Brett,
Actually the search for leaning the fuel mixture and adjusting the ignition timing to meet every RPM range AND the total lack of control of our ECU, is what led me to this gadget. The power increase was a secondary target for me, but it is a bonus which I won't complain about for sure
0-100 times will be coming soon, as soon as it stops raining here
P.S. Can you help with your speed gun? hehehehe
Last edited by jalalski, 6/Sep/2007, 6:51 pm
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6/Sep/2007, 6:49 pm
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jalalski
Date Registered: 02-2004
Location: SUTHERLAND, SYDNEY
TOTAL POSTS: 29100
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Re: "Piggy Back" ECU
Hi Rich,
Yes mate, this will be the end of it when it comes to performance mods. I got more than enough power for what am using the exy for and I don't want to touch the internal parts of the engine at all. It's a keeper and I want this engine to last me for a while.
I know there is probably another 20KW or so that can be added with different mods to the internals, but am not looking for that. Had it been a sports car, it would have been a different story
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6/Sep/2007, 7:48 pm
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