- It's Andre from High Performance Academy,
and we're here at World Time Attack,
Haltech stand with Nathan from Haltech.
And I wanted to take some time to chat to Nathan
about some of the advanced functions
with the Haltech Elite Race Expansion Module.
Now, we're seeing this Race Expansion Module used
primarily on some of the higher horsepower V8 cars
where the Elite 2500 on its own isn't enough
to function stage injection on a V8 engine, correct?
- Correct, yes.
So a lot of these cars are using a lot more functionality
to get down the track as quick as they can.
- Now, aside from the ability to then run stage injection,
stage sequential injection and direct-fire ignition on a V8,
which is essential just to get enough fuel into the engine
and then create the spark.
Really the aspects we wanna talk about, though, today
are some of the more advanced functions that are being used
really specifically in this drag application.
And one of the ones that I'm really excited about
is the torque-management that you've got here.
Now, this is nothing particularly new,
there's a lot of the U.S. competitors already
running products such as the MSD Grid,
and I think a U.S. mentality, even I'd go so far as to say
is adding on additional modules and boxes
into these cars to do specific functions,
and you're getting rid of all of that
with the Race Expansion Module,
bringing everything into the one place,
and the first aspect we'll talk about
is this torque management.
So can you give us a little rundown
on how the torque management works in the Elite?
- Yeah, definitely.
So the torque management is monitoring
the driveshaft speed of the vehicle.
So that has a pre-determined curve,
that's mapped out from all of the engine data that we get
and all of the data logging,
then you can go through and map it out a desired curve.
And then what the ECU does is actually monitor that curve,
how it's driving along it, and then, basically,
it'll start to pull out ignition timing if it needs to,
or even drop cylinders if it needs to.
And it's doing that on basically every pulse
that's coming through,
so it's actively going through and monitoring that signal.
- Now, for those who maybe aren't quite understanding
exactly what this really means, let's break it down.
Really, if we wanna call it what actually is,
it's traction control, isn't it?
- Yeah, basically what it is doing is limiting slip.
So slip, once the tire's already started
to slip significantly, the run's over.
So what you're trying to do is preempt that
by looking at the speed of the vehicle
and how that's changing using derivatives over time,
and then basically making some adjustments
as quick as possible to get on top of the tyre
so it's not going to slip.
- So what we've got here,
this ability to monitor the driveshaft speed,
which in this instance the wheel spin obviously
is directly related to driveshaft speed.
So then, what we're doing based on data,
presumably from a perfect,
or exceptionally good pass with no wheel spin,
and use that data on driveshaft speed versus time
to give what is the ideal driveshaft speed.
And then anytime the driveshaft speed goes above this line
during a pass, what this means is that the car
is then suffering from wheel spin.
Then the ECU can start taking preemptive measures
to reduce that wheel spin?
- Exactly.
So you do have that ideal curve that you want to run.
And the good thing about drag racing
is it's very repetitive,
so you know what the car should be doing for that track.
You can make some mild adjustments,
but pretty much that curve's gonna be
what you want the car to do.
- So in mild cases, where we're just starting
to see the driveshaft speed creep just, just above
that predetermined line,
we can reduce the engine torque and thereby
reduce the wheel slip by reducing ignition timing first?
- Yes, so these engines are quite large capacity,
big powered engines, so obviously
a retard is gentler on them and has a significant impact.
Dropping cylinders does upset the vehicle quite a lot,
so it's usually if you've gotten to that point,
it's, you're way off, so usually it's a retard that's used
to bring it back into line and get that traction
right where it needs to be.
- And I think it's probably worth also pointing out
particularly with these pro mod style car,
more often than not, they've got more power
than they can put to the track just about at any point.
So really one of the big challenges
which might not be obvious from the outset,
is getting these cars to go down the track
in the best time possible is really
a fine balancing act for the tuner,
in order to match the amount of power
the engine's developing to the amount of traction
at that particular point on the track, is that fair to say?
- Yeah definitely, definitely.
And there's so much going on,
so not only are these high-powered cars,
but you have such a short time-span to react.
So from the time when you've launched
through to hitting the traps,
there's only five seconds that's gone through.
A lot of stuff's happening in that time,
so you've gotta be really, really quickly in on it.
We're also running a lot of really small tyred,
high-horsepower cars, x275 cars,
so it's even worse for them
because the tyre contact surface is so much smaller.
So we're having great results with guys
running this type of technology and using the Haltech
to get them down the track quicker.
- Now moving on, the other function I wanted to talk about,
or another function I wanted to talk about
is your CO2 boost control.
So can you give us some insight into how that works,
and how we can make use of it?
- Yeah, so basically,
the CO2 control is doing closed-loop control
on the top hat and the wastegate,
as opposed to doing it from the intake manifold,
and that using CO2, so using a known pressure source
to monitor and map that boost control.
We also do that because we can map it
over the drag race itself,
so along with the torque management strategies
you can also go through
and progressively fade that power in over the run.
- So, here what we're doing rather than directly monitoring
and controlling boost pressure,
the pressure in the wastegate
ends up affecting our boost pressure,
so it's sort of a cause-and-effect.
The other thing with that as well,
and probably not such an issue
with these big-tire cars with reasonable traction,
and certainly I had this problem
with my own four-wheel drive drag car,
where there's a finite range
that we can run from the minimum wastegate spring pressure
through to maximum boost pressure,
and maybe if we've got a traction-limited car
where we need to launch with relatively low boost pressure,
perhaps 15 or 20psi,
then at the deep end of the track it's going to limit
how much boost we can get in,
so using CO2, maybe regulated to a higher pressure,
maybe 80 or 90psi,
that gives us a wider range
that we can vary the boost across?
- Yeah, you've got a wider range there.
You're also trying to regulate a smaller area, you know,
you're using that little hat,
so basically you can have a little bit finer control,
and it then does relate to what the manifold is seeing.
So the engine, obviously, once you're launching,
and it's so dynamic, that a lot can be going on,
so trying to control a smaller area is always easier.
- Now another function that you've brought
to the Haltech Elite is the ability
to control the pressure in shocks.
Again, really related purely to drag racing.
And again, this is another area where we saw another
external control box that was based off a timer to do that,
so you can now bring this in house, into the Elite,
and control it all from the one place.
- Yeah, and definitely the theory behind
the Race Expansion Module and the Elite range in general,
is to reduce the chance of problems in drag cars.
So traditionally, those same cars would have, you know,
up to ten boxes controlling all these different functions
with different timers,
and switching this and switching that,
and the wiring was mess, so when something went wrong,
where do you start to look?
Now you've got one connexion to one ECU
that has everything in front of you.
They're all geared off the same timer,
we have a race timer built in to it
that's triggered off by one single event,
so essentially the tuner can actually
tune and manage the whole car.
And that's from the traction control,
through the engine management, through to the boost control,
the shocks, the gearshifts, you name it,
it's all done through one system.
So, where there's sort of been this mentality
that no, no, nothing's fast enough
to be able to go and handle all those functions at once,
the Haltech is.
- Let's just talk about that, that processing speed,
cause I think this is a sticking-point,
and I know that a lot of these manufacturers
of these add-on boxes use this as a really big drive
for their marketing of how quickly these add-on boxes
can look at an input, calculate, and then decide what to do.
The reality that I think often is lost there is,
particularly if we take it back to basics
and look at the torque management or traction control,
it doesn't really matter how fast
we're looking at that driveshaft speed and processing that,
what's really important is we can't do anything
until the next time the engine fires,
so for you to say that's our limiting aspect?
- Yeah, well you're controlling an engine.
That's ultimately what you're doing,
and you can't affect it until the next cylinder event,
so as long as you can handle everything that has to be done
before that next event, then you're fine.
So, where you get into problems
if something is running lower,
or you're doing too many things that you run out of time,
and you miss an event, or two, or an engine cycle,
yeah, the race is lost.
So, we're well within those limits and doing more everyday,
so it's not a problem for the Haltech Engine Management.
- And nitrous as well, I know that you've done a lot of work
with the nitrous control strategy with this unit,
so can you tell me a little bit about this,
is it six stages now?
- Yeah, so we do up to six stages of nitrous control.
So, that's basically a dry system control,
so there's only nitrous,
or nitrous banks of nitrous solenoids,
we do all of the additional fueling through the Haltech.
That's along with everything else that's happening.
So, once again reducing the number of boxes,
and also improving the control you've got.
So, we're able to map those.
We have multiple configurations the user can change
on the fly to vary the amount of nitrous.
So, for a lot of guys that are doing no prep racing,
they can switch on and off various stages.
So they may only wanna run, say, two stages
instead of three states of nitrous.
We're doing stuff on big, big nitrous builds,
where they're banking the nitrous,
so we'll actually turn the nitrous on
on the left bank before the right bank,
to help introduce the nitrous cleanly,
and, yeah, just the sheer amount
that they're trying to run through these engines.
So, the nitrous coming on is like you're boost.
That's their additional, that's their power add-on.
So, the more finer control you have over that,
the better the car's gonna perform.
Once again, with traction being a big limiting factor,
you want that to come on as smoothly as you can,
and get as much as you can into the engine safely,
and that's where the Haltech adds that extra tunability.
We're doing the engine management completely,
including the power adder of nitrous,
so all in the one box,
we're doing all of the thermo control,
all of the thermo-couple monitoring,
safeties that are built into there,
we're monitoring nitrous pressures,
we're monitoring closed-loop AFRs while that's happening,
so it's all in the one system.
It makes it so much easier for the tuner.
- I mean, yeah, definitely.
From a tuner's perspective it makes perfect sense.
You've got control of everything in the one module,
there's no confusion between modules not talking properly,
and it simplifies the whole system,
and when reliability's key, obviously,
that's just so important.
Now if someone wants to find out more about the Elite range
and this Race Expansion Module,
how can they find out more?
Where should they go?
- Yeah, you could definitely go to the website
to find more information on the Haltech Elite series
as well as the Race Expansion Module.
If you're building a car to that calibre,
we probably suggest that you do give us a call,
and then we can go through the pros and cons
for all the different setups
and help you with what you need.
- Perfect.
Look, thanks for taking the time
to talk us through that product, Nathan.
- Yeah, anytime.