Hi and welcome to the first Haltech Q&A for 2018.
This is a segment where you ask the questions and we give you the answers.
Our first question today comes from crow4ever and they ask:
Is it possible for the ECU to control an exhaust cut-out butterfly valve?
Well, Crow, the answer is yes.
Some of these butterfly valves or these exhaust bypass valves are actually
available in standard cars. Some of the European cars have them and they bypass
some of the mufflers in order to make them quicker or make them sound better.
In the Haltech system we can control these valves using some of our
generic output tables. What we'll do is set up a generic output table that'll
go to your valve controller, so that when we either press down on our throttle pedal,
or we reach a certain amount of boost pressure or a certain amount of RPM
it'll then activate the controller the valve will open in order to get
more exhaust flow or more noise out of your car.
Our second question today comes from Kirk W...
and he asks: What is a piggyback installation?
Kirk, this is a really good question
and truthfully one that we don't actually get asked that much
but one that I agree is certainly something that we need to talk about
A "Piggyback" ECU installation can be one of two things. The first one we'll talk about
is a "signal bender" style ECU installation. That's referred to as
the first style of piggyback and the way that style of system works is by
intercepting the crankshaft sensor so that we can intercept how fast
the computer thinks the engine is turning so if it we can speed it up or slow it down
by intercepting the crank sensor signal as well as intercepting or cutting into
the load sensor so that might be the throttle position the air flow meter or
the manifold pressure. By cutting into that signal we feed the sensor into
an ECU and then out of the ECU back to a factory computer. We can then adjust
how much load the computer sees. That's why it's called
a "signal bender" because we're bending or we're manipulating the
factory senses in order for the factory ECU to see a different load and then
give us a different fueling or different ignition value.
The second style of piggyback ECU installation, which is a lot more popular
is where we leave the factory computer in place but we also wire in a full standalone ECU.
The full standalone ECU shares all of the sensors with the factory computer.
So that would be the crank sensor, the cam sensor, the air temp,
the coolant temp, the throttle position, the manifold pressure.
So both computers are looking at all of the sensors. We would then cut the injectors
and the ignition and maybe the cam control as well
off the factory computer and allow that aftermarket ECU to control those things.
So now you'd end up with a factory computer that's got all the sensors
going into it but not controlling fuel and ignition.
Whereas the aftermarket ECU would be controlling the injectors,
the ignition and the cam control.
The benefit of doing it like this, is that we can leave the factory computer there
and it might still be controlling all of the dash, it might be doing the air conditioning system,
it might be doing a factory automatic transmission.
So that way we can share the load between the two ECUs.
We can let the Haltech ECU or the aftermarket ECU control the engine
and the engine power. And the factory ECU is left there to control the rest of the car.
Our last question today comes from Jarmo:
Is it possible to do boost-by-gear on my R32 GT-R without adding any extra sensors?
Jarmo, the answer is yes. On your R32 GT-R we should have a speed signal
going into the ECU so that way we know our road speed.
You've also got engine RPM because we've got our crank angle sensor coming in
So because we know the road speed and we know the engine RPM, the one thing that
we need to enter into the ECU is our gear ratio.
That gives us a relationship between the road speed and the engine RPM.
So that at any time we know what gear you're in. So it's that simple.
In our ECU you would cruise, drive along, be online with the ECU, go into our Gear Setup
cruise along in first gear - press READ. It's that simple!
Get into the second gear, cruise along at a steady RPM - press READ.
Do this for each gear that you've got. If you've got an R32 GT-R, it's a five-speed.
Once you have done that APPLY and OK.
From there, whenever you choose a gear that gear ratio will let the ECU know
exactly what gear you're in so you can then do boost-per-gear.
You can also display that on any of your CAN based Dash systems.
Well that's all the questions we've got today. We're always looking for more questions
So if you've got one you're thinking about right now...
Leave them in the comments below, jump on our Facebook page or
www.haltech.com is probably the easiest way to give us your questions.
When we get them - keep on watching, we will definitely be answering them
in the upcoming videos!
My name is Scott. As always, thanks very much for watching and I'll see you next time!