Haltech E8 timing - Dizzy

[Invid]

I'm setting up my dizzy to be used with a Haltech E8, I have disabled the mechanical advance as the ECU will now be controlling advance. How should the dizzy be bolted to the engine block, in full advance position, no advance or some other angle?

Thanks

[thechuckster]

you want the trigger angle (when the tooth passes the sensor) to be about around 50-60 degrees ahead of #1 TDC. Am not sure of the naming that Haltech uses but you want the input trigger to occur before the maximum amount of ignition advance and also allow the ECU enough time to do anything else funky (e.g. injector phasing, dwell, etc) before it fires the coil.

[Invid]

What about physically bolting the dizzy to the block. Does it matter what angle this is done at? ie. mechanical advance?

[turbo ke20]

just put you motor to TDC and line the dissy up to fire number one as you would normally.
Once you get it started you can lock the timing through the ecu at 10 degrees and then get the timing light and check it on the crank pulley. adjust your dissy till it matches the 10 degree mark.

that should be all u have to do

[1JZ-Rolla]

Spot on turbo KE20, i'll second that process

Out of interest Seb, how did you lock the distributor?

Cheers
Phil

[turbotoy]

I think what you are asking is called rotor phasing. The only way I know is get a spare dizzy cap. Cut a hole around number one spark and put the rotor button in the the middle of the cap. Also go to Haltech website and look at some of the older computer instructions it has a section on rotor phasing.

[Invid]

Hey Phil, at present the weights and vacuum hosed have been removed from the dizzy. Still investigating if I need to do anything else at this point to stop the mechanical advance. All the advice I've been given so far indicates that that is sufficient. Been getting some interesting results though when trying to start the engine (can anyone say flame-thrower). Hopefully have it solved but need to charge the battery a bit before I can test it out.

Turbotoy: I've never heard of rotor phasing. The dizzy is working fine just wasn't sure what angle to clamp the dizzy down to. Will do some research into phasing as it sounds interesting. Thanks for the tip.

[turbotoy]

You should clamp it down at maximum advance you plan to run then add 10 degrees. For example if you want 50 degrees total advance clamp it down at 60 degrees. That is max advance plus ten degrees for Haltech calculations delay. All before TDC. hope this helps

[Invid]

I'm going to have to show my ignorance here, how do you know what angle the dizzy is set at, there is no markings on the bottom of the dizzy or on the block to show what angle it is set at? Or have I completely missed the point?

[thechuckster]

you want the leading edge of the rotor to be at #1 when the crank is at 10-20 BTDC , you want a tooth on the trigger wheel to be at the leading edge of the sensor when the crank is at about 60 degree BTDC. Then set ecu to fire at 10 degrees BTDC and adjust/rotate dizzi until you get the timing mark on the crank at the 10 degree mark on the timing cover.

You set it up somewhere near right, then use the locked timing feature of your ECU to then adjust the dizzi into the right spot. You don't just bolt on the dizzi and do the rest in the ECU (otherwise the rotor may point at the wrong spot during certain ranges of advance.

fwiw: setup instructions for my ECU (MxExtra Hi-Res)

Setup - VR sensor
1) Set the crank at 20BTDC
3) Make sure the rotor arm points towards the correct contact in the distributor cap
4) Bolt down the distributor
5) Turn engine backwards until the pip (trigger tooth) lines up with the VR sensor
6) Measure angle BTDC (+/- 10 degrees is good enough) at the crank
7) Enter measured angle in "Trigger angle" of Spark Settings
8) Enter "Fixed angle" to 10 degrees this tells the ECU to ignore the spark map and hold it to the Fixed Angle.
9) Start the engine
10) Adjust "Trigger angle" until the timing light is at 10 degrees
11) Set "Fixed angle" to -10 , this tells the ECU to run from the spark map again.
12) Start tuning

[Invid]

Well I tried what you suggested,
1.set crank pulley to point to 20 deg
2. made sure rotor arm was pointing to lead 1 on the dizzy.
3. Bolted down the dizzy.
5. Turn back engine...

at 20 deg the pip is pointing to the reluctor pick-up.

So would that mean. trigger angle is 0 or 20?

[thechuckster]

weird - you should have had to rotate the crank further backwards by another ~30 degrees or so before the trigger tooth was facing the pickup.

can you rotate the plate that the reluctor is mounted so you have to rotate the crank further backwards?

you do need a time gap between when the ECU gets a trigger and when it fires the coil

fwiw: my dizzi guts came out of a 22RE and the 18R dizzi had vacuum advance on it - i vaguely remember positioning the sensor so i got my 50+ degree trigger angle.