So who's played with Haltechs?

**takai** · 22-05-2006, 01:12 PM

Does sound a lot like the high tension leads giving some funky readings.

**thechuckster** · 22-05-2006, 02:21 PM

my MS did this when i first got it to idle - turned out my earths were up the shit.

Some of the MS guys run separate earth return for each sensor that doesn't earth thru the engine - also separate the earth for the igniter from the ECU. The fact you've got noise when the coil is in play suggests its not filtering ringing from the coil.

My coil driver (3 pin chip instead of toyo igniter) is inside the cabin but the earth it's providing goes right back out to the mount for the coil.

You should snaffle Wilbo's CRO to check that you do have the polarity of the dizzi VR sensor around the right way.

Off the wall: did you check the air gap between the VR sensor and the toothed wheel in the dizzi? If it's too wide you will get poor signal (especially at cranking).

**Norbie** · 22-05-2006, 02:29 PM

Originally Posted by thechuckster

Off the wall: did you check the air gap between the VR sensor and the toothed wheel in the dizzi? If it's too wide you will get poor signal (especially at cranking).

I didn't even know this was adjustable. Do you know the procedure for checking it's within spec?

**Ben Wilson** · 22-05-2006, 02:40 PM

I've always set them to bugger all (I used a bit of paper folded in half), it's a bastard of a job becuase they keep bloody moving...

**thechuckster** · 22-05-2006, 02:50 PM

i used the specs for the 22RE-in-a-celica from my haynes manual - 0.008-0.016 inch

is just like adjusting points - when you remove the (easily broken) plastic cover, there's two screws clamping the sensor to the vacuum advance plate.

fwiw, I get a strong (if variable) signal at 200-250rpm now.

**Norbie** · 22-05-2006, 02:52 PM

Ta muchly, I'll give that a go when I pull the distributor out again.

**Norbie** · 29-05-2006, 09:26 AM

Update: it starts, it runs! Woohoo!!!

Big thanks to thechuckster who had an 18R distributor with a hall effect sensor in it. These are obviously far less susceptible to electrical noise, all I had to do was hook up one wire to the Haltech and I got a perfectly clean RPM signal even when the ignition leads were right next to the signal wire.

So that's everything hooked up and working properly now! All that remains is to mount the ECU in the cabin, chop a hole in the firewall for the wiring harness, and cut all the wires to length so it's nice and neat. Then it's off to the dyno to get a tune and the real fun begins - get some custom pulleys fabricated and mount an SC12 supercharger off the aircon bracket. I've got real engine management now so I can do silly stuff like this!

After all of this my opinion of the Haltech E6X is very good - the only drama I had was with the stupid Toyota reluctor trigger, and I was warned about that from the beginning so no surprises there I guess, but the rest was easy as pie. So far it hasn't cost me anything beyond the $1500 for the E6X package (including loom, sensors, relays, fuse block etc) and I don't expect I'll have to fork out for anything else apart from the dyno time. Pretty good value I'd say!

Big thanks to everyone who gave advice in this thread, it's been a great help. Where would I be without Toymods?

**takai** · 29-05-2006, 09:37 AM

Regarding what i posted before about the ECU rattling in the casing, according to Haltech it is designed like that, and will only rattle without the plug plugged in. When its plugged in the plug acts as a mounting locator to locate the rest of the board in place.

**pilot** · 29-05-2006, 12:14 PM

Hi Norbie, I´m sorrie I got to this topic so late. Maybe I could have saved you from such a disgusting experience (the reluctor one. I passed through the same back in february).

I have a 18R-G with ITBs and Hall effect sensor on the dizzy running sequential injection and wasted spark ignition.

You can see it here:
http://www.toymods.net/forums/showthread.php?t=3620
and more in my web page: www.celicagt.com.ar

It would be great to be able to share experiences on the same kind of engine.

I am very interested in the 18R Hall effect dizzy that you used. Can you tell me more about it? In which vehicles did it come? Maybe I can find one here.

**thechuckster** · 29-05-2006, 12:15 PM

cool! great to hear it runs!!

what was different about the wiring on thursday night? was wrong trigger wire used or something more complex?

pilot: the trigger is a Pertronix unit - i originally bought it to fire the coil in my old turbo setup.

**pilot** · 29-05-2006, 12:19 PM

Originally Posted by thechuckster

pilot: the trigger is a Pertronix unit - i originally bought it to fire the coil in my old turbo setup.

So it isn´t an original part? Is this a direct fit thing? I assembled my original 18R-G points dizzy with a original VW parts (a hall effect sensor and the reluctor) making and additional "window" on the little "bell" ("reluctor" or whatever it is called in Hall effect systems).

BTW: it is great to know that the reluctor problems is not Wolf ECU´s specific!

**thechuckster** · 29-05-2006, 01:34 PM

It's this unit <http://www.pertronix.com/ignition_products/ignitor.htm>

I bought it thru a performance shop locally - was intended to be no-maintenance replacement for the points setup (which it did well).

has collar that slips over the stock 'cams' on the shaft and pickup unit bolts onto same location as the points did.

**Norbie** · 29-05-2006, 01:57 PM

Originally Posted by pilot

Hi Norbie, I´m sorrie I got to this topic so late. Maybe I could have saved you from such a disgusting experience (the reluctor one. I passed through the same back in february).

Don't worry, several people had told me it would be very difficult to get the reluctor working but as usual I didn't listen.

I'm sure with enough time and effort you could make it work properly but I ran out of patience, and Charles came up with a relatively painless solution which worked perfectly.

Charles: it turns out the hall effect sensor needs a 12v power supply to work properly - obviously the regulated 5v supply we tried wasn't enough. So I hooked up ignition power to the red wire and connected the black wire to the ignition trigger circuit on the Haltech, and that was it! Couldn't be easier, and I have no problems with electrical noise at all.

**Norbie** · 24-07-2006, 04:50 PM

Update for anyone who's interested: the Celica is back home after being tuned by Matt Spry from PITS at the Gold Coast. Hooray!! Took long enough to get to this point, but at least it's done and I've learned more than a few things about installing aftermarket engine management.

Apart from an intermittent ignition fault (similar to what was happening with the old reluctor trigger but not as bad) it's running sweet, I'm pretty happy with it for now. The next thing to do is get rid of the problematic distributor-mounted ignition trigger altogether, and replace it with a proper crank mounted hall-effect sensor and individual coils. All that can wait until the new turbo engine is built though, what I have now is working OK for a daily hack.

Oh and the best power run on the dyno was a mighty 90rwhp. Phear teh 18R-G!!!!!111one