Is anyone using one for their turbo tuning? If so how user friendly is it? How is the tech support? I can buy one for $1500 Canadian (brand new) I've used the UTEC for a Subaru WRX and I didn't really like it. I would really like to hear people's opinions, I would like to go with a Pectel but $2500 american is a little too steep. thnx
Haltech E6X Engine management
osoausymemo
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Is anyone using one for their turbo tuning? If so how user friendly is it? How is the tech support? I can buy one for $1500 Canadian (brand new) I've used the UTEC for a Subaru WRX and I didn't really like it. I would really like to hear people's opinions, I would like to go with a Pectel but $2500 american is a little too steep. thnx
Did you read his post? Why not Haltec? Did you try the haltec on your car? you didn't give much info there.. just "no get SCT"...
I have SCT myself and just wondering why Haltec couldn't work? It IS a standalone afterall.. not sure if what features are missing or if there is any but.. answer didn't seem to convincing.. sry
anyway, do you know the Haltec
and the sct is about 1300$CAD with duties (about 200$ in duties taxes)
This has been discussed before, but since there is not search I will tell you what I found when I looked at trying the get Haltech (I ended up going with SCT but that is not your question...)
1. There is no standard wire harness for the Focus offered by Haltech. That means that you would have to create your own wire harness -- not very easy. There was someone trying to put together a group buy a while ago for the harness connectors itself, or you might be able to find one with an old ECU in a junkyard. You would want to use a harness so that you do not have to cut the stock wires (instead, plug in the harness and reroute the wires on the other side). You would then cut have to route each wire in the harness and route it to the appropriate pin on the Haltech. If you are going to keep your ECU stock to control power windows, etc. you need to be careful not to cut any wires that the ECU needs... and many wires will have to go parallel to both the stock ECY and the Haltech. To make matters more difficult, there is not a good wiring diagram for the Focus (at least not that I could find) that will tell you which wire is which ... so you have to trace lines from seneors, pumps, etc. There have been REPORTED successes with Haltech/Focus, but I was not able to get any detailed information from any of them when I looked about 6 months ago, nor was Haltech very helpful when I asked them on their tech support site. This is all very doable if you have a lot of time and are good with car electronics, and espeically if you can find the Focus wiring diagams!
2. Haltech does not offer any base fuel maps for the focus. Their software is supposed to be very easy to use, drag and drop fuel/air modification, etc. BUT without a base map it will be difficult -- it will be easy to blow and engine if you are not very cautious. You will have to develop your base map using computation and know enough to be able to get within 20% or so just using math. Again, if you have the time and skills, not impossible just not for the average joe.
3. If you decide to do this, I would be happy to help out if I can. I would love to have the option of using a standalone for strip use, but I did not have the time to figure all of the stuff above out. I did recently get teh DVD focus manual which has some more wiring information than was on the basic cdrom and I could search through it to see if there is enough info in there...
1. There is no standard wire harness for the Focus offered by Haltech. That means that you would have to create your own wire harness -- not very easy. There was someone trying to put together a group buy a while ago for the harness connectors itself, or you might be able to find one with an old ECU in a junkyard. You would want to use a harness so that you do not have to cut the stock wires (instead, plug in the harness and reroute the wires on the other side). You would then cut have to route each wire in the harness and route it to the appropriate pin on the Haltech. If you are going to keep your ECU stock to control power windows, etc. you need to be careful not to cut any wires that the ECU needs... and many wires will have to go parallel to both the stock ECY and the Haltech. To make matters more difficult, there is not a good wiring diagram for the Focus (at least not that I could find) that will tell you which wire is which ... so you have to trace lines from seneors, pumps, etc. There have been REPORTED successes with Haltech/Focus, but I was not able to get any detailed information from any of them when I looked about 6 months ago, nor was Haltech very helpful when I asked them on their tech support site. This is all very doable if you have a lot of time and are good with car electronics, and espeically if you can find the Focus wiring diagams!
2. Haltech does not offer any base fuel maps for the focus. Their software is supposed to be very easy to use, drag and drop fuel/air modification, etc. BUT without a base map it will be difficult -- it will be easy to blow and engine if you are not very cautious. You will have to develop your base map using computation and know enough to be able to get within 20% or so just using math. Again, if you have the time and skills, not impossible just not for the average joe.
3. If you decide to do this, I would be happy to help out if I can. I would love to have the option of using a standalone for strip use, but I did not have the time to figure all of the stuff above out. I did recently get teh DVD focus manual which has some more wiring information than was on the basic cdrom and I could search through it to see if there is enough info in there...
Did you read his post? Why not Haltec? Did you try the haltec on your car? you didn't give much info there.. just "no get SCT"...
I have SCT myself and just wondering why Haltec couldn't work? It IS a standalone afterall.. not sure if what features are missing or if there is any but.. answer didn't seem to convincing.. sry
anyway, do you know the Haltec
and the sct is about 1300$CAD with duties (about 200$ in duties taxes)
I'm having a BLAST with my ProRacer Package... awesome value and support.
Sorry jeff your post kind of made me laugh about the no base map for the focus they don't have one for most american domestic cars.
I've used one on a 88 mustang 2.3l already (no base map here either), it's not difficult to start the car and create a base map.
If you get the trim knob option it's even easier set it rich or lean until the car starts then go through the map and make adjustments for start up(i had the car running in about 45 minutes then off to have the rest of the setup tuned by a local shop), you can't screw it up as long as you set the base parameters up correctly . It's just as simple as a sds system is in that respect.
However you are correct about the wiring issues with the focus harness. But it may be easier just to cut the wires that go to what sensors the haltec needs and splice in there. (it's not super difficult to figure it out...egr and what not is where you start to run into problems anything that has to deal with the emissions system side, but generaly there's a seperate control module for airbag system and abs brakes in some applications).
Alamo autosports is a company that did the hook up succesfully with running the haltec system parallel to the focus ecu in there 2000 focus zx3. But i don't know how nice they are about giving out that information.
I'll get the contact info for them and post @ a later date. The book i have it in is currently not with me it's at a friends house.
But it can be done. Sometimes ford engineers if you talk to the right ones may be nice enough to get the wireing schimatics for you, they did this for one of my friends when he was working on his zx2 s/r.
You may loose your tach or speedo with the swap if the hook up isn't done correctly thats an issue and so is the emissions this is where you have to start to worry about running the system in parrallel to your standard ecu. I'm not sure what sensors control the emissions function on the focus ecu. If it's the egr and act that operate in conjuntion with the emmissions or what.
Try to contact westren motorsports out there in canada they may be able to do a sds system for your focus also.
Then there is always the sct system which is a pretty good alternative and elimnates alot of the stand alone ecu hassel.
I've used one on a 88 mustang 2.3l already (no base map here either), it's not difficult to start the car and create a base map.
If you get the trim knob option it's even easier set it rich or lean until the car starts then go through the map and make adjustments for start up(i had the car running in about 45 minutes then off to have the rest of the setup tuned by a local shop), you can't screw it up as long as you set the base parameters up correctly . It's just as simple as a sds system is in that respect.
However you are correct about the wiring issues with the focus harness. But it may be easier just to cut the wires that go to what sensors the haltec needs and splice in there. (it's not super difficult to figure it out...egr and what not is where you start to run into problems anything that has to deal with the emissions system side, but generaly there's a seperate control module for airbag system and abs brakes in some applications).
Alamo autosports is a company that did the hook up succesfully with running the haltec system parallel to the focus ecu in there 2000 focus zx3. But i don't know how nice they are about giving out that information.
I'll get the contact info for them and post @ a later date. The book i have it in is currently not with me it's at a friends house.
But it can be done. Sometimes ford engineers if you talk to the right ones may be nice enough to get the wireing schimatics for you, they did this for one of my friends when he was working on his zx2 s/r.
You may loose your tach or speedo with the swap if the hook up isn't done correctly thats an issue and so is the emissions this is where you have to start to worry about running the system in parrallel to your standard ecu. I'm not sure what sensors control the emissions function on the focus ecu. If it's the egr and act that operate in conjuntion with the emmissions or what.
Try to contact westren motorsports out there in canada they may be able to do a sds system for your focus also.
Then there is always the sct system which is a pretty good alternative and elimnates alot of the stand alone ecu hassel.
Can you explain this a little more? I thought at a minimum you would have to calculate your a/f tables based on voltmeter readings at the MAF... What exactly do you need to turn on the car, and how do you go about building the tables "on the fly" if that is what you are suggesting?
I don't see why you would want to run a haltech. What does it offer that the SCT software can't do for less money? Not to mention you would retain all your stock functions like fuel pump control, emissions, gauges, ABS, traction control, etc.
The last time I used a halltech (e6k) the software was anything but friendly. Maybe it's better now.
In my eyes it boils down to this:
Halltech: Start from scratch on wiring and tuning, with virtually no support from others who have done it. Questionable ability to support factory ECU functions.
Or buy the SCT package for less and basically just modify the factory tune to your needs. You'll be way ahead of the game.
The last time I used a halltech (e6k) the software was anything but friendly. Maybe it's better now.
In my eyes it boils down to this:
Halltech: Start from scratch on wiring and tuning, with virtually no support from others who have done it. Questionable ability to support factory ECU functions.
Or buy the SCT package for less and basically just modify the factory tune to your needs. You'll be way ahead of the game.
I would not want to run an standalone for street use -- no way. But it would be a nice option for track use, because it is should be more flexible even than SCT Pro (which I have). For example, the Haltech can be programmed to run supplemental injectors (for Toluene for example). It also has built in datalogging, and on the fly change capablity making fine tuning a lot easier than with SCT (where you have to do a dyno pull, reflash, second pull for each change if you really want ot fine tune). I am not knocking SCT Pro which I love and would not consider using anything except SCT for day to day drivability... and SCT does fine at the track too. I am just pointing out as the original poster I am sure was knows (why he was not asking about SCT) that a standalone does have its advantages.
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You guys have been extremely helpful thanks. Looks like I'm buying me an SCT. Now for piping. hehehe.
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