Max,

Thanks for the background story on the Haltech. To me, you are like a
great explorer traveling to conquer regions unknown to the common man -
er, Vanagon driver!  I know not of these things, but I'm always
interested. I appreciate your taking the time to tell the story.

Regards,

John Rodgers
88 GL Driver
Chelsea, AL

Max Wellhouse wrote:
> If one person actually asks a question, it is safe to assume 11 or 17
> others are at least thinking it. Without making a novel out of this
> posting, here is the short skinny on the Haltech Saga.
>
> In the year resembling 2001, i was faced with overhauling the engine
> in my 90GL.  The initial head rebuild had not lasted all that long
> and it was time to jump in with both feet.  I chose to buy one of
> Boston Bob's engines with a few breathing improvements to the tune of
> about $2200.  Noting the familiar issues with the Bosch ECU that came
> from the factory, I was researching aftermarket engine management
> systems and found that Gene Berg Enterprises sold a unit called a
> Haltech(www.haltech.com if you're real curious).  Gene's boy's were
> ga-ga over this system and raved about its ability to be custom-tuned
> to the individual engine it was managing.  At the time, the Haltech
> kit was only a couple hundred dollars more than a new Bosch brain, so
> I splurged.
>
> Haltech systems are usually used on racing vehicles and not daily
> drivers, but they are compatible with most any 1,2,3,4,5,6,8,10, or
> 12 cylinder engine and a wide variety of ignition systems.  The unit
> I bought, the then state ofthe art E6S, was run by a simple 600kb DOS
> floppy and you simply hooked up your laptop to the ECU and fed it the
> info needed to program the fuel and ignition maps.  Even with a guy
> that sort knew what he was gdoing with a laptop and a VW motor, we
> strugled to get it to run at any arpm.  Eventually we did get it
> running decently, but it was a $400 dyno trip to Omaha's Sublime
> Speed shop that got everything dialed in(4hours on their dyno at the
> time at $110/hr.).  Somewhere I posted on this list that it topped
> out at 86 rear wheel horsepower and 104 ft.lbs. of torque.  I'm sure
> the guys in the shop could hardly keep from snickering at the site of
> a VW bus getting dyno tuned.
>
> It ran very well after all that investment, but upon permanently
> moving back to Iowa in 2003, we discovered that the van would
> gradually not start so well right down to 10 degrees Fahrenheit where
> it wouldn't start at all.  didn't have that trouble in
> Arkansas.  Have still yet to figure out how to dial in all the primer
> maps and coolant temp maps etc, but we'll figure it out
> eventually.   For a long period of time, we could not get the old
> Toshiba laptop to "communicate" with the Haltech ECU, so we had no
> idea what was going on in there.  Eventually the ECU crapped and it
> had to go back to Australia to be repaired(the newer Haltechs run off
> Windows and are much easier to deal with). The rebuild and shipping
> set me back about $300 and I weighed that long and hard against
> buying an updated model(the E6X).  Seems that the USA repair shop in
> Socal only can repair the Windows based units and the older ones have
> to go "home".  Going back to Berg's, they said that there were much
> less expensive versions of ECU's out there on the market now and that
> they don't fool with Haltech much any more.
>
> Putting the rebuilt Haltech in last spring, the engine ran okay it
> seemed, but definitely felt slow in the lower rpm ranges and for a
> while I thought the low compression in the motor was the root
> cause.  At this point, my son has a new laptop and we can't get it to
> run the DOS program for the Haltech, so we still don't know what's
> going on inside the ECU and not really willing to go to Omaha for
> another "expensive" tune up.  As of a week or so ago, my son got this
> DOSBOX program to open up the ECU and now we can communicate with the
> ECU and the one glaring fact is that the TPS isn't working
> properly.  It gets to about 30% and further flooring ofthe throttle
> sends it to zero.  How many years it's been that way is a mystery to
> us all.  The  Hit Man guy is simply a website in Penrith that has a
> lot of valuable info on setting up these ECU's, but he is a Mazda
> freak and although he as done a couple Golfs, the Vanagon is different
> somehow.
>
> Long story short is that the new TOPS is going in tonight and we'll
> go from there.  Kinda wondering if the MAP sensor is toast also now.
>
> Thanks for holding my feet to the fire and making cough up a little
> history John
>
>
> DM&FS
>
>
>
>> What Australian masterpiece of an ECU? What hassles?
>>
>> Obviously I have missed something somewhere.  Can you give me a
>> point of reference - website or something.a little more on your
>> problems.
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> John Rodgers
>> 88 GL Driver
>>
>> Max Wellhouse wrote:
>>> Well, since I last whined about this Australian masterpiece of an
>>> ECU, I've done a little research, but more importantly, my son's
>>> installed a freebie from the internet called DOSBox and it's spozed
>>> to let you run DOS programs from even the new Vista system.  Well, he
>>> got the laptop to communicate with the Haltech(something we haven't
>>> been able to do for like 3 years) and after checking a few things
>>> out, we find that the Throttle Position Sensor never reads above 30%
>>> and shortly after that drips to zero.  I guess the MAP sensor allows
>>> the engine to run at some level, but I have in my hot little hands a
>>> new TPS and will be installing it tomorrow night and hopefully after
>>> re-calibrating it, we'll have peace and good once again.  Then we can
>>> program the idle air control and fool with the coolant maps and cold
>>> start primer.
>>>
>>>  BTW, there is a guy named Matt who calls himself the "Hit Man" and
>>> he's out of Penrith, and his website and an email or two has brought
>>> a lot of light to the problems I'm dealing with.  Haltech has been
>>> helpful too, but not like the Hit Man.  Maybe one more update once I
>>> get it all fingered out
>>>
>>>
>>> DM&FS
>>>
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>>
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