1986 GXL Turbo
Haltech e6x
Holset H1E on a turblown divided T4 manifold, wastegate is a Tial 44mm.
360whp+ on 14 psi, tuned at a dyno in late july, last time I touched the maps.
1500 completely problem free miles.

Drove it yesterday afternoon, ran fantastic. Parked it for a few hours, then I took her for a 45 minute drive to some friends for dinner. *About 30 minutes in, car started acting funny. *I thought I cracked the manifold. *Still made boost, but was missing a bit, there was a fluttering noise from the front of the car that got louder as you put your foot into it, *and it just ran crappy. *I limped it to where I was going, didn't see any cracks in the manifold. *

Tried restarting it, and it wouldn't fire, was backfiring really bad out the exhaust. *I got it fired by planting my foot on the floor, but it ran awful on one rotor, barely up to 1k, smoke pouring out the exhaust...and if I let off the floor, it died. * I took a datalog here and saw some spikes in the RPM. * Luckily I had my laptop along....I pulled it out and all of my PWM outputs had been turned off. *(?)

For ***** and giggles, I loaded an older map. *Fired right up, ran weird, like it had before, but it ran. *Re-loaded the current map, no go again. *Put the old map back on it, started it up, and the stock tachometer wasn't working. *Whatever, I'll worry about it after dinner.

Fired right up after dinner, all the gauges turned off when I turned the headlights on. *Stock tach is working again. * Illumination on the aftermarket gauges not working.*

I have no idea what's going on here. *I'm going to feel around and see if I can tell if the manifold is cracked...then maybe pull the manifold and check it and the gaskets. *

Going to check wiring to gauges and ECU, maybe something rubbed through or is loose. *

What do you guys think? Mechanical or electrical? Both? Is it possible my haltech corrupted it's map?

Here's the "fluttering" sound. Cracked manifold? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPJAhp3ZfdM

 

That is not the sound of a cracked manifold.

No customer has ever broken one of our manifolds and I would highly doubt it at your power levels unless the timing is way retarded.

Sounds like an spark or fuel issue. Just do the basics, check fuel pressure, look at the plugs, double check the timing, look at the engine page on the haltech and go from there...

 

It's never as bad as I assume I really didn't think it was, as I was still making good boost, but I thought it was weird that a noise like that would suddenly develop.

I was told in my build thread that I have one of your earlier designs not made out of 321 and I should brace it...and I haven't yet.

I went through the tune and for whatever reason, the Haltech completely went stupid and reset itself. It was in cylinder mode instead of rotor, batch fire instead of staging, injector trims all over the place, etc...I reset everything to where it should be, and the car runs again. There's still a noise coming from the exhaust....I thought it was a leak on one of the runners because of how it sounds, but it might be the downpipe. I loosened and re-tightend the vband and that seemed to help.

Now I have to get ballsy enough to boost on this thing again.

 

That unit you have is just 304SS, its probably 5 years old. We have changed over the years, and now we only do 321SS for the bigger frame stuff( 42R+). I would brace that turbo from the top.

That is scary the haltech reset itself. I would replace it, or it might cost an engine. When the motor is dead cold start it up and put your hands around the exhaust manifold, easiest way to detect leaks..

 

i had a similar problem and very strangely the issue was that my battery was very low on voltage. im not saying thats what it is for sure but dude it seriously wouldnt hurt to try and get that thing tested im dead serious. these haltechs act so weird when the battery is low and it will crank and everything will work like its got full power and **** no joke.

 

Thanks for that. My system runs around 15.0-15.2 volts...although I did let the car sit for a week or two and something killed the battery. Jump started it, it drove great for a week before this happened though.

 

that a little high in the volts.

 

yeah it sounds like you have a bad voltage regulator in your alternator. high voltage can be as harmful and worse than low voltage.

 

Yeah, I know it's a little high, but I've been keeping an eye on it...anything more and I'd be worried.

I have the alternator wired with a 0/2 gauge wire to the positive on the alternator, and a smaller spade connector to the terminal that's not to the warning light.

Do I need a wire on the warning light?

 

Okay, better question:

Does that sound like an engine that doesn't have compression on one or more faces? My compression tester is cheap, but I'm starting to believe it

 

well... 15 is a little high, but when you are driving and you see 12 V, do you keep driving, or pull over immedietly?

the stock alt is supposed to charge at 14.0 to a high of 14.4 volts.

 

It runs 14.8 to 15.2

More importantly, I think the engine is blown. Compression tested front face, and it's a piston compression tester and it's cheap, but it's worked alright before. 50 psi is all I could get it up 2 across 3 faces. Same on the rear, except there was an audible difference in the pops. PSSSH psssh psh PSSSSSH pssssh psh.



So, the Haltech died and took out my engine on the way.

 

damn dude i just heard from somebody that the e6x has so many problems and its no good. that sucks that the engine is gone rebuild it and go with the e6k

 

its only in the stock onboard reluctor adapters ,, and the K is certainly no better
needs a bit of experience to set them up,, and if in doubt err to the external reluctor adapter and let the haltech instead process the hall/ TTL signal it was always made for


BTW,, i have seen microtechs lose all the IG maps , the suspcion is a black EMF surge on shutdown
( flyback from some other big device with caps,, ie ,, an AMP )

 

Car is pretty stripped, really no accessories at all, and from what I can tell, it happened while I was cruising on the highway.

Car definitely has weird electric problems though...when I turn the car off, it will continue to run for a few seconds. Sometime when I turn the key off the door beeper sounds like the ringtone from Crank...lol. BEEEP BEEeeep beeep beep

I know it likely needs a rebuild, but I'd feel stupid pulling it if I didn't have to. Gonna take a video after work and you guys should tell me if I need to pull it.

 

thats shitty news man

if you need my hoist, let me know.

 

I will definitely need it....at some point.

Your compression tester is tucked away with that, too, right?

 

thought you had a tester? if not, sure.

 

I do...but if you hold the button down, it doesn't do individual faces, it just stays at 0. I want a second opinion before I yank and dissassemble the engine.

 

ok... sure thing... when ever you need it.

 

So it's ******* hard to hear in the video...this is with 3 spark plugs in, the hole is L2.

one loud pop two smaller ones. I'm pulling it.

 

that.. is an alternator problem.

 

Just as an FYI - the max input voltage for the E6X is 16 volts. Although unlikely, its possible your overcharging electrical system might have done something to the ECU.

Along with whatever engine repairs need to be done, I'd be concerned about the charging system in the future. Eliminate that variable as a cause for this failure.

 

Thanks guys.

Yeah, I knew it wasn't quite right, but generally seeing 14.8v, maybe up to 15.2, I didn't think it was severe enough to worry about. I'll figure it out after replacing whichever seals need replacing.