Haltech Stand alone ECU supercharger 3.4, SILVER BULLET TUNE www.snpspeed.com

It's a good idea to change or at least inspect your crank and cam sensors before doing a standalone.
Both sensors are magnetic so will hold onto any ferrous debris

This was muffling the signal on my crank sensor


Signal was dropping out on cam sensor at around 5.6k rpm. Swapped it to a new denso to bring redline up to 6k

Stick with denso sensors if you can

 

I replaced both my sensors , cam and crank with OME and made the tune much easier, but only after getting a new defective OEM camshaft sensor
.

 

SNSPEED shop tour,

 

My question on this setup as I'm sitting outside any type of tuning is how doable is this for someone that wants to tune but also not make it my life? Currently I have a 5vz thats supercharged 2.2 Pulley with 7th injector and water meth setup. Currently I mostly use my water/meth setup for hot days, or if I'm hauling etc, and will get an occasional ping, but I would say I'm pretty lucky that with the 7th injector generally I don't get any ping. I'll be honest I probably am under utilizing my water meth setup as I'm just using the standard ECU closed loop open loop system. I'm just wondering if for a daily driver does a setup like this become... overkill is not the word... but I guess is there a bell curve and my vehicle will start to become more temperamental and take a lot more upkeep if I start to get into this? I've been doing a ton of research from all of you guys on here, so I'm not going in blind, but I just want to know if there is a point of no return and I'll be wishing I hadn't overly tweaked my daily driver, or will I say, man, that was really really worth it... Like with the supercharger I was what I love about it is that its bolt on, and it made the vehicle drive like a more modern truck and just made it more fun without that much upkeep.

I'm sure this is worth it for what it does, I guess I'm just saying that does it cost you more time, or once tuned does it generally just work as it should?

I just know with other projects I've worked on in life, the more tweaking I do, there is sort of a point of no return where things become less reliable or start to be a big time suck. That being said I already spend hours and hours wrenching on this thing...

 

First, it depends on the standalone you use. I've had several in high performance vehicles, over the years, including AEM, Haltech and Motec. There are others, too. Some brands have hardware issues, some have limitations in what they are designed to do or circuitboard workmanship issues. The Haltech, Motec and similar are high-quality and reliable. They also have safety capabilities that can save your motor before you even know something is wrong. They allow turning options that you cannot access in your OEM ECU, because they do not exist there or some parameters cannot be changed in the OEM ECU. The expanded access in an aftermarket ECU can be a big plus, or can result in a "tuner" who has full access to more tuning parameters that they do not understand and a blown engine. Haltecs and Motecs can be safer, more capable, and also expensive to program and set up, unless you are very experienced both in that particular ECU and in high-performance engine management concepts in general. There are some very good books that you can read to understand the concepts, but that does not translate into you tuning it yourself, in most cases. So, YOU NEED AN EXPERT TUNER. There are lots of people who claim to be, fewer that actually are. If you have or find a good tuner, you will really like the increase in efficiency, driveability and performance and safety. If you don't, your experience may be much different, and the safety of your motor can be in jeopardy. So can your life, depending on if and when it fails or does not perform as you expect. So, before you buy, get good recommendations about both the ECU you are considering and the tuners who install and tune them. Don't just take a referral from an enthusiast who has one. He may think his tuner is great, but he doesn't know enough about tuning himself to tell the difference. Do you homework. Talk to lots of people. Ask the dealer about his experience and the platforms he specializes in working on, and how long he's been in business. Get recommendations from people who have had that dealer install them. Both Haltech and Motec have vetted dealers who are generally experienced and capable tuners. They often sell ECUs to customers who then sell them to vehicle owners. Some of these people are not authorized dealers themselves, and are not experienced and capable tuners themselves. If you get a good turner who you can communicate with, you will love a Haltech or Motec. That's the key. 1997tacomav6 looks like he has that kind of tuner and is happy with the outcome. If you can do that, you're golden.

 

I totally understand your situation. If you want that extra power the stock ECU will never get you there, haltech will.
I’m extremely happy with my haltech.
I’m a daily driver and have probably 60k plus miles on my haltech in the last 3 years.

The big advantages are the new torque in the midrange and for towing it will make a big difference,
You don’t rev the shit out of the motor anymore to get power because it’s there at the lower rpm’s.
I gain 62 more torque, 35hp in the 3-4k rpm range with the 5 speed over the stock ECU, auto will be little less.

The setup install can go easily or you can have road blocks to jump through.
Example, (crankshaft and camshaft sensor, ground wires, coils, plug wires, spark plugs, fuel pump, fuel filter, injectors cleaned,
battery, alternator,)
If any of these are not at 100 percent it will effect the haltechs operation with trigger issues.
The haltech is state of the art stuff and is being updated constantly.
Haltech also has live help where they can remote into your Haltech if you had so type of malfunction or issues too.

I would recommend GABE SALAZAR to do the remote tune unless you know your way around the block on tuning.
Gabe is the one stop place to go and has been working on Toyota motors for years with turbos and superchargers and makes a custom harness for the haltech as each year is different.
I had another local tuner 1st setup my haltech and he did a poor job just because he doesn’t understand the 5vz motor and I was very disappointed.
Gabe corrected the issues and got my truck to another level.

So realistically you will have some issues and tinkering to get the tune correct.
This is because these engines are pushing 20 plus years old and depending on the trucks electrical parts and engine condition if not working at 100 percent the haltech will have issues.

The haltech needs perfect information being feed to the ECU,
The stock ECU has lots of margins of errors that will still work.

Once it’s setup and tuned it doesn’t need anymore adjustments.
But there can be tweaking that can be done to get the tune perfect.
It also depends on what road you go=
Larger injectors or stock injectors with FMU and pulley size.
2.2” is very conservative

You can switch back to the stock ECU in less than 15 minutes so it’s not a point of no return type situation.

 

Every vehicle is different. It's hard to say what you may or may not run into when doing a standalone and getting it tuned.
I got my kit from Gabe and he helped me with the initial tune, but it's still not perfect. I still have idle issues that I'm trying to figure out on my own. But it's totally drivable though. There's only so much you can really achieve by doing a remote tune and not seeing and feeling how the truck is performing or what it is doing. It is up to you to convey that behavior over to the tuner, which is easier said than done sometimes.

 

That's very true. I've had the luxury of living close to my tuner, who has a dyno. Tuners who tune remotely have to resort to more generalized maps but can't see the data in real time, which is a limitation.

 

Very true!
And the other side of that is a remote tune is done when you actually are driving with a data log so you are tuning it with real wind forces pushing against you at 70 mph unlike a dyno tune there is no wind or resistance factored into the tune.
My 1st dyno tune was modified with better results with the remote tune,
But as stated the tuner only knows what information you tell him with the data logging and can be trial and error

 

That's true for some dynos, but some of the more comprehensive (and expensive) dynos have eddy-current brakes that can apply braking loads to the rollers in the same way that wind resistance can affect the system at higher loads.

 

My dyno is 100 an hour so it doesn’t have that option, haha

 

Technically speaking a dyno tune is much more ideal than a road tune, but an in person road tune will still be way better than a remote road tune. Around here the local shop has a 7000lb roller nascar style dyno for high speed steady state tuning and a smaller mustang AWD dyno with massive Eddy brakes for load simulation. Can really dial em in nice.

 

Its more important in my opinion to find a tuner that knows how’s to tune the 3.4 Toyota motor,
I learned the hard way by getting it tuned by a professional tuner the 1st go around but he didn’t know anything about the 3.4
motor and essential threw 8 hours of tune money down the drain because he couldn’t get the tune done correctly and I left with a poor tune and trigger issues and check engine light he couldn’t figure out.
As I said Gabe had to fix all his errors on the tune remotely.
He even had the tooth count setting setup incorrectly on the haltech and this guy is an expert in tuning but not 3.4 motors.
So if get a tuner that doesn’t know the 3.4 motor you might end up with problems like I did at 1st.

 

Hold up. Is it necessary to yank the motor or lift the cab for the CXR kit?

 

I don't think so. It's like installing any other headers for the 5vz, there's no room and it's a pain in the ass but possible still. Oil pan drop won't be fun though

 

Here is a new trigger section added with the updated firmware, shows trigger info, voltage crank and cam in real time and on a data log recording

 

I've been really liking the Nexus software so far. I think it's a real treat to use when looking at sensor data now.

 

I would think that it would be best to do an initial road tune and get it like 80% of the way and then really fine tune things on the dyno so you're not spending money for dyno hourly rates in addition to tuner time. More cost effective possibly that way.
I was told that doing a dyno tune will result in the tune being not as refined and richer than it should be due to the different loads than irl, but I don't know if I really believe that. Like you guys said, a proper eddy current dyno should account for that.

 

Idk if anyone else has experienced this or if I'm the only one with an automatic V6 (largest ECU pin set) but there's literally only one spot the PnP harness can go due to the top connector's/harness position above the factory ECU. This means that the duct to the passenger air vent either cannot fit back in or you have to crimp it to get it in, restricting their airflow and probably destroying the duct over time, not to mention the poor seal at the end is now worse.

 

I have a 5 speed and no airbag so there’s plenty of space, I know two others 2000 with automatic that were able to but I know it was tight however they did it