I haven't seen too many detailed reviews of either, so I was wondering if anyone has experience with it and the advantages of these units vs. the OEM unit for an SD tune. One disadvantage is that it can't use the Immobilzer code.

I found a review where Dave Buschur said his car revved quicker with a Haltech. If true, why would that be?

I'm just trying to wrap my head around things at this early stage since I just got interested in an aftermarket option after Abacus was raving about his AEM Infinity unit in the Evo Dyno/Tuning section. (Haltech and Infinity seem to be the most popular).

I know crispeed has experience with the Haltech units, but I haven't heard back.

 

The Haltech is a really nice Ecu. We are all spoiled by open source stuff, and aftermarket Ecu's for next to nothing. 10 yrs ago it was pretty much MoTec and it was costly.
Any Ecu is only as good as who sets it up. Is there a local tuner out your way that can put the car on a dynojet and tune it? It may also need a day or so to get the cold/hot starts dialed in as well.

Before I begin, the stock evo ecu with open source is one of the best stock ecu's on the planet. It works pretty well for most people but for high power or better tuning an aftermarket ecu is nice.

One of the differences between the stock ecu and aftermarket is the way its designed. The stock ECU was MAF and a number of nice people took the time to reprogram the code but I'm afraid its not as good as the native speed density language of a aftermarket Ecu. Most of the stock ecu speed density cars I've seen locally need a little time to warm up before being driven away. The night my Infinity was installed I was blown away and how much better it drove and the response it had.

A few features of a standalone.

Target AFR correction, When I ran sebring I looked at my wideband one time. The ecu will correct for fueling heating,temp, etc.. It also has a failsafe that if it goes over xx.x then it saves the engine from burning up.

Data logging speed is much faster then the stock ecu.

Sequential ignition , you can add/subtract timing/fuel per cylinder . Say you have one hole that is unhappy, you can address it.

Airflow model based (VE) tuning , with some ecu's they will suggest what to add/subtract to help tune the engine

Failsafe , a lot of sensors can be hooked up and you can tailor them to your needs.

Idle/AFR control, want to run it richer on start up with big cams? You can program almost any afr/coolant target you want.

Live changes, Add/subtract timing at idle or move the cams where you want to make it run better . No flashing/waiting. Jay Meagher ran my car part throttle and dialed the mivec in. IIRC it was 20whp or so.


There are more features but those are the big ones IMO.
Here are a few links to AEM and haltech's website

http://www.haltech.com/direct-plug-p...9-and-evo-8mr/
https://www.youtube.com/user/haltechecu/featured

http://www.aemelectronics.com/?q=pro...subishi-evo-ix

Should be able to download the software to view it
http://www.aemelectronics.com/?q=pro...ware-downloads
http://www.haltech.com/downloads-2/e...ware-firmware/

 

The are some clear advantages for standalone vs stock ecu, even though our stock ecu is actually quite capable with a lot of support. Abacus outlined some of the key ones. I'd say the newer gen 32bit stock ecus like the evo x with tephraxmod v3 are a BIG step forward and make it harder to choose standalone over that. But our ecu....having tuned both I really see clear advantages. Try driving a quality next gen standalone (vipec, aem infinity, link g4+, etc.) thats been well tuned and you'll just love how it responds vs stock ecu. Its like having full fat ice cream vs low fat. Its hard to say objectively whats different....but you know which one you like more.

Tuners will also feel more comfortable taking things more to the limit with the added precision and failsafes than stock ecu. Ie. if you were to define the optimum tune to last to 30k miles with a 10% failure rate, you'd be able to tune more aggressively (with lets say, more timing and boost) on a quality standalone with good failsafes than evo 8/9 tephramod ecu.

 

I will add some more to the above.


Native Flex Fuel Support(3d maps, mode select, and E%)
Dynamic Boost target
traction control
Native Speed Density
PWM Fuel pump control
Fail safes up the ***(Dynamic Boost Cut, Fuel pressure, oil pressure, oil temp, AFR)
Fuel/Ignition Trim per cylinder
Mode Selection for different maps Fuel, Ignition, Boost
Super fast boost target acquisition, and AFR Target
VE, if you loose your FPR the ecu will correct and stay on AFR target


Man I could go on for days about the Infinity .


So now down to why it is better.


Crank and Cam trigger resolution. If you can trigger your ignition and fuel injection with greater accuracy you should make more power, and rev faster, and have a smoother running car.








Also if the ecu is weather proof you can mount it in your engine compartment .