Random stalling issue with vn 304

[lb9]

I haven't had a chance to pull it back apart since I've gotten it back. I might do that because I'm interested to see what they have replaced it with.

 

[NORTI]

unfortunately, since most of them are all old stock now, (more than 15 years old) all the issues are starting to arise. Haltech support here in Australia are awesome and are super easy to deal with and they cover this issue under warranty no matter the age of the ecu. I had the Ecu back within a week sending it to and from Sydney and was assured that any other issues would be covered aswell.

We purchased in a GM sport Nov 2023 (no stock issues and had to have it sent from interstate) and had a pretty serious issue in late December which has caused motor damage. We are still working through what failed to cause the issue. Haltech failure has been flagged as a possibility.

 

[lb9]

Wow.. that would have to be a pretty catastrophic failure to do that. what kind of damage did it cause? how long after getting it tuned did it happen?

 

[NORTI]

Wow.. that would have to be a pretty catastrophic failure to do that. what kind of damage did it cause? how long after getting it tuned did it happen?

timing spike was the issue. ran hot & lean enough to melt plugs and damage piston. damage occurred first test run after tuning. Damage was found a few days after that.

Trying to now establish if poor tune, Haltech spike, or a wiring issue leading to a volt jump. Everyone has theories.

But we have a freshly built motor with damage to piston & loss of compression on its first non dyno run. So unhappy doesn't really cover it.

 

[lb9]

sounds to me like a poor tune... pistons and plugs wont melt instantly. but I don't know how the car was running on the dyno so I can't really have an input. I definitely know how you feel though. went through 3 sets of crow cams and lifters before i gave up with them and went with a Clive cam setup. (all were good upon inspection and assembly, apparently something to do with the composite of the steel blah blah blah) between that, rear main issues and ecu problems its finally good to have the thing actually drivable.

 

[Forcedvp]

I think the oil pump pressure switch will keep providing power to efi if there the efi relay/fuse fails. Basically a back up to get you home. Glad you resolved it and running again.

 

[NORTI]

sounds to me like a poor tune... pistons and plugs wont melt instantly. but I don't know how the car was running on the dyno so I can't really have an input. I definitely know how you feel though. went through 3 sets of crow cams and lifters before i gave up with them and went with a Clive cam setup. (all were good upon inspection and assembly, apparently something to do with the composite of the steel blah blah blah) between that, rear main issues and ecu problems its finally good to have the thing actually drivable.

Tuner is well respected and well reviewed. Waiting for their feedback currently. Everyone in our circle who was involved is shocked at what has happened and even engine builder said tuner was reputable. This is now why other theories around Haltech failure etc being thrown around. Because timing values to reach what they did is some outrageous oversight

3 sets?! I would have been fuming.

 

[MikeC]

Probably not a volts jump but over advance of spark timing or over lean mixture. If these lead to heavy detonation under load piston life is measured in seconds.

 

[NORTI]

Yes that was my take. Poor tune with far too advanced timing. But a few people throwing spanner in the works by saying there has been cases of faulty Haltechs with end result of advancing timing as by product of the fault.

This is the first time I have mentioned it outside of our circle as wanted the tuner to speak up first about the tune.

 

[Immortality]

Should be fairly easy to see what the timing is in the tune and judge whether or not that is too much for your engine combo.