Practical Standalone Tuning: Step 1: ECU Configuration and Testing

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Step 1: ECU Configuration and Testing

30.19

00:00	The first step of our process here is our ECU configuration and there are a few ways of doing this with the Holley Terminator.
00:07	We can use the 3.5 inch LCD touch screen and go through their setup wizard.
00:13	However, I'm going to present this in the way I believe this ECU is going to most commonly be used and if you are getting a Terminator you're almost certainly going to be using the laptop tuning software.
00:25	Interestingly, in the laptop software we don't actually have the setup wizard.
00:28	And the setup wizard for those who are not familiar with it is essentially a range of questions that get asked around the engine capacity, aggressiveness of the cam, our fuel etc and then that basically sets up a base map that should be enough to get you up and running.
00:44	So, I'm not going to cover the hand controller or LCD touch screen setup and the setup wizard within this particular worked example because I don't believe that is going to be the most common use for this ECU.
00:55	However, if you are determined to go down that route, you can check out our Sniper 2 worked example where we demonstrate how to use the setup wizard.
01:04	OK, so when we open the software we're faced with this little pop up box asking us what we'd like to do here and we've got a range of options.
01:11	We can open a global file, that's our first option at the top here.
01:16	And a global file in Holley lingo is essentially a tune or calibration file.
01:21	So, that allows us to open an existing file.
01:23	We can open a datalog which is irrelevant for our purposes at the moment, the next option of course, is to download from the ECU or we can create a new global file.
01:34	So, we can create a file from scratch.
01:36	And as you're aware, this is the typical approach that I take, so that we're ensuring that we're not baking in any errors into our file from an existing base map.
01:47	However, again I'm going to be using the most common use case as I see it here for this worked example and Holley do provide some really good base maps to get you up and running for a range of the common domestic V8s.
02:00	So, what we're going to do is we're going to start by opening a global file.
02:04	Now, we're going to just move into our base CALS directory here.
02:08	This is going to give us a little warning, essentially that this is a starting point only and basically proceed at your own caution.
02:16	Then we're going to come into our GM folder and then of course LS based and we've got quite a range of options to choose from here.
02:24	Now, it's important to understand with the LS range of ECUs we've got two trigger patterns, 24X and 58X, this LS one uses the 24X trigger pattern.
02:33	We are running drive by wire and a 4L60 transmission with multipoint fuel injection.
02:39	This isn't quite right, but other than the fact it's a 4L80, this is going to be a good starting point for us, so we'll open that up.
02:47	So, when we open it, essentially we've got no information provided in front of us.
02:52	And we can see we've got all of these little icons along here, along our toolbar, these are known as ICFs or individual configuration files and basically we can set up our calibration to include anything relevant to what we're trying to achieve.
03:09	So, in our case here we've got fuel, we've got our sensors ICF, our system, idle, spark, we've got our transmission and then we've got drive by wire.
03:19	Now, let's say maybe we are actually running a turbo or a supercharger.
03:24	So, what we can do is come to our toolbox here and we go to add individual config and we come to boost, double click on that and default boost.
03:34	It does tell us that it's incompatible with the current one bar map sensor, but that's OK, just for demonstration purposes we can change our sensor type here.
03:42	And now we have our boost ICF.
03:46	Now, to get access to any of these we can just simply click on them and then this gives us access to all of the setup and configuration information.
03:55	On the other hand, we've obviously got a boost ICF now that we don't need, so we can come to toolbox, remove individual config and we'll remove our boost.
04:04	So, if we open up the individual configs again, we can see there's a fairly wide range of options here and just for a little bit later on I'm going to add our IO or input output config as well.
04:18	Alright, so this has now got essentially a base map loaded and we're going to go through the configuration process.
04:24	So, what we're going to do is start by coming to our system ICF and clicking on that.
04:30	There's pros and cons with the way this works, basically we can click on our ICF and then that will show it in the left hand side as we can see here, we can close that down, we can click on multiple of these and then we sort of have them all open.
04:45	I'm not necessarily a huge fan of the approach that Holley have taken to this, but it does make it very very quick and easy to get to what you want.
04:54	So, I think this is probably actually quite a smart approach for relatively new users, it makes it very quick and easy to navigate to exactly what you want.
05:03	So, let's just go through this essentially in the order for our workflow.
05:08	So, ECU configuration, we can see we've got a Terminator X Max and we've also got the option of diagnostic type and typically we're going to leave this as diagnostic one by default unless we are tracking down an issue and Holley have actually asked us to change our diagnostic type, so nothing to do there.
05:26	Come to our engine parameters and obviously this is where the bulk of our initial setup work is going to be done.
05:32	So, we can see we start with our number of cylinders and our engine displacement which is all relatively straightforward.
05:40	For our displacement we can either use cubic inches or litres which is interestingly one of the few places where we actually have the option of changing our units here.
05:50	One of the aspects that I find a little difficult because I live in New Zealand where we use the metric system is I don't have the ability here to switch our temperature units from Fahrenheit to Celsius, but that's OK, it's very squarely aimed at the US market quite obviously.
06:09	So, we'll change our displacement as you've just seen there to 348 cubic inches.
06:13	Next we've got our fuel type, gasoline, E85 or advanced.
06:16	We are just on pump gas and our stoic air fuel ratio is 14.7, nothing to do here.
06:22	Next we've got our load sensing.
06:25	So, this basically defines the way the ECU operates.
06:28	So, at the moment by default we're on VE based with this base map, we'll open this up though.
06:33	So, we can have speed density, we can have alpha N where we're using throttle position for the load axis, combo which I'll come back to in a moment, then we've got VE based which is what we are using here of course and then we've got VE combo.
06:47	So, this combo, this first one here basically combines speed density, so manifold pressure versus RPM with a secondary alpha N or throttle position based map and you can control where we transition from the alpha N to speed density.
07:07	So, this can be handy with engines that run really big cams and don't make a lot of vacuum at idle, we can run in alpha N at idle and then transition through to VE or speed density.
07:18	So, the VE combo is the same, so let's have a quick look at that.
07:21	A pop up here will ask us if we want the tables to be updated, so I'll just click yes here.
07:27	And we're a little out of order here, but we'll just come to our fuel.
07:30	So, we've got our base fuel map which we can see is our VE table, manifold absolute pressure versus engine RPM and that would be our normal VE table, but over here in our fuel ICF we also have alpha N idle fuel.
07:46	So, we can control the throttle position and RPM above which we'll transition from this alpha N table to our normal VE table and then we've got this separate little table here which we can set up, we can obviously configure our RPM and throttle position breakpoints and just get a little bit more control around idle.
08:03	But again a little out of order, so we'll close that back down and we'll come back here and we'll change back to our VE based.
08:13	Right, next we've got our EFI system.
08:16	So, we can see we've got our injection type here as multi port.
08:20	If we look at our options we've got throttle body injection or direct injection.
08:24	Obviously, we are multi port here.
08:26	Our fuel pump prime time, probably 5 seconds is a little bit longer than it needs to be.
08:31	Our actual fuel system pressure, so our target pressure or advised pressure, advertised pressure I should say, 60 psi there.
08:39	And then we've got our wideband sensor here which is a Bosch LSU 4.9 sensor.
08:45	Then we've got our injector end angle.
08:48	So, we can have this as a simple single value which at the moment is set to minus 90, I'm going to leave that for the moment.
08:54	Or we can open a full table here by clicking on this little button and we can see that now, the injector phasing table is available.
09:03	So, again just for simplicity we'll turn that table back off and just use our single value.
09:09	Alright, coming down, we've now got our fuel injector information.
09:14	And there are a fairly wide range of predefined injectors here in this drop down list.
09:20	And fortunately in our case, the injector we want to select is this one here.
09:24	So, all of the information is filled out, we can see that we're essentially a 30 pound per hour injector.
09:31	We have our rated fuel pressure, again 60 psi.
09:35	And then our injection strategy.
09:37	Now, this will also be defined by the trigger inputs, but of course on our LS we can use full sequential and that's our only option as a result.
09:45	Minimum injector operating, opening time of 1 millisecond and then below this we've got our injector off time or dead time in other words.
09:54	And this gets a little bit tricky if you are dealing with something that isn't defined in here.
10:00	So, if we come to the bottom down here we can see we can set up a custom injector.
10:06	And now we can simply enter the data from our injector supplier, Injector Dynamics for example, we'll have data that we can utilise.
10:15	The tricky part comes down to the voltage breakpoints that Holley have chosen here for the injector dead time table.
10:26	And we can see that we've got some sensible breakpoints, 8 volts for example, we've got 12 volts but 14 volts doesn't exist, instead we're sort of in the middle between 13.6 and 14.4 and it all goes all the way up to 20 volts and if you're running a high voltage system for drag racing, obviously going past the normal 14 volts is going to be a requirement.
10:49	So, essentially if you are going to be using injectors that don't have data already entered into the drop down menu or injector data that is provided in Holley's format, you're going to have to do some math to actually find out what the values are going to be for the various breakpoints here, so a little bit tricky, definitely makes it a little bit harder if you don't have the correct data to drop into this table.
11:16	Alright, with our engine parameters dealt with, we can now move down to our ignition parameters.
11:22	And this first parameter here, ignition type, is a little bit misleading because this really defines not only the ignition system, but it also defines our trigger inputs and we will deal with the trigger inputs specifically in a further step, but if we drop down that menu here we can see we've got a wide range of different options here and at the bottom here we've got custom, again we'll look at that in a little bit more detail.
11:48	So, just important to mention here that this actually defines our trigger system as well as our ignition system.
11:56	And there's actually some advantages with this I do quite like because it takes out of the equation some of the settings that are very easy to get wrong.
12:06	For example, we don't actually have a dwell time table, so if we look over here you can see that's greyed out and there is no parameter set out dwell time, this is defined as part of this LSX 24 tooth trigger system or ignition type.
12:21	So, nothing to do there, likewise we've got our firing order table here and again this is predefined for our base map, so again need to match this to our actual engine and we can simply drag and drop these to reorder them if required, but again we are not going to need to make any changes.
12:41	I've got knock sensor input here and we won't be dealing with the knock control strategy here.
12:48	I've found it to be somewhat ineffective just because of the simplicity of the system.
12:54	So, no need to dwell on that further.
12:57	And then we've also got some global timing limits here, so our minimum timing of minus 45 and our maximum timing of 60 are probably a little excessive here, I would see no reason to go further than minus 10 and probably positive 40 or maybe 45 degrees should be more than sufficient, so that's just going to make sure that you don't end up with ignition timing values that are completely out of the ballpark.
13:21	OK, next we're going to move down to our basic IO, basic input output and this is an area that is a little bit confusing for people who are fresh to the Holley Terminator platform.
13:34	In a way a lot of this is simplified because the Holley Terminator most often is going to be installed with a plug and play harness, so everything is kind of predefined and there are predefined outputs for the likes of fan one and fan two for our fuel pump and also inputs for the likes of our coolant temperature, manifold pressure, manifold air temperature et cetera, so in a way this simplifies everything because we don't have to define for a given pin what the sensor or output is going to be, however we do have some flexibility to do that so, this kind of ends up getting done in a few different places.
14:10	Anyway let's look at what we've got here for a start.
14:12	So, we've got for the beginning we're on our fans, pumps and AC tab here.
14:18	We've got fan one and fan two set up here.
14:22	We've got them coming on with AC, but we don't actually have the AC configured into the Terminator, so that's irrelevant for our purposes.
14:29	We can see we've got our turn on point of 195 Fahrenheit and 180, we'll just bring this up to 185, always want to have a little bit of hysteresis around these points, so they don't just switch on and off continually, then 205 and again we'll go 195 there.
14:48	Fuel pumps, we don't have a secondary fuel pump and we're going to disable our AC shutdown.
14:53	I'm actually going to leave our IAC kick enabled for the moment because I want to show you how we can define what output that's going to be on.
15:04	OK, come across we've got our torque converter clutch, but we're generally going to be dealing with this within the transmission settings and again that has a defined pin out, so we don't really have a lot of control there or need it.
15:17	We've also got our staging tab, so we can have an input for a bump on our transmission for drag racing and also we've got our CAN bus here which I'm not going to be dealing with any further.
15:30	Alright, so that covers our basic IO and it is relatively basic at this point, but there is a little bit more to it which is where the confusion sort of comes in.
15:38	So, I want to start by coming up to our pin map tool icon here and here we can view all of our inputs and a lot of these are locked down, you can see the little padlock icon here, meaning that these are fixed.
15:53	So, as I mentioned, there are a lot of fixed inputs and outputs on this ECU and not a lot of flexibility, the Dominator gives us much more flexibility, but the Terminator is sort of a little brother here.
16:05	We can see under unassigned inputs we've got this AC kick and you'll remember I left that enabled even though we're not using it.
16:13	So, what we can do is for any unassigned inputs we can just drag them onto an input there and that's job done.
16:19	So, that's how we can move these around, we're not actually going to be using that, I just wanted to show you that for the moment.
16:25	Likewise we can view outputs here, so we can see that we've got our electric fan 1 and fan 2, we've got our AC shutdown which we're not using, so that's actually struck through, so what I can do is just drag that out of the way and we do have a speedo output which is unassigned so, we can drag that into place.
16:43	So, relatively easy to move these things around.
16:46	And if we move over to our fixed, these are our fixed inputs and outputs, obviously as the name implies we can't adjust any of these, but again this shows you the predefined nature of this particular ECU.
16:59	OK, so that's our pin map and we've also got our IO tool that I brought up here.
17:07	So, what we can do here is enable, basically define other inputs to the ECU.
17:14	So, let's say that maybe we wanted to add a crank case pressure sensor.
17:19	So, we'll just label the sensor and we do need to also enable it here.
17:25	And now we can give it a type, so in this case that will be a 5 volt sensor.
17:30	We can now configure this particular sensor.
17:34	So, we've again got a fairly extensive list of options available from our drop down menu.
17:41	We can use a Holley 2 bar sensor for example here.
17:45	Maybe we're using a Honeywell sensor or something of that nature and we don't have a predefined configuration for that, so we could go custom 2 bar here.
17:55	And here we can select the voltage input that we're going to be seeing and then above that we're going to have our calibration points for those voltages.
18:04	I won't do this here because obviously we aren't using this, but we will see this in action very shortly.
18:11	OK, so we'll go back here, we'll disable that input because we aren't obviously using it.
18:17	I should have also mentioned here you saw there was a where used button that came up available as well, so that will show us or allow us to see where that particular input is being used.
18:29	Let's just have a quick look at that as well.
18:31	So, we'll come to our toolboxes and we'll add another individual config and we'll go and add our advanced config here, again we'll just accept the dangers that this may entail and we'll come to our advanced ICF and this is kind of Holley's catch all of allowing you to do almost anything that you can think of with the ECU.
18:53	And you can set up tables to basically control outputs based on inputs, it's quite complicated.
19:01	We aren't going to be diving into this within this worked example because it does get a little bit beyond the scope of our worked example, however we will cover this in a bit more detail in some of our webinar content.
19:12	But for example here, let's say we come to our 1D table and we might want, in this case, we'll enable the table, and we might want to do a ignition timing offset.
19:26	So, here's our timing offset, we'll leave our X axis at TPS and now we can choose our activation.
19:32	Again I'm not dealing with this in detail here, let's go to our advanced enable and we should be able to scroll up here and find our crankcase pressure is above let's say 50 kPa and then we can decide what we're actually going to do based on that.
19:49	So, now that we've got that, if we come back to our inputs and we click on where used, it will show us where that particular input is being used.
19:58	Again we're not going to be using it, so let's just disable that and what we're going to do is remove our advanced and our IO configs because again, just for simplicity, we don't need those.
20:12	Let's get rid of our IO as well.
20:16	Alright, let's move on.
20:19	Now, we're going to skip over here our closed loop learn and of course we don't have variable cam timing, so that's not relevant.
20:26	We will come down to our inputs and outputs here though and we can define what's going to actually, how our output is going to function.
20:36	Now, we've still got our AC kick function which as I've already explained, we aren't using so, let's just come back to our basic IO and we will disable that, so we'll get rid of anything that we aren't actually using, now come back to our IO and again that's gone.
20:52	So, for our electric fans for example here, we can select whether we're going to switch here to ground or to 12 volts, so definitely need to make sure that this is set up correctly.
21:02	Typically, we're going to in most instances be switching to ground in order to trigger a relay and of course we've got our injector drivers down below here as well.
21:13	It's all predefined, we don't need to adjust any of those.
21:16	OK, so basic system parameters are now configured, let's close that down and we want to have a look now at our sensors ICF.
21:25	And you can see how simplistic this is, this is where that IO setup does get a little confusing.
21:31	This is only to configure our key primary inputs and these are all on predefined input pins to the ECU, so let's just go through this here.
21:40	We've got our map sensor type and there is actually an internal 1 bar here, but in our case we are using the GM Gen 3 LS 1 bar sensor, the factory sensor, we'll click yes to that.
21:55	Coolant temp sensor, again the GM sensor, but we've got the option to choose from our drop down menu or of course we can set up a custom coolant temperature sensor as well if required, but we'll go back to our GM sensor.
22:12	Manifold air temperature, again we're using the LS manifold air temperature sensor.
22:18	Oil pressure, we've got a standard GM sensor here, so we'll go GM LS oil pressure sensor.
22:25	And for fuel pressure we have added a sensor, but this is where I'll show you how we can configure these because it isn't available in this drop down menu, so what we'll do is we'll go to custom.
22:35	So custom, the majority of our sensors from the likes of Honeywell, the popular ones, are a 0.5 to 4.5 volt sensor.
22:42	So, we've got a couple of ways of doing this, we can either enter 0.5 here at the start for our first break point and then 4.5 at the end for our last break point.
22:53	Now, what we want to do is shift and arrow key to highlight the entire table here.
22:58	If we right click on this we can see we have fill row values.
23:02	Now, not maybe the most intuitive naming strategy, but this is in fact a horizontal interpolate.
23:09	So, we click on that and we've got a straight line interpolation there.
23:12	The calibration for this particular sensor, it's a 150 psi sensor, so at 0.5 volts we are at 0 psi and 150 psi of course at 4.5 volts.
23:24	We'll go to use the shift and arrow key again here.
23:27	We'll end up remembering the hot keys for this, but for the moment I'll just make this really clear, right click there, fill row values and that's as simple as it is.
23:37	If you want to be a little bit fussier here, 0.5 and 0 volts will give you the same reading.
23:44	So, sometimes we can find that the voltage will fluctuate around a little bit and likewise at the top end, 4.5 volts, I'm just going to end up highlighting all of those, we'll use the R key there.
23:55	So, now we've got a setup there that's going to mean that if we end up between 0 volts and 0.5 volts, we've got a break point there that we can add in and same with between 4.5 and 5 volts.
24:08	This does of course mean that we need to double up on our points here and just adjust our table a little bit for our calibration and again the R key is our hot key.
24:19	So, either way you do that, that's my preference, but you're going to end up essentially getting the same result.
24:25	OK, so at this stage we've got a configuration that we can now actually send through to the ECU, everything I've been doing at the moment has essentially been offline, so now what we're going to do is just power the vehicle up and send that configuration through to the ECU.
24:44	Alright, the ECU's powered up here and what we want to do is click our little USB link here in the toolbar and what it's going to do is compare what is in the current global file that's open with what is on the ECU.
24:59	And what we can see is that nothing matches, it says our ECU config does not match.
25:04	Now, we've got options, we can either get this from the ECU or we can alternatively send it through to the ECU.
25:12	So, of course we are going to send that through.
25:14	Now, what it'll do here is send everything through and it'll go green once it has sent.
25:19	So, we've now sent our new configuration through, tells us that we do need to cycle the power.
25:26	So, we will do that, we'll click OK and OK.
25:30	Now, we are online.
25:33	So, this is where we can now start making sure that everything we've just done makes sense.
25:38	So, for example here in our sensor panel over here on the bottom left hand corner, we can see that we've got our manifold air temperature and our coolant air temperature.
25:47	As a sanity check here, with a cold engine that hasn't been run, what we want to do is make sure that these match and they should be within probably about 2-5°F of each other, that would mean that everything makes sense.
25:59	This engine has run today, so of course those aren't matching, but that would be typical.
26:04	We also want to make sure that our manifold absolute pressure makes some sense here.
26:09	So, we'll click on that again and typically what we'd also be asked to do here is perform what's called a TPS autoset.
26:15	And this just does exactly what it sounds like, it sets up the TPS scaling.
26:20	So, we can do that by coming up to our little sync icon and if we click on the arrow here, we've got our TPS autoset or our hotkey control T.
26:29	So, we'll click on that and it's going to ask us to perform an ignition cycle and what we're going to do is start this process and it's just going to tell us to press the throttle pedal slowly all the way to the floor and then release it slowly and we need to do this twice.
26:45	And once that's done, we can click done.
26:49	Now, typically there will be a pop up when you connect to the ECU that will tell you that you need to do this, so in our case we haven't needed to do it, but I'm just showing you this because that is something that you will always come across.
27:01	We can also now look at our TPS in our little data panel here and make sure that everything is doing what we expect.
27:09	We've got our oil pressure and our fuel pressure, the fuel pump has primed, so we're showing 55 psi, so everything's looking good in terms of our inputs.
27:19	Now, we're going to test our outputs and in order to do this we actually need to use our output test tool up here, but you can see it's greyed out at the moment, we can't actually click on it, in order to use this we actually have to go offline from the ECU.
27:34	It's a little unique, but that's how we have to do that.
27:38	And this is something you're going to be doing a lot of, we can see at the moment it says online and now I've clicked on that, we're now offline and it says USB link.
27:46	You will find that there are a lot of parameters that you cannot make adjustments to when we are online with the ECU and just to show you that, let's bring up our system ICF, remembering that everything I did previously was offline with the ECU.
28:01	If I click on USB link now, you can see that we've got now a bunch of these parameters are now greyed out, so we can't actually adjust them.
28:11	This I find a little bit frustrating, but in Holley's defence what it does make sure you can't do is make adjustments that you shouldn't be with the engine running, let's say maybe changing the firing order or something of that nature.
28:24	Anyway let's close down our system parameters, we'll go back offline and we're going to now, click on our output test which is no longer greyed out, gives us a warning of course and we'll click OK and it will initialise.
28:37	What we have the option here of doing is either pulsing an output or simply turning it on.
28:43	So, let's just start with our fuel pump relay output and we'll click on, I can hear the pump is running, yep that's working.
28:54	Likewise we can click on our radio fans, we'll turn the first one on here.
28:58	I don't know if it'll come across audible on the microphone, but I can physically hear that, audibly hear that running in the engine bay, likewise fan two, it's a high speed fan, it's a little bit louder, so yep that's also working.
29:10	Now, we've got our injector drives output as well, so we don't want to be running these permanently on, we want to pulse these.
29:21	We can control our pulse output with these settings here and then what we can do is simply click pulse and it will do in this case a one millisecond pulse.
29:31	We can audibly hear the injector pulsing when we're in the engine bay, so again we just want to make sure that the correct injector is actually pulsing, basically making sure that our wiring is correct.
29:43	Likewise we can do exactly the same for our spark outputs and we definitely don't want to be turning our spark output on for our test because this could end up very quickly damaging our coils.
29:53	So, a bit of a unique setup there, but we can go through, check all of our outputs are functioning, all of our ignition outputs are wired to the correct coil and all of our injectors are wired to the correct coil and once we're happy with that we can close that down.
30:09	So, at this point we've got our basic ECU configuration complete and we're ready to move onto the next step of our process.