Rx-7 Haltech trigger setting

Hi,

I installed haltech 2500 on my Rx-7, and I think there are timing drift and timing delay issues.

On my timing light, it would read double the rpm, so I'm not sure if this is the issue. I locked the timing on -5 base, 15 splits, and I ended up with 22 TDC offset.

And when I rev up the engine to 2000-3000rpm, the timing mark would disappear for a second, and sometimes it would delay by a few degrees.

I tried changing the trigger from falling edge to rising edge there was no difference at all between them, except the TDC offset is now 32.5.

Another thing around 2000 rpm the engine sound pitch is much lower, so I'm not sure if that is from timing drift or if there is a solenoid that is opening. I hear that sound near the throttle and intake elbow. I also see the knock sensor noise level increases drastically around that area.

A rotary engine is like a 2-stroke, as there is one ignition event per revolution, so typically you need to set that on your timing light to get a correct RPM reading. I would get that right before using the timing offset feature of the timing light.

ok i found the setting on the timing light to change it from 4 stroke to 2 stroke and that worked for few seconds then the timing light started behaving erratically it would work for a second and then it would double the rpm, so on 4 stroke it would read 4 times the rpm now.

anyway with 22 tdc offset I feel like the timing delay is gone I reved it to 3000rpm and it was spot on for a second then the timing drifted when the timing light started reading double.

is that because of spark wire noise or the timing light is failing?

and I'm still confused why does the car like to idle with high timing like 10btdc rather than 5atdc which is what is everyone is saying online rotary like retarded timing and why does the engine sound completely different on haltech compared to stock ecu its louder at the same rpm.

does any know if there is a good timing light for 2 stroke, I'm using innova 5568?

You are using the front Leading (Lower) Plug for the timing light? I would make sure the Power / Ground connections to the timing light are solid (loose connections could cause the light to reset), also the plug pickup sometimes needs a good "snap" to make sure the ferrite makes good contact. Any change you have leading / trailing coils backwards?

i think you are right i thought that the front lower is the trailing, so yeah I got it backward.

ok, so I need to connect it to the one on top? the trailing coil?

and I also want to double-check, increasing tdc offset retard the timing right? so my tdc offset should be 7 when I connect to the trailing coil? and if the crank pulley is moving clockwise away from the pointer is that retarding the timing or advancing?

sorry, don't know the answers to that. i think you want to connect the light to the leading (lower) coil.

If it's still waste spark leading you need to half the rpm again on leading, the light might not get a clean signal off both phases of a waste spark coil too.

If you know the spark split and you have marks on the pulley you can confirm it doesn't matter if you use trailing.

Have you been locking timing to check?

What series engine is it? This changes what the factory marks you have available are, the early stuff up to series 5, the factory crank pulley diameter conveniently gives very close to 1mm circumference per degree if you want to make additional marks on the crank quickly. Fd engines probably close enough too.

ok so I finally got it right my TDC offset is 6 degrees, I connected the timing light to the trailing coil and locked my timing, and got 6 degrees I revved the engine to 4000 there was no drifting or delay at least not more than 1-2 degree retard and I'm not sure if its a delay or if its because the engine is moving away from my timing light.

then I checked the lead coil and I set my timing light to 30 degrees and it lined up because the timing light is reading twice the speed it also doubled the timing

and about that weird noise, it was the air pump solenoid I had the pump disconnected so on stock ECU I didn't have this issue but with haltech, I guess it doesn't check for the air pump signal and it would just turn on regardless.

my best idle timing was between 5btdc and 5atdc so should I let it idle at TDC? I'm trying to lower the egt and coolant temp

I noticed it didn't like idling at 13.5 afr 13.0 perfect, and my idle duty cycle dropped from 76% to 0% with 13.0 compared to 11.0 which was the stock afr.

I was hoping I could get it to idle at 14.0 to improve fuel efficiency but it would just want to die.

its 1994 FD RX-7 s6

now i will tune the ve and i hope it doesn't knock on the haltech base map timing

Especially if they are ported they really like to be somewhere around 12.7:1 AFR at idle, if you are sending less air at it to run it will effectively be best consumption anyway. Somewhere around 5 degrees idle should be good.

I'm assuming the timing light numbers and ecu numbers were being lined up such that the sum or difference matched to 20 degree AFTER top dead centre factory timing mark? If the light is only getting one trigger event per revolution I wouldn't be too concerned if it isn't dead on it's advance/retard. Always best to just lock timing on a mark (even if you make a new one yourself) with no advance/retard on the light if looking for any drift with rpm.

I took the car for a drive today I started tuning the ve table and I got it roughly with 5% it still needs a lot of cleanup as it still stumbles if I decelerate.

I did a couple of wot pulls and didn't notice that the boost went to 14psi at least, I thought I turned off the boost controller but I guess I reuploaded a different tune when I updated the firmware.

while I was driving I noticed the oil pressure started dropping I pulled over and I checked the dipstick and the oil was low, I guess the oil metering pump sucked 500-1000ml in an hour, I had to drive the car for 15minutes with low oil pressure to find a place that sells oil.

while I was driving with low oil pressure I had violent shakes twice with 5 minutes I think it was coming from the engine not sure if its from lack of oil or if it's the tune but now im wondering if the engine got hurt, the engine seems fine after I added more oil.

If it was oil starvation you bearings probably aren't good. I would buy enough oil to refill it and drain the oil to see if any bearing material comes out. Hopefully it was just missing from the tune.

Always set a low overboost cut out when tuning.

The OMP and injectors should not be able to distribute that much oil in an hour. I think you might need to do a quadruple check on both the vehicle and map before you decide to drive it again.

Did you confirm the oil level after letting it idle for a while after filling it last time? As David said the OMP system uses nothing like that, I have driven from Newcastle to Melbourne in a day (12 hours+ run time) with 4.77 final drive and OS-G gearset and not needed to touch the oil. I'm assuming most of that was filter volume/displaced air in block/rotors and leakage. Are the turbo seals/bearings ok?

I drove the car to work yesterday with haltech ecu the drive is around 20 miles and I saw that I lost 300ml since I refilled it, on my way back from work the plugs started misfiring because of the oil consumption.

I also drove to work today with stock ecu and it cleared the plugs and I didn't notice any oil consumption on the dipstick.

the haltech nsp map has higher duty cycle than the esp map, I will lower the duty cycle to match the esp map and change the stepper max speed from 600 to 300 step/sec as in the latest firmware it says 600 is out of range

I remember when I was adjusting the trigger setting I once revved the engine to 4000rpm and noticed a huge cloud of smoke behind the car.

and when I was tuning the ecu for the first time I was operating in the 40-85% duty cycle for an hour which is why I believe its the reason I have large oil consumption issue.

i believe the engine and turbo is fine as I only have issues with the haltech ecu

does anyone have the omp settings for standalone ecu?

i changed the stepper speed max from 600 to 300 and lowered the duty cycle from nsp base map setting to esp setting and I think it's better I will keep testing.

I have contacted haltech and they said that with the latest firmware the steps should be reduced from 200 to 72 and the range from 600 to 50-100 stepper speed max I will test this later