Hi,
I pretty much followed the tips here and from "Toys4life" Valve Springs, new Pushrods, and in a few months, a Clutch and Torque tube inspection (replace ?) A&A kit installed by ECS with Long tube headers and Corsa exhaust. NOT tracking this car. I have 150k on it. I'll refresh the engine in the fall of 2026.

 

Once all of the electrical matters were taken care of, the guys at TGA performance in Colorado Springs were able to get her up and running without much trouble. They were not able to make the GM ECU happy at all, so all fuel management is being handled by a HALTECH Rebel.

 

 

EFILive does has alpha N for a few very specific OSs.... never used it myself, but I would speculate that standalone would be able to get it dialed in a lot better anyways.

 

From what I've read and learned from my tuner is it's a resolution problem- the stock ECU doesn't have the resolution necessary to make the minute changes needed to keep things smooth with ITBs

The hard limits in the ECU also make it difficult because you can run into a "wall" trying to get things like idle to calm down, esp on DBW cars

 

The Haltech Rebel LS is like $1400 and comes with a harness. I compared it against the R3 and it differs in only like two areas which are basically boost specific and not needed even on most race cars. Yet the price is a multiple of two for the R3 and doe snot include a harness. Pick you up one of them and make the switch. It can be installed in parallel with the oem ecu so you keep dash gauge function if preferred. And you'd have one of the absolute best ecus available on the current market.

 

The R3 has built in PDM, does the Rebel do that?

the R3 is more money, but it offers a lot of control if you're getting rid of the factory ECU

 

I looked and it does not seem to. I had explored the tuning functions and depths of map as listed only since Haltech had not put out a clear chart comparison of their various units. Even on my car I do not need PDM. I am running all my own electric between the remote battery and two remote terminal areas. A very very minor expense difference if money is a concern. The Rebel is a baller ecu for the money vs anything from the domestic brand. Haltech just needs to push advertising better and express the depth of just how much can be done with their boxes. Heck, even an older 2500 would be a banger, but the Rebel with the harness is the amazing deal.

It offers virtually no difference to the Rebel as far as tuning when considering an upgrade from the factory ecu.

Here is a screen cap of my comparison based on press releases, their website, and their YT videos. The forum makes it look small, so click on it, expand it and scroll to review. The yellowed out boxes for the Rebel represent the answer to the best of my ability, direct quotes, or simply unknown at the time I audited. But you can see that even being pessimistic the Rebel is an absolute BALLER for the money and it comes with a harness. The differences from the Rebel to the R3 are needed by virtually no one with a street car or an LS even up into 4 digit power.

 

From a tuning perspective- they may be nearly identical. The R3 allegedly does Apha-N with MAP blending better- but I don't know what "better" means, and if it's even quantifiable

However, from a hardware perspective and a full car rewire- the R3 does justify the additional cost, and it has more CAN logic and configuration for more toys, like dashes and additional modules/PDM

Does it work for everyone? No. Does it work for some? Clearly, otherwise Haltech wouldn't make it

Do both perform similarly for engine control? They do

 

fwiw a 411 $25 ecu with red/blue plugs from a 2002 truck gen3 L33 engines will support flex fuel 800rwhp daily driver 200,000 miles of reliability. With the stock bottom end.
With a factory intake manifold and throttle body 100% leak free low cost success

This is another application of KISS , overthinking wiring, tuning, manifolds, etc... spending thousands of dollars and hundred hours of wiring and re-working what a $25 ecu and factory parts would manage if the engine was setup properly with a basic forced induction planned around the right power plant

Wouldn't bother with a haltech and forged internals until over 1300rwhp and both at the same time or its all waste imo

 

A&A Vortech V-3 Si


It is an order of magnitude more bang for the buck than anything else.

 

Here's my 2 cents I went with heads and cam and supporting upgrades and did the harmonic balancer living in NJ I went to ECS yes Doug did the tune my reason was simple I'm not a fan of the whine of SC and like the chop sound of a cammed car i'm at 406 at rear wheels I did not put headers on as of yet

 

What's the combo and cr on that 406 whp setup?