Hi guys, I have a 91 Vette, but I also have a 1996 Trans Am that at this moment has troubles. To make a long story short, it has a 383 and a weird ignition. It uses the opti for the trigger signal only, which is sent to the ECU, and then to a MSD, and then to a coil, and then to a regular dist. at the back of the modified LT1 manifold for spark distribution only (the inside guts of the dist. are not used). Anyway, the car will not start and only backfires duringing cranking. I changed the opti with no changes, and I am getting good spark to the plugs.

I remember when I bought this car, Dave at Dave's High Performance in Cinci. had it hooked up via the factory diagnostic port to perform some tuning on the ECU. I would like to do the same thing. Are there any programs that will not only scan for codes, but also allow me to adjust fuel tables, spark functions, etc.?

I went up and read through the stickies at the beginning of this forum, but it wasn't real clear to me exactly what I need. I just bought a $200 ODB-II scanner from Autozone and I'm thinking that maybe I should take it back.

Thanks!

 

You need $59 for a cable and a minimal laptop that runs windows 98 or above.

I just got setup with my 1990, which is also a speed density car like yours.

Either get the USB or Serial cable
I got mine here: aldlcable.com
They give you a CD with the drivers on it, and the 10K resistor which you probably don't need. Nice quality
I followed the instructions and setup the USB cable to use COM6.


Get TunerPro here: TunerPro


Go back to the tunerpro web site and download from Definitions folder:
Bin file: Super_8dm2.ecu
ALDL Def file:1227730_8D.ads
(these two files say they are for 90,91 Fbody, corvette is YBody, I was told that they work fine)


When you install Tuner Pro, it will create some folders under Programs->TunerPro.
Copy the Bin file to the Bin file folder under programs->tunerpro
Copy the ALDL file do the Definitions folder under programs->tunerpro

In Tunerpro preferences, set the Com port to the proper port (I used COM6)

Plug the ALDL cable to the connector under your dashboard

Send $30 bucks to TunerPro if you like and use the program.

It took me about a week to find out what I needed/wanted, and 1/2 hr to setup the whole thing.

I just scanned my car and noticed that my BLM is set to 108 after new exhaust/O2. Now the fun begins.

There are several optons for saving the tune to Rom chip. I am looking into the Moates/MonteCarSlow NVSRAM board that allows you to upload your new settings via the ALDL cable. The part is only $45, and it is almost as good as an emulator, since you don't have to burn a chip. I will put up the info when I get it all sorted out. There are a million threads on this on Thirdgen.org, and a lot to sift through.

If you want a turnkey emulation product that scans, allows live changes, and burns eproms, goto moates.net and buy the APU1 for $325, and a few chips & adapters. His product connects with TunerProRT and other programs, and allows you to make live changes without shutting down. You should be able to sell this on the forum for maybe $50 bucks less than you paid when you are done with it. It is a brilliant product!

 

it sounds a bit different w/using the opti, not sure of the effect when using scanning software w/this combo. However, trying will be the only way to find out. I would start with a cable from moates that has the resistor built in, it can then be used for either datamaster or remove resistor for tuner pro. As to bin definitions/datastreams, because of the swap using opti you will probably have to try a couple out, in this case emailing the real gurus (C.Moates or M. Mansur which is also forum member "Mangus") may shed additional light on your particular set-up.

 

Thanks guys!

 

Yep, MSeven, good info. Deciding which Bin is a bit of a challenge, you all may want to double check on that. Nice that you can do this for the price of the cable. That NVSRAM option is what I really want to get working.