Finally received my data cable. It came with a disc, is that the program I need to read the info on my laptop ? Or just the cable driver ?

 

Stick that CD in your computer and run it and start learning. You probably got the USB cable so load the drivers for it. Mine came with the tunerpro program, they also ask if you have serial bluetooth or usb cable.

 

Tunerpro is a tad more difficult to get running, if you want to see data right away download WinALDL (I think it was also on the CD when I purchased mine). As I stated before, this is an area others will have to help with. It may even deserve a new thread started if you have trouble getting tunerpro to work.
.

Setting Up TunerPro RT

Open up TunerPro RT and do the following:

Set Up The Toolbars correctly for scanning

Select View – Toolbars – Unselect everything that doesn’t have the word DATA in it. Select everything that does have the word DATA in it.

Load the proper Acquisition File

Select Acquisition – Load Definition File… Enter the TunerPro RT USB Direct ADX Definitions directory and select the definition for your year, engine, and vehicle. If your vehicle is not listed see Finding Your Acquisition File below.
Select the correct COM port
Make sure your cable is still connected to your computer. It does not yet need to be connected to the vehicle.

Select Tools – Preferences – Data Acq./Emulation tab. Under Data Acquisition & Logging make sure Interface Type is set to Use Plug-in. Then click Configure Plug-in Component. In the Data Acquisition Plug-in Configuration window make sure Port Type is set to Standard Serial. Select the COM port that was added when you preformed the driver installation. If your cable is not connected, you will not be able to select your COM port.

In the Data Acquisition Plug-in Configuration window there is a button marked Test For Valid Interface Using Settings. The test only works with the cable connected to the computer, the cable NOT connected to the vehicle, the COM port set correctly and TunerPro RT MUST not be trying to connect itself. If any of these are not correct you will get a Cable not found or not functioning window. There are times that you might still get the Cable not found or not functioning window even when the cable is functioning. If you however get the cable functioning window that does mean the Cable found and functional, at least as far as to the USB board.

Don’t worry if at first you get the Cable not found or not functioning window. Proceed ahead and see if TunerPro RT does connect.

Set up the correct Window view –
In the gray area below the toolbar – Close the Parameter Tree window and any others that might be open. Then open the Items List window. This may be accomplished by hitting CTL + SHIFT + 2 OR by selecting Acquisition – Show Data Lists… ORby hitting the button on the Tool Bar that looks like a notepad with a spiral binding at the top of it. Now with your mouse grab the very top line of the window Item Lists. You will know your mouse is in the right place to do this if the pointer changes into a double up/down arrow. Now click and hold the left mouse button and expand the window up to occupy the majority of the gray field. If you accidentally double click the title bar of the window while doing this, the window will jump to ‘full screen’ mode. Click the Esc key to exit the full screen mode.

The Items List window will show the input and output parameters of your ECM. Below the parameters are listed the trouble codes.

 

BE patient, this area is a learning process.

 

Thank you for all the info ! I will try and load it up and see what happens tomorrow before kickoff

 

I've got the same issue you have on my '90.

Funny thing about it is it started up perfectly fine every single time...until I installed a new coolant temp sensor just as routine maintenance.

Been hard starting when cold ever since.

Sensors are quite often bad right out of the box new.

I just haven't felt like putting another one in it yet. It hardly gets driven any more anyway.

 

I have a '88 that sat for a long time and I am working to get everything back up to speed on it. I had no issues starting it but then for maintenance I replaced the fuel filter. Nothing else was changed at that time and I found it takes longer to crank at cold start after replacing the fuel filter. In fact mine sounds exactly the same as yours when cranking up. I originally thought it to be just that the new filter introduced air in the line and it would work itself out after running it for a little while but it's been doing it ever since.

 

Trying to install this awful convoluted program to get my data cable to work with my laptop. I’ve wasted an hour trying to get this to work. You would think for $60 this would be a little easier to figure out, but when it’s asking you to copy and paste stuff, that bothers me. Anyways maybe by the end of the month I will have this figured out

 

DataCat is a viable alternative for those that struggle with TunerPro as it is a bit more user friendly, but is not as flexible.

 

Thank you. Though I finally figured it out. Though by time I was able to get it to work the engine was warmed up a bit, so the cold start issue couldn’t be replicated. Anyways what is weird is that the engine is idling high, around 1000rpm, not sure why this is happening. I replaced the distributor a few weeks ago, and the timing is set a bit higher at 8 degrees, but it was idling around 750-800 until I plugged in the data cable ?

 

Its idling at 1,000 rpm because that is what happens when running in ALDL mode at 160 baud, the timing is advanced by 8 degrees as well. This is not the mode you want to be in, but is a necessary step for transitioning to 8192 baud.

I see that you're running ABTP based upon the 7841 prom id. MK2 4+3

 

I guess I need to learn some things, because what you’re saying is blowing my mind lol. Should I set the timing back to 6 degrees? What is 160 baud and what is transitioning to 8192 mean ? Any info would be so much appreciated.

What is ABTP ? Is the prom ID 7841 a stock chip ? Yeah it’s a real Z51. Sorry for all the questions, just trying to wrap my head around all this.

 

ABTP is the broadcast code (bcc) of the stock bin that has the prom id of 7841, so most likely it is a stock ABTP bin. So far so good. Leave the timing alone (for now).

At least you have a connection and you are reading data at 160 baud. This is an important first step, but you will want to use a scan tool that will put the ecm into 8192 baud such as TunerPro, DataCat, DataMaster, EFILive V4, etc.

Some background info:

L98 87 - 88 160 & 8192 BAUD
*
* DATA ON PIN E
*
* The ECM is uni-directional in 160 Baud when the ECM
* is not in the ALDL mode. When the ECM is in the ALDL
* Mode, (10k). The ECM will xmit a normal 25 item ALDL
* list at 160 baud.
*
* The ECM will listen for 50 MSEC after completion of
* the 160 baud ALDL list for an inbound Test device
* originated 8192 (polling) message.
*
* If the 8192 polling message is accepted, 8192
* communications will should continue until power down
*

 

Wow, awesome, thank you so much ! I have some studying to do.

You say I’m reading baud at 160; is that number basically saying I have a good connection and that is part of the first step ?

 

Correct. The data that you are seeing now in WinALDL is the 25 byte ALDL datastream at 160 baud. It is only 25 bytes of data at a very slow sample rate. About 1 sample per 1.25 seconds or so. The ecm operates on a 6.25 ms loop time with some functions running at 12.5 ms, so a sample time greater than 1 second is an eternity, and you miss about 200 times more data than you capture.

8192 baud data is 63 bytes of data at a sample rate approaching 10 samples per second (hardware and software dependent). This data is much more useful.

 

Ok. Thank you ! It’s slowly sinking in. Now my next thing is to download a 8192 tuner program ?

 

Have you gotten any farther with this? My 88 is taking longer to start than when I first got it. When I first got it, it would crank up fairly quickly. I did several things to it, most of which should affect cranking/starting except changing the fuel filter. I changed the fuel filter again with a different brand and that had no effect. So now what could it be?

 

Sorry I haven’t figured it out yet. My diagnosis was delayed a few weeks from back to back hurricanes in our area. I finally got the Vette back home so hopefully I should be able to get back to figuring out this hard early next week.

These hard starts can really be hard to figure out, I will probably start a new thread here so it will be more focused on the issue and not the “have you replaced this, have you checked that”. I’ve done pretty much everything as far as parts and checking the mechanicals, so hopefully I will have an answer soon !

 

I understand where you are coming from but it might help to continue in this thread. I for one have read through all of the posts seeing what you have tried and others have suggested. It's a progression like that which makes these forums great. Unless when you start a new one you could maybe put a link to this thread saying something like "if anyone wants to read through what I have already tried, here's a link to it."

 

Okay, a little bit of progress. I sprayed a ton of carb cleaner into the PCV TB tube and the car fired right up when stone cold. I had done this before but I don’t think I squirted enough in the first time and that’s why it didn’t fire right up. So obviously a fuel issue. Going to recheck my fuel pressure just to make sure all is good.