I have Diacom that I have run on my '88 GTA and a friend's '89 5.0L TPI Formula. I have now tried to run it on a '91 Z28 5.7L and a '92 B4C 5.7L.

My friend with the B4C is failing emissions (just bought the car), and it was a drag not being able to read the ECM today. Do the Speed Density or '90/'91+ cars use the standard cable adapter? This failure to link was with the "TPI" adapter end.

(Edit: it just says "Linking to vehicle" continuously when I hit the link prompt and it kicks the fans on.)

When I got the setup in '99, my then new laptop was too fast for the TPI cable. I have always had to disable the CPU cache in order to link to my TPI. I tried it with and without the CPU enabled today.

I would try the standard cable end, but I lost it... If that is the solution, I am outta luck.

Any advice is appreciated.

 

You need a different Diacom cable that connects to the ALDL for SD TPI cars from the MAF TPI cars. The MAF cars use the "Special TPI" cable while the SD TPI cars use the regular cable that works on 90% of all GM cars from the early 80s to the mid 90s. The only other cable is a special cable for the very early computer carb cars.

 

Thanks! I was afraid of that. I'll start digging for that runaway cable again.

 

I bought my Diacom used for my 89 IROC TPI and haven't used it yet. How do I know if I have the "Special TPI" cable???

Thanks

[Edit]

Nevermind I pulled it out and it looks like mine came with the TPI cable. Apparently versions older than 2.85 did not...

 

ALL Diacom programs come with the two-piece cable setup. Three cables that connect to the ECM and the main cable that connects to the computer. If you bought yours used, then someone may have scooped the other cables (as Diacom will not sell them to you separately).

 

I have /use diacom. I had some problems with the short ALDL adapter cable, called them up, and they happily sold me another for a reasonable price (I think it was $15-$20?).

i have a love-hate relationship with diacom. it's great that I can scan any GM vehicles, but I think there are better scanning solutions if you are scanning a '165 or '730 F-bod. Plus I think the other solutions (like the moates logger ecm853 or whatever it is?) log at a higher frame rate than diacom (I get almost 10 frames a second with the moates software hooked to an ecm bench, but only about 1.5 or so frames per second with diacom in the car). The screen updates very quickly so I think it's actually capturing the full data stream, but just not logging each frame. maybe it was calibrated for ancient hardware that coudln't handle capturing all the frames?