If anyone can give me a pointer as to why my Ostrich and ALDL combo only seems to work for 5 minutes every time I attempt to tune my engine, it would be much appreciated!!

Please see my main post at

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/tbi/...ss-so-far.html

Thanks.

 

After reading your linked post, I have a few suggestions on what to check:

1) That you have the checksum disabled (although this will only affect things on the next restart after an update is made, as the checksum is only verified at ECM powerup). You should permanently place 0xAA in the mask ID byte and leave it that way.

2) That your Ostrich batteries are good (if they aren't, you'll be losing your bin everytime you disconnect the Ostrich from the computer and from the ECM.

3) that your ECM is good. From your description, it sounds like you can fire up your engine, connect to the ALDL and get good data, let it run for 5 minutes without doing anything (no changes, etc), and after some time it will stop dumping ALDL. If this is the case, this might indicate either a faulty ECM or perhaps faulty wiring (that goes to fault after things warm up, etc). Check the ECM and wiring.

Rbob's EBL really would a great addition to your setup. I can guarantee you that he'll make it worth the relatively minor expense. I do, however, understand that you may not be looking to spend even more money. As you make progress, though, it's something to keep in the back of your mind.

 

Hi Mangus, thanks for the reply!

I will certaintly look into the checksum setting, and it had crossed my mind before about the Ostrich batteries, but I haven't checked them. Ooops, bit of a boob on my part, some new ones in there certainly may fix some problems.

I like your thinking on the ECM. I was thinking along the same lines, that if I temporarliy swap in the unmodified original ECM (and original injectors to achieve idle for setting the base timing), I can also see at the same time if ALDL logging works contunously with that ECM as a reference.

As for EBL, I had read a little about it in the past, but stayed away for the reasons you quote, I was hoping that I could achieve my goals using a modified standard ECM and TunerPro/Ostrich combo. If my problems continue though, I may have to give it some serious thought. Is EBL used with TunerPro or something else? Presumably it replaces the Ostrich 'hack'?

 

You can achieve your goals without EBL, but EBL will get you there easier, and will be good for getting you beyond them when you're ready to grow. You will be fine if you stay your course. You can always upgrade to EBL when the time is right. And yes, EBL has full TunerPro (and Ostrich) support.

Good luck!