Okay. So Monday, Ill try to build the ALDL. My laptop is old, so it doesnt have a USB, and only a floppy, serial, and parrallel port. My home computer is DVD+writers, and flash drives, and no 3.5. And I dont have an inhome network setup yet. Just bought the house a few months ago. I tranfered winaldl to an XD card, and Ill try to get it on floppy monday. And a friend at work says he has an OBD1 scaner, if he remembers it, Ill try it also.

I talked to the wife, and we might even buy an ebay computer with a USB. I can get one with windows 95, or 98, and have it shipped to the house for less than $75. With a USB, I can flash the info, and load it for you guys to see. Otherwise, IDK how to make this computer talk to the dinosaur in the cabinet. Either way, itll be a few days before I can update.
Thanks for all the help, and as soon as I get more info, Ill share it.

I just looked at the max232 cable, and that we dont have the parts to make it at work. I will try to built an ALDL, and see how that works.

 

Save the info you get from the datalog to a file on the dinosaur computer then email it to yourself if you can get the old antique online. The other thing you can do is to save screen shots, do the same thing with those then post them up on here.

 

Im not sure about what could be wrong. Sorry i couldnt be of nemore help. Hope you fix your prob. good luck.

 

Well, My computer is a POS. The laptop is so old, I cant get anything to work. And the 3.5 floppy is dead. So, I borrowed one from work. I loaded the WinALDL, and tried to log, with just a couple jumpers. It displayed a bunch of numbers on the MW2 table but thats it. No dash, and it wouldnt record anything. So, Im going to build the actual cable, and try it again tomorrow.

On a better note, after the car warmed up, it calmed down. And after a little tweaking of the distibutor, it ran great. Well, not 100%. It still misses, but I would drive it now, without worry. Im going to set the timing tommorrow, a friend is bringing me a light. And Ill have the cable built ASAP. And then Ill try it again. As far as I can tell, the serial port needs to be unplugged, till the program is opened. Anything else I need to know? Im about a 2 on a 1-10 scale, when it comes to computer geekage.

 

Update:

For those helping, or just following along, I got the datalogging down. I borrowed a computer from work, built a cable, logged it, saved the shots... I tried to copy to the cd. Its a ROM. Tried my Mp3, no driver, pnp only. I was going to buy a USB flashdrive, but now the computer is dead. It wont turn on. And to make it worse, the timing light I borrowed wont work either. So....
Im going to just buy a dedicated laptop, and my own light. Itll be a couple more days, unless someone at work can get the info off the laptop.


The car is running better, almost like nothing ever happened. The idle is low, and I know the timing is off. I guess something I changed, or unplugged fixed it. Might have been the connection, or lack of a connection. And I didnt know until I let it warm up, and go into open loop. At least I got the logging down. Its alot easier to log than to make these two computers share the information. Stupid computers.

 

Update:

Got the computer, and the cable and all. Wanted to wait till after christmas to log it, since it had cleared up. Went to start it Friday, and... nothing. I guess Ill be troubleshooting a starter problem now.

No clicking, everything comes on, and works, turn the key, everything stops (like it should), but nothing from the starter, not a sound. Ill get it figured out, and logged.

 

Definately sounds like VATS to me. Go try it again, It will probably fire up. And check the codes as well.

 

Okay. Finally got it started, and logged. I logged till the computer died, and then did some screen shots of the program. Im not sure how else to do this. If anybody needs more shots, or maybe I did it wrong, tell me. I kept getting a SES light while I was out. And there was bad detonation for some reason. Usually it doesnt do this. So, Here goes;















----------
I screwed up the screen shots on a few, and forgot to get the raw sensor data. Im getting it now, and Ill post it asap.

 

Well, Im a computer retard. I screwed up when I took the screen shots, and got two shots of the error codes, and none of the raw data. Ill do another log this week, and post it. Sorry.

And how does the data logger work? Its only ever showed one screen, with no way of going back to check earlier screens. Im assuming it replaces the information as it runs, correct? I drove for over 100 miles, and even drove till the laptop quit. How do I figure out what the SES light was from. Am I correct in thinking its from the ESC failure, on the failure code screen? How do I associate that failure with the raw data page, in real time, if it happened way before the last raw data screen?

 

I don't see anything wrong here, outside of the ESC ( knock sensor/module ) failure, and your comment about excessive knock. That explains the SES.
Look in the directory winaldl was running from, and see if you have a file with a name like
20080106_012345_LOG.txt
That would be your data log as long as it ran.

 

Ill have to break it up. It way to big. Evidently it was recording, but it went into hybernation. Here are the first 50 lines or so. If you need the other ones, let me know.


Edit: It doesnt want to keep it in a graph format, so Ill have to screenshot it, or try to upload it another way. Give me a few minutes.

 

Okay, here goes. Screen shots. And this is just the first few lines of over 230 lines. I didnt even get 10%.

 

Yeah, that's not working very well.
Go to http://cowboys.homeip.net/Files/EFI/
and grab the file near the bottom WinALDL-LOG.xls
It's been 3 or 4 years since I've used winaldl, but what this spreadsheet will do, which may, or may not help you, is chart data.
It'll accommodate 2500 lines of a winaldl log file.
Just copy the data from yours over the data on sheet 1. Leave sheet 2 alone, and you'll get a chart on sheet 3.
As it is, it's got data from my truck from about 11/2005 or so, which won't apply to you, but might help understand a bit about the relationships between some of the data you're collecting.
I don't know about you, but endless tables of numbers do almost nothing for me. In any case, you're on your way to doing your own tuning !
Enjoy.....
How's your original problem ? The parts of any log that mean anything will be the parts taken while the problem was happening along with 50 or 100 lines before the problem showed up. ( if possible )

 

Thanks for all the help. The original problem has all but vanished. It happened again briefly the other day, but went away just as quick. The detonation, Im sure is because I havent set the timing yet. I bought a light, and now that I have the Winaldl, I should be able to do it, with info from the tech section.

Work has been crazy, so spare time is dwindling fast. We have close to 10 helicopters in, and thats moe than Ive seen in a long time. So, Im to the point of just having to drive it now. Weekends are filled taking care of things I cant do during the week. I havent even washed it in about a month or two.


I will go to that site asap. And when I do, Ill PM you, and let you know. If you want me too, I can post it, in case it will help someone else in the future. Thanks again, everyone for the help.

 

As for the detonation, make sure that the ALDL cable does not have a 10K ohm resistor between pins A & B. If so it will put the ECM into diag mode which also adds timing. The added timing is to force knock for the tech checking the system out.

RBob.

 

It doesnt have the resistor.

How do I go about checking my spark count to set timing? What numbers am I looking for?

 

You find the test connector under the hood, and disconnect it. Then you set the timing according to the tag under the hood. That gets your base.
WinALDL will then let you know if there are areas at various RPM and MAP that still knock. To fix that, you start modifying the calibration data in the chip. Shortly after that, you become addicted, like many of us.
Star with the "Come in for a free tune" thread.

 

Okay. I havent replaced the chip to allow modifying. And Im planning on swapping to an L98 in a few months, hopefully. I have read all the tuning topics and such. I just hope the 350 isnt too much harder to figure out. Im wanting to get some hp from it, and want to burn my own chips. I think Im getting to old to do this crap.

Ill try to set the timing this weekend. Maybe run it down the road for another quick scan.