ALDL TunerPro scanning attempt

[TurboProject]

Hey Guys,

I'm going to make a fairly humble attempt at gaining access to my '94 3.4L camaro PCM. It's a 16196397 and was used in the following cars:
94-95 3.4 Firebird, Camaro MT 5-speed
94-95 3.1 Grand Am, Grand Prix
94-95 3.1 Achieva, Cutlass
94-95 3.1 Beretta, Corsica
95 3.1 Lumina, Monte Carlo
94-95 3.1 Regal, Skylark

I thought I'd take baby-steps so I'm just going to try and get a ALDL diagnostics scanner to work with it first. I see that TunerProRT will do this for other PCMs.
I found the ALDL datastream definition file for my car under diy-efi.org(it's A258.DS) but it doesn't seem to be in the same format as what the TunerProRT .ads files are in. It does have a lot of information in the .DS file. Can I just try and work through everything in the .DS file and try and transpose it to match the file format of the .ads files? I may also need to hunt down other look-up table info for different sensors to get the 0-255 ADC count to sensor values.

Am I barking up the wrong tree? I don't see why this wouldn't work with a ALDL cable like the ones from akmcables.com. My ALDL port is the 12-pin type.

[bszopi]

I think the biggest problem is actually being able to FLASH the chip. As you mentioned in a different thread, FastChips is able to do it. I had my 94 Beretta PCM flashed by him (and wasn't really satisfied with what he did, so I had it redone to stock and got my $$ back). He uses a GM Tech2 to modify and reflash the chip. AFAIK, the Superchips model you talked about is just a plug-in "piggyback" model, which will alter the outgoing signal from the PCM. So its not really a "tuned chip".

Also, there are some cars in the 94-95 years that have tuners available for them, but they are usually of the V8 variety where the manufacturers thought they would be profitable with their time investment in hacking the PCM.

[TurboProject]

Ok, well that explains how he does it. And why he changes so much for it...a Tech2 isn't a cheap piece of equipment.

I have a Hypertech Power Programmer for this car. I was thinking I could monitor the serial traffic that it has as it's programming the PCM and then try and replicate it to reflash the chip. From there the main challange would be figuring out all the ins and outs of the program itself to know what to change. But if you could look at a side by side comparison of what the hypertech program looks like versus the stock one I would think you could start to map it out.

[bszopi]

A few years back, when I was actually involved in my car (LOL, amazing how a family changes that), I was looking into ways to mod the programming. I had tried a OBD-1 ECM swap, but it had some issues (which later turned out to just be some mis-wiring of grounds). I had all the chip burning equipment, so I decided to try to get the BIN from the PCM's FLASH chip. I bought a ZIF adapter to fit the chip inside the PCM, then wired it to an adapter to fit the standard EEPROM from the old days (the FLASH chip is a small, square chip), and attempted to pull the data off of the chip. I wasn't very successful, and through talking with some other people, it seemed the only way to get a good read would be to remove the chip completely from the PCB. That is, unless you came up with a way to pull the data via the ALDL, which at the time wasn't a possibility.

Just telling you my background from it, and why many people still call these PCMs "untunable".

[TurboProject]

Do you still have all that EEPROM equipment?

[bszopi]

Nope, sold it all off several years ago. I did come across the FLASH ZIF socket and wiring the other day when I was going through boxes, but I can't remember now what box it was in...

[TurboProject]

Doh! That would have come in handy if I were to try and follow in your footsteps...

Just out of curiosity, how much did you initially buy the equipment for?

[jwb8734]

I am having the same problem as the poster. TunerPro RT would work but the file was not made for it. Would anyone be willing to convert it to TunerPro. Also on the tag I noticed something else BLZX. I would tend to think I need to find a bin with that code.

Thanks
John
95 PGPSE 3.1

[e129745]

Source for BLZX.bin??

I am having the same problem as the poster. TunerPro RT would work but the file was not made for it. Would anyone be willing to convert it to TunerPro. Also on the tag I noticed something else BLZX. I would tend to think I need to find a bin with that code.

Thanks
John
95 PGPSE 3.1

I am wanting TunerPro user .bin file for chip BLZX and .xdf file. Not sure what my options are as I have searched around with no luck. I have .adx file and data stream is very cool, but now that I see, I want to get deeper.
My goal is to at least view sensor high/low thresholds and possibly in the future make some minor tweaks, esp. injector/timing and auto trans. shift points. ABS brake trouble shoot would be something I will be wanting to look into, as well. I havn't found a thing about the brake management system. My ABS dash light is on and I'd like to at least view fault codes. To toggle open/close valving to bleed system hydraulics, etc, would be very nice.