d stohler wrote: > i have an odbI/II hand held reader. i have 4 different cables to hook > to different cars. i can read regular trouble codes, and also > manufacture specific codes. can do real time data, freeze frame data, > and all kinds of good stuff. also has cables you can hook to laptop, > and you d/l updates online, and update thru laptop/desktop. if you > have laptop, you can hook it up, while running real time data ( to > get actual realtime sensor readings) and save it onto your laptop, > and make charts and print if you like. mine is by AUTOXRAY. i have > had it since 03. i havent bought the updates for it for several > years. its a GREAT little tool for what i use it for. any other > questions about my tool, happy to answer. Thanks for the info! My problem is that I have this GM TBI computer that needs tuning. THere's a lot of information on the web but it's really confusing -- but the one site I found that cleared up a lot of crap and detail is the moates' site -- http://www.moates.net Hardcore hobbiests turned pro, it looks like! So here's the stor as I know it -- For us old car nuts with carburetors, TBI (throttle body) is a lot easier to adapt than port injection. The Howell kit, at $1200, is about the cheapest, but not cheap enough for many of us! But it's a good deal for a bolt-on kit. So largely it's a two-part process to adapt "modern" TBI to a carb car: #1 Fit all the new crap onto the old motor. This is sort-of straightforward. #2 "Tune" the computer to work with the old motor. This part is a PITA and not straightforward! But there's a path through the confusion... #2 is my current problem. There's code readers (for the diagnostics the GM computer (ECM) pukes out; there's "dataloggers" that collect runtime data; there's software to modify the tables in the ECM, burners to permanently change the ECM data... yikes! But Moates has a $329 package that contains: * The connector and cable that plugs onto the ECM's ALDL connector. * An adapter for that cable to connect to the USB port of a laptop. * Comes with free software that can interpret the ECM data so received and modify the ECM data to TUNE! the miserable thing. * Will EMULATE (below) or BURN a new PROM for making your changes "permanent". You have to provide a Windows laptop computer, but it can be a thriftstore job, as long as it has a USB port. So this looks like the CHEAPEST! (Rambler Mentality) approach, hands down. As a bonus, all this crap sitting on the passenger seat (laptop; little adapter box; cable to the ALDL connector under the dash) will act as a "dashboard" for the ECM data in real-time. I think I'm gonna buy one! News at 11... _______________________________________________ Amc-list mailing list Amc-list@xxxxxxxxxxxx http://splatter.wps.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/amc-list