CHEVYTOWN

The L6 is running a 560cfm 2barrel TBI kit from Howell.

I have done some research and found out that when using WinALDL and experimenting with the actual tunning, I came across something about individual cells (A/F mixture I think, I can't remember....a lot to learn man!) that can be reprogramed using a Promburner....I thought WinALDL did it all, I had no idea there were other programs involved in the total tunning when using WinALDL.

Well, I was wondering....

Are there other gadgets out there can do a better job? Where it doesn't have to use a seperate program, such as this promburner deal, and actually burn the prom (not removed from the ECM) from the seatbucket:rockon:

Well, in all, how much would that prom burner cost? I know the custom cable runs round $30. And I do have a PC laptop with a serial port. Would rather use me Mac though running Virtual PC but.....

Thanks for the help man, late

CHEVYTOWN AND THE GM GANGSTERS

snflupigus

hehe, read on how an eprom works. if you want to run one program and adjust in real time without removing the prom, look at spending about $800 for an aftermarket ecm because you will never be able to do that with the one you have.

get the prom burner etc.. look at about 300-400

you will never be able to burn a prom while its sitting in the ecm. cant do it. again, read on how eproms work. the main reason is because you cant erase it when its in the ecm.

winaldl only looks at what is going on, like scanner.
then you need tunercat or another editing program
then you need a prom reading/burning program that comes with the burner.

sounds like you want aftermarket, save your pennies.

CHEVYTOWN

Holy Shiiiit! I would rather just stick to the ecm I fo have. For now, are there shops out there, or a GM dealer, that can tune a TBI engine? Howell left the ECM tuned to my L6, from what I can tell, pretty darn good. But I'm sure it will never be optimized unless it's run on a dyno or winaldl....thanks man. ctown

Silverado5.7L

http://www.xtronics.com/memory/romutator.htm

Snuff do you think this will work for him?
I do.

Chevytown you would need to dial in your prom then just burn the one that works.
I actually thought about permantly mounting a laptop in my truck and running this guy 24/7.
It'll prolly never happen though, good luck.

brharris27370

I hope you don't plan on running MS Windows 24/7. You will have to stop and reboot 5 times on the way to work.

The romutator may be ok if your going to tune a lot of different variables in a short period of time, but I wouldn't recommend extended usage.

CHEVYTOWN

Thanks Homeboys..

I'm beginning to understand this deal man....Well, sort of.
It seems like it is pretty damn hard. I have gone to some webpages....like Reading GM's 160 baud, 160 baud data and a few others....and some of that tech stuff is out of this world man....Is it difficult to grasp backyard style or is it best going to a community college to lurn this tuning science......

Thanks for the help HOMETOWNS....

snflupigus

community colleges are training institutes, mainly not learning venues.

you wont get a class on tuning tbi.

I havent heard of anybody getting the emulator to work because the ecm has a way of checking for a prom, if your computer drops communication even for a split second, the ecm will revert back to limp home mode. sorry. nobody has it working yet.

As ive read more, i think that a new ecm is an ausome hassle free way to go. but if i were going to spend 800, i would just drop 1200 and convert to electromitives setup.

if you spent 500 on your engine, dont spend more than 250 for a carb etc..

if you spent 5000 on your engine, spend 2500 for the best damn engine control system you can.

o, and about windows rebooting all the time or having to. get an old copy of nt and you wont need to worry about it.

CHEVYTOWN

Well bra,

I learned how to do web pages at a local community college and yer right bro, it is a trainging institution. And for sure there were a lot of days at home doing the trial and error deal, but the cool thing was that they got down to the nitty gritty and I was off quick building pages. If there was a TBI tuning class I'd be on it quick. And of course it's all about the learning curve...that's the cool part.

But I dig backyard style too homes. Take a big hit.....big gulp off me cerveza....stand back and survey the situation, then step in and....LET'S DO IT!

I hear ya on the cash part hometown....I'll lay down the green if I have to no matter wha the cost. If ya want it and have the desire, it's a done deal. I'll check with Howell....

I truly believe that IF there is a crazy programer out there that understand's Mac's OS....that this deal can be a done deal. PC's OS is a bummer. Mac's OS is the bomb....if there is a programer out there you can make some KILLER cash if you program (back end) an ECM tuner for the stock GM's for Mac use.

Anyway, my 2¢! THANKS FOR THE INSIGHT HOMETOWNS! CTOWN

Class is out and it's time to :rockon:

Silverado5.7L

I know you were jokinly exagerating, but if you have a good clean install of windows and a system that dosn't over heat, you WON'T have a problem with locking up. I had a box that was on for 100 or so days with no problems. Mac OS is nice, but I cringe at the thought of one of those ugly neon cases they sell.

I personally run WIN 2K a version of NT, but I havn't tried getting a programer to work on 2K so I may have to install 98

Bum deal on the Romulator not working while the engine is running.

Can it change the program with the car off? I think that would be alot quicker and less wear and tear on the computer/chip.

snflupigus

our nt at the dealership is NOT able to go down or GM will freak out on us. its been on for as long as i can remember. over a year. no problems. its got low ram, low processing power too. so no it doesnt overheat.

my new box has 6 fans and still locks up, shoulda got pentium

JPrevost

Do as I say or go aftermarket if you can't follow along and need simplicity (comes with less options though).
The GM_ecm's are VERY good systems especially now that many have been hacked down to source code (you have control of everything).
Xtronics Pocket programmer 2 is $130 and comes with software that works in win2k/98/95, dos, etc. I don't know about XP but I have a feeling that it does work since it's still based on win2k.
Now spend $80 on TunerCat software ($20 of that is for your specific vehicles "definition" file).
Last 2 things needed are eproms and an eraser.
My opinion is to go with Craig M.'s 8 in 1 eeprom adaptor. It uses a larger flash prom to store 8 programs that can be switched ON THE FLY and there is no need for an eraser because it's a flash prom, just program over the old stuff and stick it back into the adaptor . I think that's like $65 or something, but you can just go with the standard $3 eproms and a $30 eraser. I just think that's too complicated having to erase the damn things before you reprogram them.
Then I would invest in some sort of scanning equipment to verifty changes and to help tune. This is where I wouldn't go with ANYTHING other than the freeware Winaldl software. A simple $20 cable from me or you can build it yourself with only $5 in parts from RadioShack! Then a laptop, either borrow or get a basic one that'll run win95 and has 16mb ram and at least a 300mb harddrive. I like how my pentium 75 thinkpad runs everything including excel for fuel table tuning (we'll get into that later). So figure ~$60 in laptop stuff.
So the total is $335 for ALL of the best stuff. That's exactly what I've done and I couldn't imagine any other way. If you've got the time to learn and want to keep closed loop, highway mode, and all the other extra goodies, keep the GM_ecm, else go with some sort of DFI which will cost you more and give you less options. If you're working with an engine making over 400hp then aftermarket like the holley 950 commander system is a very good idea. It'll get you in the ballpark faster than a GM setup.