Scan Tool

[bigd]

Any recommendations on which scan tool is the best? Been thinking about buying one.

[Kevin]

I'm in for an answer

[Tyler Townsley]

Any recommendations on which scan tool is the best? Been thinking about buying one.

What do you want to use it for. If you are wanting to use it to tune for performance a data loging Wide Band like FJO is manditory. There are no scan tools out there that furnish AFR vs RPM vs Map vs Spark in a format that can be QUICKLY used to get performance tuning. The FJO will give you everything but spark so to get spark you need another method.

If you want the easiest go Datamaster but it has no AFR readings, if you are willing to put in some time and effort into the mix then I would use Craig Moats's hardware, Tuner Pro to build a datalog of spark etc and FJO to get AFR data in a format that can be used to modify the prom which can also be done with TunerPro(Tunercat also works but does not give you a datalog capability). This would give you the best package. With these packages you can define your own outputs ie dataloged information, review AFR and burn your own chips.

Both TunerPro and Tunercat use data definition files, you can buy them for Tunercat. Todd P has done one for the 90 and 91 for TunerPro not sure if anyone has tried to do one for 92+.

Tyler

[tpepmeie]

I agree with Tyler's comments above. Personally I use Datamaster for all my normal datalogging. Nice package.

One day I will convert to TunerPro, since it is a lot more flexible (you design the definition file). However, I still can't get it to connect to my car. 90+ vettes need a "silence" command to stop the chatter on the ALDL line before software can connect. Mark Mansur (TP creator) will integrate this feature into a future version, I hope. P.S., if anybody has gotten it to connect, I'd like to hear from you.

As Tyler says, if you want to monitor the standard GM ECM data, Datamaster is a fine tool. Some of the wideband O2 controllers (FJO) will let you connect to multiple analog, 0-5v inputs. I run mine connected to the MAP signal and tach signal. With such, I can get nice 3D recording of AFR vs. MAP vs. RPM. A little Excel spreadsheet magic, and I can turn it into a Volumetric Efficiency table.

I use the wideband logging 90% of the time, and only pull out datamaster if I try something really different with the calibration, just to make sure all the inputs look normal.

Hope this helps.
Todd