Introduction and OBD2 Tuning Questions
Hello all. I appreciate the add and the all the info and work you guys have done. I have been researching for a way to tune my truck after a cam upgrade and engine rebuild without having to spend an arm and a leg on HPT. It's an 03 Avalanche, 5.3l with a p59 PCM, OS 12579405. After finding the forums and youtube videos, I have successfully flashed it over to the 12587603 OS.
Tools I had used was LS Droid, OBDlink LX, Tunerpro and a bench harness with a switch for the ignition.
I had tried several versions of PCMHammer to no avail. Not sure why. It would read the initial info, Like OS, serial and VIN but not do a full read.
I had started with the OBDLINK LX and LS droid in the vehicle at first and was getting mixed results. I then moved to a bench harness. My bench harness uses an Elenco Precision regulated power supply, model XP-620. I had it set at ~13 volts. Still after moving to the bench harness I was getting nothing. I had realized and after had read somewhere, I believe on Facebook, That I had updated the OBDlink's firmware to the latest version and that on LS Droid FB, someone said the most stable version was 4.5.1 for the OBDlink. So I rolled it back to that version and I started getting full reads of the PCM. I had backed up my full read, just in case any tune I write was troublesome. I did try PCMhammer again after this and still no reads. Ok with the read out of the way, I found the 7603 bin and xdf off of github repository, by boredtruckowner and snowman. Sorry I cant remeber how it was spelled and cant seem to find the github right now for him. Some interesting things that I found is that after grabbing an xdf from both githubs, they had different assortment of options in tunerpro. One had way more than the other, but also it seemed like a red flag to me as well, because I wanted to stick to as stock as possible xdf. I ended up using the xdf from boredtruckowner.
So everything is going well, I am researching my tune and what I need to adjust and what not to touch, etc. Except when I go to save the bin in tunerpro, I get a checksum error. Ok. lets figure this out. Did some reseaarch and found that tunerpro requires a plugin for gm(p01/p59) PCM's. I go to tunerpro website download the plugin from their link, which redirects to joukey's github. I download the "GM-P01-P59-checksum-plugin.dll" and place it into the appropriate folder. Which it has to be placed into the plugin folder under Tunerpro in the documents folder. I go to save the bin file again and still get a checksum error. Of course, I restarted the computer.. Yes, i uninstalled and reinstalled Tunerpro. Still got a checksum error when saving. After sifting through some more forumns I had came across a plugin from boredtruckowners github, believe it or not. I popped that sucker in the plugin folder and it worked. It actually saved with no checksum errors. Wow.
Finally, I am ready to write to the PCM the new OS. I load up LS droid,I reset the bluetooth for the OBDlink. I made sure the PCM had been on for 30 secs minimum. I go to write on LSDroid and nope I cannot write. I have to do 3 calibration writes before I can do i full OS write. @#%^! So, I try to do my first calibration. I started the process and selected my original OS from my first read to use. LSdroid hangs at the cheksum screen. Right at 100%, 8/8. Just freezes, nothing. This appearently is the checksum process before even uploading the kernels. So I force close LSdroid, turn off my PCM. wait a while and try again. I selected the same original OS to write a calibrate. This time LSDroid, does a full calibrate write. No issues, No hangs. OK, perfect. Lets do another. I turn off the iginition. wait a few minutes, turn the ignition back on, wait 30 secs, and start another calibrate. Well this time it gets stuck at the kernel loading 2 of 3. Just freezes, no error screen, no recovery mode, nothing. So I once again, force close, turn off ignition. wait a while and come back and restart the whol process all over again. I finally get all 3 calibrate writes done and am ready to move onto the big one. Ofcourse I had doubts, after seeing LSdroid freeze up. I knew what was going to happen.
Just as I had predicted, LSdroid had froze 3 different times trying to write this damn thing. Same times as the when I was doing the Calibrates. I actually got a full write done on the fourth try. Turned off my ignition switch, waited a few minutes and did a read. 20 something minutes later, the read comfirmed the OS and after popping it into tunerpro, I confirmed all the changes I had made for my tune. Perfect! Now heres the weird part, I did not ever change my VIN not on any device, software nothing. MY plan was to make sure the file writes then figure out how to change the bin. Also, I did not do a VATS delete. I never touched VATS. The read from my OS change and write had showed that my vehicles VIN was somehow incorporated into the bin. IDK, but hey thats even better.
And then whats better than that? Ill tell you. The fact that after putting the PCM back into the truck, The vehicle started up first time. No problems. Hell yeah!. I drop it in gear and see if it stalls? Nope still runs. Ok, time for a test drive. Took it out for a spin, came back, no issues. Sweet, Im in there like swim wear!
With my cam upgrade the truck would die out when put into gear.
*With all that being said, what I am about to write is my opinions that stem from my trials and tribulations. Don't take offense! Again these are opinions even though they may help someone out, understand what worked for me may not work for you!* (I will write all the the files, software versions, and specifics down below that I used.)
Now, I understand first and foremost that this is a pretty long write up, especially for an Introduction but I dont want to write several different times when it could be said all in one swoop. I am a pretty quick study and I realize that when people ask you to read through forumns, before asking questions, or when people are in such a hurry that they feel like, they have to ask a question right away to get help to understand why something is not working. In my trials and tribulations of my process, I did not write to ask questions, and even though at times with being under pressure to have my truck back running, I still did not write. I felt I had to, have access to this forumn which I just got yesterday, to have acces to bins and xdf's, but that wasn't the case. There are bins, xdf's on other forumns and github. Which was awesome. I just did my due diligence. Alot of researching forumns and google searches. The one gripe I would have is most of the information on the forumns are outdated. For example, it was LSdroid's Facebook group, where I had learned that the most stable version of LSdroid to work with the OBDlink LX was 4.5.1. So, to me and understanding that even if I did ask for some help, as a new person, that chance would be slim to none. So, I was stuck sifting through outdated material, deciphering everything like I was trying to restablish, an old archaic language from the ancient tombs. At times, I felt I should just fork up the money for HPTuners, just to have a process that is streamlined and works. My process only lasted about five days time total, starting with last week. I recieved the OBDlink LX in the mail, and downloaded LSdroid. I spent a couple of hours trying to get the PCM to read in the vehicle, that evening. Not realizing that I was using a not so stable newer firmware of the OBDlink. I decided to that there was toomuch noise in the vehicle's bus's, due to getting half reads. I did at the time went the oppisite direction and updated the OBDlink to the latest firmware, only to get no reads at all. I then decide to order a delphi bench harness off ebay, well because my junkyards around here are trash anyways. So a few days later I recieved the harness. I did some research to verify the pinouts, which the ground was not placed in the proper location on the ECM connector. So, I repinned it to the proper location and added a switch to pin 19 for the switched ignition signal. I already had a power supply that is more stable than the wall adapter that came with the bench harnes so I cut the wall plug power suplly off and wired it up to my power supply. I tried reading and was getting nothing from LSdroid or PCMhammer, until I changed the OBDlink firmware to version 4.5.1. I started to get reads from LSDroid but still not PCMhammer. So in one evening I got a full read, started editing my tune, and the next day wrote the new tune with the new OS. So a fairly quick process for a newbie minus witing on the hardware to come in the mail. My other issue is for the tunerpro plugin that cam from their website that redirects to joukey's github, does not work. So if, you are getting a checksum plugin error when saving a bin, go to boredtruckowners github and use that plugin.
https://github.com/BoredTruckOwner/L...ksum%20Plugins
A couple of other caveats, is that the xdf, that I felt was better, that I got from boredtruckowner's github, is locked and uneditable. Not sure why? Its probably not a big deal, but it does make me feel like it is not as original as it probably could be. And it may very well be for reasons such as no one can mess up an original, which could be a good thing. So, I digress.
Secondly if I am going to write a new OS to my PCM, because an xdf does not exist for my current OS, why do I have to write 3 calibrations through LSdroid? This is redundant to me and frankly a waste of time.
Ok so my specifics:
Vehicle: 2003 Chevy Avalanche 1500, Z71, 5.3l 4x4, Automatic, Drive by wire (DBW), 4L60E transmission, has a rebuilt engine with upgraded parts and seals, 256's heads, Texas Speed's 212/218 114LSA .600 lifts on the intakes and exhausts / Stage 2 High Lift Truck Cam, .600 lifts beehive springs, BTR trunion upgrades, new rockers, pushrods, lifters, timing chain, melling water pump, melling oil pump, radiator. It has a P59 1mb PCM that, had a 12579405 OS, which is now a 12587603 OS.
Hardware/Software:
Windows 10 laptop, which is prob updated to the latest version, because the damn thing restarts every night.
OBDlink LX version 4.5.1 firmware (which can be updated via the OBDlink app, that you download from the play store)
LSDroid Beta V0.2.2B (which can not be rolled back and is the latest version)
TunerPro version 5.00.9237 (not TunerProRT)
PCMHammer Versions 12-14 (never worked)
Bench Harness for PCM with OBDII port and switch for ignition @~13 volts DC.
Bins/xdf's:
12587603 bin from boredtruckowner's github
12587603 xdf from the same github
1Mb PCM OS Checksum Plugin.dll for TunerPro, from boredtruckowner's github
My next step is to get the truck tune dialed in, which I need to figure out. I'd prefer not to buy HPTuners, but I am tempted too,to be able to run a scanner and drive logs.
I belive there is a way to run a scanner and logs with TunerPro RT, but as of right now I am unsure of what hardware is required to be able to do so. I am currently under the assumption that the OBDlink or any bluetooth device for that matter and that is not propierty to another company's products, such as HPT, will not work with TunerPro RT. I think there is a cable but also unsure of what and which one it is.
I did not want to mess with the base spark table in my tune but I did. I will prob roll it back to stock. I did take note that when doing a tune you want a smooth transistion from the rpm ranges, which the stock bin does not do. I had simply changed the percentages of my adjustments I had made and did not smooth them out. So I have to figure that out as well. I mean currently the truck drives good, but I do notice that the rpms are higher and the truck wants to lunge forward as soon as its dropped in gear. And with my foot on the brake at stops, if I dont hold the brake tight the truck will move forward pretty easily. So, I am thinking I need to bring down the in gear percentages some.
As far as my cam, I am really unsure of what to change. I'd prefer not to change anything that doesn't need changed.
Maybe someone can help me out with this, or maybe they won't. IDK.
Anyways thanks for coming to my Ted Talk, and especially thanks to all those who have created a process to allow this to happen, without the cost of HPT or the equivalant!
Jeramy Scott
