Hi All~

First post - been doing some digging and can't seem to track down the answers to a couple questions I have about OBDi engines.

Is there a method of datalogging/monitoring, in real time, a OBDi ECM? If not, does a Mass Air Conversion kit exist for the '93 5.8L and if so, does it have datalogging/monitoring abilities?

I use the van to tow my track toy and am somewhat of a tech-winnie and like gadgets. My track car uses DashCommand to monitor/record in realtime all the engine parameters while on track, which is displayed on a 7" monitor I use as my dashboard. The track car is an OBDi car and therefore I have to use a aftermarket setup to monitor the data via additional engine sensors... to do this I use Zeitronix wideband controller along with hardwired engine sensors to monitor said data... but I digress.

Short of installing an aftermarket set of engine sensors, is there a way to tap into the OE sensors and/or ECM to monitor the engine's parameters? I'm particularly interest in water temp, oil pressure, RPMs and if at all possible, transmission temps.

 

Yes... but there is an asterick attached to that answer. All Ford OBD1 EECs(PCMs) have a J3 port on the rear of the case where hardware can be attached to override internal PROM and intercept the processors data bus. Some industrous enthusiasts have managed to create hardware to do this and have decoded the memory map for the more popular performance EECs(Mustang and G1 Lightning) giving access to all real time sensor data and tuning parameters. The hardware is available from Moates QuarterHorse for Fords and the more popular tuning software is something called Binary Editor
The problem with this is nobody has bothered to decode the memory map on all of Fords many different EEC versions, so unless you can decode the map for your EEC yourself or have somebody else do it you will probably have to swap in another supported EEC. In your case that's not a hugh deal, if your truck has the E4OD trans a Lightning EEC would work and if it has an AOD, C6, or manual a Mustang EEC would work and you could do a MAF conversion at the same time.

 

thanks for the reply Conanski. It's an E250 Econoline and has the overdrive button - so I'm assuming it's a E4OD.

I'll have to dig into the QuarterHouse setup - looks a bit involved. Off hand, does the E250 have temp sensors in the transmission and are they reported to the EECs?

Looks like this is more of a laptop setup verses a bluetooth or wifi tablet setup, correct?

thanks again!

 

Yeah the E4OD has a ton of sensors including temp and yes this is a laptop setup or maybe a Windows tablet if it has a USB interface. With these Fords the one PCM controls both engine and trans so you have access to everything from this type device.

 

thanks again for the info. the idea is def growing on me. an inexpensive car pc may be in order.