Not to poo poo on the parade, but it is not really a good thing to do a buzz test repeatedly on your injectors as you are effectively running them dry. Yes you can learn a lot about your injectors by doing so, but pay attention while doing it so you don't have to run it more times then you absolutely have to.

I have gleaned a lot of info from Rich over the few times I have exchanged PM's with him about AE questions. Listen up kids, your teacher knows his stuff, he has been through the school of hard knocks. Here's an apple for the teacher.

I have the AE domestic bundle, and have never looked at anything other then a 7.3 with it.... till today, my brother in law brought over a 2000 Chevy with the 5.3 in it, with miss in the engine. I hooked up my AE to it. Let me tell you we are spoiled with our 7.3's, just connecting to it took 5 minutes, I had to have the 8th vin # and then the 5th #, and then had to tell it what trans it had, and if it had a air pump on the trans???? i just guessed at the last one. As it connected it showed it had 12 different systems, 20k sensors detected. HOLY CRAP!
It was showing a misfire hard on cylinder 8, and also a miss on 3, and 4. I checked the coil and plug first, on 8 since he had just replaced the plugs to see if he had dropped it and closed the gap. Nope, I told him to hold it to the block with it hooked up and let me know if it sparked..... ya it did, and it shocked the tar out of him, I had said to use the pliers, he decided to hold it, but not for long.
I ended up finding the injector on 4 was dead, and 3 was barely doing much, those 2 together were causing 8 to show as a hard miss since they are close in the firing order. 1-8-7-2-6-5-4-3 is the firing order. It took me a while to get back in to gas motor mode as I have not had to work on one in a LONG time....
AE did show me the miss, once I found what PID I wanted from the list. I could have found it without it by unplugging the coils one at a time, and listening to it, but AE made it much faster to diagnose. If only it gave you the option to kill injectors. I had to unplug them by hand to find out which ones were bad.

All that off topic stuff out of the way I will now hide out , listen, and learn.

 

I mentioned recording data, but we're not ready for that yet: There's a little-known secret in AE that really should be less of a secret: The default maximum for each sensor sucks. Say you want to graph your backpressure after you recorded your data, the most a stock truck will see is maybe 65 PSI absolute – and that's being pushed downhill in second gear by a heavy load. Click on the “Live Data Grid” tab and look at the default maximum for backpressure in the screen shot of below:



40 PSI (heavy load) on a graph from zero to 344.46 (where do they get these numbers?) is going to look like a speed bump, and you want a freeway overpass. Graphing aside, if we saw 300 PSI backpressure, we wouldn't be looking at AE data... we'd be looking at the engine parts on the road that we coasted over. AE is set up with default maximums to fit the most wild factory vehicle. Another example is the engine speed (RPM): The default maximum in AE is 8000. That's just silly for a diesel, so every meter we want needs a visit to the “Live Data Configure” screen.



I set my absolute pressure maximums to 50 for this exercise, but a realistic maximum for my modified truck would be 65 on the backpressure and 55 on the MAP. The question about alarms was asked – that's the trigger in the screen. I'm not covering it yet, but that's another toy for you to experiment with before I get there. If you get playful, you can set a MAP limit on a stock truck to 30 PSI absolute... then it will play an audio file that cries out “Cap'n! I don'-a think she'll take much more!” (which you have to acquire on your own). I digress... here is the screen shot with the maximums set to be reasonable.



We went through all this trouble to select the sensor and set the maximums for good graphing, now we don't want the software to set everything back to default when we disconnect – so we save the session. Click "Vehicle” on the menu, then “Save Session”. Give it a name you can remember – like “Tugly's class” (I have a chance here to be immortalized and I don't want to pass it up). The file name Exh-Boost would probably work better.



The next time you connect to to the vehicle, you can start a new session, or you can load a prepared one like the Exh-Boost you just made. Here are some saved sessions I have on file:





Well... that's it, now we need to start recording and start an engine. Record first, get 10 seconds of data, then start up and go for a drive. If you get a chance to get a WOT session, all the better.



Word of warning: I learned the hard way that if you change a parameter while in record, the recording will stop instantly. Once you are set up and recording, you are committed to that meter set until the next recording session. While recording, you can hit pause at any time and start back up by hitting the pause button. There is a stop button as well, which will complete that recording file. If you hit stop and want to record more, you need to start a new file. If you allow the software to auto-name the recording files, it will just name it for the vehicle, model year, and today's date. If you record twice in one day, it will delete your first recording... unless you give the second recording a different name than the first one.

Obviously, working with filenames and meter parameters is not to be done while driving... though some have tried. I strongly urge you to leave the computing time to the side of the road, or have an assistant tend to it.

What's next, you say? We're going to look at your data... might I suggest you record some? "Oh my gawd! This has homework!?!"

 

Great thread Rich!!! I rated it 5 stars. What about making it a sticky in the 7.3 forums?

 

I concur.

 

Any help appreciated.

Have had AE for about 2 years. Have used it for scanning etc. Not at all pushing to what its capable of.

Today went to hook it up because this thread got me interested and I have had a CEL for the past week.

ANyway got my DTC codes no issues. but in my live data meter each section only gives me three options and then off! Before I had the full selection.

I have changed the configuration around in the vehicle setting but nothing changes. Of course its saturday and I cant call AE.

AJ

 

Tugly, I have a F450 and beacuse of weight it's not obdII, may be different for 250 and 350

 

Do you have the SECURITY DONGLE plugged in? And subscribing

 

It might be too old for the security dongle, but it sounds like you didn't enter the activation code for the Ford Enhanced bundle. When you buy the software with a bundle, you have to click on "Help", then "Feature Activation". A screen will pop up, showing what is activated. I hope you saved your box with the activation code in it.

 

None of our 7.3 trucks are ODBII compliant which is to say they do not report emissions system faults. AE works just the same on F-450/550 as the pickup trucks, all the same features apply.

 

Anybody know how the AE compares to DP's infinity. just got my first diesel "that's mine to play with" a couple months ago. got an infinity but wondered if I should get an AE too, or if it would be a waste of money. Thanks

 

makes sense when you think about it, thanks! learning a lot here.

 

Subscribing, sorry I'm late to class

 

Enrolling just in case...lol.

Although I will say he's already the cheapest that I've been able to find.

 

Hi There from New Zealand

Have never owned a scan tool

Gunna purchase a scan tool and like the AE one at Riff Raff as there are none available at a reasonable price in NZ . ...... question

Can I just purchase the " enhanced ford bundle " or do you need to purchase other gear to make this bundle work on my win 7 PC ?

Will it do a Buzz test on my 2003 7.3 F250 SD ?

I will attend school once they have shipped to me

Brownie

 

How did I miss this thread