oldguy44
Newbie
I have a program from the OBD website on my old laptop. The one I use for all my car stuff. It has Mercedes and Beetle programs on it which is probably why it is constantly retching and hade to be replaced. When I put the LT in my Catalina I used a Howell wiring loom and they did a bench tune on the ECM. When it was in and running it had a CEL, I do not remember what the issue was I just remember that my cheapo scan tool could not deal with it. The obdlink program in my laptop took care of the issue. Only time I ever used it. Hopefully it will interface with the van. If not I will look into torque, thanks. Been busy with other issues hopefully will get back to the van next week.What are you using to read the data? An obdlink is just the translator, you will need either an app on a phone or a computer running one of the available programs to actually read data. There are a few such apps and programs out there including "torque"
Your remark about your suburban raises an interesting question. I had a 99 that ran as bad as the van. Any time I towed the boat to or from the lake house I used my wifes 06 Lexus hybrid because it had better towing capacity than the suburban! I am beginning to wonder if I am dealing with a California tuning issue (read California air resources board) I ran one of the LAPD repair shops from 80-90. WE had a bunch of late 80's Crown Vics with the carbureted 351 Windsor in them. That engine was not even supposed to be in the state but it was the only engine Ford had that would meet the required performance standards so LAPD quietly snuck them in.
Granted 250 cubic inches (4.3) is not a big engine by todays standards but it still should be able to be tuned to run correctly. We ran a 250 straight six in a circle track car in hobby class for years and it was entirely capable of lighting the rear tires in first gear right off idle, even with a cam designed to run between 2500 and 6500, and they were not street tires. I refuse to believe that it is impossible to get better performance out of the van than what it currently has. I will guarantee that it can be done with a carburetor and a distributor, so I don't know why it can't be done with a computer. I just looked back and did not see a response from anyone in California. HmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmYou have a full size van, correct? Even if it is the small (Astro'ish) version, the 4.3 is not strong enough to drive under 2000 rpms without it feeling like dog chit. No amount of timing/tuning is going to help.