I decided to exercise my Google-fu. I've been thinking this information had to be out there somewhere, that Wester's Garage can't be the only game in town for do-it-yourself 94-95 6.5 programming.
After some digging around on this, and and 20 other Diesel, tuning and DIY EFI forums I came up with what you need to tune your truck yourself.
I'm just providing the files, and links to the equipment. If you do this, its all on you. Its quite easy to blow up your truck. I was mostly interested in the 2nd gear TCC lock up, and some DTC eliminations. Stock truck (for now).
First, the software you need. TunerPro, available (for free!) at http://www.tunerpro.net. The free software is all you need software wise to burn replacement EPROMs. For a more flexible solution, TunerPro RT (plus some hardware), allows you to do realtime tuning before finalizing a chip and burning it. Not required by far.
Second, a few data files. I did some serious googling to come up with these. I've hosted all these files and provided links, so hopefully they never disappear.
BPAA.BIN - the original eprom image from a 95 F-code with 4L80E trans. EGR is already deleted. Since my truck has an BPAA eprom stock, I stopped searching at this point for others
BPDP.BIN - Original eprom from a 94 truck. S-code, and probably auto, as it has all the EGR and trans tables filled out.
$EC.XDF - The definition file while allows TunerPro to interpret the .BIN image. This is a "universal" 94-95 6.5 Turbo filemask.
$ECA.XDF - Same as above, but a slight variant. I havent found details on when to use it, but $EC is correct for the BPAA image
$ECB.XDF - Another variant. Not sure on whats different, but it matches BPAA much better than $ECA does. I still recommend $EC.
$ECS.XDF - For Non turbo 6.5's.
Third, the hardware you need. There are a few ways of going about this, you have to choose the best one for yourself.
I will present some of the options I've found, you can do a little more research on this, as the hardware side is a little more universal to DIY eprom programming.
Our trucks use a 27c512 eprom. This is erased by exposure to a UV light source. UV erasers are cheap, and available at radio shack, ebay, or any electronics supplier.
A standard eprom programmer wll work with the original chip. You have to remove the chip from the blue carrier, flash, then reinstall.
www.moates.net offers a number of products that can make this easier.
This is an adapter which allows you to use any 27c512 chip in your pcm without the blue carrier (replaces the blue carrier).
This is the mirror image of the above adapter, and allows you to flash the OEM chip without removing it from the blue carrier. Also allows you to read OEM chips without removing from the blue cover. Handy if you wanted to pull your own stock image, and modify it, rather than starting with BPAA.
Moates also has a low cost ($85) chip programmer option called the BURN2. Rather than using 27c512, you use 27sf512. It can read the oem chip, but no reflash it. From a practical point of view, the 27c512 and 27sf512 are interchangeable, the only different being the programmer hardware. As far as the PCM is concerned, they are the same thing.
So for $30 for a chip carrier, $85 for a programmer, $20-30 for a UV light eraser, and $5 for a new chip, you can be doing your own tuning.
To help you, I also found a very short primer from Wester's Garage that was openly available on the web about tuning the 6.5. I have rehosted this as well, its just easier for me to keep everything in one place.
Westers_Garage_Simple_Diesel_Tuning_Tips.doc
I really hope this helps someone. If nothing else, its just nice knowledge to have. Maybe someone with some real tuning knowledge will give us a new option.
As a side note, I only looked into this, because I'm much too cheap to pay $300 for a tune. If WalkingJ had a chip for $100-150, it would already be in my truck!
After some digging around on this, and and 20 other Diesel, tuning and DIY EFI forums I came up with what you need to tune your truck yourself.
I'm just providing the files, and links to the equipment. If you do this, its all on you. Its quite easy to blow up your truck. I was mostly interested in the 2nd gear TCC lock up, and some DTC eliminations. Stock truck (for now).
First, the software you need. TunerPro, available (for free!) at http://www.tunerpro.net. The free software is all you need software wise to burn replacement EPROMs. For a more flexible solution, TunerPro RT (plus some hardware), allows you to do realtime tuning before finalizing a chip and burning it. Not required by far.
Second, a few data files. I did some serious googling to come up with these. I've hosted all these files and provided links, so hopefully they never disappear.
BPAA.BIN - the original eprom image from a 95 F-code with 4L80E trans. EGR is already deleted. Since my truck has an BPAA eprom stock, I stopped searching at this point for others
BPDP.BIN - Original eprom from a 94 truck. S-code, and probably auto, as it has all the EGR and trans tables filled out.
$EC.XDF - The definition file while allows TunerPro to interpret the .BIN image. This is a "universal" 94-95 6.5 Turbo filemask.
$ECA.XDF - Same as above, but a slight variant. I havent found details on when to use it, but $EC is correct for the BPAA image
$ECB.XDF - Another variant. Not sure on whats different, but it matches BPAA much better than $ECA does. I still recommend $EC.
$ECS.XDF - For Non turbo 6.5's.
Third, the hardware you need. There are a few ways of going about this, you have to choose the best one for yourself.
I will present some of the options I've found, you can do a little more research on this, as the hardware side is a little more universal to DIY eprom programming.
Our trucks use a 27c512 eprom. This is erased by exposure to a UV light source. UV erasers are cheap, and available at radio shack, ebay, or any electronics supplier.
A standard eprom programmer wll work with the original chip. You have to remove the chip from the blue carrier, flash, then reinstall.
www.moates.net offers a number of products that can make this easier.
This is an adapter which allows you to use any 27c512 chip in your pcm without the blue carrier (replaces the blue carrier).
This is the mirror image of the above adapter, and allows you to flash the OEM chip without removing it from the blue carrier. Also allows you to read OEM chips without removing from the blue cover. Handy if you wanted to pull your own stock image, and modify it, rather than starting with BPAA.Moates also has a low cost ($85) chip programmer option called the BURN2. Rather than using 27c512, you use 27sf512. It can read the oem chip, but no reflash it. From a practical point of view, the 27c512 and 27sf512 are interchangeable, the only different being the programmer hardware. As far as the PCM is concerned, they are the same thing.So for $30 for a chip carrier, $85 for a programmer, $20-30 for a UV light eraser, and $5 for a new chip, you can be doing your own tuning.
To help you, I also found a very short primer from Wester's Garage that was openly available on the web about tuning the 6.5. I have rehosted this as well, its just easier for me to keep everything in one place.
Westers_Garage_Simple_Diesel_Tuning_Tips.doc
I really hope this helps someone. If nothing else, its just nice knowledge to have. Maybe someone with some real tuning knowledge will give us a new option.
As a side note, I only looked into this, because I'm much too cheap to pay $300 for a tune. If WalkingJ had a chip for $100-150, it would already be in my truck!
