My friend has a programmer. I am all stock except for my mufflers. what exactly can i do with this programmer? will the read out tell me my AFR? and how much can i adjust it ?

 

you cant adjust anything, your friends tuner is married to his car and can only tune his car.

You can however read CEL's that your car has with his tuner.

 

And the stock narrowband O² sensors are useless for accurately monitoring AFR...

 

i already have a nice CEL reader. Craftsman CanOBD2 Diagnostic Tool

but how did his programmer become married to his car? also our cars are the same 4.6L

his is a 98 and mine is a 97

 

That is how they are programmed, specifically so that what you wish to do (tune two cars with one programmer) cannot be done.

The VIN is stored in the same block of memory as the tune and when the programmer is first used with an engine it reads the VIN and will then not work with any other PCM--I.e. they are "married". The only way to divorce them is to reload the stock tune back into the married PCM.

With most handhelds there is a limit of 4 to 5 times that the unit can be married and divorced--it then turns into a brick that will require unlocking by the tuner maker, $150 or so is the going price.

An exception to this is Delta Force's Special Forces system, delivered able to tune two vehicles, and be changed an unlimited number of times without bricking. Also you can buy additional "bullets" to tune as many cars as you buy bullets for...

 

I'll just have to wait for open source to catch up to this huh.

 

It is not that the tuning software or hardware interface is that difficult; but rather that the mapping of the tune data is an extremely time consuming and complex disassembly process.

The tune values for each strategy are mapped differently, so each requires a different template so that the tuning software knows where to find the parameters, what data type they are and for tables and functions what the data structures look like. I have in my library for '96 through '04 Fords, files for 1021 strategies; some 5700 tunes.

Ford and the others do not give this information away, and it can take three or more weeks to crack a new strategy, meaning that disassembling those 1020 strategy files likely represents some 1500 man-weeks, 28 man-years, of work. Those that do it cannot live on snowballs--especially here in Florida--so don't expect that knowledge to be given away for free anytime soon...