Looks like I bricked my PCM

Well, I guess our batting average went down, we are now batting around 800, I drove mine. Now its time to clean up the interior a bit and give it a bath. There is a new LT1 that might join this site. Known him for awhile, he bought a nice 97 z-28 with a 392 or 396 stroker motor with AFR heads, cage. lots of work done to it. We had a local meet last nite(car meet, not LT1 specific meet), if my car was there, there would have been 3 LT1 cars there. There was going to be an LT1 powered 50 chevy pickup, but he decided to drive his 96 camaro instead. PM me if you want specifics. We meet in Choctaw every Wednesday.

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Originally Posted by cholmes729

... There is a new LT1 that might join this site. Known him for awhile, he bought a nice 97 z-28 with a 392 or 396 stroker motor with AFR heads, cage. lots of work done to it. We had a local meet last nite(car meet, not LT1 specific meet), if my car was there, there would have been 3 LT1 cars there. There was going to be an LT1 powered 50 chevy pickup, but he decided to drive his 96 camaro instead.... .

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AWESOME!

Keep em coming!

Glad to hear its running man!

Did you ever remove that chip? I had an extra ecm I was using an a spare. I went to reflash it because I was selling it and as soon as I turned the ignition on the fans kicked on. So its bricked. Id like to take a shot at replacing the chips. I even have that Kent Moore bearing driver....

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Originally Posted by firebird_1995

Did you ever remove that chip? I had an extra ecm I was using an a spare. I went to reflash it because I was selling it and as soon as I turned the ignition on the fans kicked on. So its bricked. Id like to take a shot at replacing the chips. I even have that Kent Moore bearing driver....

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some good info on reading the pcm 1s. Glad I poked my head in here.

BTW I prefer to use this http://kalecoauto.com/index.php?main...products_id=51 to pry up on the chips 1st.
Then I reflash and install this to see how everything went.
http://kalecoauto.com/index.php?main...&products_id=8

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Originally Posted by cholmes729

Thanks for your concern, you are correct, your last write up did not explain how to do it. Have I desoldered chips before?, The answer is no, so I took a pry bar from out in the shop, about 24 inches long and my wifes hairdryer and pryed up on the chips and they came right off. When my chips come in from Mad tuner, I have a special tool, Kent moore part number 8390312 that I will install the chips with. I have mild case of parkinsons disease, so my hand is not as steady as it was when I was in my teens. All I have is a cheap $5 walmart soldering iron. The silicone was tuff to remove, so I took some sand paper and my palm sander and it came right off.

You mentioned pads and traces?, what are those?. When the chip finally came up off the board, there were these hair like strands dangling from the legs of the chip. I figured the chip was no good because of the bad flash, I just left them on it.

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I'm sorry but that was funny as hell. :lol: Hopefully Alex isn't too sore from the sarcasm - there was definitely a lot of assumptions being made about whether or not cholmes knew what he was doing so I can see where his sarcasm in the reply came from.

That said, though, Alex thanks for posting the more thorough explanation of how you did it so that others who view the thread can see some of the instructions. Definitely not for the feint of heart.

I also realized I must be extremely lucky that I haven't bricked my PCM yet -- when I flash I use my regular home laptop, connected to Wifi, Microsoft security essentials antivirus still running, AND I usually minimize WinFlash while I browse the internet in Google Chrome while I wait. 100% serious; not kidding. :lol:

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Originally Posted by meissen

Hopefully Alex isn't too sore from the sarcasm - there was definitely a lot of assumptions being made about whether or not cholmes knew what he was doing so I can see where his sarcasm in the reply came from.

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I'm fine, and you're of course welcome.

However, speaking as an electrical engineer, those assumptions were justified. The individual in question had just destroyed two PCMs and still sounded lost -- nobody in their right mind would have suddenly assumed he was an electronics expert. By his own admission, he was lost, so I took that at face value. Sounds like the PCM in question is still sitting on a shelf.

I just wish people would realize that what I posted was not made out of selfishness or condescension, but out of fear. I felt responsible for leading him in that direction, and was concerned that the information I omitted had led him astray and made matters worse. Any confusion would have cost him money out of his pocket if he made his PCM irreparable. That was my only concern.

Sorry to bring this back up, but you mentioned my name again, so I will respond to your statement. I'm fine, but it's not fun when people mouth off to you after you spend an hour typing up posts and linking images, trying to help. Waste of time.

I was not lost, I will admit the soldering of the chips were a little more difficult than I though. I succesfully removed them with no problems. I found a good deL on a used pcm locally for 30 bucks, I couldn't pass it up. I figured out that my laptop was blanking them out, I tried my other laptop and it has been working great. I researched before I did anything, but I was running out of time. I had to get it back running again. When I get time, I will continue working on it by using a better magnifieing glass and a smaller tip.

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Originally Posted by Alex94TAGT

Sorry to bring this back up, but you mentioned my name again, so I will respond to your statement. I'm fine, but it's not fun when people mouth off to you after you spend an hour typing up posts and linking images, trying to help. Waste of time.

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I know what you mean. Regardless, your write up was great. It should definitely be archived or copy and pasted to the tuning sticky.





















But you have to admit, the Kent Moore bearing driver thing was pretty funny.

He did have a good write up. It was justified if I asked a question on how to replace the chips. He took it the wrong way and got a little butt hurt be ause he spent some of his time replying to my thread. All in all,it made people laugh and informed people at the same time.