Detroit Diesel DDEC Engine Scanners

[encantotom]

hi all,

thought i would start a thread about engine scanners for the DDEC. I have the Silverleaf system i run on my laptop and it does some of this. I have a DDEC2 on my 8v92. as you know, the DDEC requires a special scanner since it has its own proprietary interface and coding. the newer cars have somewhat standardized on OBD2, so you can buy a scanner like steve said at any autoparts store to check and reset. i have one of those too. however, the DDEC is not so simple. you have to have a dedicated scanner or a modular one that has a DDEC plug in. they also usually only work for certain generations of DDEC.

i have a scanner i bought on ebay for under a hundred bucks that reads DDEC1 and DDEC2 and electronic controlled Allison transmissions. so it will work on 8v92 and series 60's using those systems. the early newell's with series 60's like richard's i believe has a DDEC2 and the tranny that my system will read.

i was excited to see that my DDEC2 module had never been "reset" so that i could see all the engine faults since it was new. it gives the engine hour that the fault happened at, how many times and for how many seconds the fault happened. most of them were for simple stuff like low voltages d(i had a bad alternator) etc. however, the one i was most eager to see was the engine overheat. since my engine had overheated before i bought it and an inframe rebuild was done, i could see exactly when the engine hours were that it happened at. in addition, i could then calculate the mileage it happened at using the average miles per hour from the engine computer and then match it to the receipts i have.

the biggest thing was that i had a cracked head earlier in 2009. i was concerned i had overheated it because it was clearly from overheating. however, i very fanatically monitor my engine temps when going up a long grade and drive to keep it from having problems, so the cracked head confused me. in seeing that it had not been overheated since i have had it, made me more comfortable and i have rationalized my cracked head with a metal fatigue that started with the overheating previously that progressed over time and not specifically due to me.

it also allows you to check a ton of things and even do engine troubleshooting by controlling each cylinder individually etc.

if any of you are ever in town, stop by to visit and you can "scan" your coach if you have the vintage.

the scanner i have i suspect was $1000-1500 new if not more and the ones that are available today with modules are way more than that as the ddec module itself is almost that much.

might be interesting for us to compare what scanners we have amongst us.

in addition, what years have what DDEC systems in them.

here is a picture of my scanner. it is made by Ragen Industries and is a J36500. it is very very heavy duty and works flawlessly.

[folivier]

Looks like it may take different plugs for different systems. I have the VMSPC also and like it, also bought a cheap scanner for my cars. It's nice to see what's going on. So your scanner gives much more detailed info than the VMSPC? I'd love to use it next time I see ya. Mini-rally anyone?

[encantotom]

yes, much more than the vmspc.

if you want the manual, send me an email and i will email it to you.

tom

[fulltiming]

I have been running the VMSPC for years and also have a scanner like Tom's so anyone in the Austin area, let me know and I will make the same offer as Tom to scan your codes.