So.....5 years down the road (aka after the 3.4L motor swap) my 93 "ShagRunner" has failed emission.....mostly cause the EPA lowered the standards to ridiculously low levels, but to their credit I knew the thing always ran a little rich.

Anyway....I know everything is working (i.e. I get no 'check engine light' or codes when I run basic tests). So I want to dig a bit deeper and start looking into how well, and what, the specific sensors are doing (i.e, MAF, knock, timing, O2...ect).

So, I need to get a good (or adequate) OBDII software package. Does anyone have any recommendations? I'm looking for something I can load up on my laptop and connect to the OBDII system and see readings from the various sensors.

During some of the final testing of my motor swap I brought the truck to a shop and they put it up on their analyzer so we could see all the sensors working in a graphical format. That is the kind of thing I'm looking for. I know there are several cable/software packages out there....does anyone have any experience with or recommendations for these "tools"?

Couple links at the end of this article might be helpful to ya. If you've got a K&N on that thing, I'd see if the MAF is dirty first.

http://www.4x4wire.com/toyota/4Runner/tech/OBDII_ECU/

Thanks kewlynx. I had read that article and checked out the links. There are a lot of different OBD2 "links" out there now though. some even claim to be able to write or "flash" to the ECU. I'm wondering if anyone has any experience with any of these.

Toyota ECUs in general are not flashable by aftermarket tools. The 3.4 ECU is not flashable at all..

Thanks for the reply Dandeman.

yeah....I found that out after several hours of internet research this weekend. Apparently , the newer ('05 maybe '04 and newer) ECU's are flashable. However, the few hours of reading I did on the subject did not make it sound simple, easy, or cheap. That will be a few more years down the road, it appears.

I ended up going with the OBDLink and ScanXL software package. That setup allows me to hook up to the ECU and display real time data from various sensors (hopefully).

Lots of people with 3.4's use this (BR3 scan tool)
http://www.obddiagnostics.com/
www.urdusa.com might sell it...

On a related note, I have a question. A friend of mine let me borrow his scan tool. Its a basic one, but it does do freeze frame info on a bunch of sensors. I hooked it up to my mom's 02 Outback and it gave me a bunch of good info on 02 sensors, various temps and other things. I hooked it up to my 97 4Runner and it never did give me any freeze frame info. Is my 97 not capable of this? I'd like to see what my 02 sensors are doing since my gas mileage is declining.