Engine communications?

[mtg]

I recently bought a 1995 International chassis/Thomas Vista bus with a T444E (I'm pretty sure).

With passenger cars, you can get a ton of info using a simple OBD2 port reader such as mpg, temperatures, pressures, fuel flow, etc.

Does anybody know of a way to do that with a bus like mine?

[Scooternj]

If it has a data port, it'll be either J1587 and/or J1939 protocol, instead of ODB2. You'll need a reader with both protocols Just search for those protocols, and you'll find the data readers

[mtg]

Awesome, thanks. That's what I was looking for.

[Booyah45828]

Most likely being a 95 international, it'll be j1587. The connector should be around your knees when sitting in the driver's seat. It might have a cap on it too. Are you looking at buying a scan tool for it?

[crazycal]

I talk to my engine all the time. I don't always say nice things. That may be why my engine stop talk back to me.

[mtg]

Originally Posted by Booyah45828

Most likely being a 95 international, it'll be j1587. The connector should be around your knees when sitting in the driver's seat. It might have a cap on it too. Are you looking at buying a scan tool for it?

I'd like to be able to get real time engine info, if it can be reasonably done. I know its simple and cheap to do in a passenger car, but I don't know about an old medium duty truck. My initial search only turned up expensive diagnostic readers...

I'll look for the connector in the bus and see what's there.

[Scooternj]

Amazon

[gbstewart]

get a scangauge works good love mine
http://www.scangauge.com/products/scangauged/
gbstewart

[Booyah45828]

That little scan gauge might work good for what your wanting to do with it. We originally bought a prolink from nexiq. Maybe we had a bad machine, I don't know, but that thing was the biggest pile ever (constantly froze up/ crashed, wouldn't display data, etc). We got so many free trials per manufacturer and we used all the caterpillar ones up on a c7 we were trying to diagnose. I could see spending 150 bucks and taking a gamble on that but for $2,000+ the **** better work. I've talked to other techs and we've all agreed that the oem software on a laptop is the only way to go as for a medium/heavy duty scan tool.

[mtg]

The Scan guage looks pretty ideal, I think I'll go that route.