Very interesting Jon!
So as far as the ECM's...
You think its because the ECM isnt compensating and applying smart "smoothing" logic to the (probably not perfectly clean) raw signal from the CKP sensor? So when the RPM shifts up/down, the ECM is constantly chasing its tail adjusting actual timing, so to speak? Rather than taking an "average" CKP/RPM reading over a specified duration of time?
And then on the 01-05 trucks, we have the FICM in the equation too...when you think about it, its a pretty complex series of steps that has to happen correct?
1...ECM reads raw CKP signal from the sensor, processes it.
2...ECM turns that raw signal, does 'stuff' to the signal, turns it into a "replicated" smoothed square-wave RPM signal, which it then outputs/forwards to the FICM, so the FICM knows real-time engine RPM (as opposed to only getting RPM over "slow" 250k CAN)
3...ECM calculates actual injector pulsewidth, timing, etc based on what the tune says
4...ECM sends those commands to the FICM via the 8 discrete "injector control" wires
5...FICM receives signals, processes them
6...FICM fires the injector
I dont know enough about the actual hardware/software involved here, but between all of those steps and messages/signals flying around, it would seem there are quite a few areas of potential "screw ups"?
And onto the FICM...what exactly do we know about it? Does it do any extra processing of the injector-control signals? Does it have the ability to make any adjustments of its own? Is there any additional fuzzy-logic that happens within the FICM before it actually fires the injectors?
What is the first bottleneck in the entire system? ECM processing power? FICM processing power? FICM driver circuitry? Inaccuracies of the CKP sensor/wiring/signal noise? Injector solenoids themselves?
As far as what the ECM reports for a main injection timing PID to the scan tool...im sure that value is buffered, and maybe just a "roughly X* is desired right now" PID, and not a "this is the actual timing that the ECM is commanding at this instant" PID?
Given the sloowwww 10.4k Class 2 bus that 01-05 ECM's present scan tool data on, I would guess the ECM just broadcasts a "general/desired" value?
Has anyone plugged in a CAN datalogger on an 01-05 truck, and then compared it to what EFILive shows in logs over Class 2 bus?
Does this margin of error (IE, the actual timing jumping around) increase with RPM? Are the timing +/- fluctuations random on each crankshaft revolution, or is there a visible trend of certain times when the actual timing is constantly (>500milliseconds or so) + or - the "desired" timing?
Ben
The FICM does account and modify timing for this...