Jet DST tuner for 96 Roadmaster and Chevy LT1 96 and up engines

I have another discussion started on looking for a Caprice/Impala 1996 PCM for my Roadmaster wagon because the Jet DST tuner I bought would not work for the Buick per design from Jet. OK for the Chevies, though.

Long story short is that I think this is now resolved as I now have an update installed on DST that allowed me to read the 96 Roadmaster PCM. This update should also be available to all DST owners and future buyers, but if you are buying I would still check with Jet first to make sure your VIN (that is in the PCM) is covered. There has been so much confusion on this, it just pays to be very careful, I think.

The way it all shook out was long, convoluted, and involved a lot of people that didn't have to help out, but chose to, and I am very grateful to them for being there. I won't mention any names, but some might be familiar to some here. Jet sent me the final update on a flash drive, so they are all in and it is an approved update.

The DST I just got has the built in USB connection and comes with the correct drivers which worked fine on both my Windows 10 laptop. I was also told that the problem that had been common with the TunerCat and DST tuners of bricking the PCM have been addressed, but no way to confirm that for sure. It did come from a reputable source, though.

I have started piling through the program and am finding it a lot more complex than the HPtuner I have, with many more settings available. Lots of new acronyms to figure out and also to test and figure out what settings automatically adjust others and which don't. The are lots of intertwined settings for the trans shift points, and and lockup areas, in particular. The pretty much all program by MPH so a rear gear change probably would require some changes to nearly all of them unless I want much higher rpm shiftpoints and lockup points.

I also have a Caprice wagon PCM coming that I ordered before finding out that the update was coming, but that is OK as that way I can save the Buick on as is if I want to go back to stock settings.

The PCM hardware is identical so you should have no problem saving a Buick program over a Chevy program, and vice versa.

Except that even though the hardware is the same, the software is not. Without the update a DST won't read a Buick is what everything I heard from the experts confirmed.

Therein lies the issue, and which I don't think any of us knew that the Buick and Chevy systems used different code to access them. The fix was the update so the DST had a way to get into the Buick systems by adding another path in the tuner software.


This is what I sent to Jet originally:

DST tuner version 2.32 and it is a USB version.

Quote :

VIN 1G4BR82P3TR411735 it will come up a Roadmaster wagon 1996 and GM listed the calibration number I gave you to that VIN. The Buick is not listed in your compatibility chart but the Caprice and Impala SS are and they all are iron head LT1 engines and the Caprice uses the same calibration for sure on the exact same engine. Many 96 Buick LT1 are tuned with the DST tuners as they are about the only game in town and I know of many that have been tune

d.

And this is what I got back from Jet:

Quote :

It means that we have never dis-assembled that operating system so we don’t have software for it.

The PCM part numbers are the same on a bunch of GM applications but the operating system software and calibration numbers in the

software on the PCM are vehicle specific , Chevrolet uses different operating systems then Buick or Cadillac for instance. That’s why we don’t list

the DST as compatible for your specific vehicle.

I suspect the guys that are able to use the DST in a Buick have done a PCM swap with a Caprice or an Impala to make it work. The DST will NOT program a blank PCM

if you try to do the swap the PCM your installing needs to have the OEM software on it for the DST to be able to read it, when you buy a PCM from the dealer they come blank

only with a boot loader program installed.

Moot point now, as it is fixed, it appears, as long as you make sure your DST has the update in it.

That is very odd.
I have never updated  and here is a read from a couple , few years ago.

version 2.23

Yep, the whole thing is really odd and I am pretty sure nobody will ever have the complete story of how it all fits together.

What is really weird and makes one wonder is that the old TunerCat with addon OBDII dongle would read all the Buicks, as far as I have been able to find out, so something happened when the product was bought from TunerCat by Jet. It may be as simple as the OBDII version would interfere with sales of their preprogrammed tunes for those models and they didn't want that. No way to know.

But as stated, moot now, so all is good for everyone, I hope.

TC OBD2 is a stand on its own deal from their OBD 1 , not just the interface
Was lucky enough to get it back when it came out. At the time was serial, but they later upgraded me to USB.
Beauty of it is it is not vin locked, you are licensed to a platform , like TC OBD1
Good you got it sorted