1996 Computer, PCM, ECM codes : a study and an history

[GEN 3 SHO FAN]

Because I have a 1996 SHO made in april and we don't know the start of the real production of this car and because Ford performance group said mine was a pre-production car (!?), I started to compile all 1996 VIN numbers I found just to have an idea. I have now more than 1900 on around 5000 of them. My starting point was the list of computer codes available on V8SHO site.

http://www.v8sho.com/SHO/ChipCodesbyYear.htm

Thanks to RMJosh for his additionnals infos.

A little bit of history.
When the firsts SHO exit the factory in october 1995, many test drives was made with it (Car and Driver, oct. 95 and Motor Trend, nov. 95). The car had at this moment 225 hp and the reviews was not good on this point because it had 2 more cylinders but with only 5 more hp than the old 3 liters !! The critics was so bad that Ford decided to return all SHOs at the factory to retune them (between december 1995 and january 1996). According to the big batch of VIN I have, the mass production begun in February 1996 and came with news code on them.

Here is what I found on codes after many comparisons and compilations : letters are for regional specifications and the last number is the version of the software.

Oct. 1995 to Nov. 95 (or so)
JJK0 : 49 states and Canada code with an original 225 hp
KKX0 : Californian code with an original 225 hp
ZBA0 : Right driver side code with an original 225 hp
LMB0 : Unknown area with an original 225 hp
KMM0 : Unknown area with an original 225 hp

Dec. 95 to Jan. 96 (hypothetical, probably experimental softwares, I saw just one with this last number sadly)
JJK1 : 49 states and Canada code with ?? hp
KKX1 : Californian code with an original ?? hp
ZBA1 : Right driver side code with ?? hp
LMB0 : no change (lack of time or money ?)
KMM0 : no change (lack of time or money ?)

Feb. 96 to July 96 (some 96 have been made the 1st july 96 according to Etis)
JJK2 : 49 states and Canada retuned code with 235 hp
KKX2 : Californian retuned code with an original 235 hp
ZBA2 : Right driver side retuned code with 235 hp
LMB0 : no change, 225 hp? (found one scrapped in California and made late in 96)
KMM0 : no change, 225 hp? (found one scrapped in Tennessee with VIN 1FALP54N7TA299275 made in June 96...)

LMB0 and KMM0 are a rarity. Maybe a in between in a more restrictive Californian antipollution and 49 states with less pollution restriction...

It seems that cars made for high altitude areas have the JJK2 code. I thought they will have a different code but it's not the case, not sure which part are different from others SHO at this moment.

Sadly and not sure why, but probably because of the cams problems, Ford detuned their engine computer in 1997. In fact many dyno results illustrated that 1997 and later cars had only 225.

Edit : Also, I checked my date on my fuel pressure regulator which is unique to this motor. The date indicated is 94/09/14 !! It seems that the motor production started 1 year before the car production.

If you have comments, feel free to give me. (Sorry, too much infos too late.)

Thanks,

 

[broke1]

Ford actually had a lot of problems in the 90's with vehicle calibration and the cars not delivering the power they were supposed too......I had heard of it with the 99-01 Cobra's but not the SHO.

I had never heard of SHO's being recalled for recalibration. Cool to know!

 

[Nuke]

Where do we look for these codes?

 

[BlueSHO]

Ford actually had a lot of problems in the 90's with vehicle calibration and the cars not delivering the power they were supposed too......I had heard of it with the 99-01 Cobra's but not the SHO.

I had never heard of SHO's being recalled for recalibration. Cool to know!

Yeah all 99 Cobras were recalled because they didn't make the 320HP advertised. In fact it bogged Ford down so much there were no 2000 Cobras other than the Cobra R.

Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk

 

[GEN 3 SHO FAN]

Sadly, it's good to know that we (SHO guys) are not alone with this problem... Which motor(s) had this problem in Mustangs ?

Ford probably didn't recall the first batch of SHOs, they just kept them at the plant rather than to ship them to dealers. We can see a good example on a post where a guy from Ohio said he bought a silver SHO without keyless entry and sunroof with a VIN in the 134xxx... If we compare his VIN with SLO from Atlanta factory with similar sequential numbers the fabrication date is October 1995 but when we check his SHO number in Etis, it's said it was made in february 1996... It's took me some time to found this because it's need a lot of VIN of Atlanta factory to make this comparison.

 

[GEN 3 SHO FAN]

Where do we look for these codes?

Yes sorry, forgot to mention where they are. They are on the firewall. (We must reverse the photo to see "JJK2").

 

[Nuke]

Do I have to pull the intake to see it?

 

[GEN 3 SHO FAN]

Do I have to pull the intake to see it?

No, you must retreive the 2 plastic parts under the passenger wiper or just take some ramdom photos with a cell phone between these plastic and the computer. There is 85% chance that will be a jjk2 for a 1996.

 

[Nuke]

I looked, and mine has a piece of black plastic covering the loom and end of the ECU. Looking at it, I would have to pull the harness out to uncover the ECU. I will when I pull the intake to clean it, and replace the rear COPs.

 

[GEN 3 SHO FAN]

I mistaken about the ZBA2 code, it's for the right driver side. I corrected the info.

 

[Vortech347]

I had a 96 was JJK2

 

[gamefanatic]

SHO ECU's were never used in another vehicle, just as the engine was not, unlike the mustang and truck line engines / ecu's.

I have both KKJ2 and JJK2. Have struggled to get aftermarket ECU support for these older catch's. The '99 appears to have more support at the loss of some feature, but has more memory. I believe both of these ECU's can be upgraded to LMB0 code.

Still haven't gotten the moats to work yet, but there appears to be some support for certain catch's for it with the '99 ECU's.