Do you guys know if diagnostic software is capable of telling me everything going on in each cylinder?
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2To what level of detail? No software is going to tell you everything what's going on in a specific cylinder. You can gather some information, but other things you have to rely on experience.– Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 ♦Sep 27, 2015 at 11:54
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I think the question would be okay with one small change but the title needs work. Fred's answer is good.– David WinslowSep 28, 2015 at 22:07
1 Answer
Engine control systems on most common vehicles do not have sensors of any type in each cylinder. This means that engine computer does not have the information to pass on to the software you seek. Some info can be deduced from the available sensor data. Misfire is required by regulation to be reported per cylinder, although it is not required in all circumstances and not all OEM's provide accurate misfire data. For example Honda's data is poor at times while Toyota usually gets it correct. Some individual cylinder mixture data can be deduced under some conditions by the computer from the oxygen sensors on recent engine designs, I know of no OEM that attempts to include this in the output data stream. It would be very helpful if they did.
Some light aircraft have individual cylinder and/or exhaust gas temperature sensors that can be used for indirect fuel mixture estimates. Parts of this system could be adapted for automotive use.