Noob with problems

Hello all, this is my first forum post in 15 years so please forgive any ignorance at to how this works/ doesn't.

I have a 96 vortec 5.7, YES I KNOW hpt doesn't support this model. I'm waiting for the hpt adapters now so I can scan and trying to figure out what's going on with it so I don't blow it up in the mean time. Already understand that I will need other software to flash it, or do the 411 swap. I'm ok with the swap, I'm an aircraft electrician so this isn't something that worries me.

My current issue is that my timing is running negative 22* all day long, even goes as far as 24*. To temp, cold, driving, idling.....all the same. Without much knowledge on the subject I knew it had 260k on the odo, so I started replacing ignition and sensors and filters and fluids, just as a starting point. O2s were clogged shut, knock sensor was broken and flopping around. Distributor was worn and the body was broken......plethora of problems to start. New radiator and thermostat, new batteries and relays. So now that half the electrical and systems are new, I figured let's start figuring out what's the problems. I purchased Jet dst a week before the new hpt adapters came out....doh....but that at least got me a screen with my stock program to start going through while I wait for the mpvi to get here. From what I've read and watched on the online tuners, everything looks pretty normal, but without the scanner option I'm kinda waiting in the wind for the fedex truck to get here. Any ideas? Thanks.

You should be able to read that PCM with the scanner, you just can't make any changes to the tune.

You mention that the distributor was worn and I imagine replaced. You can't just set timing on that engine with a timing light, it is completely controlled by the computer. You do however set cam offset (there is an option in the scanner software to read it)

http://www.gmtruckcentral.com/articles/distributor.html

Should help out some.

You can also upgrade to the newer version of the black box, which can be tuned... I still recommend the 0411 though.

I thought maybe I was the only one left in the world that tuned a vortec with the jet dst...