Lol i'm actually doing a similar uni project using the standard nissan console port, lots of programming, a few arduino microcontrollers and some cheap radios (Wireless telemetry basically). Fun actually doing a project i have interest in.
If a powerfc is anything like the nissan console port, it will not talk to you unless you send the init sequence, followed by the relevant command, ecu register, etc. Even then, the data it spits out needs to be converted. Unless you have some sort of reference, it may be extremely difficult to achieve this.
In my example, i used the following resource for the nissan console port:
http://www.plmsdevelopments.com/images_ms/...table_Ver_2.pdf