Just an update. There appeared to be a short. Was able to refire but only hitting on 4 cylinders. replaced wiring harness and ran on all 8. Mechanic said there was a short on in the coil, COP on number 8 and this led to problems???
Engine is running, but OBD says error communicating with ECM, however the OBD scanner shows most functions but I dont see any misfire indications. SO not sure what is going on with ECM and OBD not speaking, but the OBD picking up the other systems, tranny, Suspension, etc.

 

Buggy scanner.

 

Have you cleared all the codes?, it could just be a code from before that hasn't cleared itself, most will clear by themselves once a fault is rectified, but some will stay on s "historical codes" and you would need to erase these manually

 

The mechanic should know whether current or old code(s).

Don't clear wildly - OBD codes self-clear when the fault is fixed - as it also clears all the OBD monitors (needed for such as smog checks) and if they fail to set again you can be in a terrible Catch-22 state where the car can't flag codes due to unset monitors that can't set due to the fault(s)..