Trying to delete VATS and get out of range error

First off I want to start off informing anyone reading this I am a novice at tuning. I have very limited experience with EFI Live but I am trying to use the free tools right now.

To give the full picture of what I'm trying to do I am simply trying to get my engine running in my donor vehicle before I strip everything down.

I'm starting with a 2003 Avalanche. It has a good running 5.3 engine so I'm told. It is/was not running when I got it. I am able to start the engine but it dies after about a second or so. It actually sounds fine for the brief second it does run but I want to hear more before I spend all the time dismantling everything.

So what I have done to this point is use ls-droid (and PcmHammer too) to make a copy of the original PCM. I then proceeded to downloading a .bin for 12587603 OS from a 2004 GMC Sierra so I could load that along with the .xdf file into Tuner Pro RT. I removed VATS by changing the value to 2 and wrote the new OS (without VATS enabled) onto my PCM. again using PcmHammer. I installed the PCM back into the Avalanche but now the truck doesn't start at all.

Next I decided to take a look at the tune file using EFI Live since I own a V2. I read the PCM with EFI Live 8.0 and saved the tune. I then tried to edit the tune with V7.5 so I could examine the tables. When I open the tune in V7.5 I get an error that "System Theft" G1201 is out of range. This is true if I open the raw .bin file I extracted using PcmHammer and if I read the tune out of the PCM with EFI Live. EFI defaults to changing the value from "2.0" to "none".

I'm not really sure what I should be doing different. Anyone have any insight they can share?

I don't have a 2003 Avalanche file for EFI Live.

In general EFI Live shows the following Theft parameters:
The type of anti theft system the vehicle uses.
- Class2: Serial data anti-theft (eg, Corvette, Holden).
- PWM: Pulse width modulation anti-theft (eg, F-body).
- None: Anti-theft system disabled (eg, used on engine transplants).

Only the following values may be entered into this table:
- Class-2
- PWM
- None

The EFI Live out of range message might occur if something other than Class - 2, PWM, or None is in the "G1201" parameter.

I wonder what would happen if you read the 2003 Avalanche with EFI Live V7.5? Most 2006 and older GM PCM's will read with EFI Live V7.5.

dave w

....

Thanks for the replies. It occurred to me today at work that I may have jumped the gun posting this thread. I'll post a follow up when I know for sure but I think deleting the VATS may have been unnecessary for now anyway. I think it starts and dies because of a failed crank sensor possibly. As I said I'll update when I know for sure. It will probably be a while before I have a chance to verify though.

And to further show my ignorance I removed the VATS and flashed the wrong .bin originally too. I flashed a Tahoe MPV with flex fuel OS. I re flashed it with the GMC truck OS (without flex fuel) and VATS removed and it starts and dies just like before. That's what led me to realize I probably jumped the gun on VATS. The engine is still in the stock truck with all the stock security intact after all...

I have a original 2004 Avalanche LM7 Z66 .bin in 7603 if you need it.
Oddly enough, the file shows VATS enabled, but the truck does not have the VATS module and does not use a chip key. Never really thought about it being enabled without the VATS system in place. This file is the original unmolested file.

Thanks. And to anyone that wants the stock 2003 Avalanche .bin in 9405 here it is.

Time for another update. Unfortunately it makes me look ignorant but I wanted to post it up in case it helps someone else down the road.

My initial problem was that the engine would start then stall out after about a second. Instead of troubleshooting why, I immediately decided to delete VATS. That in and of itself isn't a bad thing. It will need to be eliminated eventually anyway when this engine gets transplanted. But after VATS was deleted it was still doing the same thing. That's when I decided I needed to troubleshoot.

It turns out it didn't take me long to figure out why the engine stalled out. If I'd have looked a bit closer when I purchased the truck I'd have seen it was missing the MAF sensor. I had a spare here so I put it in today and the engine started right up and stayed running. It isn't running "great" but it doesn't stall out. I will probably be flashing the original OS onto the PCM to see if it runs better before I spend much time doing any troubleshooting. If it does the same thing once the original .bin is flashed back I'll dig into it but that will be another thread if I need more help.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to respond to this thread.

:rockon: