How to tell if the ecm is locked?

[paul@thrill-ride]

Let me start off by saying I am completely new to EFI Live and GM tuning. I purchased my V2 (cheap) from a friend, who really didn't know what he was doing, but he used the vin licenses that came with it.

Anyway a customer brought me a car (04 Pontiac GTO) with a shifting issue that was built and tuned by another shop, he said it been back there "plenty of times" and they cant get it right, so what I am wanting to know is, is there a way to see if the ecm is locked before I purchase and burn up a vin license? He claimed they used EFI live also.

Is there anything that can be done if its locked?

I am sure I will have a million questions as I proceed with this thing.

Thanks in advance!

[modpcm]

Hi, to read a ecm tune you don't use a license , if the tune is read by the tool then you can look at it , edit it if you want. Then if you want to flash it back to the ecm THEN you need to license it to the tool.

[paul@thrill-ride]

Good deal... that being the case if it is locked what options do i have? Seems like it will have to go back to the original tuner to be unlocked is this correct?

[modpcm]

Yes going back to the tuner, getting a used ecm if it's cheap ?

[cyipher]

i think pcms for less can unlock them and read the tunes but i think the pull the main chip to do so...

[paul@thrill-ride]

Good news apparently its not locked. Now my next question is how do I compare it to a stock tune? I dont have any tunes in my "calibration" folder, also it appears it has a custom OS. I think thats what it means when it says "EFI live custom calibrations" in the parameter tree 15808.

Anyway can i compare this to stock?

[cyipher]

Yes, its COS. I dont think COS can be compaired to stock, and the better question is why there is a 20 oint drop from 105 to 115 kpa?

[darcy]

To compare to stock, you need to flash a stock cal in over the top, then read it back out.
That will give you a COS with stock calibation values in it that you can you as a base comparison to the modified file.

[paul@thrill-ride]

Guys I am sorry if all this has been discussed before me and forum search functions never get along.

How/where do I find a stock calibration? I also assume if/when I find one I just click on "Program PCM calibrations..." NOT "Program PCM operating systems an calibrations..."

Also where is a good place to find a tutorial for getting started, injector data, calibrating the VE tables etc..

Thanks again for the help I really appreciate it.

[cyipher]

http://www.tunefiledepot.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4&Itemid=3&Manufacturer=3&VehicleType=P&Stock=Y

http://download.efilive.com/Tutorials/PDF/AutoVE%20Tuning%20Tutorial.pdf