Support for Pontiac Torrent 3.6L? Too good to be true!!

[Torrid]

Greetings from Canada, Everyone!

I just had to join this forum because I've looked all over, from hell to high water, tarnation to kingdom come, for an ECU writing package that actually supports my vehicle, a 2008 Pontiac Torrent GXP with the rare 3.6L VVT motor...and I can't tell you how many hours I've been scouring the internet in my search to find ANYTHING that's compatible with my car's ECU...I think I actually broke Google for a while!

I discovered the FlashScan V2 product today after even being told local shops can't support my car...only the 3.4L 185-hp motor is supported. My Torrent was only offered for 2 years with the high-performance 264-hp 3.6L motor, '08 and '09...but there isn't an aftermarket vendor ANYWHERE that offers anything in the way of performance upgrades for this car! No intakes, no chips, no exhaust...I can't even get a custom tune at the local tuner shops! It's extremely frustrating, to say the least...

I ultimately endeavored to fabricate my own intake system to optimize intake airflow to the throttle body, but it resulted in 2 error codes appearing, P0430 and P0101, I'm pretty sure they're caused by my car running leaner than expected due to the increase in airflow. The car otherwise runs great since the mod, about 2 weeks ago. My fuel economy for everyday driving has increased modestly, from about 10.5 L/100 km to 9.8 L/100 km...but I have that lean condition that I want to resolve, and that would mean reprogramming the ECU for perhaps 13:1 A/F ratio instead of the factory stoichiometric 14.7:1, and perhaps setting a target lambda value of 0.9'ish instead of 1.00+. For $125 USD for the FlashScan V2, I might as well research the hell out of this and do it myself...the local shop would've charged me $550 Canadian to tune my car--if it had been a 3.4L. Ouch!

I just wanted to ask a few questions, now that I've dispensed with the introduction...I see on the site:

http://www.efilive.com/flash-only-supported-vehicles

-It says "EFILive does not offer mapping for these vehicles"...what exactly does that mean? I want to read my ECU, save a baseline backup data file, make minor mods to optimize the increased intake airflow & air/fuel ratio, and write the new settings to my ECU. Can FlashScan V2 do that, for a Pontiac Torrent 3.6L E77 Bosch ECU?

-Are there any other Torrent owners here who've gone through this procedure? I know we GXP owners are very few and far between--the 3.6L option only lasted 2 years, then Pontiac bit the dust.

I should mention I'm pretty tech-savvy, I've worked in I.T. nearly 20 years, and also quite mechanically inclined...I'm restoring a 1970 Charger and 1986 Buick Grand National, but those cars are really old-school and much easier to wrench on than these new computer-crazy vehicles. But, I do most of my own repair work and always want to understand what's going on--and not just bring it to a shop and have my wallet raped. I already have an OBD2 ELM27 scan tool and Torque Pro on my Android phone and I've been monitoring lots of engine data as a baseline. I just need to take this to the next level.

Looking forward to any advice!

Pics: Stock Intake


Custom Intake

[cindy@efilive]

EFILive offers read and flash support for the E77. There are no parameters to tune within the software. (we never mapped this controller)

Support is listed on the Flash Only Supported vehicles list, because we do not offer tuning support. It was added, and is listed there for customers who have the ability to edit tunes with either their own software, or 3rd party software and merely use EFILive as a flashing mechanism.

Cheers
Cindy

[KhakiCummins]

The FlashScan V2 is not $125. VIN licenses are $125 but that is only after you buy the FlashScan V2 which is $899. (The FlashScan does come with 2 VIN licenses)

[Torrid]

Thanks for the replies. Either way, it looks like it's useless for me and vehicles with E77 Bosch ECU's. Being able to read & flash is kind of pointless if there's no ability to easily edit & reprogram the settings, and I'm unfortunately not a programmer so poking around in the file with a hex editor is very ill-advised. Looks like I'm SOL, ran into another dead end.

[cindy@efilive]

Thanks for the replies. Either way, it looks like it's useless for me and vehicles with E77 Bosch ECU's. Being able to read & flash is kind of pointless if there's no ability to easily edit & reprogram the settings, and I'm unfortunately not a programmer so poking around in the file with a hex editor is very ill-advised. Looks like I'm SOL, ran into another dead end.

It was added specifically for a number of people who had programming knowledge.

You may like to contact Brian Blair at Vermont Tuning. I'm sure he's one tuner that users our platform for reading/flashing and alternative means for tune editing.

Cheers
Cindy

[Torrid]

Thank you, Cindy! Well, I just heard from someone at HP Tuners...one of their agents told me that they have support for programming the E77 ECU in their upcoming v2.25 beta, so that's even better news for us few-and-far-between Pontiac 3.6L owners!