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Hello everyone. I have an 05 Cobalt 2.0 LSJ Supercharged with the original 05 pcm in it tuned by myself. I recently got another pcm thats from ZZPerformance in Grand Rapids,MI area. Its an 05 pcm and tuned for e85 and larger injectors already. Can I just swap the new pcm into my car and change the VIN on the pcm to my VIN? The pcm was previously in another 05 Cobalt SS.
If you got it from ZZP, it should already have your VIN programmed into it (if you got it from them). Since you didn't, yes, it will need to be changed, and no, you cannot just swap it in. You have to change the VIN.
What I would do is plug it in, read the ECU's tune with HPT, save the file from the ZZP one, and copy the data over to your working ECU. Just because the VIN is different doesn't mean that HPT won't read it. Read the WHOLE file from the ZZP ecm, put your working original one back in, READ ENTIRE from yours, save it, then compare the ZZP one from the original one (have the original one open first, then open the ZZP as a compare file), and copy the differences over where desired. You just need the tune, not the ECU itself, so doing that won't cost you dough (besides from what you already spent).
If you can bench the ECMs that would be easier, but for the life of me, I have tried SO many times, and cannot get a bench harness to work because I have never found out the ACTUAL pins needed to get it to work. VERY little info out there, and the ones that have it don't like to share. If I ever figure out which pins to wire for ground, ALL of the 12v and switched 12v, and whatever other ones are needed, I will absolutely do a writeup, because this stuff should be something we can all do (I am sure that almost all of those that know how didn't figure it out on their own; likely "standing on the shoulders of giants" who told them how in some clandestine location wearing trenchcoats and exchanging microfilm. haha).
Once you have the ZZP tune downloaded from your car, you can use the Template Applicator in HPT editor to transfer over the changes into your ECM in 2 minutes.
Here is a video showing how to use the template applicator..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pOYPAVfZZw&t=101s