Torqhead & HPTuners help please

I need help! I did the Torqhead 24x swap and sent my pcm to Keith at PCMforLess. I got the pcm back and the car ran but needed some tweaking. I bought hptuners and couldn?t connect. Data Protocol Failed. Tried to connect to another car and it worked. Go back to my Torqhead pcm and same problem. Talked to Keith at PCMFORLESS and I sent the pcm back to him and said that I needed him to check it and make changes to where I can connect and verify ability to connect to hptuners. I get the pcm back and now the car will not start and I still cannot connect per hptuners. As far as the car not starting it is acting like it is in theft mode. VATS? I used another handheld scanner that I have (OBD Book) and it will read the pcm. It will show the VIN that he put in it, the calibration ID and calibration verification number. So that should rule out OBD2 port and wiring. I also checked power and grounds at port.
Who can HELP me? I believe he turned the VATS back on and that is why the car won?t run. How can I get into the pcm to fix this?

Sounds like the PCM is tuner locked. Ask them for the key or to send you a PCM that isnt tuner locked. I could be wrong. Anyone else?

I would hope that it isn?t tuner locked because he knows that I needed to be able to connect with hptuners. Anybody here program Torqhead pcm?s with hptuners?

I'm pretty sure they tuner locked it to protect their "secret". Hell, I have only been tuning for 5 years and I have seen several tuner locked PCMs but what do I know? I will wait for someone with more experience chimes in. Good luck with that...

I'm not doubting you. I am just surprised as I told him that I needed to access it with hp tuners and that is why I sent it back the second time. Only this time I believe that VATS is turned on and that is why the car won't run. With my obd book I see the vehicle information (Vehicle ID, Calibration ID, & Calibration Verification Number) but with hp tuners all I get is "Data Protocol Failed". I will call Keith at PCMforLess and see what to do but at this point I am losing faith. Went from bad to worse!

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Originally Posted by mwc2

I'm not doubting you. I am just surprised as I told him that I needed to access it with hp tuners and that is why I sent it back the second time. Only this time I believe that VATS is turned on and that is why the car won't run. With my obd book I see the vehicle information (Vehicle ID, Calibration ID, & Calibration Verification Number) but with hp tuners all I get is "Data Protocol Failed". I will call Keith at PCMforLess and see what to do but at this point I am losing faith. Went from bad to worse!

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A tuner locked PCM will allow you to SCAN via HPT SCANENR or a generic OBDII scan tool. The EDITOR is whats needed to change parameters and because it appears to be tuner locked, youre getting that message. Fire up the VCM scanner and see if you can scan it. If so, that even further confirms the PCM is tuner locked...

I couldn't get the VCM Scanner to work. Kept coming back with an error message about unable to connect and unsupported. I should have screenshot it to say exactly.

Data Protocol Failed is not typical of a tunerlocked PCM in my experience. It's a communications issue in the vehicle. Typically with a tunerlocked PCM you'll get controller unlocker messages.

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Originally Posted by mwc2

I couldn't get the VCM Scanner to work. Kept coming back with an error message about unable to connect and unsupported. I should have screenshot it to say exactly.

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Interesting. Maybe it is INDEED tuner locked? Maybe with EFI Live?

Keith at PCMforLess said that he uses TunerCat. The whole point of sending my pcm back was because I could not connect with hptuners. He was going to make some changes and was not sure why I wasn't able to connect. I asked him to verify that I would be able to connect per hptuners before sending it back to me. Anybody here that uses hptuners and is familiar with the Torqhead pcm want to help me out here and let me send them my pcm? Is it possible to start over and reflash this pcm so that it will work? Thanks

TunerCat can definitely cause issues.. There's stuff they can change that HP Tuners doesn't have defined, and can cause you issue after issue in my experience. But that may not totally be your issue with it unable to read the car. Only way to be for certain is to put the pcm in the bench harness and try to read with HP Tuners.

There are numerous threads on the forum and even a youtube video series of LT1 0411 tuning. If you can get the PCM back to a stock operating system and working with HP Tuners, those would be a good place to start.

With older vehicles its not uncommon to have wiring/communcation issues. couple that with your tuner using a different software package, it can be a headache for sure.

Just posting current status. Still cannot connect to HP Tuners.
I built a bench harness that I can use to connect to the pcm with a Tech2 and an OBD Book but not HP Tuners. I found the VIN off a 2002 Chevrolet Express van and had a Chevrolet Technician rewrite the VIN and 12212156 OS from. I wrote over all my previous tuning trying to make this work. I still cannot connect with HP Tuners and can connect with the Tech2 and OBD Book. No change other than money down the drain on programming. It was suggested that it is in the ALDL cable. If so, how or why would it work with other devices but not HP Tuners? Suggestions on what I can try next?

Update. Problem Solved. Maybe I missed it in the instructions somewhere because I already had a 16pin obd2 connector, but I removed Pin 6 in the connector and it works. I made a bench harness with only Pins 2, 4, 5 & 16 and it worked. After bench flashing the pcm and installing it back into the car I was not able to read the pcm. I got to looking at the obd2 connector on a 01 Firehawk that I have and it doesn't have a pin 6. So I removed pin 6 on the 97 with Torqhead 24x and low and behold I can connect, read and write. So after writing over a mail order tune with a stock tune and having to start from scratch the solution was a simple fix. I know that no 2 cars are alike and will run differently with the same tune, but does anybody mind sharing their tune file for me to use as a comparison?
Here is my car info:
1997 Camaro Z28 LT1 383
Torqhead 24x Conversion
42lb racetronix injectors
58mm throttle body
Kooks LT's
Manual Trans