Reason I ask is because it will run kind of how you describe till you get the correct tune for it.

If I am not mistaken, to get it to run with the range disabler and the hardware removed, you would still need the old valley plate connected to the engine harness so the ecm would still think everything is ok. There was a guy on a ls tech forum that for $50.00, you could send him your ecm and he would disable the afm and mail it back to you. I used him a few times in the past since I didn't require a custom tune with a bigger cam. Keep us posted after you get it tuned.

I cant believe this is still being argued. Pull the ECM and sent it to Sinister Performance in South Bend, IN. They can put a tune in it and delete the AFM from the system al at the same time for a few bucks and you will be back on the road again. When he did mine he told me to pull the TCM and send that one with it and he would reprogram the shifting on it so it would downshift like it should have from the factory at no extra charge.