PCM Diagnostics & Tuning - Is it ok to start car without MAF plugged in

Just as the title states, is it? I changed my intake and cam, the cam is quite a bit bigger and I went from an LS6 and 78mm tb to an LSXR 102 and NW 102 TB. I also replaced the 85mm MAF with a home built 100mm MAF. I had the tuner rewrite my PCM and let him know every single thing that I changed and what it had before when he dyno tuned the car.

I was hoping to at least start it if not drive it to work and swap the old MAF connector with a new one.

Thanks for any input

It won't hurt anything.

If the tuner rescaled the VE table in accordance w/expected cam vacuum characteristics, it may run ok.

Well got the car running for about 5 seconds before it shut off. We will see what happens and hopefully it was just the unplugged MAF that caused it to die so fast.

Is your IAT sensor in the MAF (5 wire) or separate? If it is in the MAF, you have to have the IAT hooked up - you can un-pin the sensor wire only and run it though...

if your SD tune runs great, just use the VE airflow as the data populating the MAF histogram. this effectively 'converts' SD tune to MAF tables.

I do have the 5 wire MAF, the card style LS7 sensor to be exact. Picked up the pigtail from work today, not a cheap one either dear lord

Actually with intake swaps etc I find it would likely be better to unplug the MAF right out of the gate and start your VE tuning immediately if you have the software available. At the point of those mods most would recommend a MAF re-calibration anyway. Sometimes installing a MAF that's reading wrong can cause your car to run a lot worse.