On Atiks car the danger to the pistons was from the knock i encountered on that run- so i stopped the run. Essentially i tried to run more boost than the car was happy with and i didnt have enough timing resolution left to stop the knock without the egt's going sky high! Ultimately there is a limit to how much you can get in there without breaking/melting stuff.
I have a vipec board here now for the auto, and the test car is coming early next month. If the torque reduction works as i think it does, then i should be able to make it work. If it doesnt, then i will have a load of work to try and get it to work.
The transmission type wont matter for ecu reflash. The tcu is separate. Ive done evo & GTA's and they are auto, so should be no issue.
I suspect the vr4 ecu will be not quite as flexible as the evo, but i am expecting the process to be the same. Basic tables should be able to be updated no problems. So fuel, ign, boost etc etc etc.
As of now i have never used 'live flash' on the evos. I have tried it and never had it work, but it works by using a volatile section of memory that you later commit to flash.
Cheers,
Ben.