I removed my "MT" Superchip from my F-150 when I traded it in. Now, I want to help out the wifes Explorer Sport Trac with the 4.0L SOHC. It's going to be towing a travel trailer about 4000lbs.
My question is I know I can send it in and get it reprogrammed for the Sport Trac computer at a cost (don't know how much though), but is there different modes for towing, or just the overall improvement program?
Since towing will only be done a few times per year, is it a better idea for a flip chip so we can run 87 most of the time? I want to keep costs down as we are undertaking a huge new expesnse as it is.
I'm new to towing. The Sport Trac has pretty a decent torque rating for its class, but more would help. Don't want it wheezing along.

 

Hi Linetest,

We don't make a Micro Tuner application for the Explorer, and I wouldn't assume that you can just send in an F-150 Micro Tuner to have it reprogrammed for the Explorer, as that may or may not be able to be done. We don't make a Micro Tuner application for the Explorer, though we *do* make the traditional Superchip module for most model years of the Explorer, up thru at least all the 2001's. There are some of the 2002's we can do as well, those with the EEC-V PCM.

So we do have tuning available for many of the Explorers, but don't count on being able to have a MAX Micro Tuner reprogrammed for a different platform altogether, like an Explorer. There *might* be a way Superchips can do this, but we'd have to double-check with engineering with your Explorer info to make sure. The traditional Superchip module we can certainly reprogram for many other different FoMoCo vehicles, not all of course, but many of them, so that's a very common thing for us to do.

No, there aren't any different "modes," as you put it, as tuning for more performance is tuning for more performance when we're talking about stock to lightly modified Ford trucks & SUV's, in that what the Superchips tuning is going to do for an Explorer is the exact same thing it does for an F-150. Which is to retune the engine specifically for the use of premium gas, and by virtue of that process you pick up about a 10% power gain. The best thing to help towing is to have more torque and horsepower available all the time, which is precisely what the Superchips tuning already does, it adds maximum horsepower and torque *all* the time, at any throttle positon or rpm, so there wouldn't be anything different required or beneficial there from what we're already doing. We're also reducing slippage in the automatic transmissions & recalibrating the shift characteristics for better performance & quicker response all the time, the same as you'd want for towing.

Yes, with the 2-program Superchip Flip Chip you could have the dual octane configuration you're talking about, so that you can have the best of both worlds (so to speak) available at the flip of it's toggle switch. A number of people do go that route, more every time that gas prices spike as they've done over the past 2 months.

The Micro Tuner requires the use of premium gasoline, so if you want to run that Explorer on 87 octane, you'll need to use the traditional Superchip module, We can, by special order (which just means it takes a day or two longer), a single program Superchip for 87 octane for you, and of course the power gain will be smaller. Most people prefer to go the Flip Chip route so they have a dual octane configuration and can get the additional power & performance when they need it, but we can make you a single program Superchip for use on 87 octane if you like.

The best thing to do would be to call us so we can go over the details of your Explorer with you, get it's computer code & make sure it's got the EEC-V PCM in it so it can be done, etc.

 

Mike, am I sorry I wasted your keystrokes. MT Superchip meant "Mike Troyer" Superchip. I didn't even know there was anything called a Micro Tuner. My chip worked so well in the F-150, I haven't visited the "Computer Chip" section of the forum for quite some time.
You did answer my my question though. I would lean more to the Flip Switch, and then sell the single chip I guess. Take trades?
Anyway, sorry, and thanks.

 

Hi Linetest,

You don't need to apologize at all, *I* made the incorrect assumption. Actually, it's kinda hilarious that you didn't even know about the Micro Tuner's existence, which a lot of people will call "MT" just because it's quicker to type MT than Micro Tuner

Ok, so you presently have the single program Superchip module......well, we can take that chip, and as long as your SportTrac has the EEC-V PCM, we can reprogram that chip for use with either 87 octane or premium gas. Because the actual increase in gasoline cost to run it on premium all the time in an Explorer runs not more than $85-$90 per 10,000 miles, driving 15K-20K miles per year you'll spend maybe $2 more per week as compared to running it on the factory program on 87 octane, just to give you an idea of your actual increase in operating costs. Most of us don't care about that since we want the performance, but some do look at that.

Right now, even though gas prices are high, the cost delta between regular & premium is still it's average 20 cents per gallon, that always stays in place even if gas goes to $5 a galloin, regualr will be $4.80

So the actual penalty to run it on premium all the time is very small. Now these days, with gas prices having escalated as they have, more people are going the 2-program Flip Chip route, so they can have it both ways, which is of course the ideal situation. You other choice is that you could always just remove the single program Superchip when you didn't want to use premum.

In terms of the best way to get into the Flip Chip, you'd get more for your single program Superchip by selling it outright in the Classified Ads here on F-150 Online, than what we could give you in a "trade-up" type of deal. Feel free to give us a call anytime to go over all your options, we can lay all that out for you if you like, so you can see all the numbers cost-wise, etc.

 

Thanks Mike. This is why you're my chip vendor, whatever thats worth. :-)


I'll call you with the ECU code and see if it comes up at all as far as programming. The all or none would probably work for me at the moment.

 

You're very welcome Linetest, as always!

Talk to you soon,