Question on superchip
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Junior Member
Joined: Mar 2003
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From: San Diego CA
Question on superchip
I have an 02 5.4 liter f-150 and I am interested in a superchip or microtuner. I am also looking at hypertech. First off I want to know which one is better. Second of all, I have installed a transgo reprograming kit i was told if I buy any computer mod that firms up the shifts I would blow the seals on the tranny. Is this true adn if so what can I do to avoid this happening?
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Joined: Mar 1998
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From: Virginia
Hi IP,
No, it is *not* true that if you use Superchips tuning along with a Transgo shift kit that you'll "blow the seals" on the transmission.
The Superchip does not crank up line pressure unsafely, and the Transgo shift kit has provision for overpressure relief.
Many people are running the Superchips tuning *and* a shift kit too, and they don't have any inherent problems because of that. There have been a few people that made mistakes installing a shift kit and *that* caused problems, but there is no inherent basic conflict with using a shift kit and the Superchips tuning at the same time, & many people are doing exactly that.
In fact, this is what we recommend doing if someone wants shifts hard enough to actually chirp the tires on the WOT 1-2 upshift! We don't like doing that with line pressure alone in the non-Lightning F-150's (though there are a few here & there that will chirp the tires with just the standard Superchips tuning, and that's ok). By and large, most F-150's won't, and we're not trying to, we'll only use what is safe in terms of line pressure. The safest & best way to accomplish tire-chirping upshifts is a combination of taking care of the powertrain program issues *and* modifying the transmission mechanically so that it is physically capable of flowing more fliuid *volume*, not just using more and more fluid line pressure as some chips do. There's line pressure, and then there's *fluid volume*, and you need the right combination of *both* to make these Ford 4R70W & 4R100 transmissions hit the gears hard & fast enough to spin the tires on the upshift yet not overwork the front pump.
And no, you don't want to use Hypertech for your tuning, as they are "generic" (meaning you will not get a program made specifically for *your* vehicle, you will get one program that has been compromised to run on *all* such vehicles), and they only add what little power they do sometimes make on full-throttle.
Only the Superchips tuning tunes each vehicle individually according to it's exact PCM revision, tunes on both part-throttle as well as full-throttle so you get maximum horsepower and torque gains *all* the time, at any throttle positon or rpm, and is still 50-state CARB & EPA emissions approved. Nobody else offers all of that, only Superchips.
With Hypertech, because they are generic, you could end up with a 7 hp gain or you could end up with a 5 hp *loss*, and you never know until you plug it in. It's a matter of just how close the PCM revision in *your* individual vehicle just happens to be to the Hypertech program, and that's a very silly compromise to make - Hypertech's methods make it a lot cheaper for *them* to develop a program, but it badly compromises the power gains & performance results, they are inconsistent *at best*.
Not much sense going that route when you can have programming done for *your* specific vehicle and get the maximum gains that are possible to safely make via tuning (powertrain programming) with the Superchip.
If you are going to do modifications that will require custom tuning to compensate for (supercharger, nitrous, ported heads, aftermarket MAF, etc.), then you need to use the traditional Superchip module, and we can tune it's tranny calibration to work with whichever of the 3 levels you installed that Transgo shift kit at. Most people are just going to do things like intake kits, cat-back exhausts, electric fans, underdrive pulleys, bigger throttle bodies, etc., as those mods all combined give very nice power gains, and those kinds of things you can do and still use the tuning in the Micro Tuner.
The Micro Tuner will also give you the ability to adjust your shift pressures, to set them exactly where *you* want them along with your shift kit, that's just one of numerous features the Micro Tuner has, thus that is what I would recommend using unless you are going to do more involved modifications as I mentioned above.
Feel free to give us a call to go over this in more detail if you like, we'll be happy to go over this with you & get you exactly what you want & need.
No, it is *not* true that if you use Superchips tuning along with a Transgo shift kit that you'll "blow the seals" on the transmission.
The Superchip does not crank up line pressure unsafely, and the Transgo shift kit has provision for overpressure relief.
Many people are running the Superchips tuning *and* a shift kit too, and they don't have any inherent problems because of that. There have been a few people that made mistakes installing a shift kit and *that* caused problems, but there is no inherent basic conflict with using a shift kit and the Superchips tuning at the same time, & many people are doing exactly that.
In fact, this is what we recommend doing if someone wants shifts hard enough to actually chirp the tires on the WOT 1-2 upshift! We don't like doing that with line pressure alone in the non-Lightning F-150's (though there are a few here & there that will chirp the tires with just the standard Superchips tuning, and that's ok). By and large, most F-150's won't, and we're not trying to, we'll only use what is safe in terms of line pressure. The safest & best way to accomplish tire-chirping upshifts is a combination of taking care of the powertrain program issues *and* modifying the transmission mechanically so that it is physically capable of flowing more fliuid *volume*, not just using more and more fluid line pressure as some chips do. There's line pressure, and then there's *fluid volume*, and you need the right combination of *both* to make these Ford 4R70W & 4R100 transmissions hit the gears hard & fast enough to spin the tires on the upshift yet not overwork the front pump.
And no, you don't want to use Hypertech for your tuning, as they are "generic" (meaning you will not get a program made specifically for *your* vehicle, you will get one program that has been compromised to run on *all* such vehicles), and they only add what little power they do sometimes make on full-throttle.
Only the Superchips tuning tunes each vehicle individually according to it's exact PCM revision, tunes on both part-throttle as well as full-throttle so you get maximum horsepower and torque gains *all* the time, at any throttle positon or rpm, and is still 50-state CARB & EPA emissions approved. Nobody else offers all of that, only Superchips.
With Hypertech, because they are generic, you could end up with a 7 hp gain or you could end up with a 5 hp *loss*, and you never know until you plug it in. It's a matter of just how close the PCM revision in *your* individual vehicle just happens to be to the Hypertech program, and that's a very silly compromise to make - Hypertech's methods make it a lot cheaper for *them* to develop a program, but it badly compromises the power gains & performance results, they are inconsistent *at best*.
Not much sense going that route when you can have programming done for *your* specific vehicle and get the maximum gains that are possible to safely make via tuning (powertrain programming) with the Superchip.
If you are going to do modifications that will require custom tuning to compensate for (supercharger, nitrous, ported heads, aftermarket MAF, etc.), then you need to use the traditional Superchip module, and we can tune it's tranny calibration to work with whichever of the 3 levels you installed that Transgo shift kit at. Most people are just going to do things like intake kits, cat-back exhausts, electric fans, underdrive pulleys, bigger throttle bodies, etc., as those mods all combined give very nice power gains, and those kinds of things you can do and still use the tuning in the Micro Tuner.
The Micro Tuner will also give you the ability to adjust your shift pressures, to set them exactly where *you* want them along with your shift kit, that's just one of numerous features the Micro Tuner has, thus that is what I would recommend using unless you are going to do more involved modifications as I mentioned above.
Feel free to give us a call to go over this in more detail if you like, we'll be happy to go over this with you & get you exactly what you want & need.
Last edited by Superchips_Distributor; Mar 24, 2003 at 05:20 PM.