I am going to order a Superchip in a week or so. I heard you have to use 91 octane gas for it to run properly. Does the higher octane hurt the engine any, as I was told it did? What kind of horsepower gains can I expect to gain from the chip?
2001 FordF150
4.6L
Extended Cab

 

The chip will REQUIRE the use of 91 octane and wont do any harm. Not using 91 may cause harm. The only time that higher than specified octane will damage the engine is if the engine is not tuned for that octane and can build up carbon deposits.

You will reportedly gain about 10% HP or about 26hp according to the literature(at the flywheel I believe). I haven't dyno'd mine, but I could tell a huge difference in torque and the shifting is way better than stock.

 

So will the chip tune my engine for 91 octane? Either way I'm still getting the chip.

 

Yes the chip will change the timing of your vehicle to require higher octane, change shift points and raise line pressure to the transmission also.

If you can keep your foot out of it you MIGHT get a little better MPG....but good luck keeping your foot light

 

Hi aadbrogers,

rbraughn gave some excellent answers to your questions.

What the Superchip does as far as the engine is concerned is to retune it *specifically* for the use of good quality premium gasoline of at least 91 octane. Doing that increases horsepower and torque across the board, at any rpm, and at any throttle position. Optimizing the powertrain programming is the single best bang for the buck performance enhancement you can do to these (and most other) computer controlled vehicles, due to the many compromises the factory builds in that hurt performance & powertrain response.

In practical terms, you can't "hurt" your engine by using more octane than is needed, but you *can* hurt an engine by not using enough octane.

The factory owner's manuals for these vehicles generally says to use 87 octane, simply because that is what they are tuned for from the factory. Thus, using premium gasoline on the factory program in these F-150's is a waste of money, as the factory tuning is geared for 87 octane, so there is no real benefit.

But by using the Superchip and specifically tuning the engine for good quality fuel, you can get about a 10% power gain, in round numbers. The maximum potential power gain in the 4.6 F-150 is 26 HP & 40 lbs./ft. of torque (SAE Net @ the flywheel), and how much power each vehicle actually gains in the real world depends on things like local fuel quality and altitude, among others. Some gain 21 hp, some will gain 24 hp, and so on.

The Superchisp tuning also optimizes the automatic transmission shift characteristics for better response, quicker & firmer shifting (but only in correlation to the amount of throttle opening & load, and we use very little line pressure to accomplish this), as well as removing the top speed limiter & massaging other various delays & retards, etc.

If you'd like to go over any of this in more detail, please feel free to give us a call, our contact info is just below.

Good luck with your truck!

 

Thanks for the help. This is why I like this site so much. The help you recieve is great. Once I repair my truck, (darn tree hit me in the side door) I'll give you a call and purchase the chip.
Thank you.

 

Hi addbrogers,

You're very welcome!

And watch out for those suicidal trees. Out here in the country, our trees tend to stay put fairly well, it's the suicidal deer we have to watch out for!

 

I live in the country too. But I live in West Virginia. We must have different trees than Virginia. The tree just walked out of the woods and wacked me in the side door. I have another question. How much is it for the double chip(i guess thats what you call it)? The chip where you can flip from 87 octane to 91 octance with a flip of a switch?

 

Hi aadbrogers,

We're not allowed to discuss pricing here on the boards, but you can easily & quickly see the prices of the Superchips products for these vehicles by clicking on the link in our signature line. That will take you right to our online ordering system, & there you can see the cost for the dual-octane version of the 2-program Superchip Flip Chip.

Good luck with the repairs to your truck!

 

I got my chip about a month ago. Felt immediate performance improvments, but fuel economy was pretty much the same. I switched over to 94 octane about a week ago, and the last two tanks averaged about 0.8 mpg better than what i was getting. The combo of the 94 octane plus the chip works great in my 01' SCab, i would recommend it to anyone that can get the stuff. Unfortunately, its rare from what everyone tells me, and its also the most expensive juice on the market, but boy does the truck move now

 

Hi Macro,

Thanks for your post!

Sunoco's Ultra 94 is the ultimate pump premium, I wish everyone had access to it! We just got a a Sunoco here, but they only carry the 93 octane. Even at that, it's energy content is very good, excellent performance & mpg as well.

I'd say that it's more the higher energy content than just 1 more point of octane that's getting you that additional .8 mpg you saw.

Thanks for reporting the details about your results.

Another excellent example of fuel quality being critical to getting the best possible performance and mpg.

 

Hey Mike, With regards to the flip chip, is it just a convenience feature? Couldn't you do the same thing by taking the chip out if you wanted to go back to 87 or does the flip chip 87 program have some performance benefits over stock?
-Thanks

 

With the flip chip in the 87 octane position, I believe you still get about 4% gain in HP and you still have the firm tranny shifts.

 

Hi MFT98,

In our dual octane Flip Chip configuration the only difference between the 2 programs is the octane level the motor is tuned for. You're not running on the stock program with our 87 octane calibration.

You'll see about 5-8 more HP, as well as all the other benefits, that doesn't change. So even on 87 octane, the vehicle is going to have some power gain and the powertrain is going to be more responsive than stock. These trucks are tuned pretty conservatively, so we can still pick up a small gain on 87 octane, just not as much as we make by tuning for premium, of course.

 

Thanks!