Howdy, all. I am new to this forum and have tried unsuccessfully to search its archives. I keep getting the following message.


The search term you specified (87) is under the minimum word length (4) and therefore will not be found. Please make this term longer.

If this term contains a wildcard, please make this term more specific.



Can someone explain to this dummy how to search on this forum?

Thank you in advance.



George

 

Hi George,

You're no dummy, & welcome to F-150 Online!

I'm no expert on the search feature even though I use it a good bit myself. I'm sure there are others here that can give you better advice on this than I can, but just to try to help a tiny bit.................

I have no idea what you were actually searching for, or what phrase or word(s) you used, but sometimes you'll get that, and if so you just have to be a bit creative in your search phrase. If you are actually putting in less than 4 words, try bumping it up. Or, instead of searching on the term "87," try searching on "eighty seven octane gasoline," etc.

I have had a couple of times where it gave me that response when I felt it was wrong, and it may have a glitch or two, I can't say for certain. But eventually, by playing with the filtering options & how I phrased, I learned to get any info I wanted, & these days I use it on occasion. You can use wildcards as it shows you in the example, and you'll get used to fine-tuning them to cut down on the number of responses you get. And don't forget to pay attention to the search filters, too.

I don't know if you just ran into a temporary glitch, or if it's really having a new problem here just recently, but worst case scenario, if you get stumped you can always drop the Webmaster here an email & check with him on it, he'll know it best since this is his web site.

Someone else may come along and give you a far better answer, as I'm no even close to an expert on this, and this response really isn't much help to you I'm afraid, I've just learned the hard way to get the info I need, basically.

I hope that helps a little bit & hang in there!

 

Thank you for the prompt reply, Mike. Your comments led me in the right direction. I was able to fill some of my research gaps.

My research is preempted by my recent acquisition of a 2000, F150, 4.6, automatic with 3.55/1 differential and a trailer package with just over 10000 miles on the clock. The truck is used for every day transportation with the occasional 4000# tow or 1000# load. This machine works very well in a non loaded condition but shows weakness in the midrange under load. This has me investigating the notion of a chip or tuner.

One of the hurdles that I faced was my obsession with the thought that using 87 octane fuel is a must for me due to the 20¢ difference in price in my part of the country. After researching this forum and other sources, I have now put the last 10000 miles into a calculator and discovered that with no loss in economy with a chip/tuner (which seems to be a safe bet), my fuel costs will escalate by just over a penny per mile which is not near as bad as I had imagined. Any improvement in mileage will of course lessen that amount. At any rate the projected operating cost is no longer a factor.

What is a factor is the 4.6 engine itself. In all due respect, less than 300 cubes is not very big. Just how much difference will ±25 horses make? As it is now, stock, under load cruising at 65 on the flat in cruise when the terrain changes and a down shift to direct is required, it will sometimes go to direct (3rd) and then directly into 2nd. This cannot be good on the transmission and is the reason for a search for some power enhancement.

Maybe, this provides enough information for someone to comment on the 4.6 or my driving demands or whatever cause I aint really sure what I need.

Thanks again for you interest and help.



George

 

Hi George,

Great, glad to hear you've been able to get the info you wanted, and I agree, looking into optimizing the powertrain programming is the single best bang for the buck, and where I would start. You can easily find hundreds of posts where we've gone into detail about just what to expect from the Superchips tuning in situations exactly like yours, as downshifting going up a grade is one of the single most common complaints among 1st-time truck owners. They're not used to driving heavy vehicles and all that goes with that, the inherent nature of heavy loads/grades on heavy vehicles is to downshift of course, and is even worse on vehicles with large aero profiles. There are some good posts about towing with the Superchips tuning, for example, there's a gentleman that goes by the name "Family Ride" that has posted much info on this with his vehicle towing heavy loads up grades and his before & after experiences with the Superchips tuning. There's also a lot of good info on this by a very nice fellow who uses the name "Conocoan," and many others whose names I'll never remember as there are just too many.

Nice to see you looking into the actual costs for running premium fuel with the Superchips tuning as compared to running 87 octane on the factory program, as you're absolutely right, most people just look at the average 20 cent per gallon cost delta between 87 & premium without considering anything else and think it's going to be a huge additional expense, when in reality it's not.

With regard to just how much can a 4.6 be helped performance-wise in general, sure, it *is* a relatively small motor for those of us old enough to be used to having big-blocks, etc., but we can literally take them as far as each vehicle owner wants to go, your 4.6 has plenty of potential. If someone wants a 450 HP & 400+ lbs./ft. torque daily driver 4.6 F-150 that can still tow heavy loads for example, that's easily done it's just a matter of cost.

In terms of what the Superchips tuning will realistically do, in round numbers think of it as roughly about a 10% power gainer, or as if the engine gained about 10% more displacement, as you've got anywhere from 8%-12% more power at any RPM or throttle position as this tuning is across the board. Optimizing the powertrain program is almost always the single best bang for the buck performance enhancement to just about any computer controlled vehicle, especially in these vehicles. It won't turn the truck into a rocketship of course, it's just the best bang for the buck mod to get started with for improving performance.

In terms of what will the Superchips tuning do for your situation, the result is that on some grades, it will no longer downshift (or will drop into 3rd instead of all the way down into 2nd, perhaps), while on other steeper grades, it will still have to downshift but it will happen a little later, further up the grade, due to the increased torque. Now of course it's only fair to keep in mind that if we're talking about a *significant* grade, like the one currently causing your truck to have to grab 2nd gear under for example, the ~ 10% power gain from the Superchips tuning is not going to "cure" that and give it the ability to stay locked up in Overdrive (in other words, turning a 2nd gear grade into a 4th gear grade.

It does not hurt the transmission just for it to have to downshift when going up a grade, and then upshift once the load is over, that in itself is perfectly normal. But what *does* hurt them is when it is "cycling" back and forth between 3rd & 4th gear for example, where it just doesn't *quite* have the power to stay in 4th (with the TQ locked up or not), and has to downshift into 3rd, but soon after doing that, upshifts back into 4th, only to soon have to downshift back into 3rd again. Having that happen repeatedly while towing a load, *that* is the real killer of these automatic transmissions, the cycling between 3rd & 4th while towing a load. And that kind of thing is very noticeably improved with the Superchips tuning, as it's just that additional 30-40 lbs./ft. of torque needed to eliminate that.

That will help to give you some understanding of how & what the Superchips tuning will do for you, to go over any of this in more detail, please feel free to give us a call & we'll be happy to.

 

The use of the wildcard * can be very helpful....try searching for *87* and you will see that it works better. The * takes the place of a letter so in this case the results shown would include anything with 87 in it, such as 9876 or 8765 or 87 and so on.

 

Excellent tip Ed, thanks!

 

Ed, thank you for the wild card suggestion. Using it further aided and abetted my search efforts. It is a very useful tool. I appreciate your input.

Mike, your comments on towing are well taken. Thank you for taking the time to respond.

I can well understand the danger of allowing an automatic to oscillate between OD and 3rd or oscillating between any two gears for that matter. My main concern is the down shift to 2nd at ±65 mph. Although, this is a smooth transfer, it just isn't in my opinion conducive to good transmission TLC. If down shifting to 2nd at this speed is not harmful and turns out to be normal for this drive train, maybe, I am shying at shadows because the performance that it achieves is not unsatisfactory. I will watch my driving habits for awhile longer before buying a chip.

Thanks again for your help.



George

 

Hi George,

Sure, frequent cycling between any 2 gears with a load on it isn't the best thing for any automatic. In terms of where we see abnormal wear and/or actual damage to these Ford 4R70W and 4R100 automatic transmissions, it's the cycling back and forth between 3rd & 4th towing a load as I described above that really hurts them long-term. The issue is primarily that the Overdrive band doesn't get a lot of fluid volume flowing to it, which makes it takes longer to grip the drum, so the most frequent failure is smoking Overdrive (4th gear). A good shift kit (Transgo) will take care of getting more fluid volume flowing to the Overdrive band to better grip the drum.

It really doesn't hurt anything or cause abnormal wear to have the occasional downshift into 2nd gear under load going up a grade, that in itself really doesn't cause us concern unless it's a frequent occurrence.

Having to go all the way down into 2nd gear when towing up a grade would not be satisfactory to me if I had to do it on any kind of regular basis, in that case I would go ahead and add power with a few simple bolt-on mods.

Only you know how often you'll be facing that scenario, and it's up to each individual vehicle owner to judge whether their performance is "acceptable" or not, of course.

Best of luck with your new truck,