I installed the 1715 87 program about 3 week ago and very happy with the progeam. I'm thinking about switching to Max Performance. My question is do I program first then fill up with the 93 or fill up first then program?

 

I would run out the 87 and fill up with 93 then tune

 

Hi Smokey,

EVO is right, get the 93 octane in the tank first and *then* change the tuning to the "max" performance program........

What you'll want to do is run your current tank of 87 down at least until you see the low fuel light come on - when it first comes on, at that point you've still got at least 3.5 gallons left in the system, so you won't run out of gas. Then fill it up with 93 octane, and then you can go ahead and change to the premium gas tuning in the Micro Tuner.

It'll take a couple tanks of premium for you to get the full 100% difference, as you still have that little bit of 87 octane in there that will dilute the incoming premium gas a bit - until you burn it all out - this is why we recommend running the current tank of 87 down at least until the low fuel light comes on, to minimize this dilution.

Have fun!

 

I was just getting ready to ask the very question you guys just answered. I got my new Superchips micro tuner yesterday and I loaded in the high octane performance program and while the performance blew me away, I noticed a little bit of pinging. I had filled up the other day with Shell 93 octane but I was just under the1/8 tank mark. I didn't run it down to where the light came on. I am wondering if there was still a little too much 87 in there and dilluted the 93 and caused the pinging. Is there a safe octane booster I can use or will I just have to wait until this tank runs out and try it again?


BTW this tuner


Thanks, Sean

 

Thanks EVO and Mike.

 

Hi Sean,

We recommend not using octane booster unless your only other choice is walking - this is due to the pink, red & purplish deposits most of them leave behind on spark plugs, O2 sensors, etc.

if the pinging is in any way "persistent" - meaning anything other than light & occasional, so that you can't find a way to drive it in a manner that produces no detonation - then remove the premium gas tuning, drop back to the 87 octane performance tune until you get better fuel/higher octane in the tank. If it's just light pinging that you can avoid via altered driving technique for a little while, then you can hang in there without changing the program & just run out that 87 & refill again with 93.

When the low fuel light comes on, at that point you have a *minimum* of 3.5 gallons of 87 still left in the system - that's 14% of a 25 gallon fuel load - so when you fill it up from about the 1/8th tank mark, you've got a significant dilution of the incoming premium.

Here in the East, usually Shell's premium is a pretty good fuel, so at this point, just run it down as low as you can without running out of gas, and then fill it back up again with the 93 octane & by the time you are about halfway thru that tank, you should be detonation-free. If not, then the Shell in your area isn't up to snuff in terms of BTU content, & you would need to use a better fuel - like Sunoco's Ultra 94 for example, it's the best pump premium for performance & is available in most of Ohio (I wish we had it here!).

Sounds like you just had a bit too much 87 in the tank, so running it out should take care of this.

Good luck!

 

Thanks for the bit of info Mike. I had posted interest about a Superchip awhile back and you had me pretty much convinced to spend the little extra to get the tuner instead. Wel, I did spend the extra and may I just say THANK YOU! This thing is awesome! Before I could barely get my truck to even chirp the tires. Now it will fry the tires for as long as you care to do so. The acceleration just blew me away also.
I had set it back to stock after I had the pinging issue but I really only drove it about 8 miles. I am thinking of going back to the high octane performance setting for awhile just to see if the pinging was excessive or I was just driving it too hard so I could feel the new found power. I will try to drive it as normally as possible( kind of hard you know) but if it still seems excessive, I will just set it to the 87 octane and wait till this tank is gone. There is a Sunoco across town here so maybe I will try that out next time and see what happens.
Thanks again Mike for all of your help. I believe my next mod will probably be an Air Force One intake. Maybe for Christmas this year.

Thanks, Sean

 

Hi Sean,

Good, I'm glad to hear your decision to use the Micro Tuner over the traditional Superchip module has worked out well for you!

If you only drove it for 8 miles, then you may have been able to drive it some more and have the PCM adapt with more miles & drive cycles - in cases of light pinging after installation, that almost always goes away on it's own over the next 100-200 miles & a dozen or so drive cycles as the PCM adapts to it's new programming.

But you were obviously being careful & thus went back to stock right away, it sounds from your post - good for you, better safe than sorry! You could have just dropped back to the 87 octane performance tune, so you would have some improvement over stock, but thats totally up to you of course.

At any rate, just run down the current tank as low as you can, fill 'er up with good 93 & put the tuning back in & enjoy it.