OK, another dumb question for the Mike T.


I plan on running a few events around the local 10 turn road course. Would you recomend a Flip Chip, single chip or a micro tuner? I have differnt wheels and intake and exhaust on a 4.6 single cab truck. I would like the tranny to shift much firmer and quicker, and know all of these do that but wasn't sure if 20 min of running the truck very hard would have an adverse effect with any of these programs? Also, would you recomend both a computer modification as well as a factory tech valve body?


Thanks

 

Hi PhillipSVT,

There is no such thing as a "dumb" question, only dumb answers.

Given that you're going to be doing road course work, I think it's an *excellent* idea to use the Factory tech valve body along with an optimized powertrain program.

Unless you are going to be doing additional modifications in the future that are of a type that will require custom tuning, I would suggest using the Micro Tuner thanks to the fact that it now has 3 different performance tunes - 87 octane tow-safe, premium gas tow-safe & then the premium gas "max" performance program. It will also give you the ability to adjust the shift pressures for each individual gear change, and adjust your shift points (this is rarely needed as the shift points are already optimized in the "default" tuning in the Micro Tuner, but it's a nice feature just in case). This is important when using a Factory Tech valve body, as many times the light-throttle shifts are too firm with that valve body when used in conjunction with just about any kind of performance program in the PCM - this depends on each driver's preferences of course, but you will want to have that capability, ideally. We can turn it down in a custom Superchip too, but this way *you* can do that on your own.

Also, if your truck has an automatic transmission, whatever you do PLEASE make sure you install a transmission fluid temperature gauge *before* doing any road course work, as that *will* make the transmission overheat *very* quickly - you will probably need to install an auxiliary transmission fluid cooler, even if your truck has the towing package and got one from the factory. We have a unit that is designed to be a remote mount, it's a high-tech stacked plate design by Setrag over in Sweden, and has an automatic thermostat with a powered electric fan already mounted to the cooler. The fan will come on at 180, and turn back off at 170, keeping the tranny fluid temps within a nice narrow range.

You'll want to install the tranny temp gauge *first*, before you do the cooler, just to make sure that you will actually need that cooler - no sense spending that money if you don't have to, but I;d say the chances are very good you'll need it - the gauge will confirm this, and for road course work you need a tranny temp gauge anyway if it's an automatic.

We carry all those parts, gauges, gauge pods, etc. - the gauges & pods aren't up on our web site yet, we're just getting that section finished, but you can call us for anything not shown on our web site at www.TroyerPerformance.com - you may want to call us anyway to go over all of this in a bit more detail, if you like.

I hope that info helps & good luck!