Hey, Im gonna get a chip and i havent been shoping around much, but anyway, theyve all said you have to run high octane gas and can use 87. Well, Im definately not gonna use hich octane just cause of the way i use my truck, so i was wondering if anyone made a good chip that i can use while running 87 octane.

Of course, the first place i went was to Troyer's website and i have to use 91-94 unless i get the flip chip, but i dont want to spend 450 bucks on a chip.

Ive looked at Diablo to, but it didnt say if i could run 87 or not.

So if anyone could reccomend a good chip for 87 octane i would be pleased to hear about it.

Thank you

 

My friend ran a 97 Ford with the 5.4 engine for over 70,000 miles with the Superchips and 87 octane gas. He was just too cheap to put in the 91-93 octane. You will just not get the full benefit of the programming in the Superchips or Micro Tuner if you run 87 vs 91-93 octane.

 

Hello Bartak1,

Virtually all standard performance chips require the use of premium gasoline, regardless of brand - this is the single most basic aspect of a performance chip for any gasoline engine, or of performance tuning in general, because it is the act of retuning the engine specifically for the use of good quality higher octane fuel that gives us the ability to add the raw power gain. This kind of tuning also adds fuel mileage in the case of the Superchip, thanks to it's part-throttle tuning. Just to give you a rough idea, most people driving 15K-20K miles per year spend only about $100 more for gas per year overall, as the increased fuel mileage helps offset part of the higher cost of premium gas - now the mpg gain generally will not be enough to offset the *entire* cost difference between 87 & premium, but it does knock it down significantly, so you don't' end up actually spending a lot more for gas to use premium with the Superchips tuning.

However, we *can* provide you with a Superchip for use on 87 octane if you like, we'll be happy to - for some people who have to drive a lot of miles, this makes better sense for their needs, so we can certainly do that for you if you like. Keep in mind that the power gain will be less - about 8 hp gained, as compared to a 25+ HP gain on the max performance tune for premium. However, you still get all the other benefits, optimization of all the various transitional delays & retards, better shifting in the automatics, etc., so the vehicle will still accelerate quicker and the powertrain will give you quicker response times overall on our 87 octane tuning.

Unless you are doing more involved modifications that require custom engine tuning to compensate for, your best bet would actually be the 1715 Micro Tuner, as with that you get 3 different performance tunes, 87 octane tow-safe, premium gas tow-safe, and finally, our "max" performance tune that requires premium gas that you cannot tow with. This gives you ultimate flexibility for any octane level and any type of vehicle use, and is what the vast majority of people are using on these vehicles.

One important point I should make here is that the prices you see on our web site for the Superchips products are the lowest price we are allowed to "advertise" by the manufacturer - but we actually sell those products for significantly less when you call us over the phone. In any kind of advertising, and that includes our own e-commerce web site, we just have to abide by the manufacturer's "MAP" (minimum advertised price guidelines) requirements. So anytime you want pricing on Superchips, please just give us a quick call.

And of course, please feel free to give us a call to go over any of this in more detail, or if you need to discuss anything else performance-related about your truck, we'll be happy to help.

Best of luck whatever you decide!

 

Hi T Ellenberger,

Great to see you again!

Please don't be offended by this, I know you were just talking about what happened with a friend of yours..........

I want to point out that we don't want anyone to think they can safely use anything less than premium gas on the Superchips premium gas tuning, as that is not the case & I'll explain briefly.............

In a situation where someone uses 87 octane (or even 89) on a Superchips tune for premium gas, they are risking far more than just not getting the full benefits (meaning the full power gain) - the reality is that is a very dangerous thing to do to the engine, and is literally begging for engine damage - you probably know all that of course, I'm just pointing this out for others reading these posts, & thanks for bearing with me...................

When you use 87 octane fuel on a premium gas tune, you are taking a big risk, that's asking for detonation - and the fuel mileage, power and driveability will not be what they should either, of course, but that is not the end of the world - it's the risk of detonation that is the big concern.

The background on this is that you can't depend on the knock sensor system to keep you out of detonation in such a situation, as the total effective compensation range of these knock sensor systems varies widely - it may or may not have enough effective range, and more often than not, they don't. Another engine killer in this scenario is the fact that in a number of FoMoCo (& other) vehicles, additional timing is added by the PCM automatically at higher speeds, and this will in many cases cause detonation if not enough octane is being used - and potentially *inaudible* detonation due to the higher wind noises and vehicle noises present at higher speeds (say, 90+ mph for example) - this makes detonation much harder to hear, as many times in that situation you only hear it when it's really bad, if you hear it at all. And sooner or later, POP! goes a connecting rod. This has been a problem in some Lightnings for example, where the additional 4 degrees of timing coming in at 104 mph in that particular vehicle, combined with a tune that doesn't address that and/or insufficient fuel octane & quality, can cause engine failure - that has happened a number of times. Of course, proper tuning & fuel usage avoids all that.

So for any number of reasons, the most important being the potential for a blown engine, *never* run 87 octane on a premium gas tune - I'm glad to hear that your friend apparently didn't have a problem of course, as we hate to see that happen to anyone - but what he did was take a huge chance on blowing up the engine just to save a few pennies a gallon. Running anything less than premium gas on a premium gas tune is a dangerous thing to do and is begging for engine damage.

Thanks for bearing with me on this - the last thing I'd want is to offend you in any way, T - I just needed to point this out for others reading these posts.

Good to see you again, & all the best!

 

Mike; no problem at all. I always told my friend to run the good gas. He just didn't want to spend the money.
I personally run the highest rated Chevron I can find in mine.

 

Hi T.E.,

People are people, they'll do what they want, sometimes even regardless of whether it's the best or smartest route........ such is life.

I'm just glad your friend hasn't suffered any apparent damage, as he's very lucky!

Chevron is generally among the better (if not the very best) pump premium in those areas out west where premium is only 91 octane - it's also a good clean fuel as well.

Anyone can tell with glance at your signature line that you do things "right" - what caught my eye were those Magnecor spark plug wires - they're top-shelf and expensive - nice choice!

Take care & have a great weekend,

 

Hey Mike, thanks for the reply. So Im assuming the 87 octane chip you were telling me about would have to be costom made or something(??). Would it cost more if I got one of those, or would it be around the price of the others?

The reason I want a chip for reg. is because we have a huge barrel of it sitting outside, and having to run premium would just be a hastle since I live 20 miles from the closest town.

Im not going to do much modding, just a cold air kit, some dual exhaust, e fans, pullys, headders and thats about it.

Maybe if I have time I will call you guys tomarrow(Saturday).

Thanks guys

 

Maybe I wont call you tomarrow(SP), just looked on your site for the ph. # and see your only open M-F.

Ill either have to wait till a day we dont have shcool or hurry home from school and call you right away.

Thanks

 

My wife and I just bought our first RV… I’m pulling it with a 2003 Ford F250 FX4 Crew 5.4L engine. It does just fine - pulls that Sunnybrook at 60mph tacking about 2400rpm. Around town I get about 11mpg – when I’m towing the camper, I get every bit of 9.5mpg! Since we live in Charleston, SC – most of our excursions are on relatively flat interstate highways. Even so, I can’t use the OD because I get too much downshifting. OK, now that you have some background…
I read about Super-Chip’s Micro Tuner 1715, and while it doesn’t boast about improved gas mileage, I figure the 20 extra horses that it talks about might be just enough of a boost so that I can use OD when tooling down 95 – might have to drop to 55mph, but even so, we’re not in a real big hurry. That would knock off several hundred rpm, which equals gas savings. (I know, I know… Should’ve got the diesel!)
So, I bought it…
Since I’m not pulling the camper right now, I chose the “high octane performance” program and did not customize it from the Super-Chip’s defaults. I had a little less than ½ a tank of 87 octane so I filled up with 93 octane. I figure that averages to a full tank of at least 91 octane. Since one of the comments was that it takes about 100 miles for the computer to “learn” or “adapt” to the new program, now I’m beginning to think I should have just run the 87 octane program until I’m ready to pull the camper then switch to the tow-pref and 93 octane. Phewwww!
So here are my questions…
If I want to get the best gas mileage around town when, NOT towing, what program do I run?
If I load the towing program, will it hurt the truck engine running around town if I’m not towing?
Does a ½ tank of 87 octane + a ½ tank of 93 octane = a full tank of ~91 octane?
Is it wise to keep switching between programs and fuels?
Thanks,
Tom

 

trisso,
Mike chewed my butt a little when I said I dumped 20 gals of 92 on top of 10 gals of 87. If its not giving you any trouble (detonation) then just run it till its almost empty and fill it up with 93. I can't get 93 octane here in minnesota. Wish I could but my truck's running fine on 92. I also tow in the summer and I'm running the tow perf. program all year. It won't hurt your truck. Just gives you a little less and its safe to use when your truck is under a heavy load. Read this thread. It should till you almost everything you want to know.
https://www.f150online.com/forums/sh...hreadid=133753

 

Hi Bartak1,

No difference in price, don't worry about that. It's just that it's considered a "special" program to us, that's all - meaning there is no difference in price, it's just not a "standard" Superchips program for premium gas, instead it would be for 87 octane - so it *might* take a day or two before it actually ships once you order it, that is the only difference. Depending on the computer code of your vehicle, we may already have an 87 octane program done for it so we can ship the same day it's ordered, but if not - it only takes a day or two & then it's right out to you.

If you have a problem matching your schedule to ours, we can get around that - please give us a call just whenever you can & leave us a voicemail message - we have 24 hr. voicemail so you can always leave us a message with your phone number and a good time to reach you, so we can hook up, go over everything, answer any questions you may have, go over your vehicle's computer code, etc.

Sorry about us not being open weekends, but that's really the only time we can get things done - for example, this coming weekend, it looks like we're probably heading down to Atlanta for a dyno weekend down there. Then the first weekend of December we'll be at PRI in Indianapolis, etc., etc. - it never ends.

Thanks & talk to you soon!

 

Hi Tom (trisso),

Congratulations on your first RV, that must be exciting! My wife & I want one too, but it's going to be awhile...........

First, as Mike (mjc3834) very kindly mentioned in his post (thanks, Mike!), you generally don't want to mix octanes like that - that dilutes the incoming premium gas so it takes much longer to get the power gains as a result - and, this can also potentially cause activation of the knock sensor system. If so, you'll have *less* power than stock due to the gross spark retard - when the knock sensor system activates, the PCM pulls timing out & this reduces power - and it grabs a bunch of timing.

While octane mixing *does* basically yield a "linear" result to answer your question (I.E., 12.5 gals. of 87 octane added to 12.5 gals. of 93 octane = 25 gals. of approximately 90 octane, which is *not* enough), you can't depend too much on the gas gauge's accuracy in these vehicles. For example, if you haven't noticed this already, eventually you'll probably notice that when you fill it up, it takes almost as long to burn the first indicated 1/4 tank as it does to burn the next indicated 1/2 tank (taking it down from the 3/4 mark to nearly the 1/4 mark) - most of these 1/2-ton thru 1-ton FoMoCo vehicles gas gauges have this characteristic.

What we advise any time you are switching from 87 octane to premium is to run the tank of 87 octane down until the low fuel light first comes on - at that point you still have a minimum of 3.5 gallons left, so you aren't going to run out of gas. Don't "top off" a tank of 87, as that just elongates the process of getting the full 100% power gain by quite a bit. I would suggest running that current tank down until the low fuel light comes on, *then* fill it up with premium gas again. *That* is the way to get the best results both in terms of raw power *and* fuel mileage - for the first 2-3 tanks, run it down until the low fuel light comes on (or as low as you comfortably can without running out of gas), and then fill it up with premium. After the fist 2-3 tanks of premium you can fill it up any time you like, as at that point you'll just be adding premium to existing premium.

In terms of which program will deliver the best mpg, that will always be the highest performance tune (unless someone used a cheap low-grade premium gas that has a lower BTU content) - so generally speaking, the "max" performance tune that you cannot tow with gets you the best mpg of the 3 tunes in the Micro Tuner, as it's got the most timing used on part-throttle, as well as slightly leaner A/F ratios in open loop.

As Mike mentioned, you can use the premium gas tow-safe program *all* the time if you like, you don't have to tow to use that program at all, the *only* requirement is that you use premium gas. When you are using the "max" performance program, as you already know you can't do *any* towing on that program - the other 2 programs in the Micro Tuner, both the 87 octane tune and the "tow-perf" program can be used for towing or when you're not towing - you can use them for *any* kind of vehicle use, just use the correct fuel. Obviously you'll want maximum power when towing, so you would use the premium gas towing program (tow-perf). Then when not towing, for best performance & mpg, use the "max" performance program.

The difference between the "tow-perf" program, (premium gas tow-safe) and the "max" performance tune is simply in the A/F ratios - in the "max" performance tune they are leaner, to give maximum safe power - in the "tow-perf" program they are a bit richer, so as to keep the EGT's (exhaust gas temperatures) under control on long grades, during sustained heavy loads, etc. The difference in power between the 2 is you get another 8-10 HP at the wheels on the "max" performance tune as compared to the "tow-perf" (premium gas tow-safe) program.

(Have I thoroughly confused anyone by now? )

There is no limitation to the number of times you can change programs with the Micro Tuner - that being said, I don't like the idea of flashing the PCM a dozen times a month, I think that is extreme - but you *can* flash it when you like to use whatever program suits your needs, there is no "limitation" in that regard.

I think that covers everything, & thanks to Mike for answering most (if not all) of this already!

Have fun,