I found a power chip made by jet that has 6 differant settings. one for economy one for towing one two levels of performance and a couple of security settings. I thought this was a pretty cool setup except as far as I can tell they only make them for gm products. dose any one know of anything like that that is made for ford. specificly the 5.4. also is any one makeing any chips or tuners for the new 2004 5.4 yet.

 

Wow! Don't think I would ever use all those different settings. I would also be interested to know what is available for the 2004's.

 

Hi Jason (I hope I've guessed your name right from your screen name),

Congratulations on your brand new 2004 F-150 with the 300 HP 3-valve 5.4! We just took delivery of our first 2004 a few weeks ago, it's a loaded 4x4 Lariat SuperCrew with the new 3-valve 5.4 & 3.73 limited slip front & rear. It drives like a Caddy compared to the 1997-2003 F-150's - Ford has hit a home run for 2004 with it's new F-150, it's much improved.

Nobody (that I know of, at least) makes a 6-program chip for FoMoCo vehicles, and as Mark's (Gearhead) post alluded to, that's really more of a marketing gimmick than really useful.

We *do* have 2-program Flip Chips available, and starting roughly in January, we'll be doing 4-program chips. We *can* see some sense in having more than 2 programs, for example, you could have a gas mileage program, a performance program, a towing program, and then one other program - say, for 87 octane perhaps. But a 6-program chip is just a marketing gimmick.

Jet is perhaps the last chipmaker whose programs you'd want to use in these F-150's especially, with all the different PCM software revisions Ford uses in these vehicles. Jet is "generic" like most other chipmakers, using the same performance program for all similar vehicles (I.E., same program for all 2001 5.4's, etc.) where the Superchips tuning is individual-vehicle PCM code specific - which means you get a program or programs that were made specifically for *your* vehicle, not programs that are compromised to run on all similar vehicles. Each model year alone in the F-150, there are *hundreds* of different PCM software revisions, and Superchips makes a different program for each and every different factory software revision - this is required to get the best results.

Currently, nobody that I know of has a tuning application actually shipping for the 2004 F-150's yet - We should be offering that within just a few weeks is our current estimated timeframe, and it looks like we'll be the first to do so - at least, we'll be the first to have performance tuning that is worth having for the 2004 F-150's.

The 2004 F-150 is all-new in *many* aspects - new 3-valve 5.4 with PCM-controlled variable valve timing, throttle by wire, new (updated) automatic tranny (4R75), etc., so the 2004 models require a *LOT* more new R&D than any of the 1998-2003 models ever did, thus it will take a while before anything is shipping - same thing happened back when Ford introduced it's then all-new F-150 for the 1997 model year - that was when the Mod motors showed up in these trucks, different PCM's, etc., and so it was several months before we had that R&D done back then, too.

The 2004's throttle by wire alone will take much work to properly optimize, and we have to be very careful with that. We now have thousands of miles of hands-on detailed data on it's current characteristics - the only thing that *really* bothers me is how slow it is to respond when backing up from a stationary position - there is very noticeable and unacceptable delay in the throttle response in reverse, at least in the 2004's we've driven so far, and in ours. That does need work, and there are one or two other small issues that could use some tweaking - in most areas the throttle by wire is working very nicely overall, it just needs some relatively minor recalibration - but it's new, so it takes more time to R&D.

Anyone with a 2004 F-150 that wants to explore performance tuning should give us a call or shoot us an email so we can put them on our list to notify as soon as we're shipping those applications. Our phone # is below if you'd like to have us put you on our list of 2004 owners to notify when the tuning is available - and our email address is: sales@troyerperformance.com.

Best of luck with your new 2004 truck, & talk with you soon!

 

Hi Gearhead (Mark),

The current status on the 2004's is in my response to Jason, so you might want to give that a quick read - and of course, feel free to call us if you'd like to go over this in more detail.

If you'd like to be notified when we're makign the tuning available for the 2004 F-150's, shoot us an email at: sales@troyerperformance.com - we'll put you on the list to notify, if you like.

 

I think I might be interested in the 4 way chip you were talking about when it comes out. I am plenty patiant and don't plan on buying till next summer any ways. I will be vary interested to see what kind of performance increases you can muster up. the engine already seems to have pretty good shifting performance. although I think it could use better throtle control.

 

Hi Jason,

Ahh, I should have pointed this out before..............

On the *2004 & newer* F-150's, there won't be any kind of traditional "chip" available like you can get for the EEC-IV & EEC-V Ford PCM's used from 1987 thru 2003 in these trucks - this is because the design of the Ptech PCM's used in the F-150 starting in 2004 does not permit it - they don't have a connector to which you attach a traditional "chip" any more. The older EEC-V PCM's that you find in the F-150 from 1996-2003 *can* take a traditional chip, but starting in 2004, they can't. So this means that our upcoming 4-program chip will *not* work for you, you'll just need to use the Micro Tuner instead.

For the 1997 thru 2003 F-150';s, you can use either the chip or the Micro Tuner, but starting in the 2-004 F-150, you can't use a traditional "chip" any more, it has to be a flash device. For the 2004 F-150's (just like in the 1996 & newer GM vehicles), we have to "flash" the existing EEPROM inside the PCM to change it's program, and that can't be done via a traditional "chip" - instead, that is done via the Superchips Micro Tuner, which simply connects to the OBD-II port there under the dash to flash the new program into the PCM.

OK, so what does all this really *mean* to you?

Not much, it's just a different type of hardware device has to be used to get you the performance tuning for your 2004 - so yo won't be able to use the upcoming 4-program chip, you'll need to use the upcoming Micro Tuner for the 2004 instead.

In the current 1715 Superchips Micro Tuner unit for the 1996-2003 F-150's, it has 3 different performance programs available - 87 octane tow-safe, premium gas tow-safe, and then the "max" performance tune for premium gas that you cannot tow with. We'll be offering similar versions of the Micro Tuner for the 2004 F-150, so next year when you're actually in the market for performance tuning, the Micro Tuner is what you'll want to use.

Sorry if I've made all this confusing............I really just wanted to point out that the 4-program "chip" coming in January won't work for your 2004 F-150, you'll just need to use a Superchips Micro Tuner instead - which should be released for the 2004 F-150's by the time you're ready for it, and it will give you 3 different performance programs.

 

it is too mad they can not add a fourth option for good fuel economy. you would think someone would develop a device that mounted on your dash that stored several programs for those different situations and plugged into that port you mentioned so al one had to do is push a button to swich. hay if you have any connections with those guys developing future products which I suspect you do. you should toss that idea at them I bet it would be a great seller. especially if you ad the gas saver option. I see alot of people on here concerned about gas milage and want performance sometimes too. I also like the idea of towing performance as I do that every now and then.