I received my Superchip yesterday, and put it in this morning (played hookey for 2 hours...don't tell anyone). I have a 2001 Supercab 2WD 4.2L V6 automatic.

I had prepped the truck by filling it up with 93 octane and ran about 1/2 a tank through it before installing the chip. As per the directions, I disconnected the battery (actually removed it because it is just easier to get to the 10mm bolt on the harness), and then turned the ignition switch on for the duration of the installation.

I was a bit surprised, as I have installed these before (in 4.6 V8's) and had very little problem...the computer box in the V6 did not have a removable plastic plug, but rather a tab that had to be snapped off...different.

Also, I intended to remove the circuit board from the computer's box, and I had to bend four metal tabs to get it apart...not too bad, but different than I had seen before. Once I took the cover off the computer box, I could NOT get the circuit board out...it is actually glued to the metal box, as well as screwed in four places. I attempted to pry it loose, but opted not to as the board started to bend a bit...woah!!!

I cleaned off the terminals I could get to with a screw driver and alcohol...not a problem. Then, I turned the board over and carefully scraped the "hard to reach" side of the terminals...I finished up with a fine sandpaper wrapped around the end of my small screwdriver...finally, I swabbed both sides down with alcohol as recommended by Mike's instruction sheet.

Finally got it back together, turned off the ignition and removed the keys, hooked up the battery and held my breath as I first tried to start the truck...WOW...it came to life immediately!

I took a short test drive and noted that the shifting was much firmer or sharper, but not hard...felt good. Then, I drove to work, which is over 20 highway miles. Seemed stronger immediately, shifted crisper through all the gears, and did not tend to downshift on hills where it normally does. Did it jam me into the seat with the extreme excess of power??? Aboslutely NOT>>> it did make the truck more DRIVEABLE almost immediately...at least a noticable difference...I anticipate it will get a little better with some mileage on it.

The only PROBLEM I noted was in the transmission shifting pattern...the shift from 1st to 2nd is super. The shift from 2nd to 3rd is goofy, but not all the time. When pulling away from a traffic light, it shifts fine 1st to 2nd and 2nd and into 3rd, and immediately downshifts back to second and then shifts to 3rd a second time...it did this 3 times in 20 miles, and I want to drive it a couple of hundred miles to see exactly what happens. I am hoping it is going to take a little time to "seat itself in" so to speak.

Overall, I am very happy with the chip and look forward to a lot more driving pleasure...

 

Hi David,

Thanks for your post!

On the issue of that shift irregularity, it really shouldn't do that ( but of course, we have to deal with what it actually does, and not what it "shouldn't" do), as I don't have any of the part-throttle upshift points overlapping any of the downshift points - that's usually what causes what you have noticed.

Now I *do* have the 2-3 upshift @ 300 TP and the 3-2 at about the same TP within 2.5 mph of each other - normally that's plenty of "headroom" so that we don't have those kinds of oddball characteristics (upshift followed by downshift)- as long as the upshift & downshift points on part-throttle don't actually "overlap," it usually works very nicely. But as soon as I saw your post, I went back into your program and double-checked that just to make sure, and it's fine - so I'm thinking that it's going to be one of two things - either something that works itself out within the next few hundred miles as you accumulate more miles after interrupting power to the PCM (in effect, clearing the PCM so it has to go back thru it's relearn cycle & the adaptive strategy adjustments begin from scratch), or, it could be that a sensor on your truck's tranny is just a tad bit, oh, call it "temperamental" if you will. Not "bad" mind you, just a bit more sensitive than normal. If that does not work itself out within 500 miles after installation of the chip, then please give me a call & I will be more than happy to adjust that for you, it's a simple adjustment that will take all of maybe 5 minutes to eliminate that.

What I like to do in my custom tunes, just to give you some quick background on this (especially on the lower-powered 4.2 V6's and 4.6 V8 automatics), is to bump up the light-throttle upshift points for better driveability and performance, so that it doesn't upshift so quickly that it actually slows the vehicle down on lighter throttle in some situations. That happens sometimes in the stock programs, and I really hate that, as a fellow F-150 owner - it's a common complaint of many F-150 owners, so in my custom tunes we optimize those aspects very nicely - along with slightly raising the light--throttle downshifts a bit as well, for better light-throttle response & driveability, better overall vehicle feel when driving conservatively, etc.

So time will tell whether we actually need to make an adjustment for you there, or if this is something that will just work itself out via adaptive strategy as you accumulate the next 500 miles or so - so let's keep in touch on that, & if need be I can make that adjustment.

Your comments on the differences in some of the newer 4.2 V6 PCM's is right on - we do on occasion find some of them that have the tabs that you bend to remove the cover instead of the regular pop-off cover to the PCM, and that's obviously what you have there. On those, you're absolutely right, a bit more time does need to be spent getting the bottom side of the connector cleaned properly, due to the reduced working space - overall, it sounds like you did a fine job on that.

If you ever get a chance to use something like a GTech Pro unit to measure before & after acceleration times, due to the condition of that truck's stock program I'd say your new performance tune is going to knock off an *easy* half-second (if not more) from your 1/4 mile times - should be somewhere in the neighborhood of 5-7 tenths off the 0-60 & 1/4 mile times, I'm estimating. It won't feel like a rocketship, it should just feel like you have about 15% more motor under the hood (or about 15% more engine displacement, in other words, as there is more power all the time, at any rpm or throttle position), basically - not enough to feel like a supercharger of course, but certainly noticeably more power and better performance, not downshifting as much when going up hills, etc., like you commented on There were also some nasty steady-state TQ slips going on in that code we took care of for you, so that torque converter (as well as the bands & clutches, etc.) will last longer than they would have before.

Please do give me a call if you experience that upshift/downshift issue on the 2-3/3-2 after 500 miles post-chip installation, as if so, I'll want to adjust that for you to eliminate that, OK?

Have fun enjoying your new custom tune, & thanks!

 

I goofed a little...when I made the initial post yesterday, I had only driven about 20 miles, mostly on the interstate. I had misjudged the 2-3 and 3-2 shifting situation. Let me correct this:

First, let me say that with almost 200 miles on the chip, I really like it...it makes the truck so much more fun to drive.

The actual problem is in the 3-4 shift sequence. It shifts perfectly from 1st to second and second to third. When it shifts from 3rd to 4th, it hesitates a second and immediately downshifts to 3rd and stays there for up to a mile as long as I maintain constant throttle pressure. If I back off the throttle just a tad, it upshifts to 4th a second time, and eventually upshifts to overdrive without a problem.

The same exact situation occurs with the 3 to 4 to and 4 to 3 and 3 to 4 shifting pattern whether I begin from a standing start or if I slow down to 15-20 miles per hour (allowing it to downshift to 2nd gear). Again, as I increase speed, the same erratic shifting situation occurs.

I opted to play with it for a 100 miles or so last night to try to diagnose the situation as correctly as possible, so I attempted all sorts of variations.

The shift lever has the overdrive "turn off" button on the end of the shaft. Everytime I manuall turned off the overdrive by pressing the button at a traffic light, the transmission shifted perfectly with no 4-3 backshift. I went through this process several times and each time was a success. HOWEVER, when I pressed the button to turn overdrive back on at 45 mph, it would not go into overdrive until I drove about 1/2 a mile at 3,000 rpm...then it shifted into overdrive...again, I tried this several times.

So, by now I am thinking that maybe I did not clean the contacts perfectly, so I pulled the chip (going through the recommended sequence of disconnecting the battery, turning on the ignition switch, etc.). I drove the truck without the chip, and the transmission worked perfectly...even the overdrive popped in and out immediately as I turned it off and on with the button on the shift lever - absolutely no hesitation, just an immediate upshift or downshift.

After re-cleaning the contacts, disconnecting the battery and turning on the ignition switch, I reinstalled the chip...the problem with the shifting immediately came back.

I left the battery disconnected over night, and hooked it up this morning. I took a different route to work that is mostly back roads to force the truck to shift more often. It never missed a beat - ALWAYS shifting into 4th, back to 3rd and back to 4th... When I push the throttle hard, the erratic downshift from 4th to 3rd darn near throws you toward the windshield...scared me the first time, as I was not expecting it...

I will certainly follow your recommendation and leave it in for a few hundred miles...I am gong to Kansas City tomorrow (400 mile round trip) so I should know by Monday if this will be taking care of itself, or if we need to make some kind of adjustment. I hope all of this information will be helpful to you.

I sure this will eventually work out, and I really am impressed with the Superchip in ALL other ways...the extra power on hills (no more multiple downshfting and still gain speed), crisper shifting, and just overall better response are fantastic attributes of the chip.

Thanks for your suggestions and help, Mike...I will certainly get back to you next week....thanks again for your help and personal concern....

 

Hi David,

Thanks very much for your detailed post to clarify.

What's interesting here is that in your new custom tune, your truck's 4-3 downshift points (at any throttle position or vehicle speed) have not been changed at all - I left all of that completely stock, as that part of the calibration doesn't have any real deficits. However, in your truck's computer code the light-throttle 3-4 upshift is set to happen at a crazy-low 22 mph (up to 60 TP, which is very light throttle), and that causes excess cycling between 3rd & 4th gears at those extremely light throttle positions - and we can reduce slippage and extend the service life of the transmission by taking care of that.

In taking a detailed look (again since your last post) at the 3-4 TP ramp, we can increase the effective "resolution" in the areas between 60 TP & 200 TP (200 TP is about 1/5th throttle or a bit more, roughly), and then dial it in again with finer resolution and take care of that.

Right now, I have your 3-4 light throttle (up thru 60 TP) upshift points raised from that silly stock 22 mph to just 30 mph which is still very low, as we want to get you the best combination of improved light-throttle driveability and good mpg, too. Then from there up thru 200 TP, it's set at 40 mph and then ramps up further from there based on load & vehicle speed, just as it should. Stock, in the 200 TP range it's set at 37 mph, so that's only a 3 mph increase. Then from zero throttle up thru 60 TP, I've raised it 8 mph, from 22 to 30 mph.

I can easily just expand the effective "resolution" on the TP pressure side of that 3-4 upshift table in the above 60 TP up thru 200 TP range, to allow for even more precise fine-tuning of those light-throttle 3-4 upshift points than what Ford allows in their stock program - pretty simple to take care of.

The bottom line is, it sounds like what's causing this 4-3 downshifting issue is actually the changes I made to the 3-4 light throttle upshift points - and that's easy to take care of.

By the time you read this post, it sounds like you'll probably have 250 or so miles on it since you got the chip, but..............not really. You've been disconnecting the battery during this same time, and that negates *all* of the miles previously driven. It needs to have 500 non-continuous miles with *no* interruption of power to the PCM so that adaptive strategy can start to go to work and do it's job.

If you want to wait and see if the adaptive strategy takes care of this, then you will need to accumulate 500 miles on it without clearing the PCM, disconnecting the battery, or removing the chip, etc., - so that adaptive strategy can go to work. Every time you disconnect the battery to check your work by removing & replacing the chip, that clears out all of the adaptive strategy adjustments to date and you begin all over again from scratch - so of course it's going to exhibit the same characteristics every time you remove the chip and put it back in.

Of course I understand your wanting to do precise comparisons back-to-back with and without the chip to isolate this symptom to only being present with the chip installed, as well as removing & replacing the chip just to make sure the connector was properly cleaned, etc. I'm delighted that you went to all that effort, excellent! I'm guessing this has nothing to do with your installation work, but instead is an adjustment we need to go ahead and make for you.

We do need to talk by phone in some detail about this before making any decisions. For example, we need to discuss how to identify the difference between the torque converter locking up and unlocking versus an actual gear change taking place - I mention this because it seems by your wording in your post that you may not be aware of the fact that 4th gear *is* Overdrive, they are one and the same in all Ford 4-speed automatic transmissions. You don't have another gear after Overdrive, there is no "5th" forward gear, you have 4 forward gears - 1st gear is a 2.84 ratio, 2nd gear is 1.55, 3rd gear is the 1:1 ratio, and then 4th gear is Overdrive, with a 0.698 ratio, for a 30.2% Overdrive. Then you have the **torque converter** locking and unlocking, which to most people feels just like another gear change, as it changes the rpms by 400-500 rpm - and I'm guessing this is the cause of your description of it "shifting into Overdrive" after it's already in 4th gear. We'll need to talk about TQ lockup points as well as some other things when we talk next time - I'll go over all of that with you by phone, it's far too much to get into here of course.

Sounds like the truck is running very nicely overall, and that we simply need to make a small adjustment to the 3-4 between 60 & 200 TP. Once we put a good custom tune on an otherwise-stock 4.2 V6 F-150, they have no problem at least keeping up with a similarly-configured stock 4.6 V8 F-150 - and in some cases, our tuned 4.2 V6 F-150's will actually outrun a stock 4.6 V8 F-150.

Have fun David, & we'll talk this next week and get this adjustment taken care of!

 

Mike

After our discussion, I sent the chip back via UPS...it should be there on Thursday...

After thinking about our conversation (it sometimes takes a while to sink in) I was totally convinced that your suggestion for the adjustment to the program was 100% dead on!!!

Can't wait to get it back so I can have some more driving pleasure...thanks for all your help and personal concern...