Hey all,
got some great info that you all will be very happy to read!!!:


Ford Tweaks Engines for Premium Power Payoff


USA Today

Consumer groups insist there is no benefit in using premium fuel if the owner's manual specifies regular. But many Ford, Mercury and Lincoln trucks, and the 1998 Lincoln Town Car that goes on sale in December, have a feature that makes their engines more powerful and improves mileage slightly if you use premium. That's so even though the engines are designed for regular, and advertised poweris obtained using regular. Ford engineers David Amos, Gary Barringer and Gary Brewer came up with the clever gimmick brainstorming. The magic gadget is a knock sensor similar to those on many engines, but set to work differently. Other knock sensors work in the negative. That is, they tone down some engine computer settings when the engine starts knocking, quelling the commotion at the expense of engine power. But Ford's has headroom built in. It will work like the others, but if you use premium, it'll also step up settings to exploit premium's properties. Amos says it adds five to seven horsepower to the nominal 205 hp in the overhead-camshaft Explorer/Mountaineer V-6. And he says premium improves fuel economy in that engine 0.8 to 1 mile per gallon. Ford can't advertise the higher horsepower and fuel economy numbers unless it's willing to specify premium fuel, which marketers fear could scare off buyers. The sensor also is on all trucks using Ford's 4.6-liter and 5.4-liter V-8s and 6.8-liter V-10. That's most F-series V-8 pickups, all Expedition and Lincoln Navigator sports utilities, and some Econoline vans. And it will be on the 4.6-liter '98 Town Car.


Isn't this great information. You dont have to go spend those hard earned dollars to put a chip on your vehicle!!! The genius' at Ford have given your vehicle this feature already! Sorry to those of you who already have, I wish I could've gotten this info to you sooner!!!

Dont everyone thank me all at once!!!

Birddogg

is this rumor and inuendo also?

 

All I have to say is 18.38 1/4 mile time without superchip, 17.42 with chip. Both run with premium fuel. They did not build much of a chip in mine.

 

Did you unhook your battery cable to allow the computer to reset after you put in the stock chip and premium fuel? I was told that if you don't do this, the computer requires a certain amount of time (days or weeks) to learn that you're using premium. Unhooking the battery cables for 30 minutes resets the computer to default settings and allows the computer to instantly learn that there is no pinging and therefore exploit the features of premium fuel.

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1998 F-150 Super Cab XLT, 4x4, SWB, StyleSide, 5.4L, E40D Automatic, Dark Toreador Red, Med Graphite Cloth Captain's Chairs, P255/70R-16 OWL AT Tires, 3.55 Limited Slip Axle, Cab Steps, Trailer Tow, Power Color-Keyed Mirrors, Fog Lights, Cast Aluminum Wheels, 6-Disc CD Changer. Aftermarket: Penda Bedliner, Keyless Entry, Delta Deep Aluminum Toolbox, Hellwig Rear Anti-Sway Bar, Gibson Swept Side Stainless Steel, K&N, Custom CB and Amateur Radio Installation. See me and my truck at http://bluecrab.richmond.edu/crab-1.htm

 

Vehicle control systems have been able to dynamically advance and retard the timing even longer than computers have been in cars. In the old days, this was done with vacuum lines directly connected to the distributor. Then computers started doing it electrically using MAP and other sensors.
All the modern systems use sensor input to advance the timing until the knock sensor picks up noise. Thus, if you use premium fuel, the knock will come later and you'll get more "advanced" timing. The result- more power and better economy.

Personally, I think this article is something that Ford helped put together to quiet some of the complaints about their "weak" engines. Almost every review of the '97s said they wished there was more power. Ford then happily "announces" that you can get more power (unofficially) by using premium fuel. DUH!

The only thing "new" may be the way they use the knock sensor in the ECU's timing algorithm. In NO way does this mean that the factory code is optimal for either performance or economy.

I'd suggest you hurry and buy your "chip" before the price goes up again!

Neal

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1997 4x4 Expedition- 4.6L, true dual exhaust w/glass-packs, K&N air filter, SuperChip, airbox mods, Edelbrock shocks, 285/75R16 BFG ATs, Optima "T-Bone" wheels, and Clarion In-dash CD player. Just added Smitty Bilt push bars and nerf bars!!

1993 4x2 F150 Reg. Cab LWB- 5.0L, cat-back dual exhaust w/glass-packs, K&N air filter, Superchip, fresh paint, and Line-X bedliner.
http://members.visualcities.com/NoMo

 

Mike Troyer says about Superchips, "To say nothing of the supercharged Lightning, which gains 25 horsepower at the wheels, and 38-40 at the flywheel". I have personally seen with my own eyes two '99 Lightnings on the dyno with Superchips. Both made an an awesome 3 rwhp with the Superchips in setting #2! Where is the other 22 rwhp?

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1998 STX 4.2L V6 Auto

 

HotV6- 3rwhp huh. That sounds about right with the claim by NascarBill of only nintey-six hundredths of a second in the quarter mile. If you throw in a variation in response times, track conditions, and pavement/tire temp. sounds reasonable for about a 3rwhp gain. Thanks for the info all.

birddogg

 

nomo,

How does the computer advance the timing? Unlike the distributors of old with mechanical and vacuum advance there is nothing for the computer to move to increase timing. Once the spark is called for it is too late. Please explain

Regards

Jean Marc Chartier

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On Order: 00 F-150 XLT SC Flairside 4x4 4.6 w/5spd
using: Wife'S 99 Explorer till arrival

 

Well, sorry to say that it isn't the same or even close to having a "Superchip built in". I have no doubt that an additional 5-7 horsepower can be gained doing this, and that's fine. GM has been doing it for years! However, you still do not get the power gains that you will with a good performance chip, including the Superchip. The Superchip adds over 20 horsepower to all the F-150's, V-6's included. I just had a discussion about this with Mike Short, the General Manager of Superchips USA operations facility in Longwood, Florida, moments ago. Mike says the same thing, this is nothing new, GM has been doing it for years. Mike also said that if all the Superchip did was to change timing, we would still make more power, but much more is changed. Timing curves, fueling curves (which need work; it's very typical to have to lean out these vehicles at WOT to get maximum power, and this is seen even on part-throttle in some vehicles, where the automakers, who are faced with stiffer C.A.F.E. (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) mandates from the Feds each year, should be doing their best work since it's in their own best interests! Yet there is still much room for improvement.

Superchips has already done a number of the 2000 F-150's, F-250's, and F-350's, with all gasoline engines (except the V-10 when I last spoke to them) as well as the Powerstroke diesel. And they are getting far more than 5-7 horsepower gains. The 2000 vehicles are responding in the same basic manner to specific performance tuning that they always have. Meaning they see additional power, firmed transmission shifting in the automatics, top speed limiters removed in most cases, and all the other benefits. Another point to make is the fact that when Superchips does the back-to-back chassis dyno testing, the vehicles are run on premium gasoline all the time! Both the stock and the Superchipped runs are always made using premium gasoline, as there is simply no convenient way to run the stock test using regular, drain the tank and the entire fuel system, and then re-test on premium for the Superchipped run. So why do they not show any measurable power gain on the chassis dyno with the stock program running premium gasoline? The battery is disconnected, so the computer is forced to relearn, so things are being done in a apples-to-apples manner. This is nothing new!

GM did this same thing years ago, starting in the LT1 engines, using a knock sensor system tuned to allow for additional power with higher octane. And in those engines, the same basic gains were seen, a handful of horsepower. When these same vehicles, and mind you, these are vehicles that were tuned specifically for premium gasoline from the factory, there were still considerable gains with the Superchip tuning. The first couple of years of the LT1 saw additional gains of 8-13 horsepower, and now those same engines are gaining about 20 horsepower over the power levels with factory tuning and premium gasoline, as more has been learned about them. A couple of years ago when I was still a Sysop on CompuServe, several members tested this in their LT1 6-speed Camaros. The results were typically a reduction in 1/4 mile times of anywhere from .25 to .38 seconds, and another 1.5-2.0 mph in trap speeds. GM is using this same type of knock sensor system in the LS1-derived truck engines, the same one that the Hypertech PPIII unit shaved a full second off the 0-60 times in the C&D article. So much for that theory.

This same basic thing has been done in Ford's "performance" vehicles. Meaning, they come tuned from the factory to be run on premium gasoline, and they still gain considerable power when Superchipped, such as the 1999 Mustang GT, which was upped to 260 hp as most of us know for the 1999 model year. To say nothing of the supercharged Lightning, which gains 25 horsepower at the wheels, and 38-40 at the flywheel. Same with the SVT Contour, and every other performance vehicle they make.

I think it's very obvious what's going on here. I also think it's going to be very easy to disprove this assertion that this new knock sensor tuning will make all performance chips irrelevant. This isn't the first time that we've seen this exact type of claim bandied about by an automaker, and it won't be the last. Another thing it won't stop is the automakers themselves coming to Superchips for assistance.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Our bests to all,

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Mike Troyer
Performance Products, Inc.
National Distributor of Superchips
(540) 862-9515
Email: mtroyer@compuserve.com

[This message has been edited by Superchips_Distributor (edited 09-28-1999).]

 

From the Haynes repair manual for '80-'96 Ford trucks description of the TFI-IV/EEC-IV system:

MY paraphrasing:
Vanes on the distributor shaft pass through a magnetic field. This produces a "pulse" of voltage (PIP) that the powertrain control module (PCM) detects. This tells the the PCM where the distributor is relative to top-dead-center. (The PCM also counts these pulses to determine engine RPM.)

Straight from the book:
The older Duraspark system used centrifugal force and manifold absolute pressure to alter timing. Newer Duraspark III systems used a crankshaft position sensor to send timing info to the ECU- which then "fired" the coil.

NOTE: ALL of the "modern" ECU controlled systems rely on timing alterations based on "PRE-DETERMINED" calibration. This calibration, along with other things, is what aftermarket chip companies modify.

Neal

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1997 4x4 Expedition- 4.6L, true dual exhaust w/glass-packs, K&N air filter, SuperChip, airbox mods, Edelbrock shocks, 285/75R16 BFG ATs, Optima "T-Bone" wheels, and Clarion In-dash CD player. Just added Smitty Bilt push bars and nerf bars!!

1993 4x2 F150 Reg. Cab LWB- 5.0L, cat-back dual exhaust w/glass-packs, K&N air filter, Superchip, fresh paint, and Line-X bedliner.
http://members.visualcities.com/NoMo

 

Response times were near identical. Those times I posted were from the same day. Trust me I work for a Ford dealer and I have done much research on this. Ford has to meet certain CAFE restristrictions, so all of their vehicles are detuned, including GT's, Lightnings, and Cobras. As for the battery cable comment, yes, I reset the computer after removing the chip and let me tell you, MUCH difference is noted. Hey, it is a 30 day satisfation guarantee. Try one instead of doubting something you have not experienced.

 

I will be *more* than happy to set up a chassis dyno session at Superchips for *any* Lightning owner who has purchased the Lightning Flip Chip, to do the before and after runs. Plain and simple.

I think it's beneath most of us here to get into this kind of silly argument. The Lightning owners themselves are the ones posting half-second reductions in 1/4 mile times, and the typical result is for a Lightning running 14.2 stock to run 13.7's, and that has been posted here on numerous occasions.

I think it's very clear what's going on here.

Our bests to all,

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Mike Troyer
Performance Products, Inc.
National Distributor of Superchips
(540) 862-9515
Email: mtroyer@compuserve.com