I just got my Superchip on Friday afternoon. I followed the directions excalty when installing it. I had the batter disconeected the whole 45min that it took me to install the chip. I drove about 150 miles over the weekend and still have not noticed a difference in the performance, and only a slight difference in the trans shifts. Is there a period needed for the computer to adust to the chip that I have not completed yet? Or am I just expecting too much out of the chip?

Thanks!

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1997 F-150
Ext Cab
4x4 w/offroad pkg
towing pkg
4.6L with Auto Trans

 

i put mine in saturday afternoon. the biggest difference i found was the shifts, which now "snap" noticeably. the other big difference is in shift points...the engine revs much higher than before under part or full throttle. maybe you didn't clean all the contacts thoroughly...the chip has made a big difference in my 97 Lariat s/c 5.4...

 

Hi csacom,

It sounds like you're expecting too much from the Superchip, perhaps. As long as you disconnect the battery during installation, you'll feel the vast majority of what that chip is going to do power-wise very soon after installation, but it's going to take far more than 150 miles of driving to get a good feel for what it's actually doing.

You're noticing the shifts, which means it's working, and it's adding power as well, as it cannot only do part of it's job. As long as you feed it the required 92 octane or higher to get the rated power gains, it's going to add the power it's supposed to.

What you have to remember is that you have a *very* heavy vehicle, with the Super Cab, 4X4, and the Offroad package to boot, you are well over 5500 lbs. with fluids & driver, and could be as high as 6500 lbs, propelled by a very small engine, only 281 cubic inches. The Superchip has just increased your *peak* horsepower by 10%-12%, and while that's excellent in terms of the "bang-for-the-buck", it's not going to act like a supercharger, it's a 10% power-gainer, in round numbers.

Assuming a 5500 lb. weight, your power-to-weight ratio stock is 25 lbs. for each horsepower, quite a load. With the Superchip, your power-to-weight ratio is now approximately 22.36 lbs. for each horsepower. That's a nice difference for the cost, but it's not enough to make any "night & day" type of difference, for that you'd have to add 100 or more horsepower.

Overall, it's probably just a matter of your expectations coupled with needing to drive it more, to feel how it acts under many different driving situations.

For example, from about 3200-3400 rpm on up in 2nd gear, the gain is way over 100 lbs./ft. of torque, as we have eliminated the premature lockup of the torque converter at full-throttle, which costs a good 100 lbs./ft. of torque. So in that "transitional" area, you gain not only the 40 lbs./ft. that we increased the engine's output by, but also the 100 lbs./ft. of torque that we restored from the factory program basically "robbing" it by locking up the TQ prematurely in 2nd gear at WOT. Try pulling @ WOT in 2nd gear up to the redline with & without the Superchip, and you'll quickly see the difference it's making in that area.

Also, duing the full-throttle upshifts, because we have removed the power-robbing transitional spark retards, for about a second or so during the upshift, the power gain is closer to 50 hp, but only very briefly, just during the upshift, which is why we don't advertise it, as it's what we call a "transitional gain", and not a true peak power gain, if you get my point. This is also why you're feeling it more in this area.

The bottom line is that the Superchip, in round numers, is about a 10% power-gainer, and adding 10%-12% more power to a vehicle weighing the better part of 3 tons just can't make a "big" difference.

Others here can easily feel the power gain. There can be well over 3000 lbs. of potential weight difference in these F-150's, from the lightest 2WD 4.2 V-6 manual F-150 to the heaviest versions, which is what you have there.

As you can see from the many people who post here, they can feel their Superchips working. How much of an impact the same power gain makes on vehicles with widely-varying weights is of course going to vary.

Please feel free to give us a call if you'd like to go over this, we're happy to discuss this in detail with you.

One last though is this: drive it for a few weeks with the Superchip, and then take it out for at least a week, and make sure to disconnect the battery each time you put it in or take it out, otherwise the change is very gradual. Then once you've driven for it full week without the Superchip again, put it back in, remembering to disconnect the barttery once again to clear the computer's memory and allow a fresh program load. Once you've done that, you'll see what the Superchip has been doing for you, 150 miles of driving isn't anywhere near enough to get a good feel for what it's doing. 10%-12% more power is 10%-12% more power, not 25-50%, which is what it would take to make a "night & day" type of difference, just to give you a bit of perspective.

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Mike Troyer
Performance Products, Inc.
National Distributor of Superchips
(540) 862-9515
Email: mtroyer@compuserve.com
Performance Products F150Online Superchip ordering system: F150Online Superchip Ordering System
First National F-150 Online Rally Event Organizer

 

I now have been about 200 miles since installing the Superchip. You mean it's going to get even better! I like it already. Most of my driving is in rural areas, and I'll probably see improved gas mileage if I can just keep my foot out of it!!

Vern

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99 4X4 XLT SC 5.4 Auto Superchip

 

Hi csacom,

Thanks for calling yesterday, I enjoyed speaking with you. I was also glad to hear that you're noticing the additional power in the mid-range especially, from our conversation.

Just to recap briefly what we discussed, the program's spark curves are optimized every few hundred rpm, to dial it in as closely as possible. Where you feel the most power gain is usually where they (the automakers)leave us the most room for improvement, without inducing detonation on pump premium. It adds power all along the entire rpm range, but there are areas where the gains are larger than the increase in *peak* horsepower, just because they left us more room for improvement in that area.

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Mike Troyer
Performance Products, Inc.
National Distributor of Superchips
(540) 862-9515
Email: mtroyer@compuserve.com
Performance Products F150Online Superchip ordering system: F150Online Superchip Ordering System
First National F-150 Online Rally Event Organizer

 

I really didn't notice any improvement solo with the UAT2 SuperChip in my truck, in fact I doubted it was working so I ran it up to 105 or so to see if the speed limiter had been removed and it has. Towing is a different story.....towed for the first time with the chip yesterday and found much less down shifting on the highway. Much much less. Also, acceleration with the trailer hooked up was much easier for the SuperCrew with the chip. My fuel mileage with a 24 ft. Wilderness was 8.8 mpg's cruising from 73 occasionally up to 75 with some 65 in there. Also, was stopped in contruction section of I80 for 45 minutes so that had to hurt.

Only negative is the instructions were not complete that came in the chip box, Mike Troyer must have been having a bad day since he asked 3 times for me to check and make sure I didn't have it, treating somewhat like a little kid. Which I didn't appreciate.

The Superchip is well worth the money for towing.

 

Hi Jerry,

We keep a very tight control over the packaging & documentation to make sure everyone gets what they are supposed to, and we've had a few people swear they didn't get something, when I personally packaged their chip and *know* it was included, so we do ask people to make sure and check *thoroughly*. I don't do most of the packaging, our staff does that, my point is simply that we've had people claim this when I actually did their chip, and *know* everything was included, sometimes people will do that when they've thrown something away, or not paid attention. If we offended you in the process, you never mentioned it to me, just here on F-150 Online. Please accept my apologies, & if there is anything you are missing, just let us know and we'll be happy to make sure you get it, if you haven't already. Because we write additional documentation for a number of the Ford applications in addition to what the manufacturer supplies, our people have to make sure each application gets it's appropriate documentation in addition to the manufacturer's instructions, which are always there.

Yours is a custom 2-program Flip Chip, and is only going to add power when you run it in the premium gas performance program in Position 2. In Position 1, the engine is still tuned for regular gas, and you don't get the power gain of course, though you do still have the benefit of the changes to the automatic transmission shift characteristics. You also have to remember that when you switch programs, it's going to take 50-100 miles of driving for you to feel the effects of the program change when you flip the switch, unless you disconnect the battery to completely clear the computer's memory. So the result is that it's a gradual change, that you don't notice immediately until like you described, you get into a particular situation and notice the difference in performance in that situation.

I thought your post was an *excellent* example and description of the effects of your custom Flip Chip Superchip. In round numbers, the Superchip is about a 10%-12% power-gainer in terms of the increase in horsepower when running the premium gas program. You've noticed the effects of the Superchip when towing, by virtue of it not downshifting nearly as much. This is a clear indication of the increased torque on part-throttle. The vast majority of people mention just the opposite, meaning they'll say they feel it when the vehicle is *not* towing, then say they can't feel it when they add 5000-6000 or more lbs behind the vehicle, and of course it's always working, it doesn't change when you tow or don't tow, the Superchip always adds power & improves the shift characteristics.

Thanks for your informative post, and please let us know if there us anything else you need or that we can do for you.

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Mike Troyer
Performance Products, Inc.
National Distributor of Superchips
(540) 862-9515
Email: mtroyer@compuserve.com
Performance Products F150Online Superchip ordering system: F150Online Superchip Ordering System
First National F-150 Online Rally Event Organizer