I just wanna lay out my scenario for you guys first so you know where I'm coming from on this issue:

I installed a Z55 ravin muffler and K&N airfilter in my truck (which I am happy with) but now it feels as if I have gained some power points and I have also lost some on the highway.. when travelling at 50-60 I notice more than ever my trans will downshift when i hit the gas instead of upshift and power forward.. I REALLY HAVE TO NAIL IT TO GET IT TO DOWNSHIFT!

also, the shifting points are horrible when I get on it from 20-30 mph, feels like 2nd gear winds out really bad and does not kick in to 3rd until 4-5k (basically it winds out and I cannot get it to kick into 3rd)

i may just be noticing this now because I installed the muffler, k&n air filter and I have been gassing it alot.. but it sure could use a shift change..

is this a loss of torque or just normal shifting for the f150's? is there a chip that can even out the shift points and give me a little more HP? (without dumping tons of cash into gas)

thanks much!

btw, Im have a
97 F150
4.2 v6 automatic
40k on the odometer
and a ravin z55 with a k&n air filter

 

Hi Patrick,

This is something we hear often from those who do the exhaust mods first, and now that you can hear what the engine is doing, you notice the rather sloppy shift characteristics much more than before. Your shift characteristics have not changed, they were always like that, it's just that now you can hear & feel what's going on much better with a free-flowing intake & exhaust.

Your intake & exhaust changes have added more horsepower. It is possible that you may have lost a little bit of low-rpm torque with the exhaust change, that can happen sometimes with some exhaust systems, even though they add horsepower at higher rpms.

The Superchip can clean up a lot of that, and give you not only increased horsepower and torque, but also better gas mileage in most cases, when you're not using a lot of heavy throttle of course.

The Superchip does require premium gasoline, however, in all the fuel cost analyses that have been posted here by their owners, the end result is that driving 20,000 miles per year or less, your increase fuel costs amount to no more than $150-$200 per year, literally $3-$4 a week, at most, unless you drive it very hard all the time.

Many times people will just look at the price difference between regular and premium, and automatically assume that they are going to be spending a lot more money for fuel, but that is not the case, those amounts are very small in reality for the vast majority of people using the Superchip in these F-150's.

There is also another option, and that is to go with the 2-program Superchip Flip Chip. That can be set up with one program for regular gas, along with our normal changes to improve the shift characteristics, etc., and then the other program would be the normal performance program for premium gasoline. A number of F-150 owners have had us do that for them, to give them the flexibility to run regular gas when they want, and then use premium when they want the power & mileage gains. Just remember that there will be no power gains or mileage increases when using regular gas. That is why Superchips only makes programs for regular gas in their 2-program Flip Chip.

Please feel free to give us a shout by phone or email for all the specific details, we'll be happy to go over all of this with you so you can give it some thought.

------------------
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
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[This message has been edited by Superchips_Distributor (edited 11-08-2000).]