I have an original blue Superchip that is off getting reprogrammed (3rd time in 6 years). They all just went bad, and needed to be flashed. Maybe since I have been such a loyal customer and advocate they will give me a free upgrade to the micro tuner? When I talked to a CS rep to get my RA#, he explained they did do that shortly after they released the micro tuners but no more... wish I had heard of that back then... oh well!

Anyway, I am surfing and pre-spending my upcoming tax return here and need some advice...

I want to upgrade to the Troyer dual electric fan setup and wonder if anyone has also installed a meziere electric water pump in addition to the fans. See them below:

TROYER DUAL ELECTRIC FANS

MEZEIRE ELECTRIC H2O PUMPS

It sure seems like the right time to both. They probably have similar electrical hookups/sensors. And not a bad time to perform the pulley mod either. After scouring the posts it seems it will be easiest to remove the radiator to install the fans, so while I have all that elbow room I was considering the triple whammy!

Is anyone running this setup? It appears that Meziere had some ealy problems with their design, but has since repaired. If I do go with their electric water pump, cant I get the model without the idler and simply go to a shorter serpentine belt. After all I would have to get a shorter belt if I throw on the pulleys anyway.

If I do both mods will I have to reprogram my chip again to allow for lower water temps? This is my daily driver, not a race truck...

What are your thoughts/experiences???

 

Hello JHL,

Some general FYI on those older style Superchip modules.......

Superchips don't just lose their programming time after time like that on their own - the only way they are going to lose their programing and need to be reflashed is if they are subjected to an electrical surge or static electricity event of some kind. Whether they are actively being used in the vehicle or sitting up on a shelf, that program is always there in the Superchip's ROM unless some type of electrical discharge (static or surge, etc.) corrupts the program. The fact that the Superchip works after being reprogrammed shows there is nothing wrong with the module itself. If there *was* a problem with the module, you would have one of 2 symptoms - either the vehicle would never start with the chip installed - OR - it would always start, but it would also always cause the engine to stall just as soon as the module go t up to normal operational temperature - I.E., a failed cold solder joint.

Additionally, the original purchaser who bought it new has a Lifetime warranty for as long as they own the original vehicle it was purchased for - so whoever you bought it from new (if that was us, then you would call us of course) can easily just replace the module if it were bad.

Last point on your Superchip - we *do* offer a trade-up program so you can get into what will actually get you the best results, which is our *custom* tuning. And yes, we can offer than in a custom Micro Tuner for you like you want - the power & performance gains from our custom tuning will be *much* better than what you're getting from the traditional blue Superchip module & those "standard" single-bank performance tunes. Give us a call at our number listed below for details on this.

Now on to answer your other questions..................

I do not recommend using an electric fan kit and underdrive pulleys and the electric water pump on your truck - not unless you are going to do some other upgrades, too. Such as having a custom tune done to raise the idle speed of the engine as alternator output at idle, and having a 200 amp alternator installed as well as an Optima battery. Alternator output at idle is critical with all of those multiple high amperage draw components & underdrive pulleys.

For example, you can run both our electric fan kit and our underdrive pulleys and be fine - but if you add the electric water pump to the mix, you will probably find that it's just too much total draw at idle, particularly in summertime when driving at night. I.E., sitting at a stoplight at night in the summer, you will have *everything* on - the headlights, the electric fans, the air conditioner, the underdrive pulleys spinning everything slower, the electric water pump, etc., etc - that combination will cause the lights to go dim when stationary. Or if you're in stop& go traffic, or have do do much low-speed driving, etc.

The electric water pump does now work pretty well, they have taken care of the past problems they had - however, I just wouldn't run it on a daily driver, as if you have any problem with it, you're stuck, and cannot run the engine at all until it's repaired or replaced. Now some of us Lighting owners will use them to get every possible ounce of power to the rear wheels for best 1/4 mile times - but usually they aren't daily drivers, and they all have a minimum of 130 amp alternators, the owner usually has also installed the Optima battery and a custom tune with a higher idle speed, etc., etc.

If it were me, what I would do is to run the electric fans & underdrive pulleys, and then also work with us on a trade-up of your Superchip module to get into a new *custom* Micro Tuner so you have the very best tuning and get significantly better power &performance gains from our custom tuning. The sum total of our electric fan kit & underdrive pulleys are already going to make a very significant difference in both the performance AND the fuel mileage of the vehicle, and having us do the custom tuning will give you roughly 50% larger power & performance gains compared to what you got from that blue Superchip module, as well as being more convenient & flexible, etc.

Give us a call & we can work out a package deal on all of this for you - and once you get it all installed, you'll *love* the improvements in power, performance and even overall driveability.

Just a suggestion, that is what I would do.................thanks for your post & best of luck whatever you decide!

 

Yes true Mike, I was dumbing it down regarding the chips "just going bad". I am a PC consultant and realize how ROMs work.

All chips were installed... after all what good would a SC be sitting on a shelf? Being in CA I would have to point my fingers first at our hot dry Santa Ana winds which cause a serious amount of static electritcity! The last failure could have been when my alternator died halfway to AZ in the middle of the desert. What do you think?

As for your other recomendations, I did upgrade to the high output alternator and am running an Optima yellow top batt in preparation for the pulley upgrade.

I was also worried regarding the reliability of an elec h2o pump in a daily driver and how would you know if it stopped working? At least with a regular h2o pump you can see if it is functioning... unless the internal blades come loose from the shaft. (which happened to me 20 years ago)

I should get my Superchip back anyday now and am still hopeful that after my several phone conversations with them, and the letter I wrote that they may upgrade me to the micro tuner. A man hasta have hope!!!

A custom tune would get me how much HP more than a SC blue? Each time I had to send it in, they had me list what mods I made to my truck, so how could a custom tune be that much more? Arent they giving me a custom tune on the ole blue?


SO I will buy the dual fan setup from you and the pulleys, as soon as my uncle Sam sends me my tax return. er auto deposits it!

Remember... always pre-spend what your wife doesnt know about!

 

Well so much for my hopes... the mail just arrived and I received an invoice from SuperChips for the shipping charges and it shows I am recieving a blue chip back.

Oh well, now I just wait for the UPS shipment!

 

Hi JHL,

We are the oldest Superchips distributor in America, so we know their work extremely well, especially on these vehicles - we have worked closely with them for many years now, and have worked directly with them on a number of projects.

Regarding us being able to get better results than Superchips on these vehicles, that's not a big deal for us, we do it every day. See, a chipmaker like Superchips has literally thousands of different applications they have to develop & market - whereas we *specialize* in the F-series platform, so we can concentrate our R&D resources primarily on this one vehicle platform, something a chipmaker cannot do. We've been custom-tuning F-150's longer than anyone else, which is why we get the results we do, and why F-150 owners who want the best come to us for our custom tuning.

I have no idea which engine you have, what all mods you have done, the vehicle's history, what kind of power it's making right now, etc., etc. So in all honesty, I really can't tell you any specific additional HP number you're going to get from us tuning it over whatever your current tuning is giving you - nobody can do that. But what I *can* tell you with absolute certainty is that you will have more raw horsepower and torque all the time, at any throttle position or rpm, if we tune it over your present tuning. I can also tell you that on average, in the 2003 & earlier F-150's we generally make about 50% greater performance gains in these vehicles compared to those standard Superchips products - enough more to be well worthwhile. Every single day we have people coming to us who get rid of their present chips & tuners to have us custom tune their vehicle so they can enjoy the benefits of our experience on this platform.

If you'd like to give us a call, we can go over all of your specific modifications, your vehicle's precise configuration, etc. and with all the proper info, *then* I can give you a pretty good idea of the additional performance you can reasonably expect from our custom tuning for your truck.

By the way - you make a valid point regarding static electricity & weather conditions, glad you brought it up - that is rather rare overall, & we generally don't have a problem with that here where we are. However, every few years or so, we'll have some freakish winter atmospheric conditions, where at night you can literally see large electricity discharges under the hood of many vehicles, coming from power transformers, etc. When it happens it feels kinda like you're in the "twilight zone" - it's just the rare set of freakish atmospheric conditions that we'll see every so often but only in winter - and that certainly *can* fry electronic components. When that happens, it's not unusual to have the occasional vehicle's PCM fail, fuses blown, chips programming corrupted or the chip or circuit affected, etc. Luckily that's very rare, but it does happen every so often where we are.

And yes, an alternator/regulator problem could potentially cause a surge that corrupts an attached ROM like that - that too is rather rare of course, but it's within the realm of possibility, and we have seen vehicle electrical problems cause such things to happen once in a while over the years. However, usually what we see are things like when people disconnect & reconnect the battery several times in a short period of time with the chip installed, or in reattaching the battery cables they'll arc them several times by not dong it quickly & positively, etc - or they just don't handle the module properly, doing things like holding it while walking across a carpeted floor, not grounding themselves to release any stored energy before handling it & the PCM, etc. You know, "the basics."

Good luck with Uncle Sam & talk to you soon!

 

Mike:

As usual your replies are useful and informative!

Yes, the dry Santa Ana winds cause havoc with electrical components... so bad that in the winters here I vent the clothes dryer into my computer workshop to keep humidity up and static down! And true, most dont consider these environmental factors.

Many times when these winds are blowing I have gotten zapped grabbing for the door handle on my truck!

I am totally sold on both you and your company; and will soon forward some of my Uncle Sam's $$ to you! You can see my trucks modifications in my sig, and it is a JPL1 code.

What do you think the power increase would be with your custome tune, along with the dual fans and pulleys taking all current mods into account? And, what would you be willing to give me the pulley's, dual fans w/harness, & trade in the old blue chip towards a micro tuner w/custom tune for in a package deal?

 

Hi JHL,

Sorry, but I cannot do that here. Any time I used to do that here to try to help one person, every single time, I immediately got swamped with posts from everyone else expecting me to personally drop everything to go read some long signature line and then report back to them - sorry, but I can't do that, I'd never get anything else done. Also, I cannot discuss any kind of pricing here - not only is that against the rules here, but once again, typing literally takes hundreds of times longer than talking.

So for any kind of details, pricing, Tech Support, order status, etc., we have to have a firm policy that those kinds of things have to be done by calling us at our number listed below, & thanks for your understanding.

We will be more than happy to get you ALL of that information, and work out virtually any kind of package deal for you, no problem! We do that every single day - that simply needs to be done by phone. So we ask that you please just give us a call at our number listed below when you get a chance, & we'll be more than happy to do that for you, my friend.

Thanks ever so much for your understanding on this - all the best & talk to you soon!

 

Mike:

I understand completely! I will call when I am ready to do the deal!

In the meantime, I have a question that has come up... by custom tune do you mean a new blue chip, or a micro tuner with custom programming?

If it is the MT, I just found out that a friend of mine, who totaled his truck is selling his cheap... a 1715. Can I pick that up from him and send it in to you for custom programming?

Thanks again of wise one!

 

Hi JHL,
Just a note on the SCT 1715. It isn't something that Troyer can load custom tunes in. It has either one or three tunes from superchips, and, other than the options you have when installing the tune(shift pont, gear ratio, ect.) cannot be altered.
This subject has been hashed out numerous times and you can get educated on it using the search feature on this site. Hope that helps...Kevin

 

He’s probably referring to the 9100 or the 9300 for custom tunes.

 

Hi JHL,

No, the 1715 *cannot* be loaded with our custom tuning - that device has the standard Superchips tuning in it, and cannot ever be custom-tuned.

Our custom tuning is delivered in the same basic type of device, and hand-held tuner, but yields much better results than the 1715 - for example, compared to the most modern 1715's, our custom tuning delivers about a 50% larger performance gain. And compared to the original single program 1715's (the units made before September 15th 2003), our custom tuning provides about twice as much performance gain, if not more.

The 1715 will certainly be better than stock, of course - then those who want the best results come to us for our custom tuning.