I absolutely love my Superchips tuner, huge gains. I'm running the Performance mode, with all shift points default, but the 2-3 shift up 2 notches and the pressure bumped up 2 notches on all shifts.

However, doing a WOT high-speed run, i noticed that when at high rpm's just before a shift, there is a weird noise coming from somewhere (engine/tranny region). I'm still trying to get used to the different shift points, actually it makes me kinda scared!

The sound is really hard to place. It sounds a little like a rattle, but yet more like rushing fluid. Is this a case of valve float, my tranny, or pinging?

Either way, I don't know what to do. I'm almost tempted to restore every custom drivetrain setting to default, as i'm a bit queasy about the length of time it takes to upshift.

EDIT: i flashed to the 87 mode, and seemed to have no pinging noise. ironically i had about 1/8th of a tank of 89 octane then filled full with 92 premium. ...

 

You don't mention what you are running but drom what you are describing I would say you are against the rev limiter If this is a late model f150 automatic you realy dont want to take youre shifts over 5400 rpm anything over that and the stock converters start to balloon and this is not good. you can raise the revlimiter but I would go back to the default shift points and stay with that. A lot of r&d goes into those tunes and although they are generic they are best left alone for these heavy trucks.
If you want better performance it is best to go with a custom tune from Mike Troyer he can specificaly tune youre trucks calibration to the ultimate. Even in his custom tunes he usualy has the 1-2 shift at 5400 rpm, but he is able to remove the torque reduction that makes the truck lay over right before during and as long as a second after the shift.

 

You don't mention what you are running but drom what you are describing I would say you are against the rev limiter If this is a late model f150 automatic you realy dont want to take youre shifts over 5400 rpm anything over that and the stock converters start to balloon and this is not good. you can raise the revlimiter but I would go back to the default shift points and stay with that. A lot of r&d goes into those tunes and although they are generic they are best left alone for these heavy trucks.
If you want better performance it is best to go with a custom tune from Mike Troyer he can specificaly tune youre trucks calibration to the ultimate. Even in his custom tunes he usualy has the 1-2 shift at 5400 rpm, but he is able to remove the torque reduction that makes the truck lay over right before during and as long as a second after the shift.

 

If you give more info about your truck you might get more info in replies.

If I were to guess I'd say that your lean at the top of the gear, when your rpms are high. I would'nt do thoes high rpm runs untill you get the situation figured out.

How many miles on your truck? Maybe something as simple as a fuel filter would do the trick. There are many things it could be.

 

my truck is a 1997 f-150 with the 4.6. it has just under 95000 miles.

 

Hi kars85,

It is not possible to diagnose that here - nobody can really tell you if it's detonating, or if it's running lean, etc, that requires having access to the vehicle - so in most cases, that cannot be determined here, and would only be guesswork - just FYI.

A vehicle owner who does not know what detonation (pinging) sounds like will likely have a hard time determining if the engine is detonating or not - just to give you some rough idea, detonation (well, specifically, pre-ignition) sounds like a light "rapping" or "knocking" type of noise - some people describe it a light "rattle,' or like marbles ratting around in a coffee can, but a bit muted, for example.

A lean condition is generally not going to cause detonation in a normally aspirated engine unless it is VERY lean - however, if the fuel system (filter, injectors, etc.) isn't clean, it can indeed lean out up top and thus tend to ping with a strong performance tune in use. We could go on guessing forever, but basically, if you hear the sound only on the premium gas tuning but not on the 87 octane tuning, and the shift points are the same in both tunes, then it's probably detonating - and usually in an older truck like that, will be due to a combination of all of the following: dirty injectors, a filthy EGR path, a fuel filter that is long overdue for replacement, and low grade fuel (meaning poor quality fuel) and/or too much lower octane fuel in the tank when it was filled with premium gas.

You cannot have 1/8th or 1/4 tank of lower octane gas in the tank and then top that off with 92 octane and expect that to be OK with the premium gas performance tuning - sometimes it will be OK, and sometimes it won't be OK - that depends on the *quality* of the fuel and how well the knock sensor is working in each individual vehicle. Basically, you need to run the low octane down until the low fuel light first comes on, at which point you are *still* going to have at least 3.5-4.0 gallons of fuel left in the system, so you will have dilution of the incoming premium gas - which must be kept to a minimum. With excellent quality fuels, running it down until the low fuel light first comes on and then filling up with high quality premium gas, and then switching to the premium gas performance tuning will usually work fine - assuming the EGR path gets thoroughly cleaned every 3 yrs or 50K miles (whichever comes first), and that the fuel filter is a Ford Motorcraft unit with not more than 15K miles on it and NOTHING but good quality fuel has been used, and the injectors are clean.

But usually in an older truck the EGR tract is filthy because it's never been cleaned (or hasn't been in a long time), the fuel filter has 30K-70K miles on it and/or low quality fuel has been run thru it, the injectors have never been cleaned, and in this day of high gas prices, the vehicle owner is running the cheapest fuel they can find - all of which can easily cause problems (like detonation) when using "performance" tuning.

Obviously we really have no idea what kind of shape that vehicle is in, it's actual maintenance level & history, or what quality fuel is in the tank, etc., so these are just some general guidelines/info to try to help you with "the basics."

So take care of all the basics, and make sure you have nothing but excellent quality premium gas in the tank when you use that tuning, and you should be fine - steer clear of all of-brands and no-name fuels, they have lower energy content and sometimes less actual octane - and don't use Exxon or BP/Amoco fuels either - they're clean enough, but generally have a lower BTU content these days and thus deliver lower fuel mileage and cannot support the same conditions in the combustion chamber as higher-quality fuels can - so stick to good fuels like Sunoco, Shell & Citgo in the East, and Union 76 out west, - that's just a couple of quick recommendations and is by no means absolute, as there can always be exceptions from one area to the next in fuel quality.

Last - of course the truck is going to have higher shift points with that performance tuning installed, and that doesn't hurt anything as long as the automatic tranny is operating correctly and doesn't see more than 5400 rpm on a frequent basis - that isn't going to hurt anything, and will improve acceleration times. Of course, *unless* the fuel system is dirty and the motor cannot get enough fuel up top because of that, in which case it can run lean under high fuel demand conditions - so once again, make sure ALL maintenance is up to snuff and that you are using only the best quality fuels - never buy gas based on price, as that only gets you the lowest quality fuel in most cases.

I hope that general info helps a bit, & good luck!

 

i don't know if this has been stated already by me, or someone else, but i think it's something to do with the rev limiter.

needless to say, because i'm a paranoid freak about this kinda thing, i'm going to take it in to check the egr valve to see if that could cause it to run lean, causing the noise at high rpms.

i imagine a ford dealer could check this out for me, due to the fact that i'm @ college...how much would a test like this run?