"OTC" Superchips Tuner
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Senior Member
Joined: May 2005
Posts: 599
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From: Fort Worth, TX
"OTC" Superchips Tuner
I have an oppurtunity to buy a non-custom Superchips tuner for really cheap. My Dada has used one on his Powerstroke(I know, a totally different story than our gassers) with great success. My question is will it be worth it? I know most guys on here run custom tunes, but its one of those just can't pass it up deals. My main motivation would be to help eliminate the slight pinging my truck has. Is it possible that the tuner could help, or just make it worse. Regardless, I'll probably buy the thing just to experiment. I guess I'm really just wondering what to expect. Thanks for any info
Brian
Brian
Senior Member
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 739
Likes: 2
From: TX
The OTC tuner will give you added performance over stock and is a winner if you are getting it at a great price. The custom tunes just get you the best performance over the OTC tuners. The tuners for the most part are general and work on a wide range of trucks so they are not specialized for any one in particular.
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Joined: Mar 1998
Posts: 13,385
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From: Virginia
Hi Brian,
I do NOT advise buying a used performance tuner to cure detonation - wrong answer.
What needs to be done is to properly diagnose the *cause* of the detonation and cure it - many times it's just buying cheap low quality gas that is causing it - never make the mistake of thinking that all 87 octane gas is the same - o that all 91 octane gas is the same, etc., as it's not.
However, in a lot of the pre-2001 4.6 F-150's, and especially in the 1997-1999's, they tend to detonate on the factory tune when using 87 octane fuel - a lot of them have that problem of having too much spark advance right from the factory, especially 1997-1999 4.6 F-150's. In fact, in the owner's manual of many of those trucks, they'll say that "light" pinging is normal. While occasional light pinging is usually OK, I don't feel as a tuner that *any* pinging should be viewed as "normal" if it's repeatable in a consistent scenario, as that means the knock sensor has not been able to cure it, so it's either really bad gas that is being used, or it's one of those early 4.6 F-150's that simply has too much timing in it's factory program - and no, there is no "off-the-shelf" tuner that is going to cure that detonation problem.
Yes, if you get a used 1715 cheap, it can potentially be a bargain if you're not looking for the best performance,m but are happy with a decent performance gain, that much is true - but no, I do *not* think it's a smart idea to try it as a cure for an engine that is spark knocking.
In our custom tuning, we fix those issues where those pre-2001 4.6 F-150's, and especially the 1997-1999's, tend to ping on the factory tune when using 87 octane fuel - you can also just start using better fuel of higher octane, and that will generally fix it as well. Make sure all your maintenance is up to snuff - make sure the O2 sensors do not have more than 50K miles on them, that the fuel filter does not have more than 15K miles on it, etc (regardless of what Ford says), as those too, are things that can cause the engine to detonate from a lean condition.
Good luck!
I do NOT advise buying a used performance tuner to cure detonation - wrong answer.
What needs to be done is to properly diagnose the *cause* of the detonation and cure it - many times it's just buying cheap low quality gas that is causing it - never make the mistake of thinking that all 87 octane gas is the same - o that all 91 octane gas is the same, etc., as it's not.
However, in a lot of the pre-2001 4.6 F-150's, and especially in the 1997-1999's, they tend to detonate on the factory tune when using 87 octane fuel - a lot of them have that problem of having too much spark advance right from the factory, especially 1997-1999 4.6 F-150's. In fact, in the owner's manual of many of those trucks, they'll say that "light" pinging is normal. While occasional light pinging is usually OK, I don't feel as a tuner that *any* pinging should be viewed as "normal" if it's repeatable in a consistent scenario, as that means the knock sensor has not been able to cure it, so it's either really bad gas that is being used, or it's one of those early 4.6 F-150's that simply has too much timing in it's factory program - and no, there is no "off-the-shelf" tuner that is going to cure that detonation problem.
Yes, if you get a used 1715 cheap, it can potentially be a bargain if you're not looking for the best performance,m but are happy with a decent performance gain, that much is true - but no, I do *not* think it's a smart idea to try it as a cure for an engine that is spark knocking.
In our custom tuning, we fix those issues where those pre-2001 4.6 F-150's, and especially the 1997-1999's, tend to ping on the factory tune when using 87 octane fuel - you can also just start using better fuel of higher octane, and that will generally fix it as well. Make sure all your maintenance is up to snuff - make sure the O2 sensors do not have more than 50K miles on them, that the fuel filter does not have more than 15K miles on it, etc (regardless of what Ford says), as those too, are things that can cause the engine to detonate from a lean condition.
Good luck!