Evening all,

New to the boards and would like to ask if anyone could lend some insight on the idea of which chip is a good choice for a 97 F150 4.2L 6 4x4?

I just recently accquired this truck and would like to make some adjustements to it, any and all suggestions are greatly welcomed!

 

Call Troyer Performance.....http://www.troyerperformance.com/cgi...link=contactus

 

Hi pdseifert,

Welcome to F-150 Online!

And congrats on your new-to-you F-150, hope you enjoy it.

There is a LOT of room for improvement in the tuning of ALL of these trucks, and the 4.2 V6 responds very nicely - they are usually handicapped from the factory in that they usually cannot even go open loop, thus usually don't quite make their stock rated power. So we can get some nice power gains fro them on any octane of fuel.

We can provide our Troyer Performance custom tuning in either a traditional "chip" or what I strongly recommend (and what 99% of people today here use), a flash device, the XCalibrator 2, so you can simply flash the new programming into your vehicle's PCM via it's OBD-II port, without having to disassemble the PCM to be able to clean & prep it's PCB for a "traditional" chip connection to it's J3 port.

The XCalibrator 2 also gives you far more benefits than any type of chip does, with it's built in complete manufacturer-specific enhanced parameter diagnostics, high-speed datalogging, modular design for future add-ons, updateable firmware via Internet download & USB connection to your PC, and so many other features.

Now in terms of vehicle performance for your 4.2 V6', there isn't any difference between using our tuning loaded into our chips or loaded into the flash device - it's a matter of convenience, much easier installation, and far more features & benefits - which is why we recommend using the XCalibrator 2.

We've specialized i performance-tuning the F-150 longer than anyone else, and are well known for our results - take some time to read some of the posts here, and you;ll see results & impressions posted by many of our customers who have plunked down their hard-earned $$ to use our custom tuning - it's always nice seeing some of those types of posts directly form those who actually use our products.

In addition to adding significant Hp and torque at any throttle position or rpm, we also fix some of the driveability issues in these trucks - especially in the first couple of years of that last body style (like your 97 & the 98's, for example), as well as obvious things like removing the top speed limiter, vastly improving the shift characteristics in the automatic transmission models, providing quicker powertrain response in general, etc.

That is just some quick info for here - if you'd like to go over any of this in more detail, please feel free to give us a call at our number listed below & our staff can go over all of this with you, go over your special pricing since you are a registered member now here on F-150 Online, etc., so you can give it some thought - in terms of improving the overall power & driveability of your vehicle, the single best bang for the buck is our custom tuning, as nothing else for the same or less cost will improve the performance as much. It won't turn into a rocketship of course, but in terms of amount of performance improvement per dollar spent, world class tuning is the #1 mod for most computer-controlled vehicles in general, and certainly in these trucks.

Thanks for dropping by - we hope you'll enjoy your F-150 & hanging out here with the rest of us F-150 owners in your spare time!

 

Thank you very much for the kind words and advice. I have already started my Christmas shopping on the PTroyer Page

 

You're more than welcome - and I should warn you, our web site shows *maybe* 2% of everything that we carry & do - I have to apologize for that, as we do all of that in-house, and thus the time we devote to that site is really far from what we'd like to see - we're in the midst of moving into another new shop as well, so hopefully we'll get the site fleshed out further in the near future - seems like there's just never enough time, especially when you insist on doing everything yourself - we went thru 4 different web site development companies and got fed up with each of them years ago, so we ended up doing everything (in terms of all the content) ourselves, so the e-commerce side of things, meaning our "catalog" of items on the site, is really not representative of everything we do - you don't see all the superchargers, gauges, and so many other things we do in addition to what's there. SO if there is anything you are interested in that you don't see, feel free to shoot us an email or give us a call, as chances are we do it.

Good luck & have fun,

 

Thanks.. I will be sending you my x-mas list then!

Look forward to working with you soon.

 

I've got another question in regards to the programmers, If I set up the system for high octane, will it not matter if I use 87 octane or should I turn it for the octane I plan on using.

 

Yes, it matters....tuning for higher octane requires the higher octane fuel for the desired performance you wanted with that tune. Using 87 octane in a vehicle tuned for 91 and higher will result in detonation.

The xcal 2 and it's three custom tunes allows the use of multiple grades of gas but you must use the correct grade the tune was designed for

 

Why wouldn't you use the octane rating you asked for in your tuning, particularly if you have multiple choices? I get better gas mileage with my 91tune than my 87tune, so there is really no $ saved.

 

Exactly - even though these vehicles *do*have knock sensor systems, you never want to run *less* octane than what the engine is tuned for - if you err, it needs to be on the side of using MORE octane than what you are tuned for, never less - because that introduces the potential for detonation.

It's actually a legitimate question from the standpoint of, for example, what if someone forgets & fills the tank up with the wrong fuel, like if someone else uses the vehicle, etc.

So always use, at a minimum, at least the octane level that your current installed tuning requires - never less.