Hello.

I have a 1998 F-150 with the 4.6 Ltr V8/4 speed auto. I have never been very impressed by the power when going up hills. I heard that by installing a super chip, I can gain quite a bit more horsepower, and better economy. Exactly how much extra HP can I gain? Are there torque gains as well, or just HP? How much can the economy improve? Where can I get a chip, and how much will it set me back? Can they be harmful to teh engine and related components? Will it cause the truck to fail air-care?

Thanks very much,

 

Is your truck stock. Are you planning on making upgrades to it in the future? These are questions that wil change your choice. I would recomend the edge evo or the Xcal 2. But it depends on your choices.

 

I had a Superchips on my F-150. It sucked. Sold it and bought an Edge Evolution. Loved it. Look into an Edge Evolution or an XcalII tuned by Mike Troyer. You will notice a great gain in HP, torque, and improvements in shifting. They aren't harmful to your engine (assuming that the tuning is safe), and gas mileage will increase assuming you can keep your foot out of the gas. Both the Edge Evo and XCalII are available from Troyer Performance.

 

Hi mbruno,

It is true that with the best tuning, you can gain some nice additional horsepower and torque - figure your gains are going to be about 15% or so with our in-depth custom tuning, which is what will do the best job by far.

Our Troyer Performance custom tuning is the single best bang-for-the-buck performance enhancement you can make to that vehicle, as nothing else for the same or less cost will do as much to improve it's performance - but that is not to say it's going to feel like you just installed a supercharger, of course, it's simply the best bang for the buck modification.

While we also carry the off the shelf devices like the Edge, etc., I do not generally recommend them for these trucks if you are looking to get the best results - the off the shelf stuff is meant for those who care about getting something right now that gives some kind of gains. Much better gains are had with our Troyer Performance custom tuning, as we have specialized in these F-150's for over 15 years, and have custom tuned far more of them than anyone else by far, and thus we know more about their tuning needs.

With an off-the-shelf type of unit you get a tune that is always heavily compromised, and only matches the first 5 digits of the 7-digit strategy inside the PCM. And it is never a thorough, in-depth type of tune - they can't be. What we do is completely different, we tune each vehicle individually, and get a better result due to our expertise on these vehicles and how much further in depth we get into the PCM's calibration - in fact, major chipmakers, OEM's, and all kinds of companies routinely come to us for help with F-150 tuning and other aspects of F-150 performance because we are well known as the F-150 "go to" guys. Now if you had a Saturn, we wouldn't be the people to go to, but for Ford performance, especially in the F-series line, that is what we are all about.

There is no way for anyone to tell you exactly how much horsepower you are going to gain as each vehicle responds differently - so each vehicle gains what it gains based on it's condition and the quality of fuel being used, etc. The gains range from about 10% to about 15% for the horsepower increase. While that might not sound like much, it actually is quite a gain - there is nothing else you can do for that cost that will equal the performance improvement we get with out tuning, so that is where most people start, with proper in-depth tuning that we provide.

That's the basic "scoop" - I hope this brief info has been of some help, & please feel free to give us a call to go over this in proper detail, we'll be happy to answer any questions, etc and we're happy to help.

Thanks for your post, & we hope to hear from you!