To chip, or not to chip?
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Senior Member
Joined: Dec 2001
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From: Waukesha Wisconsin
To chip, or not to chip?
Towards the end of the month I'm going to have a Borla cat back system on my 99 F150 4.6. The place I'm going to has Superchips. And they do the install for free. They are also doing the install on the exhaust for onlt $30. I've only had my truck since Oct. before that I had a 97 Taurus SHO V8 with a Borla cat back. I had this done at the same place as my truck is going to be done. On my SHO I had them put in a Superchip. I had the chip in and began to have some problems with the car. Once I removed the chip, they were gone. The chip is sitting in my tool box. I don't know if I just got a bad chip or what?
I don't know if I read this right in the past. I believe I read that if you go with bigger tires (I'm getting 33's) that a chip can be programed to correct the difference in the speedo due to the
diameter difference of the tires. Is this correct?
Any input you guys can give me would be great.
Thanks. Eric
I don't know if I read this right in the past. I believe I read that if you go with bigger tires (I'm getting 33's) that a chip can be programed to correct the difference in the speedo due to the
diameter difference of the tires. Is this correct?
Any input you guys can give me would be great.
Thanks. Eric
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Joined: Mar 1998
Posts: 13,385
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From: Virginia
Hi Eric,
Yes, for the 1999 thru 2001 F-150, we can do the custom program to correct for tire size changes and gear ratio changes, to correct the speedometer, odometer and shift points in the automatics.
We'd have to know a lot more to be able to tell you anything about what's happened with using the Superchip for the Taurus SHO, but I can tell you that we do not have any problems with the Superchip for the various different versions of the SHO's in general. It works like a champ, and in fact was personally endorsed by a Senior Test Engineer for Ford Microelectronics who is well known in SHO enthusiast circles, he likes to do a lot of road racing, and did a review of the Superchip for his SHO for us. He liked his Superchip so much he didn't send it back, but kept it to use in his SHO instead. I don't know what happened in your case, but if you would like to go over that with someone in detail, please feel free to give us a call.
One other comment I wanted to make is that while we like the Borla cat-back for the Taurus, and in our reviews it was the best cat-back system for the 4.2 V-6 F-150, for either the 4.6 or the 5.4 V-8 F-150 you will get better results from the Magnaflow cat-back system. The Magnaflow system is made of aircraft-quality T-304 stainless steel, and is the only cat-back system we reviewed that showed an increase in torque at any throttle position or rpm in these trucks. It also showed the highest peak horsepower gains, a clear demonstration of superior flow engineering.
Where the Borla system got a 16 hp gain on the 5.4 F-150, the Magnaflow showed a 22 hp gain, for example. On the 4.6, the Magnaflow showed a 19 HP gain, where the Borla showed a 14 HP gain.
Don't get me wrong, the Borla was certainly one of the *better* systems in our reviews, not losing nearly as much torque in the idle thru 3000 rpm range as systems like Flowmaster, for example, and it is good quality material, T-304 stainless. It's just that when you're in the price territory of a T-304 stainless system like the Borla, you might as well get the full benefit of the best flow engineering available for these V-8 F-150's, and that is from Magnaflow.
Please feel free to give us a call to go over all of this, we'll be happy to cover this in detail, and of course, do whatever makes *you* happiest!
Yes, for the 1999 thru 2001 F-150, we can do the custom program to correct for tire size changes and gear ratio changes, to correct the speedometer, odometer and shift points in the automatics.
We'd have to know a lot more to be able to tell you anything about what's happened with using the Superchip for the Taurus SHO, but I can tell you that we do not have any problems with the Superchip for the various different versions of the SHO's in general. It works like a champ, and in fact was personally endorsed by a Senior Test Engineer for Ford Microelectronics who is well known in SHO enthusiast circles, he likes to do a lot of road racing, and did a review of the Superchip for his SHO for us. He liked his Superchip so much he didn't send it back, but kept it to use in his SHO instead. I don't know what happened in your case, but if you would like to go over that with someone in detail, please feel free to give us a call.
One other comment I wanted to make is that while we like the Borla cat-back for the Taurus, and in our reviews it was the best cat-back system for the 4.2 V-6 F-150, for either the 4.6 or the 5.4 V-8 F-150 you will get better results from the Magnaflow cat-back system. The Magnaflow system is made of aircraft-quality T-304 stainless steel, and is the only cat-back system we reviewed that showed an increase in torque at any throttle position or rpm in these trucks. It also showed the highest peak horsepower gains, a clear demonstration of superior flow engineering.
Where the Borla system got a 16 hp gain on the 5.4 F-150, the Magnaflow showed a 22 hp gain, for example. On the 4.6, the Magnaflow showed a 19 HP gain, where the Borla showed a 14 HP gain.
Don't get me wrong, the Borla was certainly one of the *better* systems in our reviews, not losing nearly as much torque in the idle thru 3000 rpm range as systems like Flowmaster, for example, and it is good quality material, T-304 stainless. It's just that when you're in the price territory of a T-304 stainless system like the Borla, you might as well get the full benefit of the best flow engineering available for these V-8 F-150's, and that is from Magnaflow.
Please feel free to give us a call to go over all of this, we'll be happy to cover this in detail, and of course, do whatever makes *you* happiest!