Hi adaycj,

I wanted to drop you a line to thank you for your comments about how inefficient those late 70's & early 80's engines were, and how much power could be gained for a relatively low parts cost. You're dead right in saying that we're still paying the price of those old hogs being able to see big power gains for not much $$$, it's only becauser of how bad they were back then, now terrible inefficient, and people that did that think this should be do-able in today's vehicles for the same small parts cost, which is not the case. I suppose if you factored in inflation, we'd come out ahead in the actual cost of modifications in these new vehicles compared to parts cost 20-25 years ago!

While we can add lots of power and do great things, taking any vehicle just as far as the owner wants to go, it's not going to net 50 HP for a coupla hundred bucks, or 100 HP for $500. Those older smogger motors from that period were so bad we had a saying, that you could look at one of them and make more power.

With regard to this jumper issue that 98Screamer was talking about, this is something that is rare, limited only to a few early to mid-year 1999 F-150's, along with a few Expeditions & Rangers. It was a simple mistake by the manufacturer, and easily corrected by closing the jumpers. It's simply the jumpers that control the enable/disable state of the J3 connector on the back of the Ford ECU, where the Superchip attaches. It just takes a drop of solder to close the jumper, and there are usually a pair of them. In the F-150, only a few of the early to mid-year 1999 model are affected.

We can either provide the instructions for the customer to do that themselves or have it done locally, or they can have us make the arrangements to have that taken care of, typical turnaround time is 48 hours. Also, every Superchip shipped comes with a card (currently red) that mentions this, it goes with every Superchip for any Ford vehicle, even though it can only affect a tiny fraction of a couple of models.

If you have any questions on that, or anything else you'd like to go over in more detail, please feel free to give us a shout!

 

98Screamer Your comment about the second gear shift...I like to watch my kid's heads out of the corner of my eye when it's time to shift into second. They all "nod" in unison! hehehe

adaycj In regard to your question about the soldering of jumpers. What Mike said. I evidently have one of the rare circuit boards, so I called and Anita had Mike to e-mail me the color photos and instructions for the operation. Thanks Mike! I had the e-mail within the hour! (I checked about every ten minutes ) But...I am not very experienced with soldering, not enough to drop molten metal on my circuit board, so I called back and Anita gave me all the info for shipping my ECU to Superchips to have them do that for me. I have the item all boxed up and ready for the Brown Truck Express in the morning.

Mike and Anita are very nice helpful ppl. Pleasure doing business with them.

While I am at the glad-handing...I'd like to say a word about this forum we have here. F150online has been a big help to me. I would not know nearly as much about my truck without it. My doorcrack wouldn't have gotten fixed, I wouldn't have been able to coerce an ESP from my dealer because of all the trannys they rebuilt/replaced, would stilll be trying to figure out the foglight mod, would'nt have bought the Superchip, etc. etc.

And, without this forum, I couldn't read all about NealtheHPFreak's ricer conquests, laugh at Raoul's (Grand Poobah Smarty Pants) replies, and see all the newbies' comments and questions that were just the same as mine when I first joined.

THANKS STEVE!

OK, I'm done now

 

Door Jamb sticker is gone. How eles, can I determine my computer "code" numbers for ordering a SuperChip?

I ran a vin check on the truck even before I bought it and when I was getting an estimate for my stolen tailgate I asked the bodyshop about it, neither the vin check nor the body shop showed a reason (i.e. accident work) why the stick was removed. But, it is gone. But, I need the computer code numbers. Thanks.

 

that is provided you know where your computer is located.
Mine is just behind the battery going through the fire wall.
The harness, which is on the engine side of the firewall has the
same sticker on it as did your passenger door jamb.

 

cgc2,

Okay, I just read your post. I went out to the garage and followed the wiring harness from the passenger/battery /PCM/SPOUT connector side, all the way across the firewall and under the air filter housing. Under the housing, I saw a sticker that stated "made in Mexico" , what the? I also looked under the truck around the engine and could not find the vehicle certification label like the one that should be on the drivers side door jamb. It is the PCM/SPOUT connector (as shown in the Haynes Repair Manual Ford Pick-ups & Expedition 1997 thru 1999, Chapter 6, 6-6, illustration 3.7 ) that is the computer component that the superchip connects too, isn't?

Anyway, while fumbling around I saw on the PCM/SPOUT connector "area" from viewing it from the outside of the truck on the battery side, a sticker that had in bold writing the code, "YBQ2" . I never noticed before, but while trying too figure out how to access the PCM from the passenger side interior, I noticed a small sticker on the passenger side door jamb, up front near the glove box. On this stick was the same code numbers in bold lettering of, "YBQ2".

Does YBQ2 "sound" like the code number that I need to order a chip?

Thanks for your help.

 

Helps to read.

Just read Mike T's advisement on where to find the code. It looks like I found my code.

Looks like there is a chance that I may have to solder some "jumpers" on the ecu (is ecu the same as pcm?). If it takes just a few drops of solder and If can do it without frying something, thats even better.

I need to research to see if there is some type of Ford bulletin on which exact 99' trucks have this problem. Maybe there is some code number on my truck that can tell me if my 99' has this problem.

 

Hi Iron Horse,

You won't find any information from Ford about that potential jumper misconfiguration. That connector is not used for anything at the dealership level, and the only time that circuit is in use is when something with the proper pinout is attached, so this is not something that would ever affect vehicle operations from their viewpoint; it only has an affect if you install a performance chip. That J3 circuit is an external override data path, so it's redundant, laying their dormant unless you install a chip.

If you want to contact us, we can send you the jumper info/instructions, and you can use those to determine up front if your ECU has that issue, just give us a call when you get a chance.

And yes, you have found your code, YBQ2 is a valid code for certain 1999 4.6 automatic F-150's.

 

I am very satisfied with the cost of the modifications made to my Expedition(and the performance increase). The Superchip Flip Chip is only one part of a system to increase Hp. A engine can be compared to an air pump, move more air ( within the limits of the rest of the system) and you get more power. The Superchip is one part of this system. The Superchip works well in this system.

To ask a chip to improve HP torque by a large amount, by itself, without other changes to an engine is outside of the capabilities of stock engines.

 

RedExpy,

I agree 100% with your post. Considering my own real world "blue collar" work experience in addition to my college degrees and "white collar" work experience, I should know better. I guess its just my lack of wisdom.

I would like to delete about 50% of my posts in my threads, Hypertech Programmer vs SuperchipFlipChip and "Carb. and Carb. intake Intake for LateModel F-150's" They have come to be embarrassing for me. But, if someone stumbles upon it, and sees a skeptical person's transition from don't know, confusion, to got to have it, maybe it will help. Who knows.

However, I was (am) frustrated with the cost of late model engine supercharger kits. Its not that I had a "chip" on my shoulder, nor did I intend too seem that I was whining becasue I did not have the money for it, (I had to start working to help my family when I was 10-11 years old and I have worked for everything I have) If wanted it bad enough, I would just figure out a way (legally/ethically) to earn more money to get it. Its just that it seemed like supercharger prices were nothing but price gouging and apart of slick marketing schemes. But, maybe it really is just a small market with expensive manufacturing processes and labor required, therefore the "economy of scales" thing has not kicked in yet . Who knows.

I also did not realize that the company that Mike T. works for, use to give all their profits too charities. His organization is truly helpful, provides competitive prices and they tried (try?) to make society better? what the? Make money and help people? Is'nt that what life ought to be about?

I am trying to make a deal right now for a used Superchip (sorry Mike T., I want to buy from your orgnaization (and will in the future) but don't have enough for a new chip yet, however, in this sites classifieds, I stumbled upon a Superchip with my code). I don't know if the guy will agreed to the deal, but if he does and I don't fry out my entire computer system with solder, I will post the results. Thanks.

 

Hi Iron Horse,

What a wonderful post. Most of us here have written things on these boards that we wish we hadn't, myself included. I think it's to your credit that you're leaving it up, good for you!

Good luck with a used Superchip, that doesn't bother us at all, if you can get a bargain and don't mind not having any of the benefits from buying it new, go for it! A number of people have done that, and that's perfectly fine, we hope that works out for you. Remember, it's a bargain only if you find one that has yor same computer code, so you don't have to pay to have it reprogrammed.

With regard to the cost of superchargers, I can tell you that the vast majority of them are in fact well priced and right in line with their respective manufacturing costs, R&D costs, etc. There are a couple that I feel are over-priced, but in general, blowers like the Magnacharger (our favorite for these trucks), the Vortech, the ATI, etc. are priced in a manner that accurately reflects what it costs money to R&D a kit for a computer-controlled vehicle to be a bolt-on kit that anyone can install in their garage.

Of course it's all a matter of perspective, but having owned a manufacturing company as well as other companies over the years, I think most of today's bolt-on supercharger kits are very reasonably priced, there's just no getting around the $3500-$4000 it takes for a quality positive-displacement supercharger with liquid-to-air intercooler and the custom programming needed to get a solid 100+ HP gain from a low-compression stock truck motor. There is a cheaper blower, the Powerdyne, which is easly under $2500 for these vehicles, and it's a great little unit for it's cost, but like any centrifugal supercharger there is little power gain below 3000 rpm, as they need rpms & load both to produce decent boost, which makes any centrifugal supercharger not the best choice for these heavy vehicles.

I think that you will reach a point where you see that too, just like you have learned & progressed in some of these other areas as you hang out with us here longer on F-150 Online.

Good luck!