Can someone give me some advice on how to get more tourque and horsepower, I have heard good and bad things about the Computer chip. I cant afford a Lightning and only have a 4.2 V-6 thanks for all the help.

Jason

 

well, I've had the chip in for about 24 hours and I like it a lot.

The first mods that everyone says your should do is Intake, Exhaust, Chip. That's what I did and I'm happy with the gains.

 

welcome to the site !!!

 

had my superchip for a few months now. nothing but good things to say about it. easy install, very surprising amount of power increase. i was not expecting so much for the price. definitly my best performance mod so far. like mentioned about, ehaust and intake are probably in the top three bang for your buck as well. i say get one, you will be happy with it. good luck.

Arom

 

Hi U_S_Ranger,

Welcome to F-150 Online!

There are plenty of ways to get more horsepower and torque from your V-6.

The single most cost-effective modification is the Superchip, as optimizing the powertrain programming gets you the best performance gains for the lowest cost. Your 4.2 V-6 is a great engine, and has a decent HP output stock at about 205. However, it has a specific problem of being noticeably weak below 2500 rpm, and that is improved by the Superchip as well.

Next comes a good airbox elimination kit, and then a cat-back exhaust, to round out the Top 3 best bang-for-the-buck modifications in order. You can of course do them in any order you like, that's just the order of best bang-for-the-buck.

And there are always other things you can do too, such as underdrive pulleys, headers, and so on, they just come a bit futher down the bang-for-the-buck list.

Most people will start out with the Superchip, then do an intake kit, and then an exhaust.

Don't worry about not being able to afford a Lightning, there are plenty of fast V-6 F-150's out there, and you can easily make your 4.2 V-6 a much more enjoyable vehicle to drive with a few siomple bolt-on modifications.

Please feel free to give us a call if you'd like to talk about these or other ways to improve the performance of your 4.2 V-6 in some more detail, and get a good feel for just exactly what the Superchip is going to do, or any other modifications, etc. we're always happy to speak with you about that in detail up front, so you can give it all some thought before making your decisions.

We're glad you decided to join us here at F-150 Online, & we hope you'll hang out here with us when you can!

 

Hey thanks for all the great replies. I already have an exhaust I have the gibson super truck I love it noticable gains and the sound is great. I am working on getting an Air Force One just dont know where to get it yet. Sounds like I will be getting a superchip real soon.

Thanks
Jason

 

u_s_ranger,

Contact Mike (contact info in his sig) about the Airforce One. And ask him about the chip while you're at it. You can also get the Airforce One at the online store here. Both are well worth it and buying from Mike is supporting the site as well!!

 

Hey Family Ride!!
I just got my chip, but the dealer tells me it will void my warranty.
What gives man--email me?

 

Hi nojeffgordon,

What your dealer is telling you is illegal, you have very specific legal rights under the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act. Some dealers will claim that out of ignorance, some people only know what they are told to do by dealership service department mgmt. and don't know the law. In some cases, a dealership may claim this because of the fact that they get paid significantly more money to do work when the customer pays, compared to what Ford pays them to do that same work under warranty. That is true of most automakers by the way, they have traditionally paid their dealers less than what the customer has to pay to do the same work under warranty.

Most dealerships are honest about this, but you do need to know your rights. You should also remove the Superchip or any performance chip before going in for service, whether you are under warranty or not it doesn't matter, as the ECU should be in stock configuration for any diagnostics that may need to be done. It's easy to remove a chip and go back to the factory program, and then reinstall it when you get the vehicle back.

To read more about your rights under the law, you can go to the SEMA web site, F-150 Online is a member of SEMA. I think this is still the link:

www.sema.org/fedleg/warranty

The gist of the MMWA is that you can do anything you want to your vehicle and not have it affect your warranty, as long as what you do does not *damage* the vehicle, or is a result of racing or deliberate misuse or lack of routine maintanence, etc., as it would not be fair to the automaker to make them pay for damage done in that manner, of course. To legally be able to deny a warranty claim, the automaker must prove that the aftermarket part in question was the direct and sole cause of damage; they must further prove that had that aftermarket part not been installed, the related failure would not have occurred otherwise, and that is very strong legal protection.

The best bet is not to go arguing with your dealer and creating animosity, just remove the chip before going in for service, and try to find a friendlier dealer, you don't have to have your warranty work done by the dealer that sold you the vehicle, any Ford dealership can do the warranty work.

The last thing you want to do is go calling dealers asking if you can do modifications and not have it affect your warranty, as you will hear "NO" far more often than "YES," regardless of the law. They can *say* anything they want, and that is legal, which intimidates some people, unfortunately, from doing what they want to their own vehicle. That does not mean they are right, and don't ever forget that, you have rights under the law, just as the automaker does. The Magnuson-Moss Warranty is a good set of "fair play" rules, designed to fairly protect both the consumer and the manufacturer.