I have a superchip, and last night I punched it to get on the freeway, first gear went to 5500 rpm. It usually only goes to 5000 rpm then shifts. The engine runs fine, but why the change in rpm shifting? Could I hurt anything or is this fine?

 

I also have a Superchip and before i installed it, the motor shifted around 5100 or so. After the chip it shifts at usually 5500 and occasionaly 5600. It is normal with a chip because the chip raises your shift points up, meaning you go to a higher mph before shifting. To do this it has to rev futher. And if you are wondering if 5500 is going to hurt it, i don't think it will. I had a 99 chevy with the 5.3L before i got this one. I had a Hypertech Programmer III on it. You could raise your rev limiter to 6200rpms!!! I have a couple of friends who has the new chevys and it doesn't shift until it goes past 6000rpms. Now over 6000 rpms might hurt it but with 5500 you shouldn't have a problem.

justin

 

This is what I found out:

1. The factory tachs are not 100% accurate
Some are close but at WOT they can be way off.
2. The reason for knowing codes it so your chip program
can give you the best acceleration for your truck. Some shift higher, some shift lower.

I have a 99 Off Road W/ a 5.4L ZZT4 code, stock it shifted 5000 to 5100 rpm's. With the chip it's brought down to 4900rpm's

 

Thanks for the info. I feel better. I just never heard her or seen her rev so high before so it was strange for me. I had this chip in for 2 years now.

 

Hi hdlouie,

It's great to see you drop back by here again, hope you've been doing well!

The Superchip program cannot change that upshift point in the program on it's own, in case you might be wondering if that is possible. The first thing I would normally suspect would be perhaps a tachometer accuracy problem cropping up, as these factory tachs are not very accurate when accelerating hard, especially for the 1-2 upshift. It could be that it's just starting to operate less accurately. You've probably seen us talk about that here before from time to time with as long as you've been a member of F-150 Online, we've seen them read high, low, and some being fairly close. When cruising, they're usually correct ro very close to it, it's when you are accelerating the quickest, such as in 1st gear, that we see the most error.

You mention that it has been shifitng around 5000 rpm, and now it has *changed* to indicate about 5500 rpm. That could be a tach issue, or that could be something else going on, like a shift solenoid or some other issue. For example, you may need to change your automatic transmission fluid, that alone could cause a longer clutch fill time and thus delay the completion of the upshift until a higher rpm, we've seen that happen many times. All it takes is one time allowng that fluid to reach 260-280 degrees, and you can easily have molecule shear.

Is 5500 rpm too many rpms for the engine? No, not really, you have a very nice forged steel crankshaft in the 5.4, and we have a number of people twisting these things to well over 6000 rpm. I personally do not care for that, I don't like to see them twisted above 5800 rpm, and it's very rare that we'll allow a 5.4 to shift at higher than 5400-5500 rpm, except in a Lightning.

I would want to know *why* the WOT upshift point has changed, that would be my first concern. That's not enough rpm to hurt the motor or tranny, the real question here is why did that change? Is this just a tach problem, or is the tranny really not upshifting until 5500 rpm?

You might want to give us a call when you get a chance, and we'll be happy to go over this with you in more detail, to see if we can perhaps get a handle on what's really going on here, or at least point you in the right direction for troubleshooting. That could be caused by burned or even thinned fluid, shift solenoid problems could easily cause this and has many times in these vehicles over the years, or a transmission sensor, or any one of a number of other issues.

One thing you might want to check to see is if it upshifts into 2nd gear at the same rpm whether you start from a complete standstill, or when you do a rolling start and just punch it so that it downshifts into 1st gear. If it's just doing that when you nail it when you're already rolling, that wouldn't bother me, I'd just make sure the fluid & filter is fresh, making sure to drain the torque converter as well when the fluid is flushed. If it still goes to 5500 rpm regardless of whether you start from a standstill or from a roll, where it has been doing it at 5000 rpm, then it might bear some checking of that tach, etc.

Good luck!

 

Hey Mike, all is well. Thanks for taking the time to reply. I did change or I should say flush the tranny fluid at 30,000 miles. I have 38k now. I know it went to at least 5500rpm because I've never heard my engine wind up like that. That's why I looked down at the tach to really see how fast the engine was spinning.
I will play with it carefully and see when it does it.

You know now that I think about it more, this probably has something to do with it. I just picked up my X from the body shop where I had the rear badges taken off and painted. He did disconnect the battery to weld on the hatch. Could the learning curve have cause this. I'm not to concerned about shifting that high, as long as it's safe for the motor, but I will keep an eye on things and post back. Thanks for the response.

Lou

 

Hi Lou!

Thanks for your response.

When you clear the ECU, yes, you do go back thru the relearn cycle and the adaptive strategy adjustments begin again from scratch, and that can affect shift characteristics, to be sure.

However, a change from 5000 to 5500 rpm for the WOT upshift point isn't normal even when that happens, clearing the ECU alone should not be the cause of something like that. I suppose it's *possible*, but I can't remember ever having that happen from clearing the ECU, and I highly doubt that as the sole culprit.

It's also possible (though it is extremely rare and thus a really remote possibility) that perhaps the Superchip has been "zapped" by static electricity, and perhaps a bit of file corruption has occurred as a result. That is rare, but we have seen that happen a few times over the years. Usually when that happens the vehicle won't start as the file it too badly damaged, but when we look at all the potential possibilities no mattter how remote, that does have to be considered.

If you would like to have us check that Superchip for you and reflash it with your current program again, which would take care of any possible file corruption, we're more than happy to do that as well, that is something pretty easy to do.

Keep in touch with us on this, & let us know if you'd like to to check that Superchip for you!

 

How much would it cost to "reflash" a superchip ?

 

Hi cgc2,

My apologies, but the policies of F-150 Onlien do not allow us to discuss pricing, & thanks in advance for your understanding. If you wouldn't mind shooting us an email, or feel free to call if you like, we'll be happy to get you that info ASAP!

In general, the cost to do that depends on what we're doing, and whether or not any custom programming is involved. The least expensive thing for us to do is to reprogram the Superchip with the normal performance program for a different computer code, such as when you trade vehicles & want to update the Superchip to use in the new vehicle, or if someone picks one up used, etc.

If you wouldn't mind shooting us an email perhaps, and let us know exactly what you want to have done with this Superchip (reprogram to another computer code, or if custom programming is needed, is it a single program Superchip or the 2-program Flip Chip, etc.), we'll get a response back to you ASAP.

Thanks!