Hello all,

I finally broke down and joined this forum board after many visits. I guess I finally realized that my Mustang was not coming back since I traded it in almost a year ago for something alittle more practical. "Practical" since I now have a 10 month old baby girl and her car seat didn't fit to well in the back seat of 2000 GT Mustang. Anyway, to get to the point of my post....I had many modifications done to my 00GT, one of them being a "Custom burned Superchip". My mustang dyno'd at 239 RWHP / 280 RWTQ
with the following mods:

Mods: SuperChip, Flowmaster 1-Chamber Mufflers, Mac Cold Air Induction w/K&N Filter, 3.73 Rear End Gear, Ford Performance Underdrive Pulleys, Pro 5.0 Shifter, Steeda Cobra R Hood, Steeda Cobra R Wing, FMC "C" Springs w/ (1) rear coil cut out, FMC Subframe Connectors. I later added a Bassini X-pipe w/cats
but that was a month after the dyno pulls and probably would have seen a few more ponies with this.

The point of all this was the Superchip DID NOT do what it advertised except recalibate the computer for the 3.73's, which I could have done for $130 bucks with the SpeedCal adjuster from Steeda. I was alittle ticked off after spending $500 on something that didn't even make my car look fast since it hid in the passanger side kick panel attached to the computer. After my large investment for the chip everybody on www.Stangnet.com was saying that none of the chips improved performance that would justify spending $400-500 on them.

Now I see that everybody on this forum seems to really like the chip and have heard that they do improve performance on the trucks but as far as the mustangs go my experience was very bad! Also I believe it was my chip which caused my stang to cut out for no apperant reason several times while driving down the road.

Does anybody have before and after dyno sheets showing where they got 10-15 HP/TQ gains? If so I would be willing to give Superchips another try. If not I will looking to Steeda for the Timing ajuster (7-10 Dyno'd HP) and Speed Calibration unit for the gear calibration problem.

Thanks,

Adam

 

No charts, but my butt-o-meter tells all. The one reason I keep checking the Computer Chips forum is to emphasize the incredible results to people like yourself who are questioning the real world results of a Superchip on a late model Ford truck. I installed the chip in February and I am still amazed by it. Simply the best bang for the buck mod there is. I don't care how much premium gas goes up, I must have this chip in my truck.
Please check out
this post to see my list of benefits I found with this chip.
As for the Mustang woes, no offense, but it sounds like there was something wrong with the installation or perhaps the chip had a faulty program. Either way, once you get chipped, you'll never look back. Good luck!

 

adam... i might be wrong but i think that for the modifications that you had a custom chip was ridiculous. To me pulley, filter and mufflers dont justify a $500 custom chip. now maybe if you had a blower or nitrous or headwork i could see it.
i would imagine that the mustang came from the factory with a more aggresive tune than the f150, so maybe the f150 has more room to play with.

 

who charges $400-500 a chip?... $300 is more like it. The chip gives better timing, air/fuel ratios, and firmer shift points. It depends on who's programming it and who's doing the tuning.
Some vehicles..namely diesels get up to 50 more HP just on the superchip. Contact mike troyer for your specs...he's sure to up the hp for you.

I see plenty of stickers , wings and other stuff on 'rice'...still doesn't make em go faster... they rev and rev...and watch my tail lights get smaller and smaller.

The Beast of the East...My Gallery

 

Well,

The chip was $250 and the custom burn for the 3.73 gears was another $125 so I guess I over exagerated on the price a bit but still...$375! The labor was another $60 so the total I spent was $435! (Needless to say when I bought the Mustang I knew absolutely nothing about Cars) The point of this post was the Superchip did not do what it advertised +23HP/ +36ft/lb! I MAYBE gained 1-2 HP.

You might be right about the F150 program and how it might have more room to play...I just want to see dyno results!

 

Hi Adam,

I'm sorry to hear you weren't happy with those results a year ago, but I'm very glad you dropped by here.

We are the oldest Superchips distributor in this country, and I can tell you from long personal experience, having personally owned Mustangs as well as many other FoMoCo, GM and other vehicles, from trucks to seriously fast cars, all tuned by Superchips, that the Superchip does indeed work, and work very well. So will many people here who are using the Superchip, as you can already see by some of the responses.

These F-150's are tuned for regular gas from the factory just as your 2000 Mustang GT was, though the Mustang's tuning is more aggressive, as they don't have to tow anything, etc.

This could be as simple as having run it on an inertia dyno, like a Dynojet, which is most likely the case. Inertia dynos just aren't accurate enough for direct comparisons of incremental gains, though they're great tuning tools and can give you a rough idea of about how much power the car makes, dynos are not absolute, especially any inertia dyno.

Another problem is that you are trying to compare flywheel numbers, which are how the gains from the Superchip are expressed, with rear wheel numbers, which is what you got from the chassis dyno, and that won't work, rear wheel numbers are always significantly less.

You didn't have a whole lot of modifications that would actually increase power on that Mustang, just muffler & filter changes along with the Superchip, basically. The only thing that required anything custom in the program was just to correct the speedometer for the gear change, so no custom engine tuning was required.

Also, you show no "before" figures, so we don't know what that car was actually making in stock trim, and thus no valid comparison can be made. Assuming it actually made all of it's 260 SAE Net rating at the flywheel, that would give you a best potential stock figure of about 225 to the wheels, and many of those GT's don't make their full 260 HP. It's common to see them come in at say, 252 HP for example, which would give you only 217 stock at the rear wheels, with a reading of 239 after those mods, which would be fairly close to in the ballpark, especially on an inertia dyno. It's very important to know exactly what the before numbers are when evaluating any part, and that has to be done at the same time in a controlled test. The 239 HP rear wheel figure alone doesn't mean much with regard to exactly how much power was gained without a properly controlled back-to-back testing scenario, and that is a very common mistake for people to make, by the way, many people have done that.

There are any number of potential issues that can very quickly be seen here looking at this. If you would really like to go over this in detail, please feel free to give me a call personally.

The world's fastest 5.0 Mustang for many years, owned by Wild Bill Devine, I think his name is, is tuned by Superchips. The Superchip will indeed work in your F-150, and you'll enjoy it just as all these other F-150 owners enjoy it.

Please do take a few minutes to call us when you get a chance, I'll be more than happy to spend some time with you going over everything thoroughly, and let you know just exactly what the Superchip can realistically be expected to go for your truck. Then you can give it some thought and decide if you are interested or not, at your leisure. We're happy to help in any way we can.

All the best,

 

Mike,

Thanks for the reply! I unfortunately did not have a before and after dyno of my mustang to really see what my numbers increased from with the mods I had. After my purchase of the chip I did see where many people on www.Stangnet.com
tried the chip with a dyno and were not successful with any real power increases. Most anyone over there will say "Stay away from the chips" This included Diablo Sport, Hypertech, and the Saleen Flash module as well. I am however interested in seeing some dyno proven results of these chips on F150's. Someone earlier in the post stated that the F150 program probably doesn't have the aggressive tune from the factory that the mustang does so there might be room to really have some gains. Please someone show me a before and after dyno run from an F150 with a 4.6 V8 with a Superchip tune. Then I will be interested in buying one. Until then I know all to well that the "Seat of Pants 'O Meter" is not a reliable source for performance information.

Thanks guys!

 

HI!... I don't have a SUPERCHIP dyno gragh but my truck ran a 16.01E.T bone stock and after I installed a SUPERCHIP it went 15.38E.T. I say it worked.

 

NEAL... are you saying that a chip alone dropped you 6 tenths?
that would take at least 35 to 45 h.p. to drop 6 tenths (no mods just chip)

Mike is that a normal increase because i thought it was more on the order of about 2 tenths

 

Don't forget the faster firmer shifts. That will cut a lot of time off. So the extra power is just one part of it.

 

You get this with a Shift Kit like a TransGo or something like it for as little as $100.

 

I can't imagine that there are too many people who would put in a Superchip then spend almost as much to see what it is doing on the dyno. I would guess that the people who are doing dyno runs use the Superchip in conjunction with other mods.
Yes a few hundred dollars is a lot of money to most people. Thing is if we want to get substantial gains (30-60%) we will have to spend at least a few thousand. You get what you pay for with a Superchip. In fact i think if you were to look at hp gained to money spent the Superchip would give the most. Even if it dynoed lower that the gains claimed it's still right on par with other mods.
I felt the same as most people when I first started looking into chips. I wanted to make sure I was getting something for my money. Well, I did. It wasn't the same as a supercharger or something like that. It was (and is) a noticeable gain.
Above and beyond recalibrating the spedo for different tires the Superchip also raises or removes the speed limiter (in most cases) and raises the rpm limiter. To have this done another way, I think, would exceede the cost of the chip.
I'm only one person, and this is only my opinion. I believe, from experiance, that the Superchip works, and I don't need a dyno to verify that. If someone has a chart (that takes into account of all the veriables) that says otherwise than perhaps I would have a different opinion.

Tom

 

Adam, I am not going to try and give you a lot of BS, just going to relate my experience. I bought my chip from MikeT. They happen to have an F150 just like mine (same cpu code, and equipment packages), and told me that I would love it. I bought the chip and installed myself. Cost $225 plus shipping. Not chump change, but not a ton of money. The first thing I noticed was the much nicer shifting. Holds on to the gear when you need it to. I noticed the more power change in the lower end. I don't know what other folks will tell you, but that is where I noticed the biggest difference. I also noticed that I 'drive' the truck quite a bit more 'heavy footed'. I lay back in traffic, and then give it a good 'goose' when things open up in front of me. I enjoy this very much. My truck needed some factory service, so I took the chip out, and reset the cpu. After you have the chip, you forget real fast what the truck was like 'before' the chip. Well let me tell you, this reminds you real fast. It is not near as much fun without the chip. I drive a good bit, so the 'fun' factor is something that I desire. I noticed the biggest change when towing. I tow a landscaping trailer that problably goes about 3k when loaded out. Not a ton of weight, but the truck handles it much better with the chip. Can all these benifits be gained with a combo of other mods, I don't know, maybe. Is it worth the investment to me, no question, yes. I am not sure, but there may some type of money back if not satisfied, that might push you over the edge. Frankly, it matters not one bit to me if you by a chip, but if you do, I think you will like it.

 

Hi BROTHERDAVE,

*Excellent* point!

The average reduction in 0-60 and 1/4 mile times from the SUperchip in the F-150's is about a half-second, 4-5 tenths. The *range* of improvement in anywhere from a low of about 3 tenths to as much as slightly over 1 full second, there are a lot of different F-150 configurations, and a lot of different powertrain programs & differing issues among them in all the 1997 & newer trucks, so we do see variances.

As another poster mentioend, it's not just the raw power gain alone that improves the performance, but also the removal of various delays & retards that are present in both manual & automatic transmission models, moreso in the automatics of course.

In one of our F-150's here at Performance, a 2001 5.4 4X4 Lariat Offroad model with heavy-duty trailer towing, an almost 6000 lb. vehicle basically, it knocked off a full second, the result of the combination of the peak power gain as well as transitional gains and all the other program issues, delays, transitional retards, etc.

You're absolutely right in terms of time reduction just from incrrease in raw peak power alone, but that is not the only issue adversely affecting performance in the powertrain programming that is improved by the Superchip.

Neal is correct in his figures for his vehicle by the way, as he did controlled back-to-back testing at the drag strip and got over 6 tenths off his ET's from the Superchip. Some people see 3 tenths, and some see 10 tenths........on average, overall, it's about 4-5 tenths.

Thanks for your post!

 

Just food for thought... some of this mentioned by the original poster.....

From friends who have dynoed their 'Stangs most didn't get much peak power with ANY chip. Some helped mid rangre more than others, but nothing that I have seen really helped peak much.

Leads me to believe that the stock 'Stang programs are fairly aggressive, at least at higher revs where the peaks show up. Regardless of tuning, stock restrictions in the intake, etc. could easily limit the output which happens at fairly high revs.

Let's not forget that peaks don't tell the entire story either. I have seen cases where HP is up less than 10, but torque peak is up almost 40 lb ft, and has a fatter low end curve.