Mike,
I've had my chipp in my SCrew for two years now!

Love it. I love that I pulled away from my buddy's 5.4l supercab and then his governer hit at 105 mph or so...he was muttering the rest of the day.


But, CA now sells 91 Octane (I'm betting you already addressed this somewhere a long time ago).

I figure that 91 is close enough to 92 that the knock senors can retard my timing a bit if I'm heading into danger by stomping on it. What is the Superchips position on CA's 91 octane? I realy don't want to (and won't) send the chip in for a reprogram over 1 point of octane. (unless maybe it is free, but I doubt that )

Thanks for any info you can give me.

 

Hi 1stSuperCrew,

Nice to see you again!

You'll be fine with any good quality 91 octane premium gas and the Superchip, though we recommend using Chevron out there in California, as they are still providing (sometimes) as much as 92 to 93 octane at the pump, and a higher energy content overall compared to any other fuel we've seen.

We pay a *lot* of attention to California fuels, we have always had many, many modified vehicles out there as you might imagine.

To give you an idea, nobody among our customers that has been using the Superhipc for a long time has had to be retuned for since California has dropped to 91 octane, the Superchip will work fine in the F-150 with any good quality 91 thru 94 octane premium gasoline.

 

Once again, great service & info.

I'll check out more CHevrons. Our local one gave up the 92 fight a few months ago (ARCO across the srteet driving the prices down). I'll see if there are any holdouts.

Thanks Mike

 

You're very welcome as always, & don't be a stranger!

 

I noted that you suggested using Chevrons in California. Does the same go for Arizona? I will be installing my superchip over the weekend and I'm looking to fill up.

Wow... I guess its going to be 110 this weekend. Too hot too Early!

 

Hi Scaminsky,

Texaco, Amoco & Chevron are usually good choces where you are. You may find that Chevron seems to do the best job, as we get further out West we see that happening in more areas.

 

Hi Mike,

Im in PA. Any gasoline recommendations here on the East Coast? Been using Mobil but with not so good MPG.

Thanks,

Jim

 

Hi Jaguar,

Here in the East, Amoco generally does a good job just about everywhere, Texaco, Chevron, Shell & Citgo do good jobs in various areas here in the East, as does Sunoco. If you have Amoco where you are, sticking with it is usually going to get a consistently good result.

Mobil & Exxon merged, Exxon's fuels are clean but low energy, where Mobil has usually been not quite as clean but a bit higher in energy, though as more time goes on I doubt we'll continue to see much difference between them in this particular merger, we'll just have to see. Mobil would not be my primary choice, though it's usually better than the off-brands in most cases, you can usually find a little bit better fuel.

You've got a beautiful & very heavy vehicle there, a 5.4 SuperCrew w/Off Road package (FX4) is a hefty monster, coming in at about 6000 lbs. with a tank of fuel & driver on board, so as you already know, it's of course not going to get "good" mileage. Anything much over about 10-12 mpg in the city and 14.5-15 mpg on the highway highway would have to be considered a bonus.

Of course, all we can really do is identify basic trends from the results we see in tuning, so there can always be exceptions, but this should help. The main thing is to steer clear of the off-brands & Exxon, due to their lower energy content. If you happen to do mpg tracking of various brands, etc. (sampling 3 tanks of each brand/source is usually the best way to compare) up in your area at any point, we'd all love to see any data.

Good luck with that new truck!

 

Mike,

Thanks for the heads up about the gas differences. Perhaps I will try some different brands. And I will be sure to post my results here.

Im thinking about a superchip one of these days, but with the price of gas, running 91 and up octane is not what I want.

Do they make a chip to work with 87 octane?

Thanks again,

Jim

 

Hi Jim,

Yes, on a special order basis we will make a Superchip for use on 87 octane. The raw power gain will be less than tuning for premium gas of course, but there is some raw power gain and all the other benefits will be present as well.

We also offer a 2-program Superchip Flip Chip with 2 performance programs, one for 87 and another for premium gas, available at the simple flip of it's switch, for those who want the best of both worlds, so to speak.

One last point is that the actual increase in fuel costs to use the Superchip on premium gas all the time as compared to operating on the factory program on 87 octane are very small; the maximum is $100 per 10,000 miles driven, and for many people it's less. It literally amounts to maybe $2-$3 a week, this assumes a 20 cent per gallon delta from 87 to premium, and a 50/50 mix of city & highway driving. That being the case, most people just run the full performance program for premium, and most of the rest run the 2-program Flip Chip, just to give you an idea. We do have a very small number of people using the 87 octane version of the single program Superchip that we make available (as you asked about), so between all those options we can serve everyone's wishes pretty well.

If you decide want to do the 87 octane version of the single program Superchip, or would liek to go over any of this in more detail, please give us a quick call at our number listed below.

PS - I neglected to mention in my previous response (and you may well already know this), your 2003 most likely has very few miles on it being so new, so you may see the fuel mileage comes up a little bit as the new engine fully loosens up, which takes anywhere from 4000 to as much as 8000 miles, depending on how it's driven, etc. And of course, going to synthetic fluids all around helps, too.