First off Mike is great and UPS did their job and I actually got my chip Next Day Air. It was a little tricky since I have an older truck. I had to pull the computer out throught the wheel well. But now that I know how to do it I could probably do the whole install in less than 30 min. The cleaning of the contacts was a breeze. I installed everything and cranked it up and IT WORKED. I gave it a little gas and the truck reved up alot faster than it used to. Went for a test drive and the shifts were alright at WOT. But I needed a comparson. I raced my friends Infinity SUV which I usually beat by 1 1/2 to 2 truck lengths. But with the chip I was seriously about 6 truck lengths ahead and this was only up to about 70. We went from a roll where he could usually hang with me until 3rd gear. But I blew him away by 4 truck lengths. Since I went from 235 to 275 tires I coul never spin them. But now I actually am spinning them for about 1-2 feet on select roads. But still I couldn't do this before. Then suddenly once I put 20 miles on the chip my WOT shift were actually very impressive. The power is awesome. I wasn't expecting everything that I got, but it is very welcome. Now all I need is my underdrive pulleys , headers, and electric fans and the truck will be awesome. The best thing is that I should expect more power as I put on more miles. I can't wait. All I can do is thank Mike. The way thats this actually proved that it did something was when I letm y dad test drive it and he said thaty was the best $$ I had ever spent on the truck, and he didn't want me to get the chip at first, but now he sees that everything I tell him about what I hear on the forums is true.

 

After more driving and testing out different launches. I found that if I brake to about 1500 - 1800 RPMS depending on the road conditions that when I take of I can get a few good seconds of screeching from the tires. This is slower than when I launch and dont spin the tires, but that just isnt as cool. As I tested my acceleration to a 2000 f150 4.6l (Intel 486's) and I could always take him off the line but he would eventually catch me, and from a roll he would pull about 3 truck lengths ahead. Now when we went and we did it many times to make sure, I pulled on him off the line and stayed ahead the whole time, and fro ma roll where he used ot destroy me, I kept the hood of my truck ahead of his. The truck is really running great, and the firmness of the shifts are getting better and better ( I dont see them getting much firmer, but until I get a transgo kit they are great). The truck also revs about 400 RPMS higher according to the stock tach, but intels truck still stays in 1st longer, but when he hits 2nd I'm off. The chip is for sure the best money I have spent on my truck. I wish I would have done it sooner.

 

Mike when I firat crank up my truck and it does first WOT 1 - 2 shift, the shift seems to be at stock level. But from then on they getvery firm again. Is this normal. And yesterday the streets were damp and on the 1 - 2 shift I got a nice CHIRP of the tires. Ever since then I have be wanting to get a shift kit ASAP. LOL Everyone at the races stared when they saw my 5000 pound monster let out a chirp while shifting.

 

Hi Beastie,

Glad to see the Superchip has done a nice job for your truck, sounds like you're having a lot of fun there.

By the way, one quick thing I wanted to mention, you might want to take it easy on brake-torquing that transmission on the launch like that. You wouldn't believe just how much heat that puts into the transmission & tranny fluid in an extremely short period of time, and slows down the acceleration as well. (Of course, it helps give you a nice smoky burnout for when you just have to give someone a cool show. )

When you brake-torque it, the transmission heats up greatly, and very quickly, and that superheated fluid & clutches slows the truck down. At the track when I launch our Lightning, it has a 2400 rpm converter in it and if we stall it up to say, 1500-2000 rpm, the truck will slow down anywhere from .05-.15 in the 1/4 mile, with traction. That's a half a truck length to a length & a half, which is significant. We recommend a tranny fluid temp gauge & an active fan-assisted transmission cooler to keep those temps under control.

WIth regard to the first WOT shift of the day, that's probably normal in this case, I'd say. The tranny probably just isn't quite up to full temperature internally yet, which takes longer than it does for the engine coolant to come up to temp in many cases. You've got about 14 quarts of tranny fluid to bring up to temperature so it flows best, and so the tranny doesn't shift quite as hard or as quick as it can until all it's internals & all that fluid are up to normal operating temperatures. That's my guess, since it only happens on the first WOT upshift, it doesn't sound like anything to worry about.

However, given the kind of use that transmission is seeing and the tremendous heat generated as a result, I would highly recommend that you change the transmission fluid & filter right away, making sure to drain the torque converter as well. Only a few quarts are in the pan, the rest is in the torque converter. I would also change that fluid & filter about every 10K (10,000) miles if you continue to drive it like that. Normal service interval is 30K miles, but I'd cut that down to only 10K miles when it's being drag raced on occasion, and/or it's being brake-torqued like that, etc. Just one pass down the 1/4 mile starting off at normal operating temperatures, 200 degrees for the tranny fluid, the fluid temps after that 1 1/4 mile pass can easily result in tranny fluid temps of 230-240+ degees, and anything over 200 degrees is detrimental. One of the problems with keeping automatic transmission fluid temperatures down where they should be is that they are cooled by a small reservior/tank in the radiator (even with the factory auxiliary tranny cooler), which is heated by the engine coolant and will almost always be above 200 degrees anytime you're not moving at least 30-35 mph.

Just keep those tranny temps in mind, & do more frequent transmission service on that vehicle to help give that transmission every possible chance to last. If you decide you want to put a good fan-assisted cooler on there, and/or tranny temp gauge, etc., give us a shout, we can help with all of that.

Have fun & be careful!

 

Thanks for the info Mike, I'll keep all that in mind and go change my filter and fluid soon. However brake torquing on my launches (when I dont spin the tires does give me about a truck length lead over other f150s that i know. And if I dont do it , then We stay dead even until the higher RPMs. I do have the factory tranny cooler. But maybe I will upgrade it to something better. I wanted to put some Crane Cams Energizer 1.7 rocker arms. But when i took a good look and saw how much I would have to do I'm reconsidering that. Id have to pull the intake manifold and some other stuff. Definately a full 2 day project. Do you think that changing the rockers would yeild that great of an improvement that its worth it? And ill take it easy on the tranny. I really need ot goto the rack to see if any different launches net better ETs. Thanks for the help.

 

Hi Beastie,

Installing higher-ratio rocker arms will get you usually about 12 to maybe 15 more horsepower on a conventional 5.0 or 5.8 motor. So it certainly works, you're artificially increasing the amount of valve lift of the camshaft & thus more atmosphere (Air/fuel mixture) can enter the motor, and more power is made.

However, it's a lot of work to get that 12-15 horsepower, as you've discovered in your research, so the bang for the buck value is a bit low. It all gets down to how much you're willing to spend & how much work you're willing to do to make more power, basically.

Have fun!

 

So Mike which bang for the buck mods would you recommend, and what order?

Underdrive pulleys, Electric Fans, Headers, Shift Kit, Larger Mass Air Meter, going from 3.31 to a 3.73 or 4.10 rear end, Throttle Body. Thanks for all the help Mike.

 

Hi Beastie,

Bang for the buck order, once you get past the first few mods, gets a bit close on some of them and so could be debated somewhat as to the exact order for each and every potential modification, but to give you a rough idea...............

Powertrain programming is the single best bang for the buck mod on these vehicles, with the Superchip. Next would be the intake, with the Air Force One intake showing the best actual power gains. Next up comes a cat-back exhaust, and specifically the Magnaflow is showing the best results in both torque and horsepower. Now the reality is that you can really do those 3 mods in any order you like, that is just the order of best bang for the buck.

OK, so we've got tuning, intake & exhaust done, those are the Top 3.

Next comes things like underdrive pulleys, electric fans, TB (throttle body), MAF (mass airflow meter) & headers. Keep in mind that headers & aftermarket MAF's will require custom tuning, so that means updating the Superchip.

By now (and even earlier in the '97 & '98 trucks), you're exceeding the capacity of the fuel system, so it's time to upgrade to a 190 l/hr fuel pump (255 if you're going supercharged) and upgrade to 24# injectors, and the injectors will also require custom tuning. Therefore, we advise changing the MAF & the fuel injectors together, and having us program for the headers at this time as well, if we haven't already, so you can cut down on custom tuning costs.

If you're going to go any further, we also need to look at ignition upgrades, and make sure that we have enough fuel line size under the truck & the fuel rails and even the fuel filter, making sure they are all capable of flowing enough fuel to meet the demands at these power levels. Depending on which engine the power you'll be at varies, as does some of those components, which have varied a bit on the 1997 & up F-150 platform. Some will still be fine, a few will need larger fuel lines & rails, etc.

Notice I haven't mentioned gear ratio changes yet. This is because they do not add power to the engine, they increase torque multiplcation. Their bang for the buck value for actual engine power gain is zero, but their bang for the buck value to improve acceleration via the increased torque multiplication is indeed significant, and those are 2 completely different things.

Drag racers will do gear ratio changes very early on, as would be appropriate for a vehicle whose primary purpose was the best possible ET's at the drag strip. However, for most daily drivers, we advise doing your power-adding modifications first, and change gears only if you cannot get your performance where you want it without doing that. For some people, they simply want to change gears anyway, for any number of reasons, performance, larger tires, etc., so they'll do it based on where they feel gears rate in the overall scheme of things for their purposes, and that's what is most important, each individual vehicle's owners preferences.

Having the 3.31 rear end instead of the 3.55's does mean that you might want to consider a gear ratio change where if you had the 3.55's you might not consider it, that's something only you can decide, Depending on how you use the vehicle, what is most important to you, what height of tires you're running & whether you're willing to undergo the expense of changing gears. If you do not have linmited slip, then plan on upgrading to limited slip when changing gears which adds a good bit of expense, and if it's a 4X4 then gears have to be changed front & rear, doubling the expense.

This is by no means anything complete, it's just a rough general & informal response........................................

 

Mike thanks for the info, but I have a 95 F-150 with a 5.0L. Is most of that info correct, about upgrading fuel systems and ignition and such? I know I have 19 lb injectors and those are good to I think 305 hp, and my engine only makes 185 stock, I'm guessing 210 now. With intake, chip, and exhaust. I really just want to be able to run with new f150 extended cabs with 5.4s. What is the best way for me to accomplish this? Mainly I just want to get into the mid to low 16 sec range. I probably run a low 17 now maybe even a high 16 in good conditions (not the 95 degrees and 100% humidity that we have been getting down here in New Orleans lately). I wanna run with the new guys on the block. I got smoked by a Super Crew the other day and he was stock. Tell me what you would do to get my truck there. And I'm a senior in High School so I dont have a HUGE budget.

 

Hi Beastie,

Being a senior in high school is (unless your parents are wealthy) generally not compatible with doing all these modifications, we know now it is, as we're all on some kind of budget. So I suggest concentrating on doing what is realistic, what you can actually afford to do over say, the next 6 months or so between now & Christmas, and focus on *that* for now.

Yes, that is applicable to virtually all the computer-controlled & fuel injected F-150's, so that is the basic & approximate order of bang for the buck. There will be the occasional difference in the exact brand name choice in 1 or 2 minor areas that will be different in the older 5.0 & 5.8's like yours, AF1 doesn't make a kit for the 5.0 & 5.8 motors, for example. You'll need to upgrade the fuel pump, injectors, MAF & TB etc. at the points I specified above, as you have the same 85 l/hr. fuel pump as most of the pre-99's have, and all the same issues with running out of fuel capacity in the pump, injectors, etc.

To map out a specifc plan of upgrades for your situation & vehicle uses, you'll need to give us a call us here at the shop.

 

No prob Mike, I'l lcall you when I get a chance. Everytime I call our always on the phone with someone else LOL. Your a hard man to get in touch with. My budget is pretty decent. Usually I can spend about $100 a month on the truck. And if I work more than 2 nights a week lol, I could probably spend about $300, but I dont know if my parents would want me to. Ill give you a call.