To All:

In an attempt to help everyone who needs to (some of you already know, and are very experienced) know just how to *properly* evalute what your Superchip or any other performance chip is really doing for your vehicle, here are some points to remember:

1.) You cannot ever compare any times you ran on any other day or night to what you run on any *other* day or night. There are never exactly identical weather conditions, etc. and you simply cannot make comparisons to times run on any other occasion. A change in humidity alone, or barometric pressure alone, can slew your entire results, so you must establish a solid baseline for your vehicle each time you go to the track. What you ran yesterday, last week, last month, or last year does not matter!

2.) We suggest using a format of 3 runs, doing the first stock, then the second with your chip, and then the 3rd stock again.

3.) MOST IMPORTANT!!! Make sure that you disconnect your battery each and *every* time you make a change, or flip the switch of your Superchip Flip Chip. This is exactly what we have to do when we prepare the vehicle to go onto the chassis dyno, and you need to do the same thing making your comparitive runs. If you do not disconnect your battery to clear accumulated memory each time you make a program change, your results are invalid in terms of being able to make just about any kind of comparisons.

We all know how many times we have seen people post things like "I've run 13.5 before, but this damned Superchip made me only run 13.7 today". Wake up, smell the coffee, puh-lease.

You *must* first establish your baseline performance for that day. Without doing that, you invalidate any other results, period.

We suggest making your first run stock, with the vehicle already up to it's normal operating temperatures. Go ahead and do a disconnect of your battery, to clear accumulated memory and the effects of Ford's "adaptive strategy". Make your pass, and then come back and do a 30-minute cool-down time to stabilize powertrain temperatures. This is an excellent time to disconnect your battery again, and flip the switch of your Superchip Flip Chip. If you DO NOT disconnect the battery, then you will have remaining in memory most of the last program until new instructions execute and slowly overwrite what is already in volatile memory. This takes 50-100 miles or more, and thus you simply *must* do a battery disconnect anytime you make a program change, whether you're just flipping the switch on your Superchip, or whether you're removing and re-installing a performance chip, and trying to make direct comparisons.

Last, remember that you must STAGE CONSISTENTLY each and everytime you run, as few things will hurt your ability to make comparisons like different staging positions will.

What we recommend to get your quickest times, and most consistent times, is to "stage shallow". What this means is, when you first roll your vehicle up to the line after your burnout, you will light the top yellow beam (pre-staged) of the "Christmas tree" first. You are now pre-staged. Now, very carefully and slowly inch your vheicle forward, until you just *barely* light the second yellow light, which indicates that you are fully staged. Barely lighting that light increases the amout of "rollout" you get, which is the distance your vehicle's front wheel(s) can travel forward BEFORE it stops breaking the beams, and starts the clock ticking.

Staging shallow gives you maximum rollout distance, thus reducing your ET. It also gives you a consistent way to place your vheicle in the exact same spot each time, and this too is very important for making any kind of comparions, as you can easily affect your ET's by as much as 2 tenths of a second and more just by altering your staging technique.

So to sum up, make sure to disconnect that battery each time you change programs, and stage shallow each time for the best consistency.

With the Lightnings, we now have a lot of people who are brand new to drag racing, and a lot of them really do not know these things, and allow themselves to get frustrated with their results. Make sure you're giving yourself and your equipment a fighting *chance* with which to make valid comparisons!

Our bests to all,

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Mike Troyer
Performance Products, Inc.
National Distributor of Superchips
(540) 862-9515
Email: mtroyer@compuserve.com
Performance Products F150Online Superchip ordering system: F150Online Superchip Ordering System

 

Mike, isn't this also true when changing from a stock air box, stock exhaust manifolds, etc.. to aftermarket accessories you should "reprogram" your truck by disconnecting the battery?
Thanks

 

Great info Mike. Easy to understand. Thanks. Maybe you could explain Ford's "adaptive" programming to me.

 

Just got my superchip updated to the latest program and I can feel quite a difference between that and even the older superchip program from October. But...

My truck takes off like a shot and then in 3rd gear at 92mph, it falls flat on its face. I'm not suggesting that its solely the fault of the superchip, but this problem is much more noticeable with the chip in than with it out and more so with the new program than the old. I'm turning 14.1's when I used to run 13.2 all day long. Looking at my timeslips, I'm on track to do 13 flat until the 2-3 shift then everything falls apart. Any ideas?

 

Mike,
I am well aware of the Shallow stage/Deep stage concept. The only reason you deep stage is because it helps some people cut better lights. I have done both for many years due to running different combinations on delay boxes. Some cars react different thats all. It does not in my opinion make 1 to 2 tenths difference, more like 1 to 2 Hundreths difference. If we could actually gain/lose 1 to 2 tenths on a inch or two then that does not say much for our L's. You would be saying that our trucks more 0 power for the first 2 inches and again that is a very steep claim for 1 to 2 tenths. How can you prove this? The weather would not be the same nor would the vehicles characteristics be the same for the 2 passes that you would have to do. I wonder if someone has a calculator for this? My truck runs the way it does and I am happy with it. I want more and so does most everybody else. But staging is not where to find it. If so, Prove it!

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Nathan,
Sorry I did not make it Friday night but I had to go to another strip closer to me for it was getting late(Waiting on UPS)I am going Wed. night to prove something to others so maybe I can hook up with you then.Also Nathan does your truck shift early into overdrive at 92mph?
Mike,
Not to slam you but you are contradicting yourself. Even if you unplug you battery, let the drivetrain cool down and everything else, the weather will be different or the track conditions will be different or anything.

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Hey Nathan, Sal here. I think we both know what you needto do..

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SAL - TEAM PSP
Best ET 13.09 Best MPH 104.58mph Best 60ft 1.87
Power Surge Performance 99 Lightning Chip and Filter Kit, full Bassani Exhaust, M/T ET Streets PowerSurgePerf@aol.com

 

Crush,

I know you are very experienced in drag racing , and I respect that. But part of this discussion could be misleading for a novice such as myself.

SHALLOW staging...

I THINK what Mike is trying to say is that for the NOVICE shallow staging will help to cut better lights.... In that a novice doesn't react as well... With shallow staging, we can try to go on the second light, anticipating the third, and get a better reaction time. I know that reaction times don't affect the ET, but a novice driver MIGHT sense his lack of abilities and try to overcompensate, and spin the tires. Also, the deep stage would mean just a little higher speed when breaking the the timer beam.

Battery disconnect....

Once again, most racers are prepared to deal with and sense the performance differences in the vehicle. Disconnecting the battery and clearing the adaptive programming removes at least ONE of the many variables that affect the performance of the machine. This would be ESPECIALLY important for a novice that might be overevving, spinning the tires, and/or manually shifting. All of these are not a problem for a better driver, but the computer will make adjustments for the tuning based on these bad actions. Once again confusing the driver. I can only assume that the adaptation would try to limit these actions... I would also assume that those adaptations would REDUCE the performance of the vehicle. Ford would only want to correct these actions to protect the vehicle and keep it in a safer opreating environment.

Why do I respond this way as a novice? Because I can honestly say that I've done most of the bad actions mentioned above.

Once again, I respect your experience and value your contributiuons to the board, but try to temper your responses for the MANY novices that are involved here.

Which would you advise to a novice driver? Is the shorter track for deep staging better? Or is the anticipation/higher speed breaking the beam more of an advantage? Would this apply only to our trucks, or all vehicles in general?

REALLY! I'm truly asking questions... NOT trying to be a smart ***. Your advice is appreciated...

[This message has been edited by LightningDammitt (edited 06-06-2000).]

 

I do not know everything there is about racing, Hell I guess you never do. Shallow staging would be where you barely trip the second stge light on. This would give you more rollout(less possible to red light if you were to leave at the exact same moment.) Deep stage would be where you roll through the second stage light a litlle bit so you would have less room to move before you triped the light. I believe it just depends on the driver. Many drivers feel that deep staging gives them a better chance of getting ahead quicker but this does not mean that you are gaining e.t. I believe it just matters to the person behind the wheel. And yes, Superchips guy was impliying that you would actually gain 1 to 2 tenths from shallow staging. I do not know about the battery disconnect idea because I have done some real stupid things in the past as well. I have done a burnout with my L and overreved it causing the no boost problem and having to wait a second for the computer to correct this while trying to stage. The truck still went just as fast so I am not sure if the computer holds the goofs that we make against us(Sal or Swanson or Superchips can probably answer this question) I myself like to shallow stage only because I am a little slow with reaction myself(I think with me it has something to do with the weather, LOL fortunately I am not in racing for the money or I would be broke. me and My father are allways trying to beat the next guy so consistency with reaction times and e.t.s have been thrown out. It seems that every week we are changing some on the cars to make more horsepower, in other words our cars are not ideal bracket cars. I hope this helps explain what I was talking about.

 

Just to make a clarification on what DEEP staging is:

We all know there are two beams that must be "broken" in order to stage...initially. However, when a _true_ deep stage is allowed, one will actually roll through the first staging beams, so only the 2nd beam is actually broken before the timing light begins. In other words, the first (top) stage light is now OFF, and only the bottom light/beam is broken, and remains on.

This is way more than 1-2"...its more like 12-14". Thus, shallow staging (as crush said...barely breaking the 2nd stage beam) will give you some decent "rollout" vs. a true DEEP stage. How much this is worth ET-wise, I have no real idea...it would definitely depend on the vehicle. The faster the vehicle, the more drastic the ET difference b/w shallow and deep staging.

On most Test N Tune nights, DEEP staging (I capitalize it b/c you'll see cars have "DEEP" written on their windows to notify the tower/starter of their intentions)is not allowed. It is typically employed when there is a heads-up race, and all you care about is getting to the finish line first. I've never seen it allowed in Professional heads-up classes (like Top Fuel, Pro Stock, etc).

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Wes Tarbox
90 LX 5.0 (10.69 @ 134.7)--597rwhp/590rwtq
96 Cobra (12.63 @ 114.5)--390rwhp/441rwtq
99 Lightning (13.20 @ 103.3)--362rwhp/444rwtq
00 Expedition XLT 5.4
http://members.aol.com/Wa2fst/index.html

 

You are correct that it is more than what I suggested when you are talking about (the true definition of Deep Staging) I think what the other guy was saying is what I explained which is only a couple of inches while having both lights still on. That is a pretty informative description however to True_Deep_Staging

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