This is a question for all those who have installed a chip and/or lower pulley. My 00 L currently has a completely stock powertrain. When I punch it from about a 20mph roll, it will spin for maybe half a second before it grips and takes off (on good pavement.) I'm planning on adding a chip and pulley in the near future, but am wondering if it will be actually slower when punched from a roll. When it breaks the tires loose, can the tirespin be modulated without it upshifting to 2nd and bogging? With the stock chip, if you lift the throttle for a split second, it upshifts, and leaves you in the 'dead' area between 25-45mph in second gear.

Also, for the closed circuit racers, do the upshifts unsettle the truck in the esses? With the stock setup, I don't have to worry about upshifts in a sweeper because of the gentleness of the upshift. The stock setup may be slower in acceleration, but have lower laptimes because of consistancy.

Thanks in advance for sharing your experiences.

 

The chips I use(currently. JL's) wii cause a downshift to 2nd at 3,100 rpms or less at WOT. Not sure what you mean by "slowing down" unless you're talking about 'wheel spin'? My F1s don't spin when downshifting--it justs hauls a$$! Achip and pulley will 'wake' your L up!

I've wondered about your 'road course' question as I used to run in 'driver's schools' with two other vehicles--both had 5 speed manuals. Hope that either Ruslow or Spike Engineering answer your question--they are the 'road racers' on this site.

Dan

 

LOCO
I think PSP actually has an autocross program.

To answer some of your other questions, I think some of the chip programs out there will down shift to 1st at up to 40mph. (with 3.55 gears) I have 4.10 gears in my truck so the two chip tuners that I deal with have limited me to a down shift speed of 30mph.

As far as upshifting as soon as you lift, I think that still applies but maybe it could be changed to suit you and your style. I'm not sure about that one either.
I do know that the more power you build into your truck the less dead area you'll have in any gear
Dale

 

I was having a problem when my tires would catch as it hit second gear an bog badly. I believe most of this has been eliminated with a chip, because the factory torque reduction at the shift points seems to be less or gone all together (maybe Sal could enlighten use on this). It also seems to downshift sooner and quicker than before. hope this helps.

 

Every 01 L owner Ive talked to(my truck as well) says when it shifts into 2nd gear you get that lag or bog(whatever you want to call it) for just a few seconds. Seems like the truck just falls on its face before picking up again. If your running an LS1 or something similiar, this is where they will pull hard on a stock L. I ran my buddy the other day in his stock 01 and when he hit 2nd gear my L walked off and left him bad. A chip will remove this frustrating pain in the a$$ for you. I cant imply strongly enough how much difference a chip makes in the performance of the 01's!!
Its truly amazing there is that much power left untapped in these things!

 

Thanks for the info guys!
I'm already convinced that the chip can do wonders for the L in 1/4, but most of that time is earned simply by shifting quicker with no 4 cylinder cutout. I've seen several posts where stock Ls ran very close to chipped ones, except for the gear changes. However, when combined with a pulley, the extra 20-50 hp across the board can make a solid difference, especially in the lower RPMs.

I've watched (endured) the controversial posts on chips for the last year or so, but haven't seen anyone post on how their chip affected their road racing. I'm not intrested in brand x vs brand y, etc, because I know the tuners can pretty much do whatever you want on an equal basis. What I'm intrested in is the experiences (positive/negative) of anyone who races their L in other than a straight line. Is anyone (semi-stock) racing an 'autocross' or 'road-racing' program, and is it worth the money?

Thanks again...

 

Good question(s) and it's nice to hear there's is another Lightning owner interested in something other than straight line racing. Gosh, there might be 10 of us now actively road racing on f150online!

I can't speak for others, but I hope to have a road race program in my truck in the near future. I was hoping to have one in my truck to test at Thunderhill, but it didn't happen. I'm not going to get involved in a tuner debate, so if you're interested, send me an email at george@spikeengineering.com and I'll give my comments and opinions on the current type of programs available.

Regarding your first question on whether or not the truck gets upset during upshifts, it depends on too many factors (tire pressure, tires, the course, suspension, the line you take, chip mods, etc.). For instance, at Thunderhill, the upshift occurred on the esses just as the steering was passing 12 o'clock, so there was no problem. Yet, the line I took entering the esses set me up for that. There is a different line I've watched (snuglidCAM), yet it may result in an untimely upshift, especially at WOT. If I had to back of the throttle to avoid getting loose and my exit speed was reduced, it's a bad line for my setup. My goal is to have a track program that makes upshifts more predictable and a transmission that'll take the abuse. I've only got 4000 miles on this one and it's already toast.

Spike

 

Thanks for the feedback, Spike. You've got mail. Speaking of racing, threads sure dissapear quickly in the Lightning forum. This thread moved back 100 threads in less than one day. Just a symptom of that postitius disease we all have, and another indicator of what a great web site this is.

LocoSVT