I am planning on buying a used tuner for the truck in my sig, and I was wondering primarily about the differences between the superchips max micro tuner and the flashpaq. Can anyone tell me the main differences and why one might be better or worth more than the other? Info on the other brands would be a plus as well... pro's and cons of each.

Thanks in advance!

 

I guess you can't read my sgnature in that post.

 

I'm no superchips guru but I didn't think they made Max Micro Tuners for Ford gas engines.... Could be mistaken

I would think your available choices from Superchips would be the Cortex and Flashpaq, the only difference really is the Cortex is about 40 bucks more and offers a drivetrain warranty, which I'm not sure how that all works out on used vehicles anyways. Also depending on what you are going after on your tune (racing, economy, towing etc.) Many others will chime in about various other programmers Diablo, Hypertech, EDGE, and others. I think my brother uses SCT and has been loving it on his '02 F150 4.2L, he took some time to have his customed tuned through troyer tuning.

 

Anything that can be CUSTOM tuned by a tuner is ideal for a programmer....
To some, programmers that only offer canned tunes are ideal but to others custom tunes are the only way to go.....

When purchasing used programmers you run the risk of the seller not putting their vehicle back to stock thus locking the programmer and that costs extra to get it unlocked....also used programmers do not have a warranty that transfers.....so buyer beware....

Check out the links in my Sig.....

 

I totally understand and like the idea of custom tuning, It's just that I have a very limited budget ($170) and there are only a few tuners available in that price range and they are all used. I've found a lot of hypertechs for cheap, but the theme on here seems to be that they are worthless. So, the only ones I can find for the money now are superchips. If I could get a tuner now that could accept custom tuning later, I would, otherwise, I just buy a canned tuner cheap now, sell it later when I have some more cash and get a better custom tuner. I just got some b-day money and don't like the stock power (my last truck was an 06 cummins with close to 500hp and 1000 ft/lbs tq).

 

Save your money and do it right (custom tuning). "Good things come, to those who wait".......

 

Yes they did and it works great. I ran mine for over 100K miles. 1715 is the model. Not as much power gain as a custom tune but it made the truck much more drive-able.

 

That's the one I have my eye on right now! Glad to hear you liked it! Did you notice much gain with it on the low end?

 

And thats why I ain't no Superchips guru, I'm a Diablo man myself

Did they discontinue that model? Superchips doesn't even advertise them anymore by the looks of it, at least not on their website.

 

yeah, they sell the flashpaq instead.

 

You can find them used often. I sold mine here in the classifieds.

 

I'd just be leary about buying a used product that's been discontinued, not sure of support capabilities from superchips, always hear manufacturers just push the new model on you rather for various programmers. In the event that the programmer is VIN locked and they don't support it anymore that would be a huge receiving of the shaft...

Unless you know the guy then yeah you'd be good, I'm just a untrusting SOB.

 

Well, I got one off ebay for $125! Its the Superchips Max Microtuner 1715. So, unless this guy totaly lied and it's vin locked or the totaly wrong unit or something, I should be good for now. I can't wait for it to get here and try it out. I figure that if I get more money down the road, I can always get $125 out of this again and put it towards a custom tuner.

 

I will update when it gets here as to perfomance gains and etc.

 

Same deal here... looking to buy a used flashpaq.... hoping it's going to SAY if it's VIN locked or not when we hook it up. Guy's local and bringing it by. I actually had an issue with it not powering up. Turns out last shop that checked codes had somehow managed to blow the fuse on the Diag. Conn. power. I'll let you guys know if I get a code that indicates VIN locked or not. 2005 F150 FX4.