Well, as promised, here is Part 2 of my Superchips review. I told myself that I had to get the new juice in my tank this weekend. I put a lot of miles on yesterday to accomplish. Now, for the guts of the review...

The high performance tune is awesome! I have not had the truck over 60 with this tune yet, but let me tell you.... the truck pulled like a raped ape to 60! I only have to feather the throttle now it seems, for the truck wants to just go by itself, and conquer the miles. I took the truck up some of the local hilly roads here. In spots that normally my truck would have downshifted, not only did it say in gear, but I averaged 5-7mph quicker up them, with what felt like less effort. The WOT tune is amazing. I was thrown back in my seat for the 0-60 run. Can your F-series currently do that? If not, I suggest you think about purchasing a Superchips unit. For passing and just cruising, the power is close to instantaneous (best you can expect from a throttle by sensor system) and ample.

I also installed a Motorhaven-purchased Superchips tuner in my fathers '04 F250 V10 the same day, with some amazing results too! His application did call for pulling a fuse, but it was so much simpler than I had envisioned. 1 minute, and the fuse was out, and back to the programming. Once all was said and done, I jumped in shotgun for his maiden voyage. I told him exactly what I changed (shift points, firmness, tune, etc), and suggested that he tests out the new acceleration. The V10 is a venerable motor. With the Superchips unit, it is that much better. As he mashed the throttle, his heavy crew cab did something I wasnt expecting....a 20 foot, single tire burnout! He looked over at me, and said 'Well...its never done THAT before" . He is also a happy Superchips owner.

I hope that this review has/will help(ed) some unsure purchasers with their decision. If anyone has questions, I am more than willing to answer them. I hope that anyone looking for one of these units checks out www.motorhaven.com, for more than one reason. Yes, they are the site that helps us keep these great forums up, but also that they have the best pricing I found. Happy trails.


Rich

 

Another happy 5.4 superchips owner...I just wish someone with the 4.6 would do as good of a report.


Thanks

 

I've got the tuner for the 4.6L and i'm happy to say that just the 87 tuner wakes the truck up a bit. There is a noticable change in the take off and extreamly firmer shifts, i have noticed if i lay on the gas i need to back off if there is no shift by 35-40mph cause the trans slammes pretty hard into gear. Not sure why it does that but i does not feel normal. Before my truck would seem to slow down and shift now it just goes right into gear and keeps on rollin. I tried the 91 tuner and had the same findings. although i don't know if it was my driving or the truck its self but i hammered it and the trans slammed into gear kinda gave me a little scare. I haven't persued the 91 tuner. Found the 87 to fit just fine.

 

Got one final question -

When I put 315/70/17's on my truck, Ford did not have that size tire in the computer to match it. They adjusted the gears and matched tires best they could. Oh well

Will this tuner adjust any tire size? Even if I go bigger next month?

 

Has it done anything to yur mileage?

 

Biggziff, check out the sticky forum for microtuners. On page 5 bigwtx gives a pretty good review for the 4.6L

 

WheelMA1, I could not agree more! This truck is finally awake and ready to run. I also installed the 87 tune first and was very impressed with the improved throttle response, shift firmness, and increased power. When the tank was empty, I filled her up with 93 and installed the tow-perf tune first just to see what it was like. (I tow a 7000lb boat less than 10 times a year) It was pretty bad because the shift firmness was very harsh and the engine hit the rev-limiter from 2nd to 3rd. The transmission was less than thrilled with this! So, I placed a call to Superchips and spoke to a guy who was very rude and abrupt with me! When I asked him what Superchips sets the shift firmness at he asked in a very rude tone "Why would you want to know that kind of information?" I told him what the truck was doing and that I wanted to adjust the lbs of the shift firmness and the level of the rev limiter, but I needed to know the Superchips settings. He told me that that was confidential information and there is no reason why I would need to know that. Anyway, i was so ****ed at this point I let him have it a little bit and hung up. I will hold off on towing until I call and speak to a supervisor and get to the bottom of the problem with the tow tune.
So anyway, I installed the hi-perf tune (not for towing over 4000#) and It was a different engine! The truck runs great now with much increased HP (feels like at least 25+HP) and throttle responce, not to mention a better shifting tranny! I too would highly recomend this product, even if their tech guy is a little peice of $%*&!
I think the 04 f-150 is the best truck ever made, but I was not totally pleased with the engine performance. Well, now its on its way to being the ultimate pickup! I do however still have a problem with the fact that I can not spin the tires from a standstill on dry pavement. Oh well, nothing the Whipple supercharger can't take care of!!!!!!!!!!!!
BTW- Sorry for the long message (trying to kill some time at the office)

04 FX4 SCREW
silver/blk lthr
loaded W/all options+
tinted front windows
window rain guards
Wagg brush guard w/PIAA driving lights

Soon to come:
Borla or Magnaflow exhaust (can't decide)
bed cover
20's with off road tires
Whipple!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My other baby:
98 Mustang Cobra with about $25k in mods. (she is a *&^%$#@ Monster!)

 

I have the 4.6 with the Supertuner at Hi-Performance setting... Read my review here.

 

You say you got 2-3 mpg better. Was that with the dual exhaust? What did you see with the exhaust (MPG)??

Thanks

 

I am considering the Supertuner and was wondering something. Once you program the truck, do you unhook the programmer and store it? Or, do you have to leave it hooked up and laying on the floorboard or seat? Hopefully it is something that can be set and put away until you want to change the program.

 

I observed the 2-3 mpg improvement after programming with the Microtuner.. Mind you, I observed this when I drove my truck nice, not when having fun with the chip. The chip is good though because you can go WOT more often without hurting your gas mileage as much. One of my goals with this truck was to have good gas mileage while not driving like my grandmother. I only noticed a small improvement when I added the dual exhaust a couple of months ago, but I'm still very happy with the Flowmaster system. This weekend I added a Mac air intake which improved performance and sound even more, but I haven't noticed any gas mileage improvement.

With the Microtuner, all you have to do is plug it in under the dash, follow the on screen instructions, push the buttons, and once its done its done. It will tell you to unhook the tuner and you can just store it in a safe place. I keep mine under the seat just in case something comes up and I want to reprogram it to factory specs. (Superchips recommends doing so before taking the truck in for service, so Ford doesn't reprogram the PCM, destroying your tune).

Hope this helps-- If anyone has other questions don't hesitate to ask.