Well I picked up the truck today and it seems to be running fine. I asked why they wouldn't have replaced all the plugs when they found the two bad ones and surely noticed they were the "wrong plugs" and the service manager said, "the warranty would only cover the burnt plugs, so that's all we replaced". Today he said they "put in a request" to replace all the plugs and "were allowed to do it". Whatever - changing all the plugs would have saved me and them some time if done the first time.
So I talked to the sales manager who had suggested I alternate tanks to alleviate my concerns of unforseen costs at the time of purchase. I showed him the printout from Magnacharger's web-site that uses bold lettering to inssist on 91 octane. I then advised him he may want to retract his statement or he might find himself in hot water with his boss if the motor was to be damaged as a result of his advise. He smiled, thanked me and said he'd like to take back what he said (with a smile). I told him that was a wise choice and we both chuckled a bit. He's going to get together with his service folks and see what can be done about getting the stock equipment back on the truck. I don't know yet if I'll do it, but I'd like to see what the option would cost me.
Anyway, I'd like to thank all of you for my quick-hit lesson in the do's and don'ts of superchargers. I appreciate all the comments.
I have put 87 octane in my Mountaineer with a Powerdyne and as long I stay out of boost, or keep it under a couple pounds of boost it is fine. It is tuned for 91+
I think the octane boosters are a waste of money, if you read the fine print most only boost octane by a few tenths of a point.
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Central CT
2006 F250 5.4 6 spd
1999 Mountaineer, Supercharged
Maybe once all your troubles are sorted out, this little tid bit will help. Just a little thing about the extra cost of the fuel as long as you are not always to the floor you will really get better millage so it will balance out with the fuel cost of a normally aspired engine. And it sounds like your pretty screwed I hope for your sake it is minor and is no engine damage.
Well, the trucks running good. I took my trailer out to the desert this weekend and had no problems. I was able to climb most hills without going over 3k RPM and my tranny temp stayed below 200. The only drawback to towing w/ the charger is the wine and exhaust drone when it downshifts. Otherwise, I'm leaning toward keeping the charger. I may see if the dealer can give me some sort of discounted extended warranty vs. removing the charger - I figure it can't hurt to ask.
superchargers whine- that's what they do....you'll learn to love it I think. I know love the whine of a blower or the whistle of a turbo. Somethin to say for that.
I'm not so concerned about saving the 5 or 6 bucks. Although, over the course of ownership it does add up. When I add that 5 or 6 bucks to the fact that the truck is getting about 10 MPG w/ the supercharger it raises the costs significantly over the course of ownership.
Yes, fuel costs certainly add up especially with the gas prices of today. Obviously the reason your's sucks fuel is because of the super charger
Regarding the coils - what kills them (other than poor manufacturing) is heat, overdriving them with too much current, or shorted spark plugs. Or, a combination.
A fouled plug should trip the computer of your year range but sad to say sometimes that doesn't always happen until the plug is extremely bad. So the tech guy who plugged in the computer might have missed that because he's soley relying on the OBD-II diagnostics tool he's using.
Further, if all the cars he/she fixes and tested are naturally aspirated, and he test drives your truck with the supercharger, he might immediately notice it's quicker than what he's used to, therefore concluded it's fine as far as driveability - even if it's not quite right simply because even if it's not running optimally, it probably has a lot more kick than what he/she's used to servicing.
Don't forget the days of common sense mechanics seem to be long gone, and the new breed of professional trained folks rely heavily on what a computer tells them to do, then follow a book/guide to replace the indicated items by the computer. There's not as much thought about the engineering and mechanical aspect of automobiles as there was even 10 years ago, forget 40 years ago.
Not defending the technician, just offering you another perspective of what might have gone wrong with your last service call.
Diagnostic equipment can be very, very useful, but so can having enough sense to pull the plugs and look at them, check the base timing and various other "old school" things as well.
Glad to hear that most of your woes are fixed.
As for mileage? 10 mpg...is probably not that far off, even with supercharger. The super is not hurting your mileage if you're not into boost basically. What gears out back? I think that is more a milage detriment then anything.
Friends '07 F150/5.4 doesn't get barely 11 mpg in town, 13 on highway and it's stock(with 3.73 gears-tow package).
If you think about it, you could possibly get away with better rear gear ratio(like 3.55) and use the boost to pull yourself when you need it. That would increase your mileage slightly, but probably take a few years to pay for changeover. It's a trade off.
My '96 F350/460/auto dually had a Vortech on it, and I loved it. Of course back then when I put it on, gas was CHEAP! (much cheaper compared to today). It got 10 mpg daily driving and it had 4.10 gears. It flat out flew when you put the 5# of boost to it! It ran hi 15's and back in those days, Lightnings were going low 15's.
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1967 F100 352/4spd
1969 F100 428CJ/4 spd
and a few hot rod FORD cars too
64 Galaxie with blown 390 4 spd
64 Galaxie wagon with 428 5 spd 2006 UMTR POWERSHIFT
POINTS CHAMPION
Here's the latest. Last week I took the truck for a drive and encountered "Failsafe Mode". Code reader indicated a problem w/ the TPS. I took it to a local dealer who informed me that it would not be warranted because of the supercharger. Great. They could not provide me w/ a reason as to how the TPS could be damaged by the supercharger, they just said, "you have a superhcarger", so no warranty on intake / fuel system related parts. It cost me 300 bucks, but I was back on the road. I drove the truck 5 miles home and parked it for a week (I ride a motorcycle to work). The next plan for the truck was a 2 week road trip to Florida to pick up a 15 foot cargo trailer and bring back to Cali. On Sunday night (2 days ago), I told the wife I wanted to take the truck to dinner just "to make sure it was good to go". Well, on the way back from dinner I encountered the same error.
So, w/ the looming road tip in doubt, I took it to the local dealer again (not the selling dealer). The told me that the computer most likely needed to be re-flashed, but since they couldn't do it (I told them not to because of the custom mapping done by Powerworks) they said they couldn't help me and the error would just come back if they cleared.
Sooooo... I limped the truck back to the origninal dealer (farther away) and prepared myself for battle. I told them I was now deep in hate w/ the truck that I loved so much the first night. I told them I was concerned about three key disclosure issues:
1. The truck required 91 octane
2. The wattanty would be fine (not the case as demo'ed by the other dealer)
3. The computer could not be re-flashed which meant no dealer could perform complete service when re-flash was required.
So I had a sit-down w/ the general manager to discuss what my options were. After listening to me, and interjecting w/ various bits of commentary, he came at me w/ this proposal:
"I want to take care of you because I want to sell cars to you and your kids in the future. I will take your truck in the back and restore your intake system to stock. I will put the supercharger and all the parts that go w/ it into a box and give that to you. This will take several days and I know you are going on a road trip w/ your family; so I have a 2005 Expedition, Eddie Bauer w/ a DVD player for your kids that I will loan you for your road trip. I'll have my guys change the oil and bring it around. Your truck should be ready when you return from your vacation. No charge."
Needless to say, I was shocked. Not only was I going to get to keep my truck, I was going to profit on the supercharger at some point, and most inportantly, I wasn't going to put 6000+ miles on my truck!
So, in retrospect, I must say that the dealer tried their best to make me happy and make sure things were right. Obviously when it got to the point that band-aids weren't going to work, they stepped up and gave me exaclty what I wanted on the night I bought the truck, "that truck without the supercharger". I loved the power of the charger, and I don't think the supercharger is to blame in this entire episode. It simply became the focus of my frustration after things kept piling up.
So, anyway, the point of my post is that Huntington Beach Ford gets a big thumbs up from me on how they've decided to silence my anger and trepidaton when it came to my new-to-me truck.
TPS (throttle position sensor) is a simple gadget, though must be properly set when installed(this takes a digital voltmeter).
Either the TPS or the computer apparently was sending/receiving erroneous codes that the computer could not decifer....thus the limp mode. Could be a simple wiring issue, TPS or actual computer(as they note). With the aftermarket programming, I'm sure they didn't want to mess with it. Too bad it was not a portable programmer you could use any time you needed to reset back to stock. Oh well.
Kudos to the dealer for actually following through with your wishes. That's real surprising. On a side note, when I traded my '96 for the new '99 SD the dealer told me to remove the SC because they didn't want to have to deal with it and the next owner. Hmmm, suppose these new set ups are a whole lot more to deal with, as the old Vortech was a simple removal.
__________________
1967 F100 352/4spd
1969 F100 428CJ/4 spd
and a few hot rod FORD cars too
64 Galaxie with blown 390 4 spd
64 Galaxie wagon with 428 5 spd 2006 UMTR POWERSHIFT
POINTS CHAMPION
WOW dude... HUGE kudos to that dealer... I had my truck at the dealer for repairs that they quoted me would take less than 3 hours. Sat there for 4 hours and then they had the balls to ask me if I had a ride home because the mechanic working on my truck wanted to leave... an hour before the shop actually closed I might add. Not a single offer of trying to give me a loaner vehicle. And yet... I still don't know why I continue taking my truck there...
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