Ok so I knew when I bought my truck that it had some type of chip or flash in it...it is definitely faster and more powerful than stock, and it will blow a little bit of smoke. I've been fine with that, but I have noticed lately that the shifting pattern is a little slow, and I'm becoming more and more concerned that it isn't the best for my transmission's longevity.

Shifts are all a little delayed, especially from 1st to 2nd when I'm getting on it a lot. They are also a lot rougher than they are on my dad's truck or our Ex. I can literally hear the engine rev between the 1st and 2nd shift, and I don't think that's very good for my torque converter. Obviously, I am working to limit any type of aggressive driving, but this is still a concern for me.


I pulled the PCM this morning, and found no chip. I was hoping this was a simple plug in chip, so I could remove it and just go back to stock. Granted, stock is slower, but at least I would get better shift patterns. Well, there's really nothing I can do now except for get it flashed again with a different program.



I know this would be a great time to upgrade to a 6 position DP Tuner, or something similar, but I don't have gauges or supporting mods right now, and I really don't have the funds to do them soon. So what I'm thinking is that I may just get a single low hp tune flashed onto my PCM...I've already emailed DP-Tuner and explained my problem. Obviously, it will be at least a couple of days before I hear back from them though.

So in the meantime, I wanted to hear from all of you guys, mainly people who have or had DP tunes. Do you think I can run a low hp tune (something between 40 tow and 80 econ) safely? My main goal is NOT huge power increases right now. I enjoy the increased performance from my superchips program, and I don't want to lose that, but my main concern is having somewhat comparable power gains AND better transmission performance. Which tune do you think would give me the best transmission performance and SLIGHT safe power upgrades for daily driving?

Anyways, just tell me what y'all think about it. Any suggestions or input would be awesome. Merry Christmas!

 

Since you don't have gauges the safest option would be to get the pcm programmed to stock. I have the 80 tow tune on my pcm. If it was my daily driver it probably wouldn't work for me because of the higher shifting especially into overdrive. If you get a low tune you probably would at least want to do a high flow muffler or delete and consider getting an egt gauge.

 

Talk to DP. They can safely flash the PCM to give you better performance and shifting with no worries about no gauges since I assume you are not towing. You will not regret it

 

A friend of mine was running a single position chip from Cale at BTS, I believe it was 120 econo or something similar. I am not recommending this, but he ran it for 2-3 years like this, and no gauges, pulling a 12,000 pound camper once a month. He had no issues.

I drove the truck, and it would really get after it , you had to be careful not to spin the tires.... and when we pulled a pickup on my flatbed trailer(about 16-17 k gross) all I could say is WOW! I would guess he had about 29-310 at the rear wheels.

I think you will be OK with a modest tune without gauges if you are careful, but get gauges the minute you can!

EDIT: it also had some BTS magic done to the trans, shift kit, modded valve body etc.

 

how do you know it has a superchip flashpaq?? did you put it in or was it the previous owner?? do you have the controller? the flashpaqs can program the shift point in your tranny

 

Do you have a scan tool to check for codes? My truck started shifting funny and found out my EBP sensor was bad. Just something to look at.
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/9...great-now.html

 

I don't have ANYTHING from superchips, the previous owner just told me that "he had a tune flashed onto the truck when he bought it" and the place he did it at (local truck performance shop) uses superchips. That's literally all I know. I am planning on taking it to the shop monday, just to talk to them and maybe get them to look at it to tell me what I've got.

The thing is, I don't like how the tranny performs, and I DON'T like having superchips products on my truck. I would rather deal with lower performance and the stock program than have what I consider a low quality tune on the truck. I'm not a brand snob or anything, but I'm not a fan of generic tuners, and I really don't want to be running generic tunes on my truck.


I'll get my dad to scan my truck with AE, and we can check to see if any sensors are bad...that's a good idea.

 

If you can swing it, get an F6 chip with one tune for now. Then you can add tunes as you want by email, and it won't matter what your PCM program is right now.

 

I have seriously considered it, but I simply can't afford that expense right now. I really need to just get the tranny shifting correctly with a minimal expense, and keep it at that for now.

 

i have a superchips tuner we could try on it to see if it makes a difference. are you in town this week?

 

Actually Shawn since you have it, I would definitely be interested in trying...I won't be in town till Thursday or Friday though. If we can figure something out though, I would appreciate it. Thanks man!



I will say that no matter what I end up doing, if my truck keeps some tune in it, I'm going to be looking at an EGT gauge in the very near future, if nothing else. I've already deleted my muffler, so I am helping the engine out as best I can without spending a lot.

 

Get a pyro if your gonna run a superchips tune they like to run hot

 

Well, since Shawn has a programmer and is making it available to me, I am willing to try it out, but I honestly want out of the superchips tune soon. I have heard they like to run hot, and like I said before, I'm really not a fan of generic tunes in the first place. We'll see how it plays out though!

 

fixing to send you a pm

 

If you don't tow, a modest tune will be fine without gauges, provided you have intake & exhaust mods. I could stand on mine up to 90+ mph without it getting too hot. You definitely don't want to keep it much beyond that (for many reasons), but it will get hot quick after that with the little .84 a/r exh housing on the turbo. I would say 40-60 would be VERY safe, even 80 would be okay if you don't tow. Heck, I just towed ~6000 lbs with my hottest performance tune and it never really got much hotter than normal, but I have a few more mods.