I just received my SCMT the other day and did the upgrade. Now I know what a V-10 is suppose to do. Lately I have noticed some people talking about decrease of lifespan of the tranny and engine when using a chip. Would anybody care to expand on this? I love the new power from my truck but I also plan to keep the truck for a long time. Took me a long time to get and I don't want to lose her anytime soon. I would like to get as much info on possible side effects of using a chip. Thanks.

Mike

 

I think this may be true, but it is not due to the chip itself. I think it is reasonable to assume people who put chips in their trucks will drive them harder than people who don't.

 

The lifespan issue comes up with a chip because you are changing the relatively mild settings from the factory. With an old motor to squeeze more power you mess with your air/fuel ratio and timing. The chip is essentially doing the same. Just like the old engine, if you have the timing set at a very agressive level in the power band there is risk of pre detonation on your pistons with bad gas or the timing not retarding with lower rpm's. Bad stuff happens if it pre detonates too often. The engine will tend to run hotter also with agressive timing.
I think a chip is fairly safe because the computer can tell via sensors what to do even with the more agressive settings. I think the benefits outweigh the supposed durability issues. I've had a chip in a TPI 350 engine that sees hard use, and it still runs strong as ever.

 

Chip=more horsepower
More Horsepower=More Heat
More Heat=More fixing
Chip= More FUN

Basic High School Math 101

 

In my personal experience, anything you do to add performance will decrease the lifespan of the vehicle. The power from a chip comes from leaning out the fuel mixture and advancing timing. A lean engine runs hotter, advanced timing can result in detonation if fuel quality isn't 100% or the timing is too agressive for evironmental factors, both result in decreased engine life. Also, more power equals more stress on all components of the drivetrain, shortening their lifespan as well.

IMHO, anything that is done aftermarket to add performance is a compromise with longetivity and reliability. I'm certainly not knocking the chips they sell here, they will add performance and do what they say, I'd just point out to you that there is a trade off.

Waxy

 

I wouldn't worry too much about it. A chip in a gas engine will, at best, only increase power by 10% to 15% regardless of what the vendor claims. So, running a chip means that your engine "breaks" at 180,000 instead of 200,000 miles. That's something I think most performance enthusiasts are willing to accept.

 

Thanks for the info. NOMO summed it up for me and I think that I can accept that. Nice to know that the engine won't give out before 100,000 (hopefully).

Mike

 

Gasoline chips do not make engines run hotter. Premium fuel runs slightly cooler than regular fuel due to its lower flash point and slower flame front. Because of this, the air/fuel mixture can be leaned out by about 2% resulting in more power with about the same engine temps as a stock engine. Additionally, so long as you run premium with a chip, detonation is not an issue.

Performance does not always compromise longevity. Performance compromises either longevity or your wallet, but not neccesarily both. Consider roller cams. A proper grind won't compromise longevity but they are more expensive to build. Or a 4BBL carb verses a 2BBL... no compromise there but they cost more. Or carb verses fuel injection. Or one injector per cylinder verses a throttle body injector. None of these compromise longevity. Fact is, they all increase performance without impacting longevity.

Yes, there are a couple of compromises with a gas chip. They increase clutch life in automatics but at the expense of a firmer shift and if you abuse your truck I guess its possible you could impact u-joint life but I've never heard of a single case of this (u-joints typically outlast most everything in a vehicle). You get 10% more horsepower but you pay 10-20% more for premium fuel and you have no choice but to run premium. 10% is not extreme and two identical vehicles from Ford can vary horsepower by 10% off the lot. 10% will have no impact on the bottom end of the engine, which is of the most concern when increasing performance. There's a huge differnece between a 25HP chip and a 150 HP nitrous shot.

Typically, most of the time many performance modifications impact engine life is when the driver gets a lead foot because of the added performance. If you drove like that with a stock engine it would impact life as well.

 

[updated:LAST EDITED ON 22-Sep-02 AT 10:50 PM (EST)]I tend to believe that if you beat the crap out of something or don't maintain it you will have problems early,regardless of HP increases.If you drive a chipped equipped vehicle 50% of the time unloaded vs a non chipped vehicle towing 9,000lbs. all of the time,I have a feeling you're going to wear something out on the 100% towing vehicle first,and it isn't necessarily going to be the engine or trans. first either.

My .02 worth