As an avid performance gimick follower I just saw on E-bay promises of 35 HP or 5-10 MPG gains by a product called: SURGE PERFORMANCE Chips. They have a large E-bay store and ridiculously cheap prices. Hint Hint... However, when I read Feedback it looks like their product is a resistor not a chip. Funny thing is Feedback ranges from "a Hoax" to "great product".....

Any folks with "Surge Performance" experiences????

Just Curious????

GARY

 

The Ebay "chips" are most commonly a resistor and instructions for you to install it in either the ECT or IAT harness. The key is, hard chips must be burned with an engine calibration code and once burned they will only work properly on that calibration.

Being you have a superduty there are alot of better options out there. My personal favorite is Sniper's Special Forces, but I have used a lot of Superchips and some Edge with good results.

 

You get what you pay for, the OBD II fords respond better to a programer than a chip, chips are old school. One of the best programers for ford, is the bama programer, Doug only tunes for ford and is vehicle computer and mode specific. He does awesome work, he can even get a 10 pound torque increase on 87 octane tune for the 4.0 ranger. Go with 92 or 93 octane tunes and they really rock. Programer are so much more versitle than a chip, new tunes can be added and updated, They can tune an auto tranny as well as the engine, correct speedo's for tire and gear swaps. You can check them out at www.bamachips.com, or one of our sponsers offers them at www.jusnesmodified.com.

 

Good information, thanks.

 

Nice, but they don't do Escapes
Try Superchips XCal 2

 

That sucks, did you contact Doug? I thought any could do any ford with the OBD II computer. I know he specialized in ranger/explorer and moved into mustangs, but thought he was pretty much doing all fords now upon request, maybe not. If not, the programer is still the way to go, I'm pretty sure either hypertech or superchips are doing programers for escapes, I seen one somewhere when we had our 01, I think it was in the MOSS catalog

 

No, just looked at their website.
The XCal is by Superchips and if he is good, I bet he could do an Escape.

 

OBD-1, and I don't think any of that will work for me. I tried a Hypertech programmer, but had to send it back because I didn't have a OBD-2 plug. The 1997's did(350's) or if my truck had been a California truck, it would have worked. Anyway, anybody got any suggestions? Thanks!!!

 

Sniper says they can go back to the mid 80's. Moates has some EEPROMs and such that work on EEC-IV. You'd have some difficulty finding someone that still burns chips, but that would be another option.

 

The SCT Xcal/3 doesn't work on a '09 V6 Escape or may not on any '09 Ford! I had one and had to return it because it wouldn't work. It had no transmission control right noe either but I knew that when I got it.

 

I wouldn't bother with a chip or programmer for an Escape since it's overall purpose isn't about peak performance, but rather versitality and utility usage.

 

Obviously, you never used the XCal on yours then. I can't even imagine why I bought my Trib after tuning with my XCal, the transmission changes alone are worth double the price of the device. The stock shifting is truly awful, and the tuner made all of that go away in less than 2 minutes. I also got about 2 extra mpg after tuning (as long as I didn't stomp on it).

Other than 09's, I have never heard anyone say anything bad about the XCal.