Performance Chips

[Huey]

Do they make a very noticeable difference in the performance of our Explorers? We just got an '01 Sport and are looking for a little more power. Also, I think that the tranny needs to downshift just a little faster when the pedal is pressed. Does a chip help this? After putting a Diablo chip in my '01 Lightning I couldn't imagine driving the truck without it. Just kinda wondering if this would be the same way. Thanks

 

[DarkFox1]

some chips do alter shift points, I beleive the diablo is one such chip.

according to what I've read the superchip offers about 21hp (rated) and the diablo similar, cost is about $300 all in all it seems. There is some question of whether these will void your warranty and/or fail you in inspections, I'm not sure the final results on those issues, however if your dealership is anything like mine, they will scold you for modifying something and threaten your warranty, but never take any action about it.

The reason I haven't gotten one of these chips is the requirement for a higher fuel octane, most of these require 91 or 93 to even prevent detonation. This accompanied with a fuel econ decrease.. the cost of driving goes up, and I'm already getting 9 mpg.

I may be wrong on a few of these issues there have been many many posts on this topic in the past, perhaps a search could dig some of this info. up.

 

[B94Sport]

When I put a Superchip in my '94 Sport w/ Automatic, I noticed the following changes:

1) The engine will rev higher (almost to the redline) when I stomp on it, before the tranny will shift gears.

2) There was not a very noticable difference in acceleration from 0-55, but top end acceleration (passing on the highway) was vastly improved due to the fact that with the chip, when I stomped on the pedal to pass, the tranny would downshift much faster and stay in the lower gear longer than stock.

3) My fuel economy (as long as I don't drive like an ass), is still the same... My engine has 118,000 original miles on it, as does the tranny, both still run perfectly, and I get 20 MPG on the highway and about 16 in the city.

4) The stock speed governer was indeed moved up, like Superchips claims. I believe that the stock governer on my year was 95 MPH. I managed to verify this by getting a speeding ticket for 105 MPH in a 70 MPH zone on my way back to school in Michigan from Chicago. No, I was not trying to get a ticket to verify it! I won't be doing that again. $$$$

5) Superchips claims that they adjust the A/F ratio as well... I am not sure if this is true on my truck or not, because I got an A/F ratio gauge after the chip was installed, but I do know that the A/F ratio with the chip in, according to the gauge, is almost never stoichiometric... It usually runs slightly rich.

 

[aldive]

Take a look at the new Diablo Delta chip..... Dead Link Removed

 

[DarkFox1]

firmer shifting? thats not even possible. my car jerks worse than any bad standard driver I've ever seen.

also: "A minimum of 91 octane is required and 93 is recommended. "

I wouldn't recommend such a thing for a daily driver, esepcailly if you can't feel the difference as b94sport said. it'd just cost more to do the same thing.

 

[aldive]

Originally posted by DarkFox1
firmer shifting? thats not even possible.

I wouldn't recommend such a thing for a daily driver,

Please explain that comment.

Why?

 

[DarkFox1]

well, I dunno about yall, but my daily driving hardly breaks 60. b94sport said he noticed no changes in anything except highway speeds (I dont wanna put words in his mouth, so I needed to get that straight). whats more, theres no fuel econ. increase, and if it is its not signifigant. But the chip requires you to run higher octane fuel. 91-93.. most people run 87 or 89 so that would be an increase in fuel cost w/o an increase in daily driving power. IMO, that equates "not worth it" unless you go on lots of long trips.

the transmission thing. the chip's site mentions that it makes the transmission shifts "firmer".. well mine shifts so hard now its downright painful, so I couldn't imagine the thing shifting any firmer.

 

[Alec]

No offense Darkfox, but I don't think your Mounty can be a benchmark for anything. Seems like you've been having motor and tranny problems for a long time, but still base your opinions on the (poor) performance of your truck. I'm not knockin ya or anything, it's just try to be realistic.

Anyway, when I had my Hypertech chip, the performance increase was noticable across the board. The higher octance allows the chip to alter the fuel and timing curves for more power. As long as the fuel is being burnt, there aren't any harmful effects from higher octane. It's when you put in higher octane without the need that it leaves carbon buildup. As for cost, in the long run it equates to a couple hundred dollars a year at most. That's still money, but in the long run not as much as you'd think.

 

[Jason_25]

Originally posted by DarkFox1
firmer shifting? thats not even possible. my car jerks worse than any bad standard driver I've ever seen.

also: "A minimum of 91 octane is required and 93 is recommended. "

I wouldn't recommend such a thing for a daily driver, esepcailly if you can't feel the difference as b94sport said. it'd just cost more to do the same thing.

Dude I am meaning to be harsh here and I think I speak for alot of people. Your truck is a POS. I'm sorry, but it is. So quit whining about it until you decide to listen to us and atleast attempt figure out what is wrong.

 

[Huey]

Delta Chip

Aldive, The new Delta Chip is what I have in my Lightning, and that on/off setting is a wonderful thing. I have 2 programs- one for street, one for strip. The cost of higher octane fuel is an issue, but it's a trade-off I would be willing to make for better prformance.
B94sport, your post clears a lot up for me. Judging from the locations you list there's a lot of travelling. It's hard to drive that much and not get a ticket . Thanks to all that replied.

 

[DarkFox1]

why dont you give me the money and I will.. I'm out every day trying to get a job.. there is on turnover in this pathetic city.. not even walmart has a job opening. I have $300.. and you know thats not even enough to get an estimate with...

I do not hve a performance chip, I was basing what I was saying on what b94sport said in conjunction with what the diablo website said. The transmission thing was after my own assumptions based on my car but theres nothing I can do about that except spend the several thousand it takes to replace it.... which I do not have.

I'm trying to be helpful to people, I'm not trying to whine about my problems, besides, sometimes its a good idea to give a more negative side of something for the sake of argument. Like the KKM, everywhere I saw it was wonderful before I bought it.. I got me one, I didn't notice a difference, then people were sort of "oh yea, its temperature is 10 deg. warmer than ambient" had I known that before I may not have gotten it, ya gotta assume both best/worst case scenarios when considering a purchase.

 

[aldive]

Originally posted by DarkFox1
Like the KKM, everywhere I saw it was wonderful before I bought it.. I got me one, I didn't notice a difference, then people were sort of "oh yea, its temperature is 10 deg. warmer than ambient" had I known that before I may not have gotten it, ya gotta assume both best/worst case scenarios when considering a purchase.

Say what? Please explain that statement.

 

[DarkFox1]

heh, the kkm filter kit, kurtz kustoms, it replaces the stock air box with a cone filter, I wanted some more power (and still do) so I got me one, a lot of people were saying it gave thne some decent power and helped out on sound and a lof of other things. I put mine on, there was no performance change but it did make my exhaust sound quite nice. so I started asking around about why on some days it drove great and some days it was slower than..... I dunno.. a turtle.. coudn't thin of anything creative there.. anyway, I found out essentially that the temperature is a lot more drastic in the performance limitations causd. Because the air temp was naturally 10 degrees warmer than ambient.. (the temp outside) I'm not sure if this is whats drastically effecting my perofrmance, but certainly everyone agrees 70 degrees is better with this filter than 92. I didn't know this before hand, so I think its important that people argue both ways for things to get the pros and cons clear for any given situation.

sorry if I sounded rude earlier.. but I'm serious, i dont have but about $300.. and that has to last me till octobor unless I get myself a job REAL soon.

 

[aldive]

I have had a KKm for several years and it does help with power as well as gas mileage for me.

The IAT is no more than 3-5 degrees F over ambient at speeds over 40 MPH with the KKM.

 

[Alec]

I also notice significant power loss when it's hot outside. However, this happened with the stock airbox also. Add to the fact that my supercharger heats up the intake charge (no intercooler ) and the open filter has little to no effect on power due to hot weather.

 

[DarkFox1]

well I guess I'm just crazy or something, I've about been brainwashed into thinking theres nothing wrong with my truck.. combined efforts from the ford dealership and my parents.. maybe its all in my head, sorry yall, I guess I dont have any more constructive input

 

[Robert]

When my Explorer started throwing misfire codes last week, I pulled my Superchip out along the side of the road thinking it might be the culprit. The erros persisted until I pulled over again and found my MAF had loosened up from my intake hose. I didn't bother putting my Superchip back in at the time so when I filled up with gas, I put regular 87 in. I decided to finish out the tank of regular octane before putting my Superchip back in. I got 255 miles out of that tank with the Superchip removed. All of the tanks for the last several months prior to this one were 270-290 miles. The difference more than offsets the .20 a gallon price difference. I never believed that my Superchip had an affect on my gas mileage until this one tank. I'm not ready to fully believe it yet so I want to run more tests later to find out if it does have the affect that the one tank seemed to show.

Regarding whether or not you can tell it is in. The one tank that I ran without mine kept making me want to pull over and put it back in. My transmission shifted so softly that it lived up to its nickname "slushbox". I could barely fell it shift. Full throttle shifting seemed to take forever before it shifted up to the next gear. It also shifted about 500 RPM sooner than with my Superchip installed. Once it was time to fill up again last Friday I put premium back in and went straight home and put my Superchip back in.

I can tell a definate difference with it in and out. My preference is with it in.

 

[SaleenEXP]

Superchips and Diablo are easily the best for chips, no offense to anyone that has a jet, I just haven't met anyone that was happy with the jet chip. You probably
won't see a good increase by just changing the chip. But if you add the mods first and then have the chip burned to accomodate the mods and whatever else you will see a huge increase. And they definitley firm (in a good way) up the shifts and make them faster to react.

A friend of mine had his Cobra dynoed w/ a Diablo chip. The 1st run was done with all the bolt ons he had. The 2nd one and the other runs with the Diablo and I remember he gained an average of 23.????rwhp and 25.????tq with the chip installed, it didn't affect shifting b/c it's a manual but his engine rev's fast as hell now, right when you get on the gas it's almost at redline already , which probably isn't saying much scine that dohc engine is fast as hell in stock form. This was done a few weeks ago.

A little off-topic but my neighbor has an Audi S4 w/ an APR chip, exhaust, headers, intake, downpipe ect ect.
The chip alone boosted the hp from 250 to 350hp. And with the other mods he's pushing 400hp. It has torque up the ass. The APR chip is expensive though and the bi-turbo engine respods to mods very nicely b/c basically it's a twin turbo. The APR chip increases the boost w/ perfect reliability which is why it can give that car an extra 100 hp and equal amount of torque.

I wish our trucks would respond to a chip like the
Audi S4 does to the APR chip. Even though it's around a thousand dollars depending on which version you get, I think it would be worth it to add an extra 100hp, unfortunatley we don't have a turbo on our trucks

He also has an 02' 2wd Ex with the 4.6, and he's planning on doing a lot to it. (All the bolt on's available for the Mustang plus the new twin-screw charger from KenneBell which I also plan on doing once I get my 02' Mounty, but I'm trying to decide whether I should charge it or not.
so heres two questions:

1) He wants to know what chip you guys would use, scince my friend with the Cobra got an awsome increase with the Diablo chip, but thats on the DOHC engine. Another friend has a regular GT (auto) with a superchip and also got a nice increase with his, but thats on the SOHC engine. So I would say go with the Superchip with SOHC, but he likes the idea of the Diablo Delta chip, so what would you use on the SOHC?

2) Should I charge the 02' Mounty or not? It won't be right when I get it, but I'll do all the bolt-ons I can from the Mustang before I charge it. After I saw that supercharged 02' Mounty in Truckins Suv magazine I seriously want that truck . I'm also looking at the twin-screw from KenneBell because they hold their boost better and hold your peak torque at any rpm compared to other chargers. I would like to see what Troll's output would be if he had a twin-screw charger on it

heh, sorry this was a long reply

 

[Huey]

If it were me I would go with the Kenne Bell. It's hard to beat the low-end punch of a positive displacement supercharger. I used to have a '96 Ranger 4.0 with a BBK supercharger on it and I loved it. The only thing was the fact that it gave me fits until I had it dyno-tuned and then had a custom chip burned for it. The one that came with the kit didn't quite do it for me.
Superchips and Diablo both make excellent chips. I used a superchip in the Ranger, and now I'm using a Diablo in my Lightning. As for the Explorer I haven't decided yet. I'm trying to gather a little more feedback before I decide because I don't want an overly agressive shift program. It's my wifes daily driver.

 

[SaleenEXP]

Originally posted by Huey
If it were me I would go with the Kenne Bell. It's hard to beat the low-end punch of a positive displacement supercharger. I used to have a '96 Ranger 4.0 with a BBK supercharger on it and I loved it. The only thing was the fact that it gave me fits until I had it dyno-tuned and then had a custom chip burned for it. The one that came with the kit didn't quite do it for me.
Superchips and Diablo both make excellent chips. I used a superchip in the Ranger, and now I'm using a Diablo in my Lightning. As for the Explorer I haven't decided yet. I'm trying to gather a little more feedback before I decide because I don't want an overly agressive shift program. It's my wifes daily driver.

I'm definitley going w/ KenneBell because you basically have full boost almost right off idle until redline. Even if you don't like Chevy's, find one with a Whipple Twin-Screw Charger installed , damn they are fast. Whipple just brought out a twin-crew for the Ford V-10 and 5.4 so I wonder if they'll bring one out for the 4.6. There was a kid at my college that had a KenneBell on his Expedition and was running low-mid 14's but that was in one seriously heavy truck. I can't believe he ran those times, he had an Edelbrock exhaust and it sounded like a big-block but with the burble of a sohc, pretty sweet. He had the Lightning body kit on it, lightning wheels and badges, seats, basically everything the lightning has except for the Eaton supercharger and side exit exhuast. It looked mean as hell, but some dumbass got jealous or something and keyed Poser into his hood.