Superchip or Burnt chip?
#1
10-14-1999, 07:26 PM
Join Date: Oct 1999
Location: Forest Lake, Mn.
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Superchip or Burnt chip?
I've been reading a lot about Superchips here but nobody has mentioned having their stock chip burnt or reprogrammed. After talking to some of my friends they all recommend that I have my stock chip burnt. They said that by doing that you can actually get more horsepower out of it among some other small changes. Does anybody know the difference between the to and why one might be better than the other? Has anybody had their stock chip burnt? Thanks, ZRracer
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98' F-150, Off Road, Short Box, Blue, 4.6, K&N, Auto, Captain Chairs, Dual Exhaust
Alpine CD Player, (2) 10" Rockford Fosgate Subwoofers and a big ol' Arctic Cat
sticker on the rear sliding window!!!!! Soon to be chipped!!!
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98' F-150, Off Road, Short Box, Blue, 4.6, K&N, Auto, Captain Chairs, Dual Exhaust
Alpine CD Player, (2) 10" Rockford Fosgate Subwoofers and a big ol' Arctic Cat
sticker on the rear sliding window!!!!! Soon to be chipped!!!
#2
10-14-1999, 07:48 PM
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Location: Michigan Rocks and then some too!!!
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Well for one it would NOT be reverseable, unlike the Superchip which pulls out if the need arrises. Another thing might be the cost. Any time the dealer gets ahold of your Truck, get out your credit card, cuz, it'll be big. The auto makers are still limited by the epa standards and I doubt that they could legally increase your power much. I guess if you had a special use vehical instead of a daily driver, you could do that, but you better like it cuz it will cost more to make adjustments, whereas the chip can be sent back to flash, and it also won't disable the vehical while it is being flashed either. I suspect you'll be hearing more on this as I am no authority. I'm just giving you something to think about.
#3
10-15-1999, 05:17 PM
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Thanks all, for your replies. Mike, it definitely sounds like I'll be ordering a Superchip from you soon. I just have to set aside some cash for it!! Thanks, -ZRracer
------------------
98' F-150, Off Road, Short Box, Blue, 4.6, K&N, Auto, Captain Chairs, Dual Exhaust
Alpine CD Player, (2) 10" Rockford Fosgate Subwoofers and a big ol' Arctic Cat
sticker on the rear sliding window!!!!! Soon to be chipped!!!
------------------
98' F-150, Off Road, Short Box, Blue, 4.6, K&N, Auto, Captain Chairs, Dual Exhaust
Alpine CD Player, (2) 10" Rockford Fosgate Subwoofers and a big ol' Arctic Cat
sticker on the rear sliding window!!!!! Soon to be chipped!!!
#4
10-16-1999, 12:20 AM
Former Sponsor
Dear ZRacer,
"Andthensometoo" made some excellent points & observations, and I'd like to add to that a bit if I may.....
There isn't any way to do that at this time, due to the design of the Ford computer. The only way to get a performance program into your Ford computer is to use a performance chip. There is currenly no device on the market that can load a performance program into your computer's original EPROM. Hypertech has been advertising their future device to do this for over a year now, and they still aren't close to shipping. Superchips too, is working on the same type of device, which is basically a portable hand-held programming computer, to allow you to reflash the computer via the ALDL serial port under your dash. This is a much more expensive way to accomplish this task, so that is why nobody is in a rush to get a more expensive device that won't make any more power to market.
Also, it doesn't matter whether you reflash your existing eeprom, or you use another eprom externally via a performance chip, neither method makes any difference whatsoever to the qualty of the program contained within, so you're not getting accurate information on this, I'm afraid. The only thing that matters is what is contained within the program's instructions. Period.
Just to give you a little background on the design of Ford's EEC-IV and the newer 96 & up EEC-V computers, they have always had a surface mounted eprom, so it's never been socketed or replaceable. So the way to program that computer has always been via the edge connector on the rear of the circuit board, which is the J3 connector, as per Ford's design. All EEC-IV computers, which is what every computer controlled Ford uses for the 1995 and earlier model years, have to be programmed that way. With the advent of OBD-II in the 1996 model year, Ford introduced their "flash" unit, which is the computer you have, the EEC-V. It can be programmed either via the edge conector, or via the ALDL port under the dash, (that's how your dealer would do it if your computer needed to be reflashed for some driveability issue) however, nobody in the aftermarket currently has anything available to program it via the ALDL port, which is the only way to reflash the *original* eprom chip in that computer. That being the case, the only way to get a performance program for that computer is via a performance chip, which will attach to the edge connector, and that acts like an on/off switch. When you connect to the edge connector, it tells the computer to turn off it's internal eprom, and to seek it's instructions via the edge connector's data path. So all instructions are still being processed by the computer as normal, it's just a matter of changing it's instructions. And it doesn't matter if you reflash the original chip, or use an external unit, you get the exact same results, it's the *program* that matters.
I hope that helps your understanding of this, and please feel free to give us a call if you'd like to discuss this in greater detail.
------------------
Mike Troyer
Performance Products, Inc.
National Distributor of Superchips
(540) 862-9515
Email: mtroyer@compuserve.com
[This message has been edited by Superchips_Distributor (edited 10-15-1999).]
"Andthensometoo" made some excellent points & observations, and I'd like to add to that a bit if I may.....
There isn't any way to do that at this time, due to the design of the Ford computer. The only way to get a performance program into your Ford computer is to use a performance chip. There is currenly no device on the market that can load a performance program into your computer's original EPROM. Hypertech has been advertising their future device to do this for over a year now, and they still aren't close to shipping. Superchips too, is working on the same type of device, which is basically a portable hand-held programming computer, to allow you to reflash the computer via the ALDL serial port under your dash. This is a much more expensive way to accomplish this task, so that is why nobody is in a rush to get a more expensive device that won't make any more power to market.
Also, it doesn't matter whether you reflash your existing eeprom, or you use another eprom externally via a performance chip, neither method makes any difference whatsoever to the qualty of the program contained within, so you're not getting accurate information on this, I'm afraid. The only thing that matters is what is contained within the program's instructions. Period.
Just to give you a little background on the design of Ford's EEC-IV and the newer 96 & up EEC-V computers, they have always had a surface mounted eprom, so it's never been socketed or replaceable. So the way to program that computer has always been via the edge connector on the rear of the circuit board, which is the J3 connector, as per Ford's design. All EEC-IV computers, which is what every computer controlled Ford uses for the 1995 and earlier model years, have to be programmed that way. With the advent of OBD-II in the 1996 model year, Ford introduced their "flash" unit, which is the computer you have, the EEC-V. It can be programmed either via the edge conector, or via the ALDL port under the dash, (that's how your dealer would do it if your computer needed to be reflashed for some driveability issue) however, nobody in the aftermarket currently has anything available to program it via the ALDL port, which is the only way to reflash the *original* eprom chip in that computer. That being the case, the only way to get a performance program for that computer is via a performance chip, which will attach to the edge connector, and that acts like an on/off switch. When you connect to the edge connector, it tells the computer to turn off it's internal eprom, and to seek it's instructions via the edge connector's data path. So all instructions are still being processed by the computer as normal, it's just a matter of changing it's instructions. And it doesn't matter if you reflash the original chip, or use an external unit, you get the exact same results, it's the *program* that matters.
I hope that helps your understanding of this, and please feel free to give us a call if you'd like to discuss this in greater detail.
------------------
Mike Troyer
Performance Products, Inc.
National Distributor of Superchips
(540) 862-9515
Email: mtroyer@compuserve.com
[This message has been edited by Superchips_Distributor (edited 10-15-1999).]
#5
10-18-1999, 02:08 PM
Former Sponsor
