mike: am very satisfied with your s/c in my 97 xlt 4.6l f-150. would the addition of the b&m kit add, detract, or do nothing...if you're familiar with that kit.

 

Hi dgreene,

Yes, we are familiar with the B&M electronic "shift improver", and we don't care for it.

It does what it says OK, it will firm the shifts more and so it does what they claim, which is cool for just $40 I suppose, that's not the problem at all. It's *how* it does it that we don't care for. What it does is splice into the ECU's wiring harness, so that it can "spike" the voltage signal being sent to the shift solenoids, and that is how it achieves a firmer shift. This is a poor technique, as the shift solenoids are prone to failure when pushed by spiking the voltage like that, and those shift solenoids are on their 8th or 9th revision by now, as Ford has been trying to improve their design over the past few years, with some limited success. They are attached to the valve body and hence always bathed in hot transmission fluid, so you want to keep the fluid cool (no more than 200 degrees, which means an auxilliary cooler for almost everyone is needed for best service life) and not spike the voltage being sent to them, as that just makes them hammer harder, wearing them out faster.

Even the documentation inside the B&M shift improver will tell you not to run it on the highest setting for any length of time, as it will damage those solenoids pretty quickly if used like that.

All that having been said, there are a number of guys who are using both the Superchip and that B&M unit together, and aren't having problems.

It's just that with our knowledge of the problems with these shift solenoids already over the years, we don't like using anything that will further shorten their service life. If it was just a matter of having to replace those solenoids themselves say, once a year or something, I wouldn't care much about that, they're only about $20 each. It's that once the solenoids are damaged, you may not know it and that can cause other internal transmission damage, which may only present itself when it's gone pretty far, and major repairs are needed. Granted that is worst case scenario, but we have actually seen that happen in a few cases over the years.

So the bottom line is that others are using it both by itself and in conjunction with the Superchip, and most are doing fine, it's just something that we would not do. If we want harder shifts, we'll just do a custom program in the Superchip, so the solenoids aren't hammered, and if need be, also install a proper shift kit, that's just how we prefer to do it. Actually, we're doing just that in our Lincoln Mark 8, we're using a custom Superchip and a Transgo shift kit installed on it's lightest setting, and this gives a very ncie shift feel. It's still light on light throttle, but when you romp on it, the 1-2 & even the 2-3 will chirp, with the power that motor has and the lighter weight of the Mark 8 compared to an F-150.

Best of luck whatever you decide,

------------------
Mike Troyer
Performance Products, Inc.
National Distributor of Superchips
(540) 862-9515
Email: mtroyer@compuserve.com
Performance Products F150Online Superchip ordering system: F150Online Superchip Ordering System
First National F-150 Online Rally Event Organizer

 

thank you mike. your answers are always informative and interesting. glad i lucked out and went the s/c way!