engine chips for tow vehical

[g4sbrg]

I have a 2000 f150 5.4 gas, I looked up online engine computer chips. states better gpm and 60 extra HP. any of yall running performance chips. SEE ANY DIFFERENCE ??? I cant imagine not wanting the extra 60HP pulling my 5ver

[ol_Bombero-JC]

JIMNLIN wrote:
60 more actual HP from a little '00 5.4 small block gas engine with a chip is a big stretch for any gas engine we tow with.

On a old engine like that I would concentrate on air in and air out.

However this is a 5th wheel camper forum. You would get a better response from the tow vehicle forum.

Ditto.... the *Tow Vehicle* forum will get lots more replies, discussion, debate, brand flames, etc...:R

~

[MC9]

I put a 5 Star tuner on my 08 f-250 v-10. What I wanted was the shift points fixed while towing, it did that. A side benefit was it cut the 0 to 60 distance almost in half.

[AZ_T_T]

I ran a Super Chip programmer on my 2000 F350 V10. It helped a little. The thing that helped the most was changing the shift points while towing.

[NC_Hauler]

g4sbrg wrote:
I have a 2000 f150 5.4 gas, I looked up online engine computer chips. states better gpm and 60 extra HP. any of yall running performance chips. SEE ANY DIFFERENCE ??? I cant imagine not wanting the extra 60HP pulling my 5ver

Are you planning on towing a 5er with your truck? Just curious, you did post on the 5th wheel forum....just curious.

[billkaufmann]

g4sbrg wrote:
I have a 2000 f150 5.4 gas, I looked up online engine computer chips. states better gpm and 60 extra HP. any of yall running performance chips. SEE ANY DIFFERENCE ??? I cant imagine not wanting the extra 60HP pulling my 5ver

Waste of money!

[msredneck84]

I have a custom programmer on my Ford diesel and it really works and does what it is advertised to do. But as one poster commented diesel and gasoline engines are two entirely different animals.
Actually I have little experience with tuned gasoline engines, but I do know that basically what they do, as with diesel engines, is add more air and more fuel-hence more HP and more heat. Heat is the death of an engine. It may take awhile but you will prematurely destroy your engine.

[Bamaman11]

Unless a vehicle is turbocharged or supercharged, the tuner's a waste. They're getting about 85 more hp out of the tuner on a EcoBoost engine, and driveability is where the addition is really improved.

My old 7.3 SuperDuty with a 80 hp tuner is really a hoss. Before I made the change, everyday driving performance was really marginal.

Go for a better air intake system and a more open exhaust system. Even if it doesn't help your performance, you'll think it did--from the noise.

[valhalla360]

If it was that simple to boost MPG and get 60hp with no negative side effects...ford would have done it already.

[g4sbrg]

5ver with a F150 5.4?

well, sounds to me from your comments its either not going to achieve much or burn something up long term, my f150 is rated for 8800 lbs towing and has increased payload which handles the 1200 hitch weight very well, my 5ver maxes out at 8200 fully loaded, I just wanted to get up the hills here in northern Arkansas a bit faster, but it sounds like I should make do until a get a new truck.
thanks

[laknox]

g4sbrg wrote:
I have a 2000 f150 5.4 gas, I looked up online engine computer chips. states better gpm and 60 extra HP. any of yall running performance chips. SEE ANY DIFFERENCE ??? I cant imagine not wanting the extra 60HP pulling my 5ver

You don't want a "chip", you want a tuner, so you can tweak settings and, if necessary, restore the stock settings. Also, when you bump up h.p. ratings like that, you're likely to significantly shorten the lifespan of transmissions and other driveline components. You pretty much have to build a whole package; bigger/add-on oil coolers; beefed up tranny; beefed up rear-end; bigger intake; bigger exhaust. I know that the setting on my old Banks Bullet tuner will give my D'max about 50-60 more h.p. in "sport" mode, but will destroy the turbo in pretty short order if I try towing my 10k+ FW with it, as that's a real weak link in the stock D'max's of that vintage. I run in T/H mode and added a Monster Exhaust as the best option, given my limited funds at the time. On level ground, with no wind, I'll even drop back to stock mode to save fuel. Even that extra 10-12 h.p. the tuner gives =costs=.

Lyle

[time2roll]

60HP? Does it come with a blower? You will have no real effective power gain at the RPM that you tow.
Fuel mileage increase will never really pay for the programmer.

Otherwise if you have issues consider changing the gear ratio. 3.55 to 4.10 will make a real difference.
And you may need a programmer to tell the truck it has new gears...

[N-Trouble]

Shouldn't confuse diesel tuning with gas. Two completely different capabilities/results. Sorry but 60HP pickup with a chip on a gas motor is an outright lie...

You might pick up 10-15 but have to move to premium fuel to do so. The biggest difference you see with tuning a gas engine is in how the transmission will shift and perform.

[TurnThePage]

I chipped my '97 4.6 and burned a valve while mountain towing soon after. And before the damage, there really was very little performance improvement. Rebuilding it with RV cams and overall better breathing woke mine up pretty good. In honesty the BEST performance upgrade by far was regearing from 3.55 to 4.10.

[Sturgeon-Phish]

I have a tune on my truck and it did improve fuel mileage (towing and not) and towing power and no nasty side effects.
If you do start messing with the tune get at a minimum an exhaust gas temperture gauge (EGT) because you can get into trouble if you do not watch it. Also keep in mind as in the case with the early Alison trans 5 spds, you can produce more power than the transmission was designed to handle in stock form. Not so much an issue with later years.
Lastly, once youhave a tune do not rely on fuel mileage data from the Driver Information Center (DIC). The non-stock pulse rates mess with the calculations. My truck is off 3 MPG from DIC to hand calculated.
JIm