This might be a stupid question for my 1st post but here goes anyhow.

Backgound: my wife had a 2002 LZT Trailblazer with the 270hp 6cyl engine. She really liked it but it was a gas hog. So she trades that in (at my suggestion) for a 2006 VW Jetta TDI diesel. Fantastic mileage and pretty good acceleration but she missed the security of her SUV. She then bought her 2008 Mariner fully loaded approximately 2 months ago(again my suggestion.) She loves it except, she says it is gutless on the freeways. Now mind you, she is very much concerned with the evironment and all that a hybrid represents but would like a little more power.

The question: does Superchips or anybody make an uploader to give the ICE a little more zing, or will/would it screw up the whole process of the hybrid drive.

Roger

 

Probably not. Take into account this is probably the most complex vehicle on the road today. It is really amazing it does what it does. If you could "soup it up" ( and not sure you could ) more battery assist would give you tremendous acceleration, but at the expense of a much shorter battery life span. -John

 

Getting more power from the electric side is complicated by problems with heat. I expect the electric motor limitations in place now are to manage heat in the motor and in the motor drive electronics.

I know that Mazda has good success with supercharging this type of engine (Mazda Millennium)?

Maybe that is a solution. But like the previous post says, this is a very complicated vehicle. Changing anything could make other problems.

 

What your wife senses on the hiway is probably the flat part of the ICE's torque curve created by the Atkinson cycle timing (and was purposely added to the design). And at those speeds the traction motor (MG2) is not allowed to add as much power to the output shaft (for the reasons noted by DavidH). Unfortunately, this is the point where you have to make a choice - hybrid or V6 ICE (FE or hiway power). The Ford engineers have already made their choices. Make no mistake, the PCM computer actually drives and brakes this car, performance chips or s/w patches would be extremely risky.