I just wanted to tell you guys I tried everything I could think of including a Hypertech tuner to keep 'Ronda' from shutting down at 4,500 rpms. Then I read Chris' message about having the ECM re tuned to change things like the rev limiter.
I sent Dave Casper an email yesterday and he called me a couple of hours later. He confirmed everything Chris said and then some! When I told him everything that had been done to the old 4.0 and my chief complaint he asked how many rpms I wanted. I told him 5,500 and he laughed and said there is a lot more in that engine that the ECM is holding back besides rpms. He suggested I send it to him and he would program it to let the engine run the way it was built to. So I paid $399 to B&G Performance/A2Speed online with my Visa and took the ECM to UPS. It's on the way to Michigan and I should have it back in about a week.
I asked Dave to disable all of the limits. I think I'm old enough to know that even with the crank, pistons and rods balanced a crankshaft that long should probably not exceed 6,000 rpm. I've got about 5k in the engine and I don't want to lose it. I'll let you guys know the results of Dave's work.
One more thing. While it may not be prudent for a couple of EPA guys to try to test cars in rural South Carolina, I'm going to buy a stock ECM just to have in a cabinet in my garage. Just in case.