F-150 performance upgrades...

[kickerlivinloud 10+ year member]

Alright guys, I currently have a 2003 Ford F-150. It has a 4.2 V6 engine. Its a 5 speed, regular cab with a full 8 foot bed and only 2wd. I've been wanting to try and give her a little more power. Nothing serious like an engine swap or somthing but just some bolt on's to give me a little better HP or torque were and there. My budget is fairly limited but i can get the cash over time. I'm a noob when it comes to performance upgrades an such. I have a limited knowladge when it comes to engines. My dad used to work on cars and me and him rebuilt my old S-10 motor, so treat me as a child when explaining things. I was looking at some air intake kits on ebay a little bit but i have no clue what i'm looking for. I know its not that great of a truck to try and soop up but she's mine, and i should be keeping her for a good couple years and just wnat a little more out of her. I would apprceate any and all idea's that i could do to get the little bit more power out of her.

Also, it is a work truck so it's used every day and takes a little bit of a beating depending on how much of a load i put on it, or how rough the roads are to the work site. I'm planing on putter some air shocks, and Firestone helper air bags on it as well as a good quality hitch in the next 3-4 months so i can move more stuff in it.

Please no hating or rediculus ideas here. I'm an 18 year old begining carpenter so major/extreme upgrades are out of the picture...

Looking forward to learning from you guys, thanks.....

Jon

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[analogkid]

i would try a good cat back exhaust. if the cat is shot replace it too. this will give you more power all around and get you better gas milage too. it wont do it if you're flooring it to hear the exhaust though...lol this would be a very good step and prepere the truck for later power adders.

 

[ss3079 5,000+ posts]

K&N and Airaid make intakes for your truck.

Poweraid throttle body spacer.

$450-$650 for headers.

Exhaust ... $200-$600 if you bought a complete kit.

If I remember correctly, Jet has chip ... $230ish.

Clutch, brakes, so on and so forth.

Talk to your Dad about it ... get his opinion ... maybe he'll help you out so you don't get drilled with labor costs or maybe he knows of where to get parts for a good price //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[Expy2000]

.. Get a Superchip or Diablo chip..

Switch out the gears, 4:10s..

Gibson exhaust..

Air induction unit, but depends on the cost..

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[destruction 10+ year member]

go to http://www.v6f150.com

the only things thatr will make a difference are the following. I know because i have owned 2 trucks exactly like yours.

1. MAC intake - cheap and dyno proven

2. X-calibrator 2 from troyer performance with 3 custom tunes

3. dual 16" electric fans

4. exhaust - too many configs to write about. find one that you like the sound of and do that.

5. hurst short throw shifter - obviously no power gain but you don't have to row a boat to shift.

you can change out your gears to get better acceleration but you can kiss your top end goodbye. add about 400 rpm to see where you will be at with 4.10's, the throttle body spacer is a good paperweight. bottom line.

do not buy a generic chip!!!!!! they are pretty much a waste of money. a tuner with customized tunes will give you the most power. You have to fill out 4 pages of paperwork about your truck before they will burn a chip for you.

 

[kickerlivinloud 10+ year member]

Thanks for the info guys! I found a good forum which i join which has also helped a lot. http://www.Ford-trucks.com has some good stuff on it, i've already gotten a lot of info from it. I was looking at some cat back exhaust and the K&N air intakes. Those two will probably be what i'll start on. Me and my pops will probably do most of the work, if we can't handle it for some reason, i got a couple other freinds who are all mechanics so i'm deffenetly not going to do it "proffetionaly" and pay the price.

Thanks again guys, keep the idea's coming...

Jon

 

[kickerlivinloud 10+ year member]

Were wouild i find what my gear ratio would be? I've looken in my manual, under the hood, on the driver door but still can't figure it out. I'm thinking it shoujld be 3.08 or 3.55 from what a freind told my but i'm not sure. Anyhelp???

Jon

 

[PowerdByGuiness 10+ year member]

go to http://www.fordtruckworld.com and ask your local chapter if anyone has used 3.55-3.73 gears. im sure theres plenty of them

intakes, exhausts, throttle body spacers, and jet chips are a WASTE of money

spring for a superchips 1715 microtuner and electric fans conversion. those will give yo a drastic improvement in power

the intakes and exhausts on the 97-03 f150s give you piss ant performance gains and charge you up the ***. throttle body spacers are shit for these trucks and the jet chips are the worst thing to ever hit the market

 

[kickerlivinloud 10+ year member]

What would it take to put an electric fans conversion in my truck?? Cost, and skill needed to do so? I've been looking at a pair of dual 15" electric fans. Don't remember who makes them and they didn't have a price. Also what exactly do they do??? Like I said, i'm clueless when it comes to this stuff. I would like to keep my first upgrade under $300 tops. What would you suggest??

Jon

 

[Expy2000]

Did you mean PermaCool Dual Electric Fans?

Waste of money for your particular application..

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[destruction 10+ year member]

intake and exhaust will give you minimal gains UNTIL you tune. Whenever you get completely custom tunes, having that stuff DOES make a difference. you need to call troyer performance (http://www.troyerperformance.com) and talk to them about what to do. Their electric fan kit is the best on the market and yes it does make a difference. Have you ever held a stock F150 clutch fan?? Its fuggin heavy. I did their dual 16" fan setup. It was around 400 something shipped.

i am almost positive you have 3.55's

 

[yamaman 10+ year member]

ok what you can do here is really alot of things. First I would start with Intake, exhaust and a chip. Superchips makes agood programmer and diablo also has a pretty good one out there. Then I would go to electric fans and underdrive pulleys. Then I would hit the cltuch since its a 5 speed then like someone else said 4.10 gears but that will run you a few bucks. Then if you can save up look for a supercharger or turbo kit. Crash over at http://www.ftwtrucks.com makes custom turbo kits for ford trucks. And whatever you do do not waste your money on throttle body spacers or that stupid tornado thing that goes in your intake.

 

[yamaman 10+ year member]

go to http://www.fordtruckworld.com and ask your local chapter if anyone has used 3.55-3.73 gears. im sure theres plenty of them
intakes, exhausts, throttle body spacers, and jet chips are a WASTE of money

spring for a superchips 1715 microtuner and electric fans conversion. those will give yo a drastic improvement in power

the intakes and exhausts on the 97-03 f150s give you piss ant performance gains and charge you up the ***. throttle body spacers are shit for these trucks and the jet chips are the worst thing to ever hit the market

not true at all if you want to see the full benefit of your "power adders" you need to make the engine breathe better and an intake and exhaust will do that. Especially if you are going to add a supercharger or anything in the future you need and exhaust and intake

 

[yamaman 10+ year member]

also what the electric fans to is free up 1 belt driven application. So less load on your engine means more power to the ground

and just so you know man I have an 01 reg cab flareside 4x4 F-150 with the 5.4. If you need any mroe info I suggest heading over to http://www.ftwtrucks.com easy to naivgate and has some of the best info out there

 

[PowerdByGuiness 10+ year member]

kickerlivinloud - get the tuner from http://www.2dsperformance.com , its about 320-330 dollars shipped depending on where you live

expy2000 - no experience with the permacools but i have a self assembled FAL kit and it runs great. no more parasitic loss, 1.5 more MPG, and a friend dynoed 19 RWHP with a similar kit

destruction - troyer's fan controller fails repeatedly and i dont trust it. every one of my friends have thrown out a troyer controller

yamaman - exhaust and intake ****, they are some of hte biggest scams in the market. you are telling me you want to spend 200 dollars on an intake and 400 on an exhaust, not even considering tax and shipping, and get one RWHP per 100 dollars spend? thats bull. i wouldnt believe the gains that manufacturer's dyno with . . those are done on cold days with stock tires and a leafblower shoved in the intake

the stock intakes breathe fine, adding a k&N drop in filter is all you need. adding an intake to a supercharged engine is useless, most intakes come with their own custom air filtration