Hi folks!

I had a 2001, then 2001 Navigator for a while before going to the Dark Side (Saturn Outlook), but then moved back to Ford when I bought my 2004 Diesel Excursion. I loved it, but it was going to eat me out of house and home with required maintenance.

I came home last week with a White 2010 Navigator. It's a bit "Bling bling" for me, but the wife loves it. Her and the kids also love how much quieter it is too. I didn't see the problem, personally.

Only problem I'm having is the performance. I test drove an Escalade and immediately fell in love with the power, ride and handling. I would have bought it too if it wasn't for a small foot-space in the third row. I ended up getting much more vehicle for the family with the Navigator, though. Now I'm hoping I can give "Pearl" a little boost in performance (my wife named her). I've found a few exhaust items and tuners, but I'm wanting to get some help from you guys to see what kind of gains you've gotten from these and what else I might do to her. As much as I'd love to go turbo or blower, I'm not looking to spend that kind of money, yet.

Thanks for any help you guys can give me!

Sam

 

You can do the typical things such as exhaust, intake, and tune but you'll be running premium fuel for minimal gains. Just know you bought a 5800lb truck with 310hp/365tq as opposed to the Cadillac with 5500lbs being moved around with 403/417 respectively. Huge difference and not a whole lot that can be done to change the performance aspects too much. If you don't mind running premium fuel all the time then tune and intake would probably be your best bet to getting more performance.

 

Do you know of anyone running full aftermarket exhaust (from headers back) and what the gains where? I'm pretty curious what the dyno showed.

 

honestly I would ask or look for results in the f-150 forums. I'd think it's more likely someone there would have done mods like that with supporting info with gains or suggestions.

 

Guys.. I just sold a Touareg V10 TDI Diesel to go back to an Expedition for the space and overall convenience. the VW was nice but small and I loved my 05 much more than the touareg. I now have a 2010 limited and am actually think I might supercharge mine with a FORD Supercharger.. Not sure what ya'll think

 

With the 5.4 engine you can get a Hypertech tuner which will give you about 35 more HP on regular gas. Check out their site. That plus a K&N intake as well as a aftermarket exhaust will help wake it up a bit. Plus with these changes, if your not a speed demon, you should get a mile or two more per gallon. Good Luck.

 

This is going to sound simple, but it's effective.

Floor it.

Early. And keep it that way!

The 5.4 is no torque monster, but the 6-speed auto is awesome. If you floor it off the line it'll pull 1st gear hard and stay in the powerband for 2nd and 3rd.

But if you pull away gently and it gets to shift into 2nd, you've lost the advantage of that low 1st gear and you won't get it back.

IIRC, my '07 Navi L 4wd will hit 60 in the mid 7s. Not a rocket, but that's no slug either.

But they feel sluggish because the tranny is quick to grab higher gears in search of mpg's. A tuner might help that. Flooring it, while abrupt, certainly helps.

For highway passing, look a little further ahead, time your maneuvers, and build momentum early by...flooring it and keeping it that way.

I travel extensively with our Navigator... family of 5 and lots of stuff, and its a 4wd "L" so it's as heavy as they get. I've found that by modifying my driving style I get much better performance.

Good luck. I know it sounds corny... but I hope you try it.

 

Thanks for the input guys! I'll do some searching and investigate the tuner some more. I do notice it pulls much better than I thought it would once in the higher RPMs. I'm happy with the truck, but I always want more, you know?