This is appears to be a good honest article. Exactly what I'd expect out of these three mods. Low end torque increased nicely:

http://http://www.supermotors.net/ve.../16162/54602-2

 

great article, good results, but they fail to mention which engine they are experimenting with. i'm assuming its the 5.4L??

 

An intake, exhaust and tuner... they put all three on yet only dyno showed results from one. Sounds fishy.

 

Read the whole article, he only quoted the last paragraph, that was with all parts on from my understanding. A lot of money for 14hp.

 

Yes, it's with all 3 mods. That 14 hp is about right IMO. A CAI is good for about 3 hp, if lucky. The tuner equals about 10 hp and the catback I wouldn't give anything for hp but rather only sound, but apparently it was good for about 1 hp in this scenario....lol Just my opinion here of course, and yes, that's a lot of money for 14 hp.

 

I've written tunes for the 5.4 for NA 87 octane that yielded far more than that with just the tuner. I know of one tuner picking up 20+ HP on the dyno with 87 octane. Something sounds wacked in this application...

 

.....and therein lies the difference between canned and custom tunes.

 

Could it be becuase the tunes are the canned tunes? I am sure you can do better making a tune for your specific application, especially if you are able to data log and see what can still be adjusted.

 

Its not because they were for a specific application and datalogged. Those numbers are for my regular tunes. I can do even better with datalogging and application specific tuning. That's why I said something sounds whacked.... I've seen many "canned" tunes do better on the 5.4 3v than 14 HP - including Edge.

 

Well, you always hear people make these claims Ken, but I've yet to see hard proof of it. I'd love to see some stock dyno results and then the results with a custom tune, or a tune with the Edge. Right now, this is the only article I've seen, and IMO it appears honest. It's pretty much what I'd expect from those mods.

I did the full top end on my Mustang including full exhaust. With a custom tune completed on the dyno after all these mods were done and after driving it around for a while on the stock computer, I netted 10 rwhp and 17 rwtorque. I know I'm not comparing apples to apples here, and I'm not trying to be a smartass, but I always take what I read on the net with a grain of salt.

BTW, I may have only netted that much hp and torque with the tune on the Mustang, but the drivability is much better, amongst other things, so it was money well spent.

 

Not to be a smartass, but if that's the best you could do with an intake, full exhaust and a custom dyno tune then you also need to replace the person tuning the car.

Tuning the 5.4 3v V8 is more than just strapping it on a dyno, advancing the timing and getting the A/F right -- especially with the F150. There are huge untapped potential with its tuning due to the things Ford does to make mileage numbers for the EPA.

 

Bob Kennedy has been in the business for well over 40 years. He's also a hardcore racer and very well known in the industry. I think I had someone who knows what they're doing take care of the tune properly. The tune wasn't THAT far off, but there were a few small things that needed attention, like fan cooling settings, timing curve, and the idle hunt and surging was a real PIA. The AF was off a bit as well. The stock computer really didn't like the cam swap.

http://http://www.kennedysdynotune.com/

 

There are examples of dyno graphs all over the Internet doing much better with just a tune. Even the 4.6 does better than that article showed:

http://www.fordmuscle.com/archives/2006/04/F150/index.php


Besides, the 5.4 3v is not a 1995 Mustang GT. There is a lot of HP left on the table even with 87 octane -- a lot. Its programmed very conservatively from the factory. I don't do mail order (just the locals), but if you give Mike Troyer a call the guy will knock your socks off with his F150 tuning. I've just seen too many examples of good 5.4 results to think that 14HP peak with that combination is good.

As I noted: something is wacked. My guess its the intake, the conditions were bad (dyno correction still doesn't quite compensate for poor ambient conditions) or the truck was heat soaked. The 5.4 3v because of the positioning of the MAF, is very prone to A/F problems with aftermarket intakes. Many people claim gains with the butt-dyno but in fact some intakes for the 5.4 result in less HP and a bottom end torque loss. Oh, the noise makes people think they are doing better, but they aren't. This is why the article should have dyno'd each piece as it was added. We could have seen the results, and it would be more apparent where the problem is.

 

That is a good article and good info as well