I have an 08 F-150 with the 300 HP 5.4 engine, 3.73 rear axle. The factory and dealership say that I only need to buy 87 octane gas. Are the factory cams retarded that far to prevent pinging? Because this thing is a slug. I am thinking about buying a Superchips tuner. However I don't believe it can change anything but ignition timing. Please, someone that knows more about this than I do, step in here.
Thanks,
Jim

 

Cam timing can be changed quite easily on those engines with custom tuning. Several tuners, myself included can make changes to the cam timing tables in order to perk the engine up a bit. However, one negative side effect that has been observed is droning through some CAIs.

Both spark timing and cam timing are soft on these engines, more for emissions than for detonation although detonation would certainly not help emissions.

My advice... research what programmers are available and what they are changing to achieve their performance gains. I'd definitely recommend going with one that has options for custom tuning, such as the XCal or the Gryphon. Troyer Performance and VMP both provide quality custom tuning for the XCal2 and Power Hungry Performance does custom tuning for the Gryphon.

Hope this helps.

 

Thanks Bill,
So all these settings can be done with a tuner rather than going into the engine? I really don't want to do the mechanicals.

 

Yes... cam timing is computer controlled so it can be changed with some mild tuning.

Good luck.