I'd like to see someone test carbon-based oil vs Royal Purple/Mobil 1/Z-Max. Maybe test all fluids per stock then synthetic oil, tranny fluid, differential fluid.
Maybe try indexing the spark plugs like a race engine?
How about an exhaust cutout?
I'd like to see someone try to make the air intake breath in from the cowl grille under the windshield per early NASCAR.
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'94 F150,4X4, 5.0 automatic, dual front shocks, 31" Goodyear Wranglers,3.55:1 gears,148K miles
I would really like to see if there is in fact a performance gain in adding the 1.7 rockers to a STOCK ENGINE. Stock Cam, Stock Intake, Stock Exhaust etc... (351w)
but if you have a cam in the truck you shouldn't need high ratio rockers since you use high ratio rockers to make up for a undersized cam because the rockers add lift to your cam, with a big cam and 1.7 rockers you could have coil bind or other issues with the increased ramp speed being too hard on your valve train
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89 F-150 leveling kit 33x12.5 BFG All-Terrains, Trick Flow Fast as Cast Heads, Comp Cams Gold Roller Rockers, Edelbrock RPM Air Gap Intake, Trick Fuel 750 Mechanical Secondary Carb, MSD E-Curve Distributor, Comp Cams 280hr Roller Cam, Comp Cams Roller Lifters, Comp Cams Valve Springs, Trick Flow Pushrods, DSS Main Girdle, ARP Bolts, Cometic Gaskets, Forged Pistons, 125 Shot of Nitrous, AOD, 3500 TCI Stall Converter, Lentech Street Terminator Valvebody, 4.56 Gears, Flowtech Headers, 2.5in Exhaust
Okay, wow- just finished reading all 5 pages of this thread- very interesting. So I guess I'll jump in with a couple things-
From adventures in mods with friends [and having similar discussions on other auto forums], my experience has led me to believe that making one single change [spark plugs, for example] to a stock engine will not improve performance. A good example of this is the very basic tune up. If you just change an air filter, you're not going to notice any difference. But if you change all filters, oil, plugs, wires, cap, rotor, etc- you will notice, if only for a little while, improved performance, and fuel efficiency. It's only reasonable that if you're going to make one change then you should make all the changes recommended for the mod.
Besides, IMO, a lot of mods out there are just snake oil- they depend on the general public not knowing any better to sell their products.
And on the high octane fuel note- octane ratings are determined by an engine's compression ratio- that's why there's generally 2 or 3 different ratings at each pump because different cars require different ratings. The higher the ratio the higher the rating needs to be. You won't gain anything from buying higher octane fuel or octane boosters- just look in your owners manual for the rating information- that's the rating you need, plain and simple.
here's another. what is the difference in the throttle body on the 4.9 5.0 an larger engines. could somthing be gained by putting a 351 throttle body on a 300?
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1996 FORD F-150
300 4.9 5spd manual
electric fan
REMOVED AC
AMERICAN RACING RHINO LINED RIMS
32 bfg at's all the way round.
Something else I happened to think of, on the note of the CAI.
My first pick up was a '75 Chevy step side pick up. When we were 19 or 20 years old, my good friend and I drove it out to California because he'd gotten a job out there and needed a lift, and I didn't have anything better to do. I stuck around for a few weeks and tried to find a job but it just didn't work out, so I used what money I had left to drive back home. If I remember right, that truck averaged about 12, maybe 13 miles to the gallon. I pretty much made the drive home straight, and on the night I was driving thru Nebraska, it was a very cool summer night. On a 16 gallon tank, I drove from Kimball NE to Kearney NE- a distance of about 250 miles. Assuming I normally got about 13 mpg, that's only 208 miles- far short of the distance I drove on one tank. I talked with my dad about this "amazing change" in mpg that night, and he said that he'd heard before that cold air is better for engines.
That being said, I don't know for sure that it was the cold air that explains the sudden change in mpg- I wasn't exactly recording information on the conditions that night. Maybe I'd just held such a steady foot on the gas pedal that the engine had a very good run. Or maybe the lack of hills in Nebraska made a huge difference.
Anyway, that was a bit of tangent- sorry, I just haven't thought about that night for a long time. I'm not sure what year they began doing it, but most modern vehicles [and this may depend on the makers] utilize CAI's for keeping the computers cooled down. Heat is a bad thing for a computer, so by routing the intake thru the computer box they are keeping the computer cooled down and preventing it from burning out. I don't know if a CAI would be of much use on older vehicles tho.
Ram air is good on any engine. In the sixties a ram air system that that included a dual snorkel air cleaner and plastic ducting that took in air from under the front bumper was sold in Hot Rod magazine.The straighter and shorter the ram air, the better. thunderbolts and A/FX Galaxies had air intakes where the high beam headlights normally resided. My old '64 Galaxie's 390 felt more torquey on cool mornings when the engine was warm. Higher octane such as Turbo Blue race gas or 104+ octane boost made a difference too.
Of course putting a truck on a diet would be cheap horsepower...
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'94 F150,4X4, 5.0 automatic, dual front shocks, 31" Goodyear Wranglers,3.55:1 gears,148K miles
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1997 Ford F250 4x4 
