Hello FORD community. I have recently purchased a 2003 F-150 heritage edition 2wd ext. cab with 58k miles. Its my first truck and i love it. I would like to upgrade the engine and am lookin to spend around $1000. Ive thought about headers and exhaust and would like to see what options are available as far as intake manifold (the whole thing). Also i havent done really any research yet thought id ask before i start lookin for what i have no idea about.

Thanks
-Brandon

 

Brandon
Congrats on your truck ...searching is your best friend
presume this is a V8....for a $1K...you can blow that on the exhaust system in one swoop if you want.
For now get a good tuner, something with multi tunes & upgradeable so when your ready to spend the 2nd and 3rd Grand on it ...it can be reprogrammed to account for the differences. That should be enough leftover to get a performance muffler....for now just keep it single in & outlet. don't need a whole system, you'll have to save some more that anyway.

start there and see how you like it

 

Thank Enriched and by the way i forgot to mention its a 4.6l v8 sorry guys.

 

Since a lot of Mustang parts will fit the F150's this would be a good place to look for more in depth parts.

ModMax - 4.6 and 5.4 Modular Experts

Just remember that things like intake manifolds, cams, and exhaust heads are different between the two vehicles so take that in to consideration.

As for $1000 upgrades either a tuner or supercharger would my vote.

 

Congrats on the new-to-you Ford, Brandon and welcome to FTE.
Sounds like you are getting some good advice. I know Hybris always has something smart to contribute.
For my two pennies I will say that I contend the biggest bang for the buck lies first in simply replacing the stock exhaust pipe and muffler.
You don't need dual pipes and resonators, etc. - just a simple change out with a single 3" pipe and a flow-through muffler like the design Magnaflow is known for.
You can flow more exhaust through a single 3" pipe than two 2" pipes, and $400 or so on freeing up your exhaust flow will set the stage for you to maximize any other performance upgrades you make. *
Until then, you're literally choking them out.

(*however - if you want to run headers, then you may as well run soup-to-nuts full dual exhaust - I had a set of Hooker Competition long-tubes on an '86 F-150 and just loved what they did for the old gal)

Next you could opt for the K&N drop-in or a full cold air intake.
For my money, those are the first two performance mods to prime all other additional power gains one pursues from their engine.

good luck and have fun - I wouldn't trade the SD I need to be driving now, but the F-150 was much more of a joy to drive

 

If you are going to do exhaust do headers and go from there back can't recomend a exhaust system myself but I have heard good things about JBA cat4ward headers with the titanium ceramic coating and of course if your budget can handle it supposedly long tube headers give better results but are harder to install thankfully you have a 2wd truck so no front drive shaft and transfer case to worry about.

A tuner would make a good upgrade as well and so long as you are willing to budget it as you get parts for your truck that may effect those tunes you go and get them adjusted as needed.