I have a 06 F-150 5.4L the truck is all stock other than a K&N filter and a leveling kit. The truck has 66,000 mile's on it and run's great. I am looking to see if I can get some more towing power out of it to pull the mountains in AZ. I am towing a 20ft toy hauler it is 5500lbs dry and fully loaded about 7000lbs. I am tossing a few ideas around and that is to trade it in for a Diesel but I think that is a little over kill. The upgrades I have in mind is a Flex-a-lite electric fan, throttle body spacer, and a Edge CTS tuner is it worth the money or any other ideas. I love my truck and baby it more than my own kids lol!!!! Is there any good aftermarket sites for the F150 or 5.4l?

 

gear change is the best bet

 

a trade for a diesel isnt overkill. i bought a 2004 6.0 powersmoke to haul my race car and even with all the problems with it i am glad i got the diesel. car weighs 3400 pounds trailer about 4000 probably more. i couldnt get enough *** out of my 5.4 to be happy with. if you get 4.10 gears (700+ dollars per axle if you install yourself or with a good discount) your average miles per gallon will suffer and your towing miles per gallon will nose dive. next best power upgrade is boosting it with a supercharger pro-charger or turbo but you HAVE to get an inter cooled model or you will just be shooting yourself in the foot. now you have lower MPG and have to use 93+

research a good diesel truck and keep an open mind too. the big three all have amazing trucks and made good and BAD years.

 

x2 on the possibillity of a diesel.
but if you try to beef up the 150 you have i suggest all of your ideas except the spacer. It would do you more good as a paper weight than a performance upgrade

 

I agree...the gear change will do more than you can imagine....for every .25 ratio change, the rpms will change about 300 (to give to an idea)

but....

With regards to “Chips” and “Tuners”, years ago it was the best that most could do to enhance the ignition timing, fuel curve, transmission shift points, etc. It was (and still is) very important that a person verifies that the “Tuner” is ASE certified in both ECM and Transmission programming and IMHO be have current certification by the OEM whose vehicle you want to modify. There are plenty of persons who advertise their programs to be the best and even offer custom tunes, but in all reality, very few actually have credentials in these areas- but that’s not to say that some of these “geniuses” haven’t really caused damage to a few vehicles- just jump over to flatratetech.com and read just some of the comments from the MSE techs!. Perhaps what is equally important is the parameters that can be adjusted are set by the OEM vehicle software…so there is really no “magic” in what they are doing anyway. Now about this new marketing hype that if you have a CAI you need a custom program………….hogwash!!!!!! The OEM software system is designed to adjust the fuel mixture up to 10%.......that’s more than enough to handle fuel mixture adjustments up to 7,000 foot elevation change! (for high elevations 8,000+ there are oem software programs for those specific applications) The 5.4 V8 for example if close to stock can only suck in a maximum of 480 cfm and a flat panel filter will flow 500 cfm, there is simply no way any CAI on a relatively stock engine can increase the air flow enough to exceed the ECM’s ability to adjust and maintain the correct fuel mixture. The only reason for the “custom” program to support the CAI is because the design is poor resulting in false readings from the air intake sensors, etc….period! If you look at the dyno charts from many of these supposed HP/TQ increases, they are typically around 5%-7% at peak rpm ranges…….guess what, 5% is a standard deviation even amoungst mfg dynos and the most important item is……these “expert tuners” (at least most) do not have or choose not to test their results (in comparison to the oem intakes) during actual vehicle motion (or simulation- such as a wind tunnel) as the oems do. What many view as an issue (is the plastic intake tube with its noise canceling design) actually increases air pressure. It is the same hydraulic concept used by fire fighters creating water supply where psi is low. By having the air cross the path at a 90 degree angle, the pressure is increased proportionally. Fire fighters use what is called a “4-way valve” or “Blake Valve” at the hydrant where the water is cycled through the fire engine (pump) and sent back into the valve crossing the water flow at a 90 degree angle. In this case it also acts as a sound canceling device! At low speeds, this can reduce the flow a tad (which is what most “feel”), but in terms of peak hp/tq, a good high flow filter is all that is needed.

Recently, Testand Corporation conducted an ISO standards test on automotive air filters which can be viewed at this link: http://www.dieselbombers.com/chevrol...r-testing.html. All I can say is this explains in detail the reason for............

(Arlen) SPICER wrote..

"The reason I started this crusade was that I was seeing people spend a lot of money on aftermarket filters based on the word of a salesperson or based on the misleading, incomplete or outright deceiving information"

"The stock filter will flow MORE THAN ENOUGH AIR to give you ALL THE HORSEPOWER the engine has to give"

IMHO, if you live near any major city there are excellent tuning specialists with dynos who for the same price (if not less) will tune your vehicle taking into consideration your specific needs including environmental conditions, for your specific vehicle. IMHO, the best bang for the buck!

 

lets start with this first, what gear ratio do you gave in your F150? When my brother bought his 06 used after high school he looked at at least 12 to 14 trucks before he found one with the 3.73 gears in it. I guess here in NJ Ford doesnt send allot of these trucks? Anyways the difference betweeen the 3.55 and 3.73 was noticble to me during the test drives the truck moved so much better through traffic. we never towed with it but he pulls a duck boat but thats only 3000lbs. Id check your gear ratio first this is very important to have the proper gears, second that trailer is not too much for your truck i have a 2004 F350 in my sig that i had 4.30 gears installed and i tow my cousins mud truck, a 35hp tractor with bucket and backhow attachments and it pulls it with no problem. i wont be able to beat a diesel but it does the speed limit with no problem and on hills you just let her stay at 3500 to 4000rpm and let her work.

 

X2 on the throttle body spacer/paperweight also what tires are you running because even if you have 3:73 gears but 35 or bigger tires you may as well have 32 or 33 inchers with 3:55s. Also before deciding on a deisel ask yourself how much you are going to be pulling your toy hauler because running a diesel isnt cheap and with the cost of diesel getting more and more expensive and the fact you arent hauling huge weight. And if you are considering a programmer look for some of the ones by the sponsors of this forum and a custom tune for the conditions you are using your truck for. Also look into the beginning of the forum for the stickies and look at doing a gotts mod or similar for your existing air intake, all the gotts or other similar modifications do is open up the 2 inch part that goes through the fender to a 3 inch opening and it is a true cold air intake on its own and hugely cheaper (read less than 30 or 40 bucks) and more effective.

Thx for letting me have my $0.02 worth

Ken

 

Gears would be the best bet but costly. Long tube headers(pacesetter or others) and 3" or true dual exhaust will help. Really just enjoy the sceenery and find a sweet spot with rpms/mph. You'll get to the top eventually.

 

Thanks for everyones response's, Superdutyscaler: I have 3:73 gears in my truck Papasmurf: I am running 265/75/18 these are what come stock on the truck the programer that I am looking at is made by the Edge which is what is on the the top of a lot of the fourms here. V10man: I am with you on the whole getting to the top when you get there I am not a person to kill my truck I have no problems taking my time. The only place I really have a ruff time is going up one of the worst moutains in AZ which is the longest grade in the nation.

 

Which one? I17 to Flag? Most of my travels are up the 87 to Payson. Some good ones there too.

as a side note I put a complete Borla system(headers, y pipe, cat-back on a 1999 F250 V10 and it made a world of difference towing. No programmer either. Planning a true dual system on my F150 including long tube headers in the near future.

 

Any changes should be predicated on how much you tow. If it's a coupla times a year, why spend thousands of dollars? And the results of modifying your F150 will likely not have as much wow-factor as you might like. Overall, the diesel option will deliver that but the wow factor will also apply to you bank account.

1) As was said above, few engine mods will help much, or at least offer a good dollar vs performance payback. I Agree that a spacer and CAI are both only fractionally effective (or ineffective in the case of the spacer) and thenn only in the upper rpm ranges. Useless for towing.

2) A larger tranny cooler and a trans temp gauge. Right now, your tranny is working harder than anything. Protect it!

3) The Edge programmer is great, it allows some custom adjustments to enhance towing, such as firmer shifts, etc. The extra power... I don't feel it all that much towing but the ability to read various useful engine and tranny parameters (including trans temp) are very valuable. You can then know how hard you can push.

4) Gearing will offers the biggest improvements, but with stock diameter tires, a gear swap from 3.73:1 to 4.10:1 won't deliver much gain for the money spent but it will help and won't kill your mpg much (I know, my truck has 4.10s). A swap to 4.56:1 will deliver tow-monster status as well as reducing the trans load. Gears that low will definitely cut into your highway mpg. In town, not so much but you will have rocket-ship acceleration.

My advice is not to waste too much money trying to make your truck faster... because you just aren't going to be able to make that much difference... but you can make the truck tougher and more able to work hard in the Arizona heat.