I just recently purchased a 97 f150 with the 4.6 tritan, this is my first truck ever and im used to fast sports cars, and having a truck thats 0-60 in 9 seconds is dramaticly slow for me, the reason i got the truck is for my new job i have to tow things with a trailer.

If i got mods would it lower my towing capacity? as in a full free flowing exhaust would lower my low end torque, is that enough to mess with my towing?

And what are good mods for horsepower and torque gains? thanks!

 

How many miles on the truck?

 

144k on the odometer, seems to run perfectly fine

 

Just my opinion. Waste of time and funds. 4.6 L too small, heavy trucks need torque. Should have bought an older Lightning with modded 5.8 L engine or brand new with ecoboost or coyote 5.0 L.

 

What are your towing needs first, then select a truck to meet the application not the other way around.
Over loading an aged truck is asking for a problem soon then you will be unhappy and fault the truck for failure.
When you get out of your sport's car and into a truck you need to change your expectations as well.
You may feel a bit insulted by this but it is what it is.
To go a bit farther the 4.6L motor is only 263 cu/in and not a torquer by any measure.
The torque peaks well over 3000 rpm.
Pulling is well below that point most of the time so torque is lacking unless you wind it but getting to that point will be slow.. The truck weighs in at about 4900 lbs +/- plus the trailer weight so your gross combined weight is up for the little motor to pull.
Putting in 4:10 gears will help and mods get to that point; a different truck with a 5.4 would have been the better choice to start with.
Good luck..

 

It's a truck, so drive it like a truck. The '97 pickup (2WD) in my sig is ~4300 lbs. My Bronco is significantly heavier, ~ 5100 lbs.

Have no idea what you are going to tow. There's trailer weight, and also effective frontal area if you are going to be towing at interstate speeds. Even then, you wouldn't want to be driving it to be the fastest vehicle out there.
There's driving like a truck, and then there's driving like a truck towing a trailer.

I don't see any F-250 or F-350 diesels speeding around here, with or without trailer attached. And this here is truck capital of the country, well, we're a whole 'nother country.

 

I have a '98 F150 2WD with a 4.2 V-6 and automatic. I've carried 1200 lbs in it, never a problem, and I've towed 5-6k trailers without a problem. It's not fast, but then, I never expected it to be fast. But it can and will carry a load without a problem.
I think your 4.6 will most likely be just fine for what you're doing within the guidelines of what Ford says you can tow with it. To me, it's not a bad choice at all.

The 4.6 is not a weak motor, just because it's not large in displacement doesn't mean it's short on power. My 97 Thunderbird has that motor with the dual exhaust and it's quite strong. Strong enough to burn the tires.

My 4.2 powered F150 doesn't seem to lack for power. I had 1200 lbs of steel in the bed and accelerated onto the highway without any drama or white knuckles.

 

I'll chime in and echo the suggestion that if you're gonna do anything to this thing...swapping in set of gears...4:10 min...well depending how many pounds you are towing and terrain your in, mean lots of hills or mountains.

If you are in hills or mountains then maybe taller numerically ratio than the 4:10.

 

im going to be towing about 5k, is having the high low gears going to help? or is there an actual regular gearing? and even if i got full exhaust with a 4psi supercharger is not worth it? ide be best to just get a 7.3 diesel or a bigger v8?

 

I'm not sure what gear ratio is in the truck now, but a 6k trailer is not a lot. I would think that probably it would just get up and walk away with it.

My 4.2 V-6 has towed 5k with no problem at all.

About the only think I could say would be just to keep the transmission out of overdrive on long hills.

 

newbie_to, you should give the folks here a lot more information, such as:

Is the truck 2WD or 4WD?

Are you going to be driving up a lot of big hills or mountains with trailer attached?

Is the trailer a big flat-front box that you will be trying to cruise at interstate speeds with?

What axle ratio is in the truck? Look at the sticker on the driver's door frame, look for "AXLE", and directly under that word is a code. If it is a "9", that means a 3.55 ratio, an "H9" means a 3.55 ratio with limited-slip, and I don't know what code the 3.08 ratio is, but I could probably look it up.
Hope you don't have the 3.08 axle ratio.

The 3.55 axle ratio was an extra-cost option, and was standard as a part of the extra-cost towing package.

 

I dont know where to find the axle ratio, and no it would only be towing forward no mountains or hills, its the 4wd auto and the trailer that will be used is a flat trailer for towing vehicles.

 

To determine what axle ratio you have, re-read my post above.

4WD reduces the maximum trailer weight versus a 2WD truck by about 400 lbs., as the weight of all of the 4WD components subtracts from the towing ability.

Maximum trailer weights from the 1997 Owners Manual (you can find it at motorcraft.com under technical resources, or at fleet.ford.com) around page 119 for 4WD:

4WD Regular Cab w/4.6L Automatic
with 3.08 axle = 5,300 lbs.
with 3.55 axle = 6,800 lbs.

4WD SuperCab w/4.6L Automatic
with 3.08 axle = 5,100 lbs.
with 3.55 axle = 6,600 lbs.

So you can see that axle ratio makes a 1,500 lb. difference on max trailer weight.
Also can see that going from Regular cab to SuperCab reduces max tow by 200 lbs., about the weight added by SuperCab construction over a Regular cab.

The F-150 2WD that is in my signature has a max tow weight of 7,000 lbs.

With my truck, I would have no problem towing 5,000 lbs. around, occasionally. But if I needed to tow 5,000 pounds around every day of the week, every week, on and on, and my job depended on it, I would probably move up to a F-250 HD or F-250 SuperDuty to get the full-floating rear axle.

A full-floating axle means the axle shafts just turn the wheels, they do not take any load of weight or the push-pull pounding of a loaded trailer. The weight is born upon big bearings on the outside of the axle housing, so the axle shafts "float" in comparison to the load.

In contrast, an F-150 is a "semi-floating" rear axle, the weight and push/pull effects of a loaded trailer are born by the axle shafts themselves, which are suspended in the axle housing via a bearing inside each end of the housing. Rear-wheel drive cars used this method for ages.

 

i found it and it says H9 under axle in the door jam, and than i went under the car and read the hitch welded to the frame and it said max towing of 5k pounds. so i can tow 6600 pounds but not with this current welded frame? i would have to get an entire new thing?

 

Right. My truck can tow 7,000 lbs., and the factory-installed receiver as part of the tow package is rated 8,500 lbs max with a maximum of 850 lbs. tongue weight. So 7,000 lbs. is my max.
If the receiver used was less than the truck's max, then the receiver's max is the limit.
And the slide-in Ball Mount and Ball have to be rated to do what you want to do, too.

Are you SURE that the receiver is WELDED to the frame rails? Usual practice is to bolt the receiver to the left and right frame rails using the existing frame holes that are in the frame for that purpose. IIRC, at least 3 bolt and nut sets per frame rail.

The whole receiver assembly is: The square tube (with the 2" square hole that accepts the ball mount), the square tube is welded to another tube that goes from left to right, each end of that cross-wise tube is welded to a frame adapter angle plate, and then the angle plates are bolted to the frame rails. I've never seen one welded on... maybe billy bob down at the corner gas station did it 'cuz he couldn't find the bolts

Anyway, double check the mounting to the frame rails. Hope it's NOT really welded onto the truck's frame.