I made a statement on another thread, that unless you do something to modify the fuel/air ratio, you can add exhausts, intakes, all day, and really not accomplish much, I can't recall my exact words, but it was something like that. I also never got any response on that.
I lean more towards diesels the last 20+ years or so, no, I'm no expert, still learning whenever I let myself. Now I'm back to a gasser, good, bad, or indifferent.
My thoughts are that a good cold air setup, and a good exhaust, are basically frosting on the cake. I had a SuperChips programmer on my last stroker, and it really turned that thing on. I also had a 4" straightpipe, modified intake, I can't remember the model #, but it was basically a huge filter for a forktruck, that was inserted in place of the stock airbox, and plumbed into the snorkel. Now, both of those mods made some nice noises, but really did nothing more for the seat of the pants. Mileage never did vary much from 18mpg, except the ambient temp did decrease mileage as it got colder, and of course loading made a difference.

So, what are some thoughts on these gassers? Unless the engine controls are modified with a chip or programmer, are you really gaining anything? Am I totally out in left field now? In days or yore with carbs, and no real electronics, exhausts and intakes would make quite the difference, oh, and a cam certainly would, as well. Really, for nothing but the sound, what did I REALLY gain by putting on a Roush exhaust?

 

a high flow exhaust and better air intake will give you a bit of power, but the trick with a gasser is the same as with a diesel. for real power increase you need to reprogram the computer.

i put a dual exhaust with high flow mufflers and opened up the intake on my fathers crown vic, and it became almost equal to my police interceptor.

 

Thanks Tom, that's what I was thinking. Both a diesel and a gasser require air/fuel to make them work. And, in both cases now, the computer seemed like it would be the limiting factor.
I don't think I'll be chipping this little 5.0 anytime soon, but it sure does sound good now.

 

i think the best thing you can do is make sure the air intake is the same size as the hose going from the filter to the throttle body.

the 99 crown vic uses a 3 inch throttle body feed tube, but only has a 1 3/4 inch hole in the rad support to let air into the filter box.

i opened up the rad support and filter box intake to 3 inch, then put a h-pipe and flowmaster delta 50's on it, and it went from a grandma go to church car to a tire burning monster.
granted fuel mileage dropped a bit, but if you kept your foot out of it it would still get 26 mpg on the highway.

 

Something that I think is cool, you can get some real horsepower/torque gains now, and you don't even need to know which way to turn a wrench.LOL

 

yup. it takes all the fun out of turnin wrenches, drinkin beer and gettin yer hands greasy don't it?

 

Ya know, it does. I used to really enjoy playing mechanic, I don't think I ever got REAL good, but I did know what effected what, how, and knew how to play with it. Now? Nope, take a read on my thread in the 2009+ foroum, about my exhaust and tranny concern. Geez, what's next!?!?

 

just call your 7 year old grandson, and hand him the laptop and say "fix it".
it will be purrin like a cat on a radiator in january within 5 minutes.

 

LOL, that's what my wife and I both say every time we have computer problems. "Hey, get Waylon over here to fix this"!!!. Waylon is 5 years old.