How are yall doing, I had a 1999 f150 2wd single cab style side. It has a 4.2 liter v6 and automatic. I discovered it has 3.31 rear gears and the color is Deep Wedge Wood Blue, I love that color its gorgeous.

Im just wondering what mods I can do to free up some ponies and some low end grunt.

Some bang for your buck mods would be great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What type of muffler sounds good for a deep tone rumble with the 4.2?

My dad had a 3.9l v6 Dakota when I was a kid and he had a single in dual out muffler and it sounded great.

Im new to the v6 world and would to make this thing surprise acouple v8 guys and get better fuel mileage to boot.

Thanks for reading,

Robert

Texas Chapter Leader

 

Good question Robert.
First, your limited by the small displacement of the motor for low end torque production.
There is little that can be done on the outside of the motor to improve this.
What you can do is replace the rear gear ratio to something like stock 3:73 gears.
What this does is multiply the engine torque that is available at output of the transmission. It does not make more horse power, only mechanical torque increases.
Going further, the transmission torque converter could be custom built to further multiply engine torque at take off and before the lockup occurs then the benefits goes away to get the motor into it's torque band earlier, plus more firm shifting with valve body modifications.
Beyond these items it gets expensive in a hurry building the little V6 up to make more torque.
Mufflers change the sound but do little for power.
.
Remember, torque is what moves the weight at all speeds.
The Horse power number builds as a function of RPM and is just a mathematical derivation from torque and rpm. Another way of saying how much air can pass through the motor to make power from the fuel injected along the way..
Actually from this you can see the HP curve peaks at some high rpm and then begins to fall.
The reason this happens is the intake and exhaust begins to be a restriction to that flow and becomes the limiting factor for power.
Good luck.

 

I might stand corrected, but shortie headers to a true dual exhaust would give a bit of a horsepower boost, and the shortie headers would provide more low end torque.

 

Thank you for the reply, im no where near new to modding cars and trucks, I had an 1/8th bracket fox body built from the ground up.

Im just new to v6s.

I was thinking, cold air intake, headers, maybe a tuner?

Later on I am planning a cam swap and definitely ditching the crapomatic, I prefer standards but I couldnt pass this deal up.

Muffler I just want for sound, not too loud but a nice little rumble.

I love this truck, SHE HANDLES GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Probly the beat little truck I've ever owned. I was thinking of swaping rear ends but if im going to do it then im going to go with an expedition rear air suspension and axle.

My ex wife had a 1998 xlt expedition and I loved the stock mags so I want to get rid of the steels and go with those.

I also want to repaint the vehicle with the factory color and paint to match bumpers and trim.

I like the expedition front bumper better so ill be aearching for one really so as well as lowering the rear two inches to level her out.

She sits way to high in the rear for my liking.

People have tried tovtalk me into swaping the v6 for a v8 but if I can get as much power out of my 4.2 as the 4.6 had stock I would be happy

I dont want a hot rod, just a nice little cruiser with a little giddy up.

Thank you again for your help and suggestions

Robert

Texas Chapter Leader

 

A good sounding exhaust on my buddies 4.2 was true dual 2 1/4 all the way back but had a 3 1/2 tip. wasnt so loud the neighbors car alarms went off but sounded mean and like he had a special exhaust system that would have cost more.

 

That would be nice, atm im thinking a single in dual out type muffler, somthing cost efficient yet has a nice tone.

In the past ive done glass packs,
straight pipes ect, do yall thing a flowmaster would sound good? Maybe a thrush? Ive heard good things about Thrush mufflers.

 

MPT offers custom tuning with SCT for the 4.2 V6. However you must be realistic with what gains you might see. Most of the gains are with the automatics and the shift settings however they do claim about 10-12hp gain with 87 octane which is pretty realistic. That's about a 4% increase over the stock tune which isn't bad.

Long tube headers are expensive and don't really offer that much of a gain over the tube style manifold.

The intake system is not really that restrictive and there are some budget/free mods you can do to improve it. Intakes are available if you really want to go that route but not sure if it would have any real gain over stock.

Exhaust can be improved on but its not going to be cheap. The main restriction is in the 4 converters and cross over pipes before the muffler. Its not cheap to mess around under there but you can gain a few ponies with a custom set up and it will be cheaper than stock replacement set up.

TB spacers are a waste of time and money. Stay away from them!!!

Electric fan conversion is a cheap and easy mod that has no real down fall. You may pick up a little horse power and MPG but your ac will also love you if you are stuck in traffic.

TUNE UP!!! Often overlooked but this should be your first steep hands down. Good wires, plugs, fluids, vacuum lines, gaskets are critical. If your O2 sensors have never been replaced or your manifold gaskets are still factory then look into them as well.

 

Ive done a full tine up with oem quality parts, new fuel pump, fuel pressure regulator, fuel filter, intake gaskets, manifold gasketa, and 02 sensors.

I would love to see a gain of 50-100 hp.

I you still get dual in dual out cats?

If so ill get one and fab up my own exaughst

 

If you have the ability to I would go for it. Since the 02 sensors sit so high up in the exhaust manifolds it should be very easy to run true duels on the truck. Its your choice if you run high flow cats or just go with out at that point. However even with that I don't think you are going to see any more than a 15hp increase and that's being optimistic.

50-100hp lol. I think you have been around long enough you know better. Unless you have a eaton M112 or nitrous in your plans.

To be truthful even with tuning, headers, exhaust, intake, and a cam I think you would be lucky to pull 40hp out of the 4.2. I am sure some one will post up to prove me wrong but for a daily driven truck I think that's going to be about it.

 

Thanks brother, so basically do the little odds and ends and pray for 50hp lol. Thank you for your honestly.

My overall goal for this truck is too have a nice drive around town truck that turns heads

 

I think forced induction is the only way you are going to get 50+ horses out of it short of really putting some big $$$$ into the valve train and rotating assembly. I am sure you could build a 300hp naturally aspirated 4.2 but for the cost you could probably also buy a early 2000 model V8 truck and have the same power.

Forced induction will get you there with no problem but once again your dumping more money into it than what the truck is worth.

From what I understand the headers are almost useless on the stock trucks since the tube manifolds flow very well. $500 is a lot of money to drop into the 4.2 IMOP.

As far as sound a 4.2 is not going to sound any thing like a 3.9. Two very different engines with the 3.9 sharing a lot of traits with its V8 brothers (long stroke push rod).

 

I am budgeting this face lift and what not at respectively 2k so I guess ill do the cosmetics and see what I have left to put into the motor drive train ect.

Thank yall for the help