Posting for my brother again, 2000 F150 reg cab 4x4 with 4.6 and auto 3.73 gears i think. He wants to add a cold air and tuner more more power, is it worth it or not? I k ow on my 04 F350 with 5.4 its not i suggested a shift kit and gears if he really wants to do something so what do you's think?

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CAI, waste of money.
Tuner, can give a little pep if using premium fuel, shifting can be improved also. No gas mileage improvement. Worth the $300+, hard to say.
I got a used SCT x3 tuner for $200 and 1 tune from MPT for $50 (87 octane performance with street transmission tune) and noticed no real difference in actual performance, but did have some improvement with shifting.
Not sure if I would do it again or not.

 

Yea i figured the f150 was the same as my gas powered F350. Only thing i felt and noticed was the gear swap and shiftkit do ill tell my brother to do that

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Over the years with various types of F series trucks, I've found a tuner/CAI to be a pretty good waste of money on a gas engine. At the most you will feel some seat of the pants difference from new shifting strategies and firmer shifts controlled by the tuner. A diesel seems to benefit from a tuner more, but a gas engine seems to require more "hard parts" to make a difference. The only thing I noticed with a CAI is that it seemed to make a cat back exhaust growl a little more. Was it just intake noise or actually a change in the combustion process? I don't know.

Essentially, you have said it right...gears, shift kits, bolt on parts, perhaps a PI head swap, headers, etc... Those are where the gains will be.