I own an 03 F-250 with a V10. I love the truck! I Tow a 34' fifth wheel during camping season and a 20' car trailer from time to time. I am surrounded by Diesel truck owners of all kinds. Just curios if anyone has put a turbo kit on a V10 or what you've done for performance upgrades?
I am happy, overall, with my V10. Starts in any weather here in Montana, runs strong and has good power without needing injectors and all of the stuff that the diesel guys are doing. I know I don't get the same fuel mileage as my son who has a diesel, but my truck is pretty trouble free.
Also, I'm disappointed that Ford went away from the V10. From what I've read the V10 has as good or better mileage as the 6.2 with better power. Is that true?
Just thinking that 3-5 lbs of boost would put the V10 in front of the diesels but I don't want to grenade the engine.
Thanks everyone.

 

Many folks including myself have installed custom tunes from 5-Star Tuning. I recently purchased an SCT X4 from them and the 91 Performance/Tow tune really woke up my 2006 3v. They also have other performance parts specifically for your earlier 2v. I'm not as familiar with the benefits of those, but I'm sure someone else who is can help you more.

You will probably get a variety of answers about mileage, but I can say that my 2014 6.2 work truck averages a couple MPG better than my 2006 V-10. With the stock tune, the V-10 felt like it had more low end grunt, but the 6.2 seems a bit snappier. Very close in my opinion though. I don't do any towing with my work truck though, so can't compare beyond ordinary driving.

 

Just like red79 said. The tune from 5 star makes a big difference. The 6.2 motors get about 1mpg better than the V10s and the v10 out toques the snappier 6.2. I think superchargers are pretty hard to find for these motors. I have a 3 valve and I don't think there is one made for it.

 

Best bang for the buck is to re-gear what gear/s to you have? Also noted that you have an 03 the Y pipe where both down streams of the exhaust unite are really restricted, look into the combo Mike @ 5 star offers.

 

The posts above are Truth. Go with tune and/or gears.

However there is one guy on this forum with a supercharger. I believe he lives at high elevation, so basically he got the mild boost just to catch up with he thinner air.

We get newb's in here all the time asking/planning on turbo/superchargers but it never happens. Except the high elevation guy.

Gears and tuner will make you happy.

 

4.30 gears maybe 4.56 if you want a bit more grunt or have slightly larger tires spd y pipe and 5 star tunes. 5 star actually experimented wth a turbo setup like what your talking a about but the project died too bad though. There was a thread on here about it can't find it at the moment though.

 

5 star tunes is the best bang for your buck. I also did the banks headers and a bbk throttle body. I already had a Volant air intake and 4.30 gears although I'm planning on changing to 4.88's since I have 36" tires

 

I too run a 2V V-10 in my '05 EXcursion (the mighty EX never got the 3V motors ) which serves as our dedicated tow rig for our 11,000lb TT. I have a set of 5 custom tunes from 5Star Tuning, Banks headers with Y pipe and 4.88 gears (with my 35" tires it has an effective ratio of 4.39).
Without question the best and biggest performance increase came from the deeper gears, it is like a different truck with the heavy trailer behind it!
The headers and Y pipe made an improvement in throttle response and gave a little more umph across the entire RPM range and are most noticeable at higher throttle openings under load climbing grades.
The tunes are an excellent upgrade for the transmission improvements alone! The little bit of extra engine output is just icing on the cake. For trips over mostly flat terrain I will run the 87 Octane Performance tune and for trips that have lots of hills to climb I load the 91 Octane Performance tune. the 91 Perf tune allows for higher throttle openings before it drops out of OD on climbs as well delivering a little better overall performance. The 87 Perf tune will hold OD much better than the stock tune, this equates to a decent improvement in both towing performance and economy. Well worth the cost of a tuner and tunes to me.
When I first did the gear swap from 3.73s to the 4.88s we were towing a 9500 lb toyhauler and were seeing 6 to 7 MPG on trip up/down the East coast between Philly and Savannah, it would downshift if we ran over a shadow in the stock configuration. With everything else remaining stock the change to 4.88 gears delivered a solid 9 MPG over the same route at the same weight and speed. And it didn't drop out of OD a single time on the highway on that route! By the time I added the headers, tunes and tires we had also moved on to a new TT weighing 11k, and we now see from 8 to 9.4 MPG on our mostly highway trips with that combo.
The high elevation guy mentioned earlier (or at least another high elevation guy ) who recent installed a Kenne Bell supercharger on his 2V V-10 EX really struggled with charge air temps after the SC, I think he was working a water/methanol injection setup to quench it some to control the detonation issues. He was only running a few PSI, nothing crazy.
I have towed through New England with another member here and his modded 6.0 Ex pulling his 13k toyhauler, he was impressed that our V-10 kept even pace with him along the way. He has pulled his combo through 44 states in '16, so it was nice to get a side by side comparison with similar trailers and tow vehicles with both gas and diesel with an experienced guy.

 

Thanks for the input guys. I appreciate all of the input.
I failed to let you know that I do have a Banks exhaust kit (headers, Y pipe, and new 3" all the way back). The exhaust kit helped the power of the truck but I was surprised that I didn't see a bit of a fuel mileage increase. I love the idea of switching out the 3.73 gears with 4.30s or 4.88s. I know I'll have a boat load of pulling power with the new gears. Any idea what will happen to the fuel mileage when I'm running empty with the new gears? I will definitely investigate the 5 Star tune.

 

My stock tire size was 31.6" (265/75R16) but I was running 32"s on OEM 18" wheels when I did my gear swap.
With the stock 3.73s I was seeing 14-ish MPG in my daily driving of a 50/50 mix of highway/town and 15/15.5 on pure highway solo running. With no other changes besides the 4.88 gears the daily driving mix dropped to 12-ish MPG. I didn't do any pure highways solo runs with that configuration, so no data there.
With my current configuration of 4.88s, 35.28" X 12.5" tires (effective 4.39 ratio), headers, tunes (87 Econo) and 4" lift it gets 12.5 MPG on a pure highway trip with the cruise control set at 65 MPH. I don't daily drive it any more, so no data on that 50/50 mix MPG. Some of the MPG drop is due to the bigger tires and lift, it's not all from the gears.

 

that math comes out to $15 per fill up, based on 30gallon fillip at $2/gallon

go get those gears

 

I have a 2009 E350 Super Duty XLT passenger van. I'm going to do the 5 Star tune thing. They say that my engine has three valves, whereas my workshop manual says it's a two valve unit. I heard that only the motors for RV's had the three valve heads. Who's right??!!

Once I have the 5 star tune, I will consider other goodies, such as Banks exhaust headers.

 

It's my understanding that the vans kept the 2V V-10 throughout the entire production run and never saw the 3V.

 

1,000,000% correct---anyone saying the 3V's made their way into the E-Series just ain't telling ya da trut!

5 Star will know this and suggest the best tune for the application.

 

Thanks for your confirmation. I'll see how the 5 star thing goes, and then plan a bit more.