I have a 2005 F-250 5.4 3v Triton. I am wondering what upgrades you can put on a 5.4 for power, and fuel economy, I would rather aim for the fuel economy but would like to get both. I know that is hard for a 5.4 but maybe it's possible. I am not wanting to spend tons of money on the engine as I don't plan to keep it forever. Thanks in advance.

 

First your not gonna get better mpg. Best thing is new spark plugs, air filters fuel filter, change cop boots, clean mass air sensor and IAC valve.
A tuner wont improve anything on the motor in way of hp and torque. All it does is remove some of the throttle delay that Ford programmed into the tuning and it will adjust the shift timing and pressure.
Best upgrade is to do a gear swap, depending on your tire size and weight you tow 4.30 or deeper is a 100% improvement

 

Like said above a gear swap is what would help the most. Other than that save the money for the inevitable phasers and VCT.

 

That's not necessarily true. The 5 Star tunes all make more power and especially the 91 octane tune. This is in addition to removing the drive by wire sluggishness.

 

I'm running 33" tires on 18" wheels. I am wanting to get 35's soon, will 4:30 gears still be a good option for these two sizes?

 

I run the 5 star 91 tune adjusted for softer shifts ( it was hammering gears) and a lighter off idle throttle. That with 4:88 gears and 35s and I am very happy with it with the 5.4 3v. Whole different machine with these mods.

 

I have been thinking about getting a 5 Star tune for my stock 2010 truck. How to you adjust for softer shifts and do you have to run 91 octane all the time?

 

4.30 is the "performance" gear ratio for these modular motors, but that is if matched with the stock tire size. With taller tires the gear ratio is effectively reduced (gets numerically lower), so with a change to 35"s you would need a deeper gear ratio to get back to that effective 4.30 ratio (if you want the advantages of the performance gear). How deep would depend on what the stock tire size was, on my EX the factory tires were 31.6" so when I went to 35" and wanted to enjoy all the benefits of the performance offered by the sweet spot 4.30-4.56 gear ratio I went with 4.88 gears that coupled with the new 35"s give an effective 4.39 ratio. The change from the factory 3.73 gears makes it feel like a completely different and better truck! Short of turbo or super charging deeper gears are your best performance upgrade for a gasser.
Here is a good online tire size/gear ratio calculator. 4Lo.com :: Tire Size Change, New Gear Ratio Calculator

 

Thank you!

 

You could do cams and then have it dyno'd. my handheld programmer gave me 31 hp, dyno gave me 89 hp. (4.6 3V with other mods too). Dyno will give you more hp. I also agree with gearing change.

 

Sorry been down that five star road....ABSOLUTELY NOTHING IN HP OR TQ increase. All your feeling is the removed throttle delay and adjusted shifting he does. These motors need GEARS plain and simply. If you want 35's go with a 4.56 if you dont tow or 4.88 if you want the truck to perform correctly in all situations that this truck was designed for

 

If you go from a 33 to a 35, and you have 3.73 gears, you would need 4.13 gears to restore the stock effective gear ratio.

If you wanted the equivalent of stock tires and 4.30 gears, you'd need a 4.76 diff with your 35s. A 4.88 would not be too much gear.

 

5 star does custom tunes when you buy their tunes + programmer. I emailed them with my issues and they sent me tunes correcting my issues. Throttle was way to jumpy and shifts were way too hard. I run 91 octane only with 91 tune.

 

Just because you say that doesn't make it true. It's too bad you had a bad experience.

 

There was a guy on here who claimed that he felt a nice improvement in his 08 with the addition a true dual setup with an H pipe using the dual factory cats. His proof was being able to break the tires loose at full throttle afterwards when he could not before. I never saw any dyno proof, but I figured I'd throw it out there. Other than that, gears are the way to go. The tune will decrease the drive by wire lag and probably configure the trans a little better. I am sure power would go up a little with a 93 octane tune but it comes with the added cost of fuel.

The only other thought I can offer is I have had an 04 SCSB 5.4 with a 6 speed and 4.10s and I now have a 02 CCLB 5.4 with 4R100 auto and 3.73s. The 04 had way more get up and go... the gears and lighter weight definitely helped. I would also argue the at the manual trans will allow the power to be put down more effectively than the auto because of the difference between the manual clutch and the torque converter slip in lower gears, so a manual swap could help.

5R110W

1. 3.09
2. 2.20
3. 1.53
4. 1.00
5. 0.71

ZF6

1. 5.79 (granny low)
2. 3.31
3. 2.10
4. 1.31
5. 1.00
6. 0.72

By those numbers from Gear Vendors (which I assume are correct) you get more low end, but other wise they are similar. The ZF6 was much better than the 4R100 in my case.