We have a 97 ford super duty 4x4 15,000 gvw fire truck. It carries 300 gallons of water, "the jaws of life", EMS equipment, etc. Its current weight is 13,800 gvw. It has a 460 for its power plant. We are thinking of making it into more of a grass truck for Wildland fires. We would take off the EMS, "Jaws", etc. We would like it to have a little more power or get up and go. We were thinking of a chip or tuner what ever you call them or better exhaust. We are just brainstorming. Would a chip/tuner help???

 

I'm not sure about the 460 but the tuner I put in my personal truck (4.6) added quite a bit of power in the lower rpm range. I'm sure Ken or somone who knows about the 460 will give you an answer to your question.

Our 4X4 brush trucks also carry 300 gallons of water but have diesel engines. Lots of torque down low to make it up those steep hills.

 

You should go with a chip, the Microtuner is not guaranteed to work with a vehicle of that size (same thing with diesels, F-450+ aren't officially supported).

Yes, it should help. The chip's HP gains aren't great with a 460 when you consider its displacement, but the torque gains are monsterous for a naturally aspirated gas engine (45 ft/lbs!).

The one drawback: you must run premium fuel. That's usually not a problem, most law enforcement, fire-fighters and ambulance personel I've dealt with can use premium because the municipality pays for the fuel. The gain in power and having to use less throttle should offset a great deal of the added fuel costs.

With anything like this, I strongly recommend you get a switch chip. Although chips have an extremely low failure rate, you are dealing with a vehicle that must operate in all conditions no matter what. In the unlikely event a chip dies while you're surrounded by a firestorm you certainly don't have the time to pull the chip so you can get moving. With a switch chip, if there were an issue, simply switch the chip toggle to the "off" position and the stock computer program activates and you'll be on your way.

Your best bet is to install headers along with the exhaust. Purchase "header wrap" at a local auto-parts store while you're at it and wrap the headers. Header wrap isn't pretty (you don't get to see that nice chrome or power-coating on the headers) but it will significantly reduce underhood power robbing heat.

The combination of headers/header wrap/exhaust/chip will give significantly more power over stock, the most you're going to get short of nitrous, cam changes or a blower (none of which are practical for an emergeny vehicle).

Such a package would give all-around power, from low end to top end.

 

i'd recommend cermaic coated headers instead of wrap- they tend to rust out the headers because of the condensation formed-

 

This is good info thanks for the help!!!


We also are building a 04 F-450 grass truck 4x4. It has a 6.0L diesel. IT will carry 400 gallons of water.

Would it be a good Idea to tuner or chip this truck??? Ideas??? comments??

 

A Diablo Predator will work with it. I don't recommend it unless you put an exhaust temperature gauge on the truck to monitor exhaust temps.