new to the site and the aftermarket world for trucks and have some questions. i have an 05 F250 Super Duty 4x4, 6.8 with the 5 speed tourque shift auto. it has just under 5k miles on the odometer and i use the truck to travel to and from work and to haul my mustang. the throttle response is horrible and so is the gas mileage.

first the throttle response. from what i gather so far there are aftermarket tuning options just like for the mustangs that can really open up the trucks potential and improve issues such as my lagging throttle response...right? im a big supporter of sct custom tuning, what are everyone elses thought and or experiences with them if they are an option? any suggestions?

next i was wondering about a cold air induction kit and some exhaust upgrades. would the cai improve gas mileage and what are the better ones out there to choose from? is exhaust worth it? if for nothing else but the sound i would still do it but i have heard the v10 is picky with exhaust and some exhaust sound horrible. once again any suggestions would be great!

overall i am very happy with the truck. i have already hauled from pittsburgh to cincinnati and st louis and the truck pulls great. i got better gas mileage on the highway hauling 5k + lbs than i do city driving! i knew the gas mileage would suck but i would like to do anything i can to improve on it, i started by getting a toneau cover.

so basically im looking for peoples opinions on cai kits, exhaust kits and custom tuning. what is worth it and what isn't? who does everyone recomend going with etc..

thanks for reading and i appreciate everyones patients!

 

i have a 05 f250cc v10tqs 4x4 4.30ls my throttle response is like yours makes you wonder where the 362 horse are hopefully a tuner will come out soon. on the gas mileage my best so far is 10.6 hwy 8.9 to 9.1 in town 8 towing 4500lbs maybe a air intake system would help but dont see anything out yet be careful with exhaust v10s dont sound good with aftermarket systems and in my experience exhaust arent worth anything in gas savings only the sound i am currently trying royal purple engine oil and i am getting ready to change both diffs to royal purple dont have any results as of yet probably wasted my money wish i could be more help

 

I have had mine only a week (2005 F250 V-10 6 speed) and noticed the muffler is hot water heater-sized. I see a clamp a foot or so ahead of it and another right after it and think before too long, I am going to find a decent muffler shop and have them unclamp the muffler and replace it with straight pipe for that section. If it doesn't work out, no big deal because with no cutting and just unclamping, the muffler can go back on but I do not see that happening. What diameter is that pipe? Looks like at least 3". Anyone know of anybody putting headers on a V-10? I am also quite disappointed with the lack of performance and hope some of the horses come back soon.

 

what about the sct xcalibrator if there isn't a hand held programmer like the predator?

 

nasty3valve
welcome to fte. the best truck site in the web. please take some time to read the web site guide lines and the area refirst.

there are no performance upgrades for the 3valve v10 yet. a cold air kit will be out for a while as the air filter housing holds a engine senser that seems to be the mass air. i'm still trying to find out.
you have a fly by wire throttle no cable so that takes a little time to get used to. as to how you feel about the performance it sounds like a trip to ford is needed. some things not correct there. these trucks are nasty when running right.
mpg on mine has gotten better since i hit 6k on the speedo it's up to 12.4 +or - a little mostly plus. and my power is up to 271.4 on a dyno holding the truck back in 3rd gear because of the road speed limiter. from 248.9 when i had 2k on it.
read some of the posts from fredvon4 you will be amazed at what he has found out about the 05 v10 sd. and i'm sure he will chime in and help you out. just don't let the sarges bark scare you , he's 1 cool dude .

 

wow this sucks! if i cant get this lagging throttle response fixed this truck is gone! i cant even get a tune for the truck?

thanks for the help everyone, please keep the responses coming!

 

like i said it's time for a trip to ford. a mili second or two maybe. longer something is wrong.
theses trucks run big time and a good running one is a hemi smoker. mine was a little doggie untill i got over 3k on it then it really took off and amazed me. get it in and checked out.

 

I had throttle lag badly too off of standing stops. Had the dealership check it and they said nothing they could do. I was the problem. I found it necessary to rev the motor 14-1500+ RPM's before slipping the clutch to start moving in order to keep it from dying. Once under way, hang on! As soon as you get past 2k RPM's it seems to respond instantly and all is gone with throttle lag and it pulls like a locomotive. I have to agree with captchas, driving by 'wire' takes some getting used to, but while pulling or under heavy accelerating it is no problem.

-05 F350 4x4, V-10, 6spd, 4.30 LS, 18" rubber

 

from a stop the truck is fine, it will blow the tires off if i punch it! my problem is from a roll...when i press the gas there is a nasty lag before it down shifts and goes or just picks up. very poor performance imo and im pretty confident there isn't anything wrong with the truck. is there a tourque management program in the computer just like with the new mustangs? this is common with them and is easily fixed through a custom tune, thats where im going with this. i can wait for the other modifications but the driveability with this truck needs improved imo. thanks for the response!

 

I look forward to reading fredvon's comments and wonder what trans he has. Somehow, the above posts make me think much of the problem is with the trucks that have automatics. true?

 

i know the automatic mustangs have this problem worse than the manuals???

 

I could swear I read something about the "fly by wire" throttle, and there was an update from Ford for it. Might have been the 5.4 though... But either way, it had to do with the sensor on the "gas" pedal... it was replaced, and the guy had no more problems.

BRING IT BACK TO THE DEALER and complain. Make sure they write it up.

Also, make sure they actually do a search for TSB's for it, there might be something flaky...

 

mine had a bad switch at the pedal keeping the engine from going into open loop at full throttle. my auto trans took a little time to get used to. the pcm has to figure out what to tell every thing else to do before any thing happens. it's not only ford. i get it every day at work from people who have never driven a electronic shift trans with fly by the wire throttle.

 

If you would post a signature with a good description of you new ride and a clue to what general area in the country you live in it would help. We like to know what vehicle we are talking about so our thoughts and advice can account for 4x4 systems, tall gears, Tall tires etc..

Up in the top Right section of every post that has a signature you can hover your pointer over the word and an instant drop down will show the info. If you really like this site you can be a supporter for about $15 a year and get a few added benefits.

Here are some of my thoughts now that I have over 12K on my 2005 V10 and several years on 2 6.0L PSD with the same throttle and 5R110 auto transmissions: I also have a few long hours in the manual tranny Fords with and with out "fire by wire".

There is much more power "gain" from 5000 to 10,000 miles of break in then there was from 0-5000 miles. These are all 4x4 and TorqShift so I assume there is a LOT of miles needed to get the entire Power Train loosened up.

Ford Gasoline PCMs appear to be calibrated for a particularly clean burn and it is my opinion that many of them are real sensitive to fuel, quality and brands.

There is no clear trend to say that Chevron is always better than Shell or whatever. There are hundreds of posts about changing brands had a dramatic effect.

My two V10 love the Chevron I get in Central Texas and hate the Chevron I get in Arizona...so what is going on with that? Easy, Arizona is a "clean air" state and year round they use oxygenated fuel with some months at 10% blend and some at 5%.

Back to the Electronic throttle. My experience is that the system is very good. I do not detect any excessive "lag" but there is a little and if you deliberately try you can confuse it and induce some significant delay in both the manual and auto trany versions. More annoying in the manual version because I usually do it in a gear with clutch engaged and the motor not adding the needed power will almost stall the beast.

With the 5R110 trans I found through experimenting with the adaptive learning process that these transmissions can be taught to behave much better but one down side is training the one of the two programs does not equally enhance the other program. If I train the tow/haul side I can dramatically change the behavior but the default "drive" side feels sluggish and slow to respond. If I aggressively train the "drive" program then I loose the nice program I set in the Tow/haul side.

Hint: If you rarely use tow/haul but want fairly harder shifts then disconnect the battery Sunday night, load 1000-2000 lbs in the bed and Monday morning reconnect the battery. As you are going to work, and the rest of the day, drive it fairly aggressively on starts from a stop. Do some fairly hard pulls manually shifting the trans, including some reverse work. It seems like three driving cycles is needed. I believe the computer counts one driving cycle as completely up to operating temp and a stop long enough for the temp to get back down near ambient..full cool down.

Now remember these are really complicated and there seems to be a large variation in PCM programs. Some are very strong and some plain suck. There are folks like Charlie who had bad electronic components that let the truck run but not get all the potential by staying in closed loop. That being know you should have it checked out with a COMPETENT technician.

Finding a COMPETENT technician is hard to do, and once you find him take care of that relationship, they are worth their weight in Gold.

If you must have a tuner (and they can have a dramatic effect on these tranies) then you should pester Ken this sites sponsors. I think there are products starting to get out there for our 2005 3v V10s by now.

Just a note cuz it is a pet peeve.... if you have a new "under warranty" Ford truck and do modifications... and then some thing breaks... be a man, admit you caused it, and do not attempt to defraud Ford and the rest of us by clearing all the codes and claiming the tranny just up and broke. No I am not saying if your power steering pump is puking all over the place to do this as the tuner did not add any power that could cause that failure. An in that case I do recommend taking off the tuner and shutting up as I know there are dealers who will deny ANY claim just because there was a tuner attached.

 

That's right, YOU were the guy with the bad pedal sensor... my memory is good for things like computer tech things, I just can't remember people's names