I have a 2001 F-350 CC DRW V-10. The truck works great towing on flat terrain or slight inclines, but when I go up a steep grade, or climb into high altitude (7,000' +) it is slow going (45 mph with peddle to the floor). I am pulling a 26' toy hauler which weighs up to 11,500 fully loaded. I have the K&N filter charger, 4.30 gears, and have added a 70 series Flowmaster muffler to the stock 3" exhaust. I have looked into headers (Gibson/Banks/Thorley) but two muffler shops have said that the return on investment is not there (power/performance gain), and maintenance is a pain. I have also checked into a chip, both Hypertech and Superchip, and again I have been told that I should steer clear from this option - "a bulb that burns twice as bright...". Any advice (other than selling my truck and buying a diesel)?

 

Hi and welcome to FTE

I've moved your question down here to the V-10 forum.
We've got a great bunch of guys here that will love to give you their opinions

 

Mschmidt, Welcome to FTE!

Well, I hate to say it, but high altitude, heavy weight, and steep grades is definitely diesel territory.

I would agree that you aren't gonna get that much extra performance out of the headers and from what you are saying they most likely won't be worth the expense.

As far as the tuners. You'll get better throttle response and better shifts, but that doesn't seem to be your problem.

Not sure how often you are towing in those conditions, but unless you want to drop a supercharger on the truck, you're options are kinda limited to either a new 3V V10 or a diesel. Gotta have oxygen to make power and without a turbo or supercharger, the engine is gonna struggle at altitude. Take the turbo off any diesel and see how big of a dog it is.

Only other advice I can give you is check all the filters. Air and fuel would be my first place. Sorry I can't give you anything else on this, but I think you already knew some of the answers you might get.

BFR

 

BFR250SD,

Thanks for the reply! I really appreciate the information.

On the filters, I did purchase a new fuel filter today, and I will be checking the K&N tomorrow. I have not owned the truck that long, and since I did buy it used, I am now starting to hit areas that should be serviced to keep the truck in good condition for towing (other than the regular oil change).

On the altitude issue, I will only occasionally be towing the trailer into the mountains. I wish that there was a good performance upgrade, that was relatively inexpensive, which would give decent gains in power and torque (and maintain reliability). If I did put a supercharger on the stock engine, would that not cause big issues down the road?

 

Not if it's setup properly. Most of the better manufacturers kits come with everything you need to do a real nice setup. There are a few guys running around in here that are running Kenne Bell and Whipple superchargers and have had real good luck with them. They come with all the goodies (i.e. injectors, programmers or piggy backs, fuel pumps or FMU's, etc).

If you really look at it though, with the V10 vs. a diesel, you saved yourself 5K for upgrades. For 5K, you can make a lot of power.

What kind of RPM were you turning while pulling these grades? Was the tranny dropping gears, did it feel like the torque converter was slipping? How steep of a grade?

The reason I'm asking is the V10 will usually pull that weight with those gears fairly well.

 

What size tires are on the truck? Have you pulled heavy loads before or is this your first time with a heavy trailer? I pull more than that and I have no problem at 7000 ft. The only time I slow down is when I'm pulling a steep grade, but as soon as I clear it I have no problem holding the speed up to the limit until I get up to 9 to 11k and them no one not even a oil burners go very fast with a heavy load.

Denny

 

Gotta tell ya...I put one on my F150 (SCMT 1715) and made a completely different towing truck. Maybe you should try it. It's only $300 or so and can be easily resold to many of the users here if it doesn't work like you want it to.

Where I used to be floored at 50, 2nd gear, trying to climb a grade with a 6K loaded horse trailer in tow I now am accelerating in 3rd up the same grade. Now results may vary but...I'll be ordering one (a tuner) for my 05 Excursion after Christmas.

 

Sounds like a case for lower gears...

 

Dont forget you can modify the TAR out of that truck (can you say supercharger?!?!), before you'll spend more than you'll loose at trade-in.

I CAN say that I know A LOT of guys running Hypertech or Superchips on gas engines for years now and have never had problems. The diesel chips are different stories altogether!

Curious what gears your running, and tire size.

(Superchargers compensate for high altitudes to!)

 

I owned a 01 F350 cc sb 4x4. if you open these engines up and let them breath, they really make some nice power. I ran a 30 hp chip, larger throttle body with spacer, Airraid cold air intake. I later added borla headers, but the cost of the headers were extreme in comparison the perf gain, which was only noticable at higher rpm's. This beast would really pull, and run............

I also went from the stock 3.73:1 to 4.10:1 gears with 35' tires!

 

somethings not right with your v10. sounds like it's in need of some t.l.c., lots of the guys in here have the early v10 and pull with no problems. they have tuners no problems. cold air kits help.

this motor has one heck of a strong low end, 4 bolt mains that are also cross bolted. meaning the low end has 6 bolts holding it together, it's one super beffie beast.
for you start with a good tune up. make sure you clean the plug holes with air to blow away any thing that may be around them. new plugs, used never seize on the plug and a torqe wrench ,you have the early heads on yours be care full. the torqe wrench is a MOST USE. get new plug seals and install them on cop units, the fuel filter if it starts pluging up these motors lean out and loose power. use one from ford not a cheap after market one.
oil ford states 5w20. some of us do use 5 w30 but 5w20 is correct. high up inthe air towing with a non forced air motor you will loose something and slow down but not like you state with this motor.
headers i have them. you loose power down low and get it back up stairs. a dyno proved it for me.
don't be scared of that sct tuner they work great and don't hurt this bad boy
there will be more of the gang around with more information on the early v10 shortly

 

Wow! It's great to see the response from my thread. I really appreciate all of your information and suggestions.

A few of you had a question on the tire size - 235/85R16 BFG Comm T/A.

I did purchase a new fuel filter (Motorcraft), and I will be cleaning the K&N. I do not know when the truck was last in for a tune up. At this time it has approx. 50,000 miles, but it is not a daily driver (company car takes car of that). I thought I might check on the cooling system as well. When I have it at the Ford dealer for oil changes (5W20), the visuals have all come back good, with no suggestions for additional service. I like to make sure things are in proper running order, so I tend to be ahead of the game.

On the tuners/chips, I will have to look into the Superchip or Hypertech tuners again. I liked the suggestion of trying the tuner and if it does not work for me, sell it. My concern was messing up my orginal programming and running into a warranty issue trying to repair the damage. I did purchase an extended warranty (through Ford) that would cover the major components.

 

whatever changes you do make, let us know what you do and how it works becuase other may also be intrested (i'm one of them) what about spark plugs?

 

cvitale,

Thanks for the reply. I will let you know what changes I made, and how they affected the truck's performance.

It is a large expense to change out the plugs - I was told that they cost approx. $100.00/ea to replace due to their design. They are not a service item, and recommended replacement is only when a problem arises.

 

the plugs them selfs are only about $10.00 each and the cop unit i'm not sure of but it's not that much and can be gotten from napa and others.
labor to change the plugs is another story it's not cheap several hours. but at 50k they are not needed yet. they are 100k plugs.
tuner wise sct's excalibrater 2 is the only true way to go as it's a tuner with many uses. and sct has programs on their web site to help reset minor areas on your own.
one major item now with a tuner they lock them selfs up to your vin number which is programed and locked inside your pcm. tuners are a 1 vechicle only item now not like in the older days. after they remove and save your stock tune the vin is also downloaded that is when they lock up to your vin only and it stays in the unit. a dealer can unlock it .but at what cost i don't know.but do know it's not worth the trouble.
sct is right now a ford only company that makes a single tuner that is custom programed by the selling dealer "like our sites sponsor motorhaven" to your pcm's code number. while superchips and hyperchips and others make over the counter tuners that are more or less 1 fits all pcms of your year and brass tacks from a racer don't work as well as a sct,
check out the web site www.sctflash.com and see for your self what it can do besides retune your pcm. the list is big.