Long time reader, first time poster

I have a 2k 150 4x4, auto, with 114k miles on it. I bought the truck new and have what I thought taken excellent care of it. I am religious about oil changes and have never gone over 4k miles between them. I had the truck serviced with the dealership for the first 40-50k miles but it just got to darn expensive to continue. So, here are my questions and other stuff. I have replaced the IAC, cleaned the MAF, cleaned the throttle body, installed new K&N intake. All else is bone stock.

So here is the question portion. I have never been one to hot rod this vehicle. (I have a mustang for that) But today after cleaning the throttle body and installing new IAC I decided to take it for a drive and jump on it a bit. When I floor the truck, it has ok pickup but about 3k rpm's it is like it hits a powerband. It really wakes up and finishes the gear fairly well. The same thing happens in 2nd (Automatic btw). Is this normal? Seems like it isn't gettting fuel to accelerate at first then like you give it a shot of nitrous. Anyway, it hasn't made a difference in the mileage, just something I am curious about.

Exhaust, is something I am not sure about. I see catback systems that cost like $500, and the local muffler shop said he would put in the same muffler for something less than $200. Why the difference? The systems I see are Mandrel? bent.. Just wondering on that as well.

What else to replace? I would rather do some preventive than have the truck break on me. Any and all help is much appreciated.

-Damon

PS. has anybody done a to-do list that I could reference? That would save us all some time I would think.

 

One thing I forgot to ask. I have a seal leaking on the drivers side rear axle. I understand this is kinda normal for a Ford truck. Is this a job I can do myself? Or would I be wise to pay the couple hundred bucks to get the local shop to fix it.

Thanks again
-Damon

 

ok, just thought of one other question. IS there a way to make the front-end of the truck to look level with the rear-end. Other than tilting my head a bit of course :P

 

Thanks for the help

 

Welcome to the forum and sorry that no one has answered til now. Sometimes that happens

After a few days of driving it does it still run the same? Sometimes after cleaning the MAF it will take a bit of driving for the PCM to relearn.
Is the muffler shop going to replace the whole exhaust from the cat back or just the muffler? Mandrel bends are something that most muffler shops don't do. A normal muffler shop type bend is squished down while a mandrel bend is the same diameter throught the bend which makes for better flow.
Replacing a leaking rear axle seal isn't too big of a job if you're somewhat mechanically inclined. You need to remove the brakes on the side you're working on, the rear diff cover and then the axle. If you don't feel comfortable doing all that then it would be best to have a shop do it. You're probably looking at 1.5 - 2 hours shop time.
You can raise the front of the truck a bit by adjusting the bolts at the back of the torsion bars. If you do a search in the forum you'll probably find lots of info on that.

 

My truck does the same for the "power band" feeling. Starts off ok but when you hit a certain RPM, it wakes up a goes. Other than that....What Racerguy said!

 

From one newbie to another, Welcome Dagre! I have a '99 F150 4.6 extended cab lariat. Mine does the same thing when I get on it as far as power is concerned. My truck now has 118,000 miles on her and she's doing fine. I have done the same small things as you but have not done anything extensive maintaining my truck. I am looking at replacing the serpantine belt and maybe the timing chain soon. I solved the problem of my front being higher than the rear by adding a Lear700 series fiberglass lid. It's a nice one and probably weighs 200 lbs or so. I have read about cranking the torsion bars but have not done it myself. Too worried about what might happen if I started messing with the factory settings. I have done a rear axle seal and it was not too bad. Just have to be patient and not force it back together. It was years ago but I remember it wasn't too bad. As far as the exhaust, there are a lot of different opinions on here to suite your taste and what you are looking for. Me, I just had my muffler replaced with a piece of straight pipe by the local muffler man and I like the sound. It's deep and rumbles and only cost $40. I have not noticed any loss in performance and seems to have picked up a little on the top end.

 

Go ahead and give the torsion bar adjusters a couple of turns, you will probably get about an 1 1/2 inch lift, not quite level but close enough and it won't screw-up your alignment at all. Some here suggest lifting your front tires off the ground to relieve stress, probably wouldn't hurt, a breaker bar with a 18mm socket will take care of it.
The powerband you are talking about might have to do with your gearing, generally 3:31 to 3:73's ratios will start to pull good in the 3k rpm range where as if you had 4:10's or even better 4:56's, you will feel a huge difference right from 1k and up, it's all about the tourque curves.
A catback exhaust really won't give you what you're looking for in terms of power gains you can feel...it will sound really nice and that's where it ends. The 2.5 inch factory exhaust is more than ample for flow, really, save the money and do what Looneylariat did and cut off the muffler, sound just as nice at a fraction of the cost. Use the money you saved and get a set of gears or a tuner,

 

Wish I could just go straight pipe. If I get caught at the emissions station with a straight pipe.....no plates. DOH!

 

My '98 4.6 does the same trick at about 3k rpm. I have the K&N air intake kit, flowmaster exhaust, and hypertech programmer on my truck. I did the K&N first and was very pleased. Then I did the exhaust and if I were to do it again, I would use pipe instead. Too quiet. I noticed a little gas savings after the programmer, but not too much on the pep.

I cranked my torsion bars up all of the way and the front end actually ended up higher than the back, so I had 1" blocks made for the rear and now it all sets the same, but I needed the alignment and you will want to adjust your headlights if you bring up the front or every car you meet will flash you. Because of the extra lift, I was able to get 305/70/R16 mudders underneath without rub issues and without filling up the fender wells too much. If you don't go up all of the way, just make sure you turn each side the same number of turns and you shouldn't have to worry about messing anything up from the factory.