Captchas,

Thanks for the information - good to know.

 

mschmidt

I humbly suggest you have Brian at Brian's Truck Service (BTS) do his magic to your 4R100 auto trany if that is what you have,,,, and while the trans is out, swap in a set of 4.30:1 differential gears and I bet those mods will be cheaper then a Whipple or KennyBell, or Voulant, or Paxton supercharger. Doing a modest and reliable supercharger mod is going to net you in the 45 to 60 added HP range... cool, fun, but bang for the buck is a little low in my opinion...and once done you might still need to do the bullet proof and gear swap mods any way... Do the power train first and see if you can put more of what you already have to good use. My 2001 2v V10 F250 Platinum did similar pulls as you describe...I would never characterize her abilities on the steep sections as bogged down... but in my older 454, 390, 460 v8 motors I certainly would have, and did!

Also suggest if you address the power train with above mods then run tires that are between 31 and 33 inches tall and you should be able to pull all the passes with ease

I also suspect that the K&N, chip, and 3" exhaust may have shifted you peak torque up into the 3800and above rpm range, so during the steep climb, you should be in a gear that exploits where the power is... nothing wrong with being in second gear screaming up the hill at 4800-5100 RPM

 

Here is an article I found that may help you decide if you want to swap out your tranny. I know if my 4r100 crashes, I will purchase one.
http://www.4wheeloffroad.com/brandpa...131_0401_tran/

 

Fredvon4,

Thanks for the referral to BTS, and the suggestions on the powertrain. I do have 4.30 gears based on a vin search on the truck (I bought the truck used for pulling my trailer. The identification tag was not on the diff). The truck is in great shape, with only 50K miles. On the "bogging" issue, at one point in my trip I was climbing a steep grade at altitude (8500'), I had the truck in 2nd, foot on the floor, and it would not build any RPMs. It would stay only in this gear and pull, but I was definitely not screaming up the hill.

On the tires, I have the stock wheels from Ford (16x6) and I am using BFG Commercial 235/85 R16 tires. These were the tires that came on the truck - new.

 

Skipperw,

Thanks for the article.

 

Mschmidt

Sounds like you have all the right stuff, smaller diameter tires, 4.30:1 (I would calculate this, 4.30 was option to the stock 3.73 in 01 and not many folks went that route then cause they were already scared about fuel milage of the V10)

one mans bogging down is anothers easy ride... mine, from new, by me perfectly broken in, and all experiances under the 50,000 mile mark, with 3.73s and GCVW right at 18,800 and the screemin gup the hill is not really a referenc to how fast the forward momentum is.... but the 2v V10 working it's *** off at 5000rpm to keep climbing the hill.

1st and 2nd in the 4R100 twisting a 4.30 rears and smallish tires should have been in the 35 to 45 mph range and should not "feel" bogged down...

On the Other Hand... when the trany fluid is very hot and the torque converter is slipping like MAD and building more hot fluid...the effeciency of the torque converter is dramatically lower and instead of makin g high torque... you are just making more and more heat.... hence the need to over engineer the cooler for the trans fluid

 

If it hasn't already been done in the last 20K miles, change the fuel filter. My 2001's power had started "falling off" as in I was starting to see loss of power at high RPMS and WOT.

I only had 21K miles on it when I changed it and it made a world of difference.

Other things to look at (if it's not already been mentioned) are to clean the MAF and change the air filter.

 

I'm running a Kenne Bell with a 7lb pulley. Did the install myself, piece of cake but just a little time consuming because I'm **** when it comes to detail. I ended up getting a custom dyno tune done using the SCT switch chip. Nice thing about the switch chip is I can have at the turn of the **** a variety of different tunes. I have one for hot weather, one for cold weather and a stock setting, it's pretty nice to have that convenience. My tranny ended up dying on me but it wasn't because of the blower, it was just it's time to go. Didn't replace it with a stocker either, ended up getting a Gregg Evans Monster Box. This thing is awesome, shifts extremely firm but I don't mind a bit. The KB kit was very easy to install and came with every single thing you need to do the install, right down to the very last hose clamp. The instructions are very detailed and easy to follow so anyone with any mechanical ability can put one on no problem. Just take your time and follow the directions and you shouldn't have any problems. My only issue with KB is their customer service line stays busy constantly, it takes forever to get through.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/user_gal...oid=81551&.jpg

 

kenneBF250V10,

Thanks for the response. Have you had any issues caused by the blower? Did you have to make any other modifications to the truck to compensate for the blower? How is your gas mileage? Did you performance increase across the powerband? Can I ask more questions...

Nice installation!

 

krewat,

I changed the fuel filter recently (based on recommendations from this site), and switched out the air filter for a K&N.

 

Ask away! Other than my mileage going down after the install no major issues. If you are looking for mileage, don't supercharge it, that's all that needs to be said about that. In order to make more power, it takes more fuel. You will have to sacrifice in some areas to gain in others. I'm having some tuning issues right now but that is because I decided to get a custom dyno tune done, just need to work out a few bugs. The kit comes with the KB switch-chip which worked well but with some of the other modifications I've made I wanted to get the most out of it while still making it a daily driver. Everything you need to compensate for the blower is included. You get larger fuel injectors, a boost-a-pump and the switch-chip. The power did increase across the powerband, especially at WOT. You can look at my gallery for the other modifications I've made. Again, you don't have to make any other mods if you install that kit as is, I just wanted more power. It's kind of like an addiction, once you have some, you want more.

 

KBF250V10 those are the truest words ever written!

 

Yup, a supercharger will LOWER your mileage no matter what because of the parasitic loss required to spin that thing all the time, even if you're not acclerating at 70MPH on the highway.

A turbo is less of a drag, but the exhaust backpressure goes up, which in turn makes it's own drag... just not as much.

more power = more gas

 

The thing I like about the KB vs Whipple is that the KB has it's own contained oil supply for the front bearings, whereas the Whipple you have to tap into the engine oil supply (last I checked, this is the way it is). All in all, I don't think that there is a lot of difference in performance between the two. It really just comes down to personal preference. The KB is a 6 lb kit when you order it but I am now running 7 lbs because I called them and talked to Jim Bell himself (rare) and he sent me out the 7 lb pulley and removal tool free of charge. I thought that was pretty cool. I love it, once I get the bugs worked out of my tune it's off to the track. I'm just curious as to what it will do in the 1/4 mile.

 

KBF250V10

I don't much care about the top end but interested in a 0-60 in under 5 seconds proof