Not sure if this was a thought but if you are handy with tools you could try a cam (actually 2) swap. Real popular on the Mustang 4.6's. You loose a little low end torque but the mid power band gets a kick in the pants. Went from 208 to 240 RWHP on my Mustang. The 3.73 gears will make up for the lost low end torque.

 

There is always someone who will tell you that you could have done better. I would say you got a heck of a deal and you ought to be pleased with yourself. Even if you keep that truck until it is worth half its current value it will only have depreciated by about 10 grand. Lots of higher priced vehicles depreciate that much the minute that you drive them off the lot.

 

From what ive heard, cams are a lot of work on the modular motors, and the dynos im seeing right now dont seem like they are worth it on the trucks. We will be working with Comp soon to make our very own truck grind.

 

I like the sound of that!

 

They are - you need special tools to get the cams out, and of course, those tools aren't cheap. DOHC motors are even worse. Cams on a stock 4.6 (2V or 4V) really aren't worth it - generally you need full bolt-ons to make them worthwhile.

Have to admit, nothing beats pushrods for simplicity.

 

It all depends on the method you use to install them. I did mine in my Mustang with the help of a friend...and we had never done anything close to a swap such as this before. That saves a ton of money and the HP increase is good enough to warrent the money spent. The only thing you really need is to make sure you get the timing chains reinstalled correctly. I used pretty basic tools for my swap with the addition of a crank pulley puller that I picked up from Sears for $25.

That said, a shop will charge a pretty good amount to do a swap so the value goes down in reference to the HP increase. Staying under a grand would be considered a pretty good deal but that would the most I would spend on a swap...after that the value to HP increase isn't enough to consider the swap. Now the DOHC I don't think I would even attempt...

 

the lack of shorter runner intakes for 4.6's, especially dohc is really hampering cam swaps... I'd have done cams long time ago in my mach if there was any cheap(er) option to the FR500 intake.

Back to the questions at hand, trucks, Jusnes, have you any dynos of a 5.4 with a tune? it seems no one has any real dynos of the Edge programmers, everyone just seems to sing it's praises... call me a skeptic, i need numbers and graphs... from what i read in one of the threads, edge keeps the torque management... that true? if so, how much more can you lay down without it?

also, anyone have any dynos before and after (or at least after, hehe) of the various 5.4 CAIs available? some of them are claiming pretty big numbers..

Oh come on, it's not that bad, you have to make a simple decision first... pull the motor, or pull every other accessory around it - brake master cylinder especially - to be able to get the cam covers off...

with my next bonus, this january sometime, the motor's coming out... going big bore/billet rods/forged pistons, nastiest cams i can find (still researching those) and a sullivan intake... should be interesting since no one seems to have tried that intake on an n/a combo...

 

We werent able to get any accurate numbers with the tuning when we had our 5.4 on the dyno, we spent 3 hours dealing with a hardware issue. We did manage to test a few intakes, a True Flow, which lost power. And a first gen Volant, which made about 20rwhp halfway through the pull before we cut it short when we hit 18:1.

As far as the dyno charts people post, the only thing you can do is scrutinize them. The EDGE charts that edge has, are not dyno charts, they are marketing charts. Ill believe edge numbers when i try an edge on the dyno. Soon we will have access to a mobile dyno and should be able to get some more testing in.