I have a 3" magna flow catback exhaust, a K&N cold air intake, and a superchips programmer all on my 02 F-150 4x4. Just the basics. I'm wanting to get even more power and speed out of it.

I've heard a lot about some new gears. What kind should I get? How much would that run me?

I've also heard from some people try headers although i know it causes MPG to go down and there is always a leak on them.

Any other suggestions?

thanks a lot



-Austin

 

How about electric fans, or pulleys? These will increase horsepower.

As far as the gears go if you upgrade you will definitely get more acceleration depending on how tall of gear you go. Look around on the internet and you can find standard gear sets for $100 but you want to make sure they are high quality. I don't know about installation costs.

I am in the process myself of upgrading to probably 4.10 gears and adding an LSD. I haven't ordered anything yet but will be in the near future.

 

Just as a heads up - 4x4s require two sets of gears, so your costs are twice as much. The front diff is a reverse cut 8.8"... so only those gears noted as reverse cut will work.

-Kerry

 

Don't believe the horror story about headers. I've had them on my 97 for about 60,000 miles without a leak & I get 18mpg & better on the highway. I gained the most mpg when I added efans.

 

The gears themselves are relatively cheap, however the installation cost makes it almost not worth while.

 

Someone told you wrong.... They will actually increase your MPG.


Ever thought about a Supercharger? Yeah, they are expensive...but you could easily spend just as much on other items and not reach the same HP gains....

 

thanks a lot for your input. I'm looking at some gears and pulleys right now.

 

Depending on your tire size, 4.10's usually work good without much loss in MPG.

 

Not just because i have one in the classified section for sale pretty cheap (that i dont figure will last too long)...... but you can search all day long and i dont think anything, including gears or pulleys will reap the kind of power benefits you say you desire.

By the way, gears do not give you more power AND speed, its one or the other unless you meant, uh.. low end speed.

 

my question is... will the stock 150 tranny take a supercharger? would the superduty/lightning tranny be a better idea?i can just see the bill now.....

 

The 4R100 from the SD/lightning is definately stronger, but the 4R70W that you have is plenty strong. Many 10sec. Mustangs have the same tranny. The 4R70W will hold up to a supercharger.
Lower gears will increase torque output to the wheels which will give better acceleration and with the OD tranny, fuel mileage will not really suffer. At 60mph, 4.10's will only increase the rpm's by about 400rpm.

 

I have to go with the "depends on what you're doing" answer about the supercharger. While many 10 second Mustangs do use a derivative of the 4R70W, it's not exactly the stock transmission they're using. Many of these are built... and rebuilt... to hold the 700+ hp. The car also weighs significantly less than a truck.

Stock tranny with a shift kit should be fine for a mild boost (6lb w/out intercooling).

Get crazy and start going bigger and you'll find out why the kit manufacturers limit their warratees to what the straight up kit delivers.

-Kerry

 

Ive got the same problem. A few mods and now i dont know where to turn. I thought of going with pullies, but cant seem to find them for my truck (2000 F150 4x4 with the 5.4). Some help there would be appreciated.

How about shift kits? What kind of benefits do they give you? How much do they cost? Installation costs?

 

I towed with this supercharger operating and didn't experience any problems with the transmission at all. I didn't tow much though, maybe 3000 lbs probably 1500 miles, but it did fine. I'm sure longer distances over a longer period of time would result in faster wear and tear.

The reason i got rid of the truck is cause i went to and Crew Cab F-250 superduty with a deisel (the extended cab F-150 was to small for kids to be comfortable in back also).

I used a formula and decided the supercharger was the cheapest dollars (and the most) per hp addition i could make, excluding gas (nitrous). At 6lbs., i also thought it was a relatively safe add-on too. I cant remember it now but it made sense to me at the time. Don't know if it still applies,

 

There are a few manufacturers for the underdrive pulley sets that will fit 97-03 4.6/5.4 trucks (btw 4.6s and 5.4s have the same pulley set up), it also makes sense to add the E-fan at that time... I did, since your have to pull the stock fan to install the pulleys anyway.

The kits can have either two or three pulleys, the 3 pulley kits just swap the stock alternator pulley for one of a different color or finish. The two pulleys that are different in diameter are the crankshaft pulley and waterpump pulley on all the kits. You have to bump the idle to get enough of an output from your alternator to prevent your lights from dimming while idling. This is where a tuner comes in handy.

My set is the BBK polished aluminum 3 pulley kit that required the use of the stock crank pulley for its harmonic balancer. I picked mine up from a nationwide performance distributor for about $150. I know of others like MAC that have a steel or aluminum two pulley kit for around $100.

Shift kits may improve shift feel/firmness, torque modulation, speed of the shifts... these things will help the longevity of the transmission to a minor degree, and offer a placebo effect (seat of the pants feel). They do nothing for power, although they improve acceleration times very slightly.

pimt1ton, the cheapest bang for the buck still remains a supercharger, excluding nitrous... we just have to make sure we get the one we need... so we research. The easiest kits to install are the centrifugal, these are usually the cheaper of the two types. However, the design doesn't lend itself well to towing applications since the boost doesn't implement itself until higher rpms. They do work well for drag racing, though. The positive displacement kits are few and far between, and are slightly more expensive, unless you round up the parts yourself using the factory Lightning/Harley set up. The peak boost is seen at a lower rpm, so you don't have to drop the hammer quite so hard to feel a torquey response.

Then there's turbos... so far I have only seen one kit and it was nearly twice as much as some supercharger kits.

You have internet access... you have us... research, man.

-Kerry