Mike,

I have just traded in my 2001 S-Crew for a 2004 4x4 Expedition with a 2 valve 5.4l. Have you set up any Expeditions with your kits? If so, which set up has produced the best results for gas mileage and overal power?

 

Hi ABE,

For your 2004 Expedition you'll want to use our #9300, the new Xcalibrator, so that you get our custom tuning. And yes, we have tuned 2003 & 2004 Expeditions with 2-valve 5.4's - they see nice power & performance gains as usual.

For any details, questions, etc., about our products, please give us a call at our number below & we'll be happy to help!

 

Thanks Mike, I will give you guys a call for pricing. Do you also have the stage 1 and 2 kits, or something similar for the Expeditions, or do you recommend a particular set up? I haven't had very much luck in the past with intake or exhaust, they just seem to make more noise.

Thanks Again!

 

Hi ABE,

Sure, we offer the Stage 1 thru Stage 5 packages (and beyond, to Stage Ultimate) for the Expeditions, too - so no problem there.

Air flow mods *do* indeed help, but far too often people who just aren't experienced with modifying heavy trucks & SUV's for more performance think an intake kit is supposed to make some big seat-of-the-pants difference like you'd get in a Camaro or Mustang - wrong answer. Another 15-20 Hp may not even be felt at all by some people in these 5000 lb+ vehicles with huge aero profiles, but it certainly does show up on the dyno or when doing properly controlled before & after timed acceleration testing (0-60, 1/4 mile, etc.).

So yes, the time-tested & proven mods of opening up both the air intake tract and the exhaust (provided top-shelf parts with real R&D are used of course, and not just some low-$$ crappola, or Flowmaster, etc.) do indeed help on these vehicles. The intake is most restrictive, followed by the exhaust - but on the exhaust you have to be *extremely* careful, otherwise you will actually lose lower-rpm torque even while gaining some higher-rpm horsepower - maintaining exhaust gas velocity is key here, something almost all cat-back systems fail to do in these vehicles, but we have that taken care of. On the 2003 & 2004 Expy's, figure you're going to see about a 9-11 Hp gain at the rear wheels from a good exhaust, and 10 Hp or so at the wheels from the intake - and then there's the tuning, which is worth about 30 HP on the 5.4's, roughly speaking.

You'll probably want to go with our Stage 1 or Stage 2 package - the Stage 2 is very impressive, it really wakes the vehicle up with more power & torque as well as noticeably better throttle response all the time, at any throttle position or rpm, and better fuel economy, too.

Give us a call when you get a chance & we'll be happy to go over the specific details. Just so you'll know my personal schedule, we'll be at the PRI (Performance Racing Industry) show up in Indianapolis from tomorrow (Wednesday) thru Saturday, and then I'll be back in pocket on Monday the 13th as usual. We will have staff here at the office answering phones while we're gone, but for the Stage kit for your Expy you'll probably want to speak with me personally - so I'd say let's talk next Monday. Or, you can always call us at our number listed below & just leave a message with your name & number & vehicle info - our staff will relay that to me up in Indy, and then I can call you back in the evening after show hours at some point say, Thursday thru Saturday, for example - whatever works best for you.

Talk to you soon,

 

Thanks Mike,

I ordered an excalibrator from you today. If all goes well I would like to build up to the stage 2 kit, 1 piece at a time. I will have a hard time getting approval for a big expenditure all at once, having just purchased the vehicle. The lady I spoke to on the phone was very helpful, but I would like to talk with you to find out which order I should try to buy the mods in, and if I should hold off on having the custom tune done until I buy an air intake.

Thanks again!

 

air intake will not require any special tuning-phil

 

Thanks Phil,
Thats good news. I had a FIPK in my 2001 super crew, and it never ran the same after the install, and many hours of trouble shooting all I had was a louder engine. I do not want to repeat that problem.

 

Hi ABE,

Phil is right, doing a quality air intake kit will not cause a need for more custom tuning in that vehicle, you still have a traditional MAF meter.

While I don't really care for K&N's FIPK kits for these vehicles, they generally do add some power - about 8-10 HP on a 4.6 and about 10-13 or so HP on a 5.4 in the F-150 & Expedition - and there's no getting around the traditional "intake moan" that will happen any time you reduce restriction in the air intake tract. But the intakes we use are quiet during periods of low loads, they only get louder when the engine is under a heavier load - for example, when you romp down on the gas pedal, it sounds kinda like an old 4-bbl. carb when you opened up the secondaries. I don't know what problem you had with your FIPK kit - there have been some F-150 owners who complained about the mounting setup for the FIPK, with it chafing one of the wiring harnesses depending on which assembly line that truck was built on, there was some difference in the routing of one of the harnesses, and that would sometimes cause interference with the FIPK - but they always gained some power. What has to be remembered about air flow mods in the 1997-2003 F-150's (and most other vehicles) is that they work best when the engine is breathing harder - when the engine actually needs more air. An intake kit or a cat-back exhaust will add power, but they aren't going to (alone) give anyone some big seat-of-the-pants gain in a 5000 lb truck or SUV - but those mods are indeed well worth doing *if* you select the correct brand of part - that's what we do, is test them, to determine which is doing the best job, so when you get our Stage kits or add them on one piece at a time, you'll always be getting the very best available, and get the best possible result. We try to give approximate power gains & performance differences in our listings for our various Stage 1 thru Stage 5 Troyer Performance packages you'll see on our web site.

Overall, the actual order of bang for the buck is to do the tuning first, then the intake kit second, and then the cat-back exhaust 3rd. Then from there, you can do the rest of the Stage 2 components for the 1997-2003 F-150 and 1997-2004 Expedition in just about any order you like. Now if you are going to eventually go on to do the Stage 2 over time (and for your 2004 Expedition, we would want to do a custom Xcalibrator-based version of our part# "Stage2-COP," so you've started our correctly with the custom-tuned Xcalibrator), then we should know that up front so we can bump up the idle speed a little bit in your custom tunes for the E-fans & underdrive pulleys - that is something we like to do for those with E-fans & underdrive pulleys, just so you have full normal current from the alternator - like when driving in summertime at night, when you come to a stoplight - you will have everything on, the headlights, the A/C, maybe both of the fans, etc. - we bump the idle speed up just slightly to insure full available normal alternator output at idle. Anyway, just let us know that and we will do that up front in your custom tuning, and that way nothing else needs to be changed all the way thru our Stage 2 level - you can just let one of our staff know and they'll make a note on your custom Xcalibrator order, if they haven't already.

So that's the deal - we recommend doing the custom tuning first, then the intake, then the exhaust, and then you can do the E-fans, underdrives & ignition upgrade to complete Stage 2 in any order you want. You can actually do anything in our Stage 2 for the V8's in any order you want, we generally advise doing the first 3 in their basic order of "bang for the buck" - which is tuning, then intake, and then the exhaust.

 

Thanks Mike,

I will get the custom program worksheet back to you this weekend. I appreciate the detailed response, it has helped, and reflects on the level of service other members have mentioned previously.

Have a great weekend!