Which mod will give me the "Most Bang for the Buck"

1. K&N drop in filter

2. Flowmaster or Gibson performance muffler


I am interested in increased power and any improvement in MPG


I welcome opinions as this is the first Ford that I have owned since the 60's

Ken

 

Hi Ken,
The best bang is a Super tuner. the options for the 04 are either the 1714 that has three different tunes, or the Xcalibrater that has one to three custom tunes that someone like Mike Troyer at Troyer Performance does for you. Go to the Computer Chips forums and you can read all about it...Kevin

 

agreed, tuner best bang for the buck... First thing anyone should get.

 

Ravin mufflers will give you great performance and performance.

~Colby

 

Meant to say performance and sound. lol

 

CruisinKen
On my truck I first added the K&N, ran a little better.
Then I got a 1714 Superchips. Lots of bang for the buck, gas mileage did not improve. I think it got worse, to be honest, at least around town.
Then a 18'' Magnaflow Catback system. Too loud. Good power increase.
I had the Muffler increased to a Magnaflow 24''. Still pretty loud, but you can drive it, power increase is noticable.

If I was doing it over, I would have added the K&N, and just had a 24'' Magnaflow muffler installed with my stock pipes.
That would do for the best mileage.

Tonneau for the bed really helped on the open road.

Oh Yeah, get the latest flash. Best thing for mileage I've done.

But it stopped my Superchips. They've had the darn thing in Florida for two weeks now, updateing it.


Good luck and have fun
Chris

 

Thanks to all for the information and advise. I think for now I will go for a K&N drop in and start researching "Chips" as I live in rural Virginia and don't really know much about them.

ChrisAddams - thanks for the muffler advise. I will start checking for a performance muffler to add using existing pipes.

Ken

 

You have more then the choice of tuners mention.

Superchips
Troyer "superchips"
SCT
Diablo

I have had the superchips and diablo, I perfer the diablo for many reasons, which you can search the forum if you want to find out why. The troyer one is sposed to be good for the average person, but you still wont get the most power out of your truck unless you have a good tuner like the diablo and some dyno time.

Gasmilage wise, I have personally seen an 04 f150 5.4 get 2mpg more on the 87 octane setting with a tuner while pulling a travel trailor. Around town it maybe picked up .5mpg.

k&n drop in a waste of money. Don't do jack didly squat. If you want a intake you need to go with a full kit, such as the AirAid. It gives you better throttle reponse and increased low-middle RPM power. The high end stays about the same. You will also see a slight gas milage improvement out of it.

Next up is the exhaust. People can run you in circles about exhaust. The magnaflow setups are NOT loud compared to most exhaust systems out there. I have/had a magnaflow 15281 cat-back(for sale $300) and you could not hear it in the cab. Great system and it added a few hp and slight MPG increase. Just whatever you do, don't get flowmasters aka blowmasters.

Two things you will see for sure a hp and gas milage increase in is electric fans and underdrive pulleys. These things will both put less strain on your engine, so more power and gasmilage. Besides the tuner, the fans IMO are the 2nd best bang for the buck, pulleys are tied with exhaust.

Now, what is your primary purpose of this vehicle? Do you drive city alot or highway? Actrually switching to some lower gears in the rear for city driving has shown to improve gas milage. It also will give you more "power".


Only when you have all of these mods, will the MPG and power potential come out. They work together as a package, and you will notice that you arent even driving the same truck.

Final thoughts:
Your best MPG mod is the right foot mod. Keep the truck under 2k rpms and your gasmilage will increase exponitially. Most guys put these mods on there truck and just drive faster hoping to get better gasmilage, which just drains more. Do the above mods and I guarentee you will be very pleased with your results.

 

Father Ford,

Why do you not like Flow Master? I am curious because I have a 40 series along with an Airaid Intake system and have had great results(great sound, improved throttle response). Is it just personal preference that you regard the MagnaFlow so highly? or is it truely that better of a system? By the way I am getting my Diablo tuner tomorrow via UPS! I am extremely excited. I have read quite a few of your posts concerning the Predator and it definitely seems to be a superior product. Anyway I am just concerned about my exhaust because you are not the first person I have seen on this site that does not like Flow Master.

 

I went with a SC Tuner for my first performance mod. Well worth it.