So... long story, but the short version is, I bought an '07 Toyota Tundra 4.0L V6 last week and I hated it. lol. Ended up taking it back to the dealership and they showed me a few trucks and I fell in love with this bright red '07 F150 FX2 Sport Supercrew. It's very clean with black and red interior, 90k miles on it.

I love the truck. The owner before me had an aftermarket exhaust put on it, which i'm going to have looked at by a shop next week and see if I can get some performance gains there.

My main problem with it is that it seems like there is no low end power at all. I can't even burn the tires out on it. You'd think a 5.4 anything could at least burn out lololol.

So I plan on doing a Volante CAI this weekend and next week I'll be ordering the Gryphon tuner with a custom tune from PHP.

Other than having the exhaust looked at and possibly redone, CAI and custom tune... is there anything I should be aware of that might cause lack of power on the low end or more importantly, help restore lost power? I've heard alot about spark plugs and I'd be willing to bet the dealership didn't change them.

As far as PROBLEMS go, i'm not thinking there is anything major wrong. It runs and drives great, shifts smooth, engine sounds amazing, everything feels like its almost brand new, just feel like it should probably have a bit more power off the line.

 

Hi & Welcome!

I reckon there may be a whole host of items that were not done in addition to the plug change, maintenance-wise. Here is a partial list (links within links - lots to read). The plugs, are due. Other low-hanging fruit = fresh front O2's, new fuel filter, MAF & TB cleaning, checking for any pending stored codes (that will not set a CEL).

https://www.f150online.com/forums/5060315-post6.html

No tangible perf gains from a simple exhaust - indeed, if it is sized or built incorrectly (too large, crush bends), or is using a silly chambered Fartmaster, yer low-end grunt will be reduced, not enhanced.

Also - the Volant is possibly the worst intake made for these trucks - they lie down above 4,000 rpm (corroborating info is available via the site's Search facility, but is a demonstrable fact). It's rep is down there with the Sphincter intakes. In general there are no gains to be had from an intake either - so save yer money. 99% of the gains will come from that custom-tuned Gryphon.

Stock intake works just fine - more than adequate for yer stock engine - info here:

https://www.f150online.com/forums/4739726-post9.html

As for low-end grunt, it should be more than adequate, but realize that 'burnouts' are a very poor way to gauge low-end. Many factors in play - rear-end ratio, wheel weight ( rotational inertia) / tire sizes / grip / road surface / ambient temps / fuel octane / fuel quality, etc, etc. Yer factory PCM calibration may be delaying enrichment / open loop.

I'd proceed on the premise that maintenance is lacking - and do a complete regime to bring the truck back to a known state in terms of maintenance history. See if that helps.

Do it BEFORE you apply ANY tuning - tuning is not a band-aid and requires a vehicle in sound mechanical condition with no pre-existing issues.

good luck!


MGD

 

WOW. That was a seriously great response. I really appreciate it bro. I was on the fence about the Volante I just saw it online and thought I liked the closed air box on it. I plan on saving for a whipple SC, so with that in mind, should I go ahead and do ANY kind of an intake on it? I was thinking about actually doing a shaker ram air intake, but if you guys think they're worthless, I'll skip it lol.

I am going to run by autozone and grab a repair manual and all those things you mentioned above and do some maintenance today and see where she sits. I'll post up some pics of the truck later, its so beautiful haha. Love the bright red.

 

Ok well it now has a new fuel filter, new O2 sensors, new MAF sensor and I'm gonna replace the air filter this after noon. Feels a little bit better and while I was under there I was looking at the exhaust and it seems fine other than the muffler the last owner had on it. Probably just swap that out for a gibson muffler and I'll be good.

Time to start saving for the whipple. lol.

Double DIN pioneer's going in this afternoon.

 

You know... I also just realized when I was reading your answer again, that I have these huge groovy tires on it, thats probably a factor in launching slower than I'd like as well.

 

Yes sir - if they are larger and heavier they sure won't help. Larger means yer effective gearing is worse than stock - and yer speedo / odo are now reading incorrectly.

On the intake - stay stock for now - as that blower is going to need it's own solution for that when the time comes.

Oye - new MAF sensor? All you needed to do is clean yer existing one. Our Tech Articles section has procedures for some of these things:

https://www.f150online.com/forums/ar...005-5-4-a.html

https://www.f150online.com/forums/articles-how-tos-119/

good luck!
MGD

 

After maintenance, gears. These trucks are slow and you probably have an open diff, so it won't be doing burnouts, just tire chriping haha. $800 for gears is the best performance money you can spend.

Don't chase the exhaust looking for gains. I have long tube headers, no cats, etc. and barely noticed a thing.

 

Yeah I did the exhaust today but I wasn't expecting anything special of it. Sounds pretty nice now though. Here's a pic of the truck:



So... $800 isn't bad at all for something that will actually increase performance. What kind of gears would I need and do you think the installation is pricey? I'm by no means mechanically inclined. I'm a web developer, I have brain smarts but I'm no grease monkey haha. Someone will need to install it for me.

I'm actually pretty interested in getting my hands dirty now that I have a vehicle I actually like, did all the fuel filter, 02 sensor, MAF changes this morning myself with a Haynes manual I bought but I doubt i'm brave enough to take on a gear change lol.

 

Yo fellow geek!

Save yer money - put that $800 into yer Whipple fund - after the blower you'll have all the twist you'll need.

Two things - driver's side door jamb sticker - post the axle code - decode it here: http://www.fordf150.net/howto/decode.php

Tire sidewall - tire size - those look very close to stock - look just like mine actually. Zeon LTZ's - Good tires.

MGD

 

Geeze... I just watched a vid on replacing the gears... thats quite an ordeal. lol. Would you guys recommend 4.56 gears?

 

Sure - if you like redlining on the highway with stock tire sizes

Nice launch outta the hole, though.

You WILL regret 4.56' s once the blower is on ....

Find out what yall actually have first, okay?

MGD

 

They are stock for sure. lol. I came from driving a POS suzuki SX4 that I bought out of necessity 5 years ago so to me... the tires are massive, to the real world, they're stock FX2 sport tires. LOL.

 

My axle is an "H9"

 

That's 3.55 limited slip. You would notice a difference with 4.10's without excessive RPM's on the highway. If you do gears, have them done professionally.

 

When you say, without excessive RPM's on the highway, what exactly will happen at high RPM's lol. Sorry, never even THOUGHT about doing gears.

I'll call around and get some 4.10 quotes.