Insatlled the tuner last week and have run it for three or four days. Althought that only means about 75 miles or so. Easy install, actually felt the difference in performance. Installed the Air Force One air intake on Friday night. Easy install, took me about 45 minutes, hurt the hell out of my back and knees. Had a hard time getting the sensor out of the original conduit. Didn't "feel" a difference, but could hear a difference in the way the engine sounded and seemed to "breath" better. More "air" sound coming from under the hood. The wife and daughter installed the Magnaflow Cat-back muffler system today in about 1 1/2 hours. I have a bad back and two bad knees and can't get down to do that kind of work anymore. Fairly easy install cut the tailpipe behind the muffler as in the instructions. Cut the ends off the tailpipe bracket and the front muffler bracket with a saws all. Made the install much easier. A hint, use a pair of plyers or vise grips to start the ends going throught the rubber hangers. Makes the removal much easier. Used the original clamp on the front pipe from muffle to the cat, seemed to work better than that one supplied. also cut some grooves in the front tail pipe so the pipe could constrict around the "y" pipe. Didn't feel a difference in power, but the engined seemed to run "easier" sounds much better. Not too loud, not too quiet. I will make a trip tomorrow to help move my daughter to a new job, about 300+ miles. By then everything should be working together. All in all I am pretty happy so far with all of the changes. Jon

T-6days, but who's counting.

 

Hi Jon,

So you have a bad back, too, eh? I've had numerous back surgeries both upper & lower, etc., thanks to getting hit by a drunk driver (that accident killed 3 people) - so I probably know a bit about what you've probably been thru, and I'm sorry to hear that. While installing the Magnaflow cat-back system is easy, I'd never again want to remove the stock system in the driveway with my bad back!

I think your observations are right on in terms of feeling power in the seat of the pants - while of all those 3, the Micro Tuner adds the most power and thus can actually be felt by some, usually an intake kit or a cat-back exhaust system can't actually be "felt" in the seat of the pants in these 2-3 ton trucks - which is why we say not to judge any performance mod by that aspect, but instead to do timed acceleration testing with a GTech unit, etc.

Now that you have all three mods on, if you ever get a chance to drive another similar vehicle in stock condition, you'll be amazed at just how much total difference there is now - the airflow mods help most when the engine is breathing hardest of course, which is at heavier throttle positions & higher rpms - though they do help all the time, just about any "airflow" type of modification helps the most when you run it hard.

You now have a Troyer Performance "Stage 1" F-150 package installed - that should help you to enjoy that vehicle a good deal more now - and more as you accumulate miles and a few dozen drive cycles, so there's still a bit more to come.

Thanks for your post Jon (and for calling the other day, good talking to you again), & have fun enjoying your new power!

 

I put about 300+ mles on the truck on sunday. We live at 5000' and took my daughter to her new location which is about 100' good difference in performance at lower elevations. I can really see the difference in elevation in my 40 HP Mercurey 4stroke. I'm liking the mods more all the time. I got 17.4 MPG on the way there with the back end full. Comming back there is alot of uphill pulls and it looks like maybe aroound 14 MPG. I like to way the transmission shifts down to the torque convert (I think that is what it does when it splits a shift between OD and 3rd) so easily. If it wasn't for the muffler,you would never realize it. Nice smooth transition into a lower gearing, but it was in thee a lot coming home. Oh well if you wanted gas mileage you wouldn't but a truck!! Will call in a couple of day and order the tuner for my PSD. Do I need to talk to you personally to get that GOOOOD price?

Thanks again. Jon

T-4 days and now I'm counting.

 

Hi Jon,

Ahh, I think I keep forgetting that you're up at some elevation - kinda like we are - the lowest elevation for us here is 2400 ft. with the highest being about 4500 ft. In all fairness, our vehicles are generally making enough additional power from modifications that we generally don't notice it in the seat of the pants very much - virtually not at all in the Lightning (a mid-11 second truck under ideal conditions), and just a little bit in our '04 F-150 5.4. But it still sure does show up in the acceleration times!

Your engine loses about 3% of it's power for every 1000 ft. above sea level, so at 5000 ft., you've lost roughly 15% of the power you have available at sea level. For example, a 1999-2003 5.4 F-150, which has 260 HP stock, becomes only 221 HP at 5000 ft.

I agree, the improvement in the transmission calibration alone is well worth the Superchips tuning, for both upshifts and downshifts.

The normal characteristics going up a grade with the cruise control set (or maintaining speed via constant throttle pressure from the driver's right foot) are basically such that the first thing that will happen is the torque converter unlocks, giving you another 400-500 rpm and increased torque multiplication. Then if the motor still cannot maintain vehicle speed, it will downshift into 3rd gear - if it *still* cannot satisfy the cruise control setting, it will then downshift into 2nd gear. However, if the vehicle loses a total of more than about 10 mph from it's cruise control setting, the cruise control will actually turn itself off automatically - and of course if that happens, it's usually time to go to WOT (foot-to-the-floor wide open throttle) anyway and just let the motor wind, turning whatever rpms in whatever gear it needs (sometimes 4500+ rpm) to in order to get up the grade/hill/mountain.

You can talk to anyone here about the MT for your PSD, and of course if I'm here & available at that time, sure, of course I'll be more than happy to do that with you personally!