OK people, I am looking to increase my ponies and torque. I have a 99 F150 4x4 4.6l auto trans. I have been told by tons on what to do.
1. K&N air filter will gain me 5hp
2. Exhaust, go dual from motor back take off cats.
3. change exhaust from cat back. Leave cat on.
4. intstall hypertchIII gain 43 ft lbs of torque and 22 more Hp
5.use neighbors computer to change mine, claims will do the same as hypertechIII (only $75.00)

any suggestion from any of you? comments on what I have been told?

Thanks
Mike

 

Hi Mike,

One of the first things to do to educate yourself here is to spend some time reading some of the thousands of posts on this exact same topic - use the search feature here (the icon to access it is in the upper right portion of your screen here) to retrieve & read posts on any topic you like. That works better & much quicker than waiting for someone to come along and critique rumors, claims, etc. - just FYI.

Some of your info is not good, particularly about removing catalytic converters - not only will that not gain you much top-end horsepower, but it will generally hurt low-end torque too, by taking a lot of heat out of the exhaust stream. Pardon me for saying so, but just to give you some perspective, as well as being *highly* illegal it's a bit inconsiderate for someone to decide that they have a right to just strip off cats and grossly pollute the air the rest of us have to breathe - even if it gave you 50 HP (which will never happen), that would still never be an appropriate thing to do on any street-driven vehicle that came with catalytic converters originally. If you want to alter the cats to gain power, there is a much better way to do that - such as replacing them with a pair of Magnaflow cats that "breathe" much better than the stock units (which you can find on our website at www.TroyerPerformance.com along with all kinds of other performance mods, including proper computer tuning, etc.), and that will delivery a legally clean exhaust emissions level, while accomplishing what you want to do.

Also, going "true dual" is generally also not the thing to do anymore, as that will just *kill* torque below about 3000 rpm and at less than about 30% throttle opening due to the resultant reduction in exhaust gas velocity, which is where you spend the vast majority of your driving time. Using a properly flow-engineered cat-back system from Magnaflow will actually get you the best results - we've tested virtually all the different models of "name brand" cat-back exhaust systems for the Ford half-ton platform, and Magnaflow is doing the best job of gaining both peak HP as well as increasing torque. There is one way we can provide a true dual system that will avoid the loss of torque at lower rpms and make the absolute highest peak HP gains too - but it's *very* expensive and I generally don't recommend it except for racers. It has to include long-tube headers, high flow cats, an X-pipe & custom tube bending, etc. It's the same exhaust setup that I use on my mid-11 second truck, and that Neal the HP Freak (one of F-150 Online's legendary F-150 hot-rodders) and a few others have obtained from us, but it's only appropriate for those who are willing to spend a *lot* of money on whatever it takes to get the absolute best exhaust configuration - that setup is upwards of $2K installed, and I don't recommend that route unless you're racing. Magnaflow makes 2 different cat-back systems for these trucks that will do the best job in terms of bang-for-the-buck.

On the intake side of things - a drop-in K&N in the stock air intake tract will get you about 4-5 more HP, that is correct information - but an Air Force One intake system will get you 15 HP on a 4.6 motor F-150, 3 times that power gain.

With regard to tuning, by far your best bet is to have us (meaning us here at Troyer Performance, & sorry to sound like an obvious sales-dude) do a custom tune for you in a custom Micro Tuner (hardware made by Superchips, I personally do the tuning). You have 2 very good choices here - you can either use the #1715 Micro Tuner, which has 3 different programs (87 octane tow-safe, premium gas tow-safe and then our "MAX" performance program, which is for premium gas and cannot be used for towing) - that will get you more power gain than the Hypertech unit will. Then the absolute best solution in terms of both raw power and pure performance would be to have us do a custom tune setup for you, where we do 3 different *custom* tunes in a different version of the Micro Tuner. We can get even more performance gain that way, and really set that truck up just like you want it with much better power, performance and driveability at any throttle position, as well as at any rpm.

I seriously doubt that your neighbor is going to be able to do the kind of in-depth tuning that we can do (what we do goes far beyond what a Hypertech unit will do, etc.), as not only do we have literally the best tuning tools in the world for these FoMoCo vehicles, but we have also specialized in the F-150 platform (these F-150's can have hundreds of different computer codes each model year alone!) for well over a decade, so we know them pretty well. Don't get me wrong, I don't mean to "knock" your neighbor at all - obviously I don't know anything about him or his actual capabilities, and he's probably a great guy - it's just that generally speaking, you don't find the kinds of tools & skills needed to do a properly optimized powertrain program for the 4-bank Ford EEC-V PCM's next door.

I would suggest spending some time taking a look on our web site over at www.TroyerPerformance.com - once the home page loads, then click on "Shop," and that will take you to the main page where you can see all the different sections, such as Intake, Superchips (computer tuning), Exhaust, Ignition, and on and on. Pay particular attention to the section "Performance Packages," as there we have Stage 1 thru Stage 5 packages for these trucks - I'd spend some time reading up thoroughly ion those packages, as there you can find good info on what parts are getting what power gains, what each package or level of modification actually does, etc. - that should help give you a bit better insight into this.

And of course, feel free to give us a call if you'd like to go over any of this in more detail, or to find our just what we can do via custom tuning for your truck, etc - we're happy to help.

Best of luck whatever you decide, & we hope you'll hang out here with the rest of us in your spare time!

 

Hey Mike, just a quick question:

You guys tuned my Flip-Chip about 2 years ago now, and I run the premium program full time. You had to do custom tuning because I have shorty headers, and we've spoken about having to upgrade fuel system before I throw on my heads.

Am I ok to tow with this program? The most I tow is about 5000#'s in the form of a utility trailer about 1-2 times a month.

Thanks!
-Flea

 

Hi Flea,

Well, usually towing isn't a problem - having us compensate the tuning for headers doesn't automatically preclude the ability to tow.

That having been said, you'd really need to give me a call when you can so I can go over just exactly which program you got from us, then I'll know exactly what program you have and thus can answer that definitively.

Generally speaking, as long as you did not have us do an all-out performance tune for max power without the ability to tow, yes, you can still do towing.

Good luck!

 

Mike,
I emailed your company almost a week ago regarding pricing and questions. How long does it take to get a response? or is it easier to get a price from you here?

Thanks
Mike K

 

Twam

Forum rules specifically forbid Mike Troyer or anyone else from posting prices for his products. I would suggest calling this vendor and discussing this directly.


ENB

 

Hi twam911,

I thought I made things clear in my last post, but perhaps I should explain in a bit more detail, so bear with me a minute please..................

For things like price quotes, pre-sales questions, Technical Support on products that are purchased directly from us, etc., we need to handle those matters by telephone (or in person). We cannot do those things in email for numerous reasons, such as the fact that it takes literally hundreds of times longer to type than it takes to just talk - and we get a huge amount of email, as we're well known in this business and have been around for a long time. So it's simply not possible for us to do all of that in email, & my apologies, Mike.

By the way, with regard to getting pricing from us here, as Peddler mentioned in his post that is strictly against the rules of F-150 Online, so we can't do that - sorry!

As you may have noticed in my previous post to you, I've already spent a good deal of time personally writing you a long detailed response to your questions, Mike - as well as providing the link to our web site, describing where on our site you can get much of that information, as well as mentioning to call us for further details.

Now of course we do understand that there are a few people whose job prevents them from being able to make a long-distance phone call to us during our normal business hours of 10 am to 6 pm Eastern time, Monday thru Friday - no problem! That is why we have 24 hr voice mail, so they can leave us a message with their name, phone number, what it's about etc., any time it's convenient for *you,* so we can return their call and get them all the information they need about any of our products & services.

I hope that helps your understanding of how we have to communicate certain types of matters, and please do give us a call at your convenience and let us provide you with all the information you want & need - it's our privilege, and one phone call will show you why people come to us.

I wish you well,

 

Mike,
Thanks for the info I will be calling.

Mike