How many people think that adding a K&N air filter really gave them more Horse Power?? (can feel a difference) I've got a 4.6L and am looking into adding some smaller performance mods to help it some.

Darren

 

Hi Darren,

Welcome to F-150 Online!

A drop-in K&N air filter will get you roughly 3-5 HP on a 4.6 F-150 or Expedition. So yes, it does work, but it doesn't do very much, and you will *never* feel a 3HP, 5HP or usually even a 10 HP gain in the "seat-of-the-pants" in such a heavy vehicle like virtually any truck or SUV. These vehicles all weigh well over 2 tons, and have a very large aero profile, too - so it takes more than just a drop-in air filter to really do anything for their performance.

You'd be much better off to pick up a complete air intake kit rather than just a drop-in air filter - for example, with the Air Force One intake, which gains more power than any other intake kit for these vehicles, the 4.6 generally picks up about 15 HP.

I don't know what other mods you may have done to your vehicle at this point if any, but in terms of the first places to get started working on for more performance, the "Top 3" Best bang-for-the-buck performance mods, in order, are:

1.) Optimize the powertrain programming, using either our #1715 Micro Tuner or even better, our in-depth *custom* tuning.

2.) Reduce restriction in the air intake tract (which is exactly what you are talking about) - for this you'll want to use the Air Force One kit.

3.) Reduce restriction in the cat-back area of the exhaust system with a good cat-back exhaust system - like Magnaflow.

We carry all of these parts and far more - you might want to drop by our web site at www.TroyerPerformance.com and spend some time reading up there. Click on "Products" once the home page loads, and then check out the Superchips tuning section, the Intake section, and the Exhaust sections - you should also spend some time looking in our "Performance Packages" section for the F-150/Expeditions, as that will give you a very good idea of just what parts to use in what order to start improving the power & performance of your vehicle - the approximate gains, results & costs, etc., that's very useful information.

And of course, please feel free to give us a call at our number listed below to go over any of this.

Just some quick FYI info for you here, I hope this helps & don't hesitate to call us to go over any of this in more detail, OK?

Thanks for dropping by & best of luck with your truck!

 

Dude, thanks alot you have been more help then anyone on here so far. What's the Air Force kit cost and how hard is it to install? Does it do anything to your gas milage? Mines bad enough already. To answer your question, I've did nothing to my truck yet, just bought it. Looking at what I can do to give it more power since I'm running 33's and 3.73 gears. Fixing to cut the muffler off and run straight pipes out the back, if I don't like that I'm going to add dual 4o series 2 chamber flowmasters to the mix. Thanks again.

Darren

 

Hi Darren,

You're very welcome!

To start, I'd say forget your current plan for the exhaust - either leave it alone, or do it "right." And doing it "right" does NOT mean cutting off the muffler or installing Flowmaster - those are literally the 2 WORST things you can do to the exhaust of any truck or SUV, as both will actually REDUCE available torque below about 3000-3500 rpm! This is due to the loss in exhaust gas velocity and the resultant reduction in scavenging effect, with not much gain in HP at higher rpms - so I'd suggest forgetting that route.

Never try to do modifications "on the cheap," so to speak - if you have to, just wait and keep it stock until you can afford to do it right. If you feel that absolutely have to do something to your exhaust right now so you'll have some sound, then just replace the muffler with a piece of straight pipe - I really don't like doing that at all because of the noise, droning inside the cabin and the loss of lower-rpm torque - but I'd rather see you do that and spend almost nothing, rather than spend any real money to slap on a Flowmaster setup when you could just save that money and put it towards a *real* exhaust with proper flow-engineering. This is up to you of course, but that's what I recommend.

What you really need to do is to call us - that way you'll get proper advice that is based on actual R&D, so no mistakes are made, you get the best results, etc. Don't be in a rush to do mods, take your time & do it right - your vehicle will reward you with much better results.

We cannot discuss specific pricing here, as that is against the rules of F-150 Online - for details, pricing, further questions, etc., please give us a call at our number listed below & we'll be happy to help you. Also, you'll want to make sure to spend some time reading up on our web site (our URL is listed below too), particularly in our Performance Packages section, so you can get a good idea of what really works best on these vehicles, the results, the costs, etc.

Installation of the Air Force One intake system is easy - figure it'll take you about 30 minutes to do, and of course good instructions are included - in other words, anyone who can read & follow instructions can install that intake kit.

Good luck & talk to you soon!

 

I did an air intake and went with my exhaust steup, I definatly had low end gains. But I hate the sound of a flowmaster. The 4.6 is just not a good fit for the flowmatser. It is not a very loud motor no mattter what you do it seems. Concentrate on making it sound better but dont try and go loud, cause your not gonna get it. My advice would be look at Magnaflow or Borla before you even consider flowmasters.

 

Hey Mike, BTW. What have you seen in your experience with installing headers and highflow cats on the 4.6L. I am planning to hook up with you sometime after the first of the year about a tuner. I was hoping that the the exhaust change would give me a little better sound but not loose too much low end, and hopefully a small loss would be offset by the tuner.

 

I will agree and disagree with your post. I had the Flowmaster 40 series SI/DO on my 4.6. I thought it sounded good, if you were outside the truck. Friends said it sounded some what like a Mustang. Inside was a different story. At around 55mph there was an annoying drone in the cabin. I though that the 4.6 sounded ok through the Flowmaster but I could tell that it wasn't breathing all that well through it. I eventully went with the Magnaflow SI/SO. It's quiet. Real quiet. I'd almost prefer a bit more sound but then I might have to deal with the drone again. The 4.6 breathes much better through the Magnaflow.

A lot of people like the sound they get from the Flowmaster. The big problem I have with them is what you see when you see a cut away of one. Baffles that restrict flow. The Magnaflow is a straight through with fiberglass packing. I was concerned that with a straigh through I might loose low end torque, but in actuallity it's to the contrary. It feels like more low end torque and breathes more fully at higher rpm.

DarrenK, just a sugesstion. Mike T. knows his stuff. He has pointed me in the right direction on all of my mods. Give him a call. I think you will see what I mean. You might just find, as many of us have, that the three "best bang for the buck" mods are a gateway to a totally different truck. It's hard to stop once you get going!

 

Listen to Mike...

Go with the tuner first, most bang for the buck. You WILL feel a difference! The other mods compliment the tuner, but the tuner is the best in my opinion..

Good luck

 

Hi Doug,

Well, this may sound funny - I do recommend doing shorty headers, but leave the stock cats alone unless you are also bolting on a supercharger, or race-ported heads & stiffer cams, as the bang for the buck just isn't there to make doing high-flow cats by themselves really worth while, IMHO. With headers, I generally recommend doing the JBA shorty headers for these trucks, and they work well, adding anywhere from 11-15 HP at the rear wheels, with a few seeing a bit more.

I don't recommend going with high-flow cats unless you are either doing *longtube* headers, or you are adding a supercharger. I say that simply because adding the high-flow cats will net you somewhere in the range of about 4-7 more HP at the wheels on your 4.6 F-150, about 5-8 HP on a 5.4 - those 4 factory cats (2 on each side) don't breathe too bad, better than you might think just looking at them. While you generally won't see a loss of lower-rpm torque if they are installed properly, it's just not the best bang-for-the-buck because of the involved installation work that must be done to correctly and neatly install them. You'll end up spending, between the cost of our cats and the installation, several hundred dollars, and end up with a 4-7 HP gain - now if that is worth it to you, then that's perfectly fine - but for most owners, there are usually other areas that can be modified to get a better bang-for-the-buck, and leave the high-flow cats until the motor really *needs* them - like with a supercharger. Or, when someone is going to spend the big-$$ to go with longtube headers, which *require* getting rid of the entire factory Y-pipe & catalytic converter assembly and replacing it with a much shorter high-flow set of cats, due to the far greater length of longtube headers. And no, I do NOT recommend trying to do longtube headers on a 4.6 F-150 - nobody's fits correctly, and unless there's a blower also, there just isn't enough additional power gain to make it worth the cost, in my opinion - you may feel differently, and that's up to you of course.

I hope that helps,

 

Thanks for the advise Mike, I will definatly be going with the headers soon, as for the cats, just depends I guess on how I feel at the time about them. The truck has 177k on it and I have never changed the cats. I would hate to do the remaining exhaust work and a year from now start havin issuse with them. I will definatly be giving you a call after christmas. I am just itchin to get a chip in this thing. I have gotten alot more out of my truck with just a few simple mods and cant wait to get even more with the chip.

 

Hi Doug,

I should have added "or if you have 150K+ miles on your original cats" to my last post!

With 177K miles on the original cats, then you just might want to look at replacing them.

With that kind of mileage, you'll also want to make sure that your upstream O2 sensors are fresh, too (and I don't remember if you mentioned having already replaced them recently). The upstream O2 sensors need to be replaced every 30K-50K miles, as they are in fact a normal maintenance replacement item. They don't show up on automaker's maintenance schedules because if they said to replace them before 80K miles, they'd have to pay for it under the separate emissions warranty, since O2 sensors are an "emissions" part. (And the reason they don't say to replace at 80K miles is for cost of ownership surveys, which affect vehicle sales.) Use Bosch brand O2's, that's what Ford uses, and buy them at a parts store like AutoZone, etc. - you'll pay about half of normal dealership parts counter prices by going to a good auto parts store. Make sure you specify "upstream" when you buy the O2's, as the downstream O2's (the O2 sensors that are *after* the cats on each side of the engine's exhaust before it reduces down to a single exhaust) are made differently.

Just some quick FYI, & good luck!

 

Just another fool agreeing with the tuner upgrade, even better than my exhaust mod!

Scottie B

 

Alright, i've seen just enough, what's with all the flowmaster bashing? i thought that they were decent mufflers. i have a 40 series strapped to my baby. it sounds awesome, although i wanted it to sound loud. don't mind the "drone" in the cab, kinda get used to it and it let's me know it's working!!! so if they are so bad, and maybe i should re-phrase that, if there is something better, can someone explain how and why? i will be doing a tuner or chip here soon, so i will want the best for my truck. since i'm here too, and i see you mike also, with an airraid intake, flowmaster 40, 5.4l v-8, what would be the best way to go, chip or tuner, or is it just my preference. also, i've seen that bad a$$ x-calibrator, can that be used on my truck and my wife's expy with one unit? Willie

 

I don't think people are saying that there is anything "wrong" with the Flowmaster. Just that for the late model F150 a muffler that will retain more low end torque will work better in these heavy trucks. The guy who does my exhaust work sells the Flowmaster and stands by them. He said that they work really well on most of his customers vehicles. Most of his work is classic street rods. He installed the Magnaflow for me and wasn't convinced that they are better than the Flowmaster. Well I have been driving this truck for four years and I can definitely feel the difference.

If you like the Flowmaster, that's ok. Like I said in my earlier post, I liked the sound. Performance becomes more important as the number of dollars I dump into my truck increases.

 

I agree. Next muffler I put on will be a Borla or a Magnaflow. You can do searches and find dyno tests that show that the Flowmaster is outperformed by both. What I think it comes down to is sound, and personal brand preference. I personally like the sound of Flowmasters on older motors. But on the newer motors the Magnaflow and the Borla sound better. And even if you dont want to pay attention to actual technical data, just search on here and see for yourself how many more people are satisfied with the Magnaflow and Borla over the Flowmaster. Mostly the Magnaflow as it is a bit less expensive than the Borla and has more of a raw sound. Nothing against the Flowmaster. When I build my muscle car I will probably use them for it. But never again on my f150.