Hellbound...forgive me if I missed it in the posts above...do you have a limited slip diff??

 

Yep....3.73 LS

 

Hi Hellbound,

With a set of slicks you are *easily* into the 8's in the 1/8th mile as it stands right now, IMHO - a 2.11 short time is abysmal, certainly not indicative of the power you have there. The short time really should be a 1.90 or better, and that alone would have dropped you into the 13's in the 1/4 mile that same night, most likely.

So many drag strips are not scraping off the layers & layers of DOT-rubber laid down by vehicles spinning off the line on street tires. Instead of heating, scraping & laying down some VHT, they just let guys run round after round and do nothing to the track in many cases - until the 4-second (1/8th mile) cars make their rounds. I know the feeling - usually at FFW events, traction is great, so I was in a hurry to get to Bristol last year & left my slicks at home for my Lightning (dumb move). The Lightning usually nails 1.82 - 1.84 short times on the stock F1's at FFW events, but not this time - Bristol was an absolute mess. So instead of running an 11.20-11.30 or so, all I accomplished was putting on a 1/8th mile smoke show - it launched hard, and then started spinning a little bit, then a little more, and a little more - until I had to hit the brakes and bring it back down to about 35 mph just after the 1/8th mile - took off again & hit 94 mph thru the traps, so it literally ran a mid-16 @ 94 instead of an 11.20 @ 120 or so. Grrr........that'll teach me to leave the slicks home!

In those conditions, where the DOT rubber has been allowed to build up like that, your best bet is to drop the air pressure down to about 22 PSI - just low enough to soften up the sidewalls. Then you have to really heat up the tires, & stage immediately after the burnout - don't do a "dry hop." That will help those short times - but it's hard on the tires of course, and that can get expensive pretty quickly!

You're well on your way and already getting great results - just hang in there!

 

Hi Ham Radio,

You know, it's funny - when we were growing up, a chrome bumper, grill, etc. were considered "extras" (options), costing us more money, and they made the vehicle look so much better. Now it's not even available on Lariat's, something I don't agree with at all - I wish our 2004 SuperCrew Lariat had the chrome front bumper treatment like yours does. It looks *much* better than the darned "monochromatic" treatment and is easier to take care of, too.

Good looking truck!

 

I must be missing something... the Lariats do have the same chrome like the lower trim levels. It's the FX4's that have the all-painted bumpers.

My Chromed-out lariat:

 

Hi Dzervit,

I think I need new glasses - our 2004 Lariat is my wife's daily driver, so I don't pay much attention to it's front end. I think I have been looking at the monochromatic piece *above* the lower bumper - ours looks the same as your Lariat does, and is the exact same color, too. I literally had to go out and look at the front of her truck after seeing your pic - shows you how little attention I pay to the cosmetics! I guess if it's not under the hood or underneath the truck, I don't spend much time on it - I've never been into the "show" or "look" thing very much, so obviously I hadn't payed it any real attention.

Larry's (Ham Radio) XL front end just struck me as looking so much nicer in that photo than our Lariat's front end, for some reason - don't ask me why, but it reminded me of how much better I like the chrome front ends that on so many vehicles today are considered to be a "lower" trim level, and how much I dislike the monochromatic front end treatment.

Maybe I should just stick to the performance end of things, eh?

Thanks for your pic!

 

I dropped the pressure quite a bit on the tires, but no suck luck. I keep getting a good squeal out of the tires off of launch that last about one or two seconds. I am not smoking them out of the hole, but squealing pretty good for about second or 2. Although you are still moving I have learned that 1 or 2 second squeal is worth ALOT in terms of 60' and overall time.

There was another guy up there who kept getting a good squeal just like mine out of his tires on launch and he was running consistent 9.85's over and over again. Well, he dropped the pressure and launched at a different RPM and got no squeal....essentially a perfect launch. Guess what....9.69@73mph vs his 9.85@72.8mph. So, that little bit counts.

Mike, I appreciate all the help and you have more business coming your way. Before, the fast feel of the truck used to get old and I got used to it. Well, even know that first gear is mean and it never gets old....it pulls hard. Even on the street I can pull some of the big dogs out of the hole to about 40mph (Camaro SS, Z28, Mach1's...etc). Then of course they gain on me slowly but surely.

However, I did take out a few late 90's stock Z28's and a stock 02 Lightning all the way. Both drivers were equally impressed. Everyone thinks I have a blower on my truck....LOL!!!

This one guy comes up and says, "What do you got in that thing, a blower or NOS or something?" I told him , "No, just some bolt ons and a tuner". He was like, "Damn, that thing is pretty quick, you were hanging with my modded Mustang GT". A 2004 model BTW.

See, I thought he was stock...LOL!!! So, it's a good feeling.

 

hellbound F-150

Looks like your having a real good time. Any thought of changing to a 4.10 rear end? I get good traction and get out of the hole pretty good. Bet it will improve your times.

 

Well, since my tires are at 28.45" the actual ratio has dropped to an equivalent of 3.93.

If I was staying naturally aspirated I would go with 4.10's. But, I am going to be boosting this summer. The gears are short as it sits now. Shifting out of first at 5400rpm the 1-2 shift is around 39-40mph and with the shift pressure changes 40-50mph is almost instant. So, with boost 3.73's and my tires oughta be perfect. Actually, the Nitto's I will be running will be 26.5" tall making the actual ratio even lower.

 

Hi Hellbound,

Yeah, sometimes a properly modded F-150 will surprise other vehicle owners - Neal Newman's truck, Jean-Marc's, and your truck are all good examples of that.

Good to see you're not winding 1st gear past 5400 rpm (that's where I set them in the 2004 & up 5.4 3V's in a max performance tune) - the quickest ET's will actually happen with a 5600 rpm 1-2 WOT upshift point because of the gear ratio spread in the transmission, but the stock torque converter does not like to be frequently wound much past 5400 rpm - it can balloon if you do that - so you;re doing the right thing there. The way we set up the shift points, you're best off just turning Overdrive off & letting the tranny shift automatically at the track.

 

I have done a manual shift on the street and noticed ot was alot better...or seemed it was. But, I try to keep it safe.

Mike, I have a few concerns though if you wouldnt mind elaborating on them for me.

First, I know the 4-2 downshift should be done with OD off to eliminate the "clunk" that occurs. I do that an ZERO problems when pulling a kicking down. However, the 2-1 downshift is ROUGH and I mean rough.

Even with OD off it really punches hard and pounds the truck. I have actually noticed from a kickdown it felt like the tranny was backing off once it downshifted...maybe to smooth itself out. Normally, you can kickdown and it just goes.

Why does it do this? I am positive it is a 2-1 shift and not a 3-1 shift. When doing about 10-15mph I will shift into 2nd and if I am wanting to pass at this point I kick it down and "CLUNK"....

Am I causing damage? Just curious. From a dig launch, the shifts are no less than perfect.

My second concern is bottom end capability. When I decide on a supercharger, what are the capabilities of this engine being safe?
How much HP can the bottom end handle safely without having to be built?

 

That gets into far too much detail to type it all out - typing takes literally hundreds of times longer than talking over the phone. So we don't get into details, provide Tech Support, etc., here or in email, or anywhere else by typing, there simply isn't time. That has to be done either in person or by telephone, so please give us a call to discuss any of this, & we'll be happy to go over all of this with you in proper detail.

 

The solid color Lariats have the chromed front and rear bumpers, the two-tone (gold on bottom) Lariats have the gold painted bumpers.