Hi there,

This is my first post and I just want to say that this site is great. My wife and I are picking up our first f150 on teusday. It's a 99 ex cab lariat 4x4 with the 5.4. I have already pretty much decided that I'm going to do a Gibson ss and the FM Y-pipe mod. I wanted some advice about a chip for the truck and who you guys and gals think makes the best fipk. I would appreciate any help.

Thanks

 

Hi Cast1,

Welcome to F-150 Online!

And congratulations on your first F-150, I'm sure you & your wife will love it.

With regards to your choice of exhaust systems, if you are going with Gibson, make sure you're going with the Swept-Side model, and not the Sport Truck or the Super Truck, so you can avoid the noticeably loss in torque. I see you're mentioned the "Gibson SS", so I'm assuming that means the Swept Side model, in which case, you've got the right model for the Gibsons.

The best cat-back exhaust system on the market, in tersm of what actually happens to both horsepwoer and torque, is the Magnaflow cat-back system, it's the only one that we found to actually increase torque in these vehicles, all others either gained no torque or actually caused a loss in torque, while delivering horsepower gains at higher rpms & heavier throttle positions. This is something that is very common with most cat-back exhaust systems for these vehicles, gaining horsepower but losing torque, and that's the one thing you don't want to do, is lose torque *anywhere*, especialy in these heavy vehicles. Losing torque to a poorly-designed exhaust really punches a hole in your driveabilty, as you spend most of your driving time on part-throttle in the low to mid-rpm ranges in these vehicles, and that is right where most cat-back systems cause a loss in torque.

The Gibson Swept-Side model didn't lose torque, and it gains about 12-14 horsepower on the 5.4 F-150. The Magnaflow gained torque, as well as making the best horsepower gain, about 17 more horsepower on the 5.4 F-150.

For the airbox elimination kit, hands down the best is the Air Force One kit. It adds more power than any other unit, and also just happens to look beautiful under the hood, made of highly polished aircraft quality T-304 stainless steel, it looks like a chrome mirror, very nice.

For optimizing your powertrain programming, the Superchip is the way to go. Each Superchip is programmed to precisely match the exact software revision in each individual vehicle's powertrain computer, so that you get a chip that was made for that specific vehicle. Most of the others are generic, meaning they are compromised to run on all similar vehicles, and only add power at full-throttle, where the Superchip is specific to each individual vehicle, and works adding power all the time, at any throttle position. Many people here are using them, and are very happy with their Superchips. There is one other chip that is made that way, for each vehicle and adds power all the time, the Diablo, which we also carry, however, the Superchip does a more thorough job of optimizing the powertrain programming.

We also offer combo deals on all of those parts, if you're looking to do a package deal.

Please feel free to give us a shout, our contact info is below, we'll be happy to go over all of this with you in detail.

Glad to hear you're enjoying the site, & we hope you'll hang out here with us in your spare time!

Enjoy your F-150,