I am new to the forums and I have a few questions. I have dealt with Mustangs all my life so the truck is a differant animal for me. I was wonxdering what is the best CAI and Tune system for a 05 F-150 5.4L? Already have Magnaflow catback system. Any info is appreciated. Thanks!

 

At the top , there is a button for search, click on that and then click on advanced search. You can enter what you wish, such as "best CAI", and you will get lots of threads to check out. Hope this helps.

 

An S&B cold air intake is a solid choice, nice price and performs great. Also check out www.VMPTuning.com for custom tunes, I suggest the XCal2 or XCal3.

 

i believe AF1 dynoed to be the best in performance... and you cant go wrong with the xcal2 or 3

 

Arca,

I will be getting the same setup you have for exhaust and CAI at the end of the year. Can you tell a huge difference in the performance of your truck with the exhaust, intake and tunes? What tunes did you get? BTW nice looking truck!!

 

With just exhaust and intake right now there's a pretty big difference in throttle response, acceleration, and overall feel of power. I don't have the tunes yet but they are scheduled to arrive tomorrow, it's an XCal3 tuned by VMP with 87 economy, 91 towing and 91 performance. I can't wait



Also, the AF1 only dyno'd a couple HP above the S&B, but the AF1 costs 130 bucks more... not worth the extra couple of horses IMO.

 

thanks for the info. i believe i will be ordering monday.

 

I went with the Airforce One CAI, Maggie exhaust, and custom tunes from www.powerhungryperformance.com via the Gryphon. Though it's still a 3+ton truck, damn thing runs great

 

That's good to hear that you get the increase with just the intake and exhaust, my tunes will be the last thing I do of the 3. One question, w/ the Xcal3 can you change the settings on the fly or does it need to be done before you start driving each time? I noticed the Edge tuner has a pod that can be mounted on the dash for quick viewing and changing of settings wasn't sure if you could do the same with this one or not. Is the edge tuner comparable to the XCAL3 or not?

 

you should check out troyer tunes from troyerperformance.com. They sell the sct x3 and for being a member to this site you get a discount on the tuner with custom tunes. Everybody on ************** recommends troyer

 

Yeah same here, the tunes were the last out of the 3 performance mods I'm doing.

No tuner can 'change settings on the fly'. If you try to change settings while the engine is running or while your driving, chances are you'll have catastrophic engine failure. The engine needs to be off when you modify things like that. The XCal3 doesn't have gauges and readouts like the Edge does, so it doesn't have a dashmount. But custom tunes on an XCal3 are so far out of the Edge's league it doesn't matter to me. Get a ScangaugeII if you want a readout like that. The XCal3 can do datalogging though, which when you pull that off onto your computer you can see every aspect of the engine's performance.
And no, the Edge isn't even comparable to custom tunes on an XCal3 in my opinion.
My tunes are supposed to get here in about 3 hours. I'll make a thread after I mess around with them for a bit.

 

I guess it depends on what wagon your on as to which tuner is better, everybody seems to think each of their respective tuners is the best one to have for whatever reason they have. Luckily I am not on a wagon yet so I am just gonna do alot of research and get peoples opinions once they try them out. I see you got two tunes for 91 octane, I am thinking I am gonna get all three with the 87 octane settings should I still see decent improvements with this setup? Defintely let us know how it turns out I wanna see if this is something I am for sure gonna do in January!!

 

I'm a winner and I went with the Gryphon. Do you need anymore reason than that?

 

I'm sure I would have been happy with either VMP or Troyer tunes, but since I wanted the gauges and monitor, I am very satisfied with my PHP tunes. However had I gone with an Xcal tuner, it would have been VMP, as I just could not put up with the wait from Troyer. When I finally pull the trigger, I want it right then.