I just installed hitech Motorsports stage two cams that are 234/230 duration and 550/500 lift. I already have a cat back and drop in k&n. Will my custom tune benefit from a freer flowing cai?

 

You have gone to the trouble of installing cams, don't stop now! Heck, drop a Whipple on there it comes with a CAI.

 

Cams were easy lol. Took me four hours in my driveway at home to install them.

I'm just torn about header install due to the breaking stud issue. I'm shopping for a cai now online. Does whipple make a kit for my 4.6l truck?

 

If you did cams yourself, you can do the headers. I did my headers, mostly, as you know, but I'd be scared to do cams myself. I'm comfortable with all the stuff outside the motor, not the case with the inside stuff.

You can always do what I did and try until you hit a wall. If a stud is destined to break, the dealer has just as good a chance at breaking it IMO. For me, had I been more careful and not done one thing, all my would've been out easy. If I could do it over again, I feel confident that I wouldn't have had any issues.

Do you have any input to share in this thread as far as tuning?
https://www.f150online.com/forums/v8...4-3v-cams.html

 

My post disappeared lol.
I posted in the 3v cam thread for you.

As far as this thread my truck was bought new here in va and I'm far from the coast so no extra corrosion. You think I would get lucky and have no stud issues?

 

Do most all the cai kits seem to give around the same hp and extra flow? Money isn't an issue but if a cheap one works well that's cool too..lol.

 

What was the one thing you feel you did wrong that caused you to break a stud?

 

I saw it! Thanks again!

Do you guys not salt the roads and stuff very often? Snow is an alien substance down here, so I don't know haha. I'd definitely give it a shot before paying to have it done. It's somewhere around 10 hours to have done, no thanks!

As far as intakes, are you familiar with the "Gotts Mod?" If not, give that a search. I'm not an engine builder, obviously, but thinking logically, I find the Gotts Mod sufficient until forced induction is involved and you need a LOT more air. A CAI has the potential to provide more air, but it's slightly warmer air because they don't draw from the fender, and many of the people on here believe that the stock intake with the Gotts Mod can supply more air than a naturally aspirated engine can use. How cams would play into this and air requirements of the motor, I have no idea. If you get an intake, I'd get one with a dry (non-oiled) element filter. Over oiling a filter (and even proper oiling) can get oil on your MAF and throttle body, which then have to be cleaned periodically which is a PITA.

On the top and bottom studs all the way at the front of the passenger side of the motor, there's limited access to those 2 studs. I was using a swivel joint to get at them (the nuts had been removed at this point and all other studs were removed), and the swivel was "popping" (if you know what I mean) and ruining the edges by forcing the socket to slip off the stud slightly. So I stripped the 5mm heads on the studs. There is not enough room to force a smaller socket onto it (I couldn't anyway) or to weld a nut onto it. And trying to put two nuts on it and have them lock against each other, and vice grips and a pipe wrench didn't work enough to be able to pull the stud out. I was doing this while the manifold was still on the truck. Had I just stopped what I was doing and taken the manifold off, which you can do and I didn't think about at the time, I would've had WAY more space to access them and had both out in a matter of 5 minutes. If I had REALLY wanted to, me and my mechanically inclined neighbor would have figured a way to get them out. But I had already been without my truck being drivable for almost a week (I had to work on it when I wasn't at work) and it's my daily driver, I had been fighting those 2 studs for hours and hours over 3 days, and I was afraid of snapping them flush with the heads because I had already bent them, so I gave up and let someone else deal with it haha

 

I gotcha. I went ahead and bought a new k&n cai kit today from a local parts store. I know not to over oil the filters as I've been building efi mustangs for fifteen years or so. I'm going to add a nx nitrous wet kit soon so the air charge will be super chilled soon lol.....

 

Is this truck your daily driver?

 

You must have done it before, don't you need special tools for doing the cams?

Yeah, I don't think there is a Whipple for the 4.6.

 

Ford makes a timing gear wedge tool but I used no tool. I simply held the chain and gear up tight after marking them both and slid the cams in the key ways and bolted them back in dot to dot like the factory cams were installed. Very simple and easy to do....it's easier to swap mod motor cams then it is to swap a pushrod motor cam.

 

Yup sure is. I constantly am building mustangs so I figured I would goof off with my truck a little in between car builds lol.

 

I only ask because cams and nitrous are pretty aggressive for a daily driver haha. Mostly the nitrous kit. But if you have the "if it blows up, I'll just rebuild it!" mentality with it and are always building stuff, carry on sir!

Not to suggest that what you're doing will blow the motor, just an observation with it being on the aggressive side for a daily.

 

Not on the aggressive side since I've driven nine second street cars daily before lol.