One owner's tale! $4-performance upgrade
 

I had some time on Monday, so I went ahead and did some maintence. I took my air hoses off, and cleaned the throttle body with some carb cleaner. Took the black plastic cover off, and used a brush and cleaned right up to the back of the butterfly's. I also used a 5/16's wrench and took the Air bypass off and cleaned it with a small toothbrush. I didn't even break the gasket. when I started the 302, it sputtered a bit, then fired at high idle. Smoothed the idle a bunch. Cost a total of $4 for the cleaner. I have been told that this should be done yearly, to keep performance up. It DOES help! This is recommended for over 50k miles.

I also decided to replace the 2 year old fuel filter. Let me recommend, that if you are short tempered and not a total gearhead, take it to someone experieced. I tried for about 2 hours, and after cussin Ford for awile. I took it to a trusted mechanic. After he got done cussing, I got new filter. Going to school tommorrow, I know I'll get better mpg's.

Try it Guys! ITs true performance

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Toydestroyer1@yahoo.com

1993 F-150 302/e4od/355 Limited slip. dual exhuast w/o mufflers,2 1/4" pipes with Echo Tips, headers, accel plugs/wires(8.6mm)/rotor/cap, hypertech powermodule, 4 degree advance,5% dark tint. Alpine cd player and Pioneer speakers.

NEWLY ADDED:Blaster Coil,MSd 6A Ignition, TPS Mod,hopefully roller rockers in the future!!

1989 F-150 XLT 4x4 302/aod true duals with turbo mufflers, 30X9.50" wild country tires, 3:55 gears

You're right, Pastmaster, people overlook the little things like this. It should be done more often. On that fuel filter, you just have to get the right tool and BE PATIENT!! Once you get the hang of it it's really quite easy.

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'98 F150 XL Regular Cab, LWB, 4.2L V6, 5 Spd, 3.55 LS, Rhino Lining, factory heavy duty suspension, 3" Gibson Swept Side Cat Back, K&N filter, Oxford White minus the two tone garbage. BIG TIME FoMoCo p/u fan, not some fair weather hammerhead.

Doesn't anyone else believe me?

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Toydestroyer1@yahoo.com

1993 F-150302/e4od/355 Limited slip. dual exhuast w/o mufflers,2 1/4" pipes with Echo Tips, headers, accel plugs/wires(8.6mm)/rotor/cap, hypertech powermodule, 4 degree advance,Blaster Coil,MSd 6A Ignition, TPS Mod,hopefully roller rockers in the future!!5% dark tint. Alpine cd player and Pioneer speakers.

1989 F-150 XLT 4x4

2000 Superduty CrewCab v-10, auto,2wd, Dad's company truck

Pastmaster,
The intake cleaning is an easy solution. I clean mine every tuneup. 15-20k miles. As for the fuel filter....I gave up trying. I have tried many times and never seem to get it. Now I have it done by a local mechanic. I own the tool and have read the "how to..." but no luck.
Word of caution...unless you trust your mechanic, mark the old filter with a permanent marker before you drop it off. The first place I took it in to....charged me , but never replaced the filter. Showed it to the manager and ended up getting a free tuneup (with filter).

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ON ORDER: 2000 F250 SD SC XLT V-10 SB With all the goodies!

CURRENT: 1993 F150 SC XLT 5.0L V-8 with 160,000 miles and lots of great memories!

I had a similar thing happen to me at a Ford dealer, only it was an oil change while the truck was still under warrentee. They changed the oil, but not the filter. Easy to tell at beginning when they did the change. I went back the same day, and chewed on the manager awile. Got a free change.

Pastmaster, does this apply to 1991 models? I haven't had a chance to look at mine yet, but will do this if it isn't N/A.

Thanks,
Mike

Oh ya, 85-96 I think, The 91 engine is identical to the 93, same output and everything. It gives a noticable difference.

My throttle body says not to get back in there and mess with things... (Little yellow sticker right where the hoses attach that says something about not cleaning back there.)

On my '98 V-6, it said the same thing and gave some excuse of some sort of special coating in there...

Anyhow, opened it up and took a look. Aren't the butterflies supposed to pivot when you press on them? I pushed firmly and didn't get any pivot. Things look fairly clean all the way back to the front of the butterflies. God only knows how dirty things are behind them. If I hear back from here tomorrow, I'll take another look when things are warmer outside...


-Mike

Mike~~

Mine says it too, ignor it! Make sure you get a good grade Carb/Throttle cleaner, and a small brush(size of tooth brush?) I take the top plastic cover off(big black one) and there are several springs on top, play with them, and look inside, should be black insite(soot). I think the bypass valve off, didn't even rip the gasket, and cleaned the heck out of it. Don't be stingy with the spray either, just make sure its fairly dry when you put it back...

Will take a look some day soon... Sounds like a pretty good way to improve performance.

Did you say something also about replacing the thermostat?

Thanks,

-Mike

Did that last summer when I replaced all the fluids and the hoses...