I do too, but not for the first 1000 miles. And I still notice peak performance and fuel economy after the first 5-10k miles on the engine.

The true way to figure it out is measure it. Your weight estimate is a little shy and your sample of two runs at the strip haven't even begun to try the various launch techniques to optimize the power you have.

They also have another gear ratio in their transmissions. Surely you understand the effects of gearing on quarter mile times/speeds.

 

I'm not sure about the 300 5.4 engine yet myself....I mean the motor is strong don't get me wrong, but I kicked an 04' F150 with the new 5.4 in my 98' Expy, which has a non P.I. head 5.4 I know the 04 was a 5.4 cause it had a 9.75 rear under it. The truck ran great, but I kept ahead of it.....I'm hoping the guy just didn't have the hammer down totally......lol I think if anyone who owns a 04 5.4 just buts a good exhaust and intake system on, they'll be kicking the Titan's a** And on further note, the Titan is fairly new, I bet their motors won't take the beating our Ford 5.4 motors do......bet in the long run the blue oval will win....tried and true baby.....

 

What I've heard from some Ford techs is that they purposely detune the software on the new 5.4 for the first 3000 miles to allow for a good break-in period.

It makes sense from Ford's point of view. It helps keep down warranty returns from improper break-in driving habits. A cost savings for them and a sanity check to keep you from ruining your investment prematurely. Not so much in the immediate future but for long term reliability,

This is from a conversation with my father and brother. They are both Ford mechanics with a combined experience of about 65 years.

Take it the way you want but things should get better after about 5000 miles. Also Mobil 1 oil will help tight joints to become a little slicker.

Later,

 

I ran bone stock 300 miles on the clock, just pulled off the road no cool down time, a 16.2 @ 93mph in the quarter with a 2.5 60 foot in my 04 5.4 3.55 ls RC SWB in 99-100% humidity and high 90 degree weather. That was the only pass I could make that night due to it rained about 5 minutes after my run.

There is no doubt in my mind I could have hit 15's that night if I could try some different launch techniques and a cool down period. I am going back next friday with cat back, electric fans, superchip tuner, !swaybar, and adjust air pressure in the tires. Hopefully the weather wont be as bad as it was last time either.

02 RC swb exhaust, cai, underdrive pulleys
04 RC swb exhaust, electric fans

Pulled about 5 truck lengths on him in my 04 to about 90. Nuff said

As far as the dodges, they are putting down 240-255rwhp with 3.92's in 2nd gear(which isnt a 1:1 ratio) Where as I see the fords with 3.73's put down little over 200rwhp in 3rd gear(1:1). They are more powerful trucks, no reason to deny that. The also have more gear then fords do. Just dont be surprised when they beat us.

EDIT: You also have to remember the hemis have 1 cat for 03 and 2 for 04... Fords have 4

 

I agree and give it some time, it's a new motor and also a new model/engine so I'm sure there will be a few little bugs to work out. By the way I used to live in Fullerton and went to H.S. there before I came into the service. Good luck to ya.

 

I have also heard that the Hemi's are tuned for 91 octane to hit the 345 HP mark.

 

The 2004 Expidition has the 2V 5.4L motor, not 2V. The 3V is availible in the 2005 Expy.

The Hemi is tuned for 89 octane, not 91. It is acceptible to use 87 octane with decreased performance.

 

Has anyone dyno'd their 04 yet? I'd be curios to see what the dyno numbers are for the 5.4 compared to the Hemi, the Titan, Chevy's 5.3, and Toyota's 4.7. Doing so would put all the speculation aside. If I was buying a new truck, it would be an 04 F-150, but if I could pick which of the engines to go into my F-150, I think it would be Nissan's. (Before the HEMI came out, all of the 'street racers' were saying the same thing about Chevy's 5.3) I guess the bottom line is if you want to win the drag race in a Ford, you'd better pickup a Lightning! The 04 5.4 verywell may prove to be the best engine for towing though.

 

I haven’t yet performed a dyno pull on my truck, but this is what Troyer Performance got out of there R&D truck that had a new 5.4.
"On our in-house 2004 F-150 5.4 (a loaded Super Crew Lariat 4WD 6200 lb. truck), just one of numerous 2004's used for the R&D, the lowest stock dyno reading was 219 HP and 287 lbs/ft. of torque at the rear wheels. (Highest stock numbers were 222 HP & still 287 lbs/ft.) We ended up with 247 HP & 350 lbs/ft. of torque at the rear wheels on 93 octane - however, there was about a 5 degree variance in ambient temperatures throughout the period of final dyno testing, and though 5 degrees has minimal affect on power, we're rating the gains a bit conservatively, at 24 HP & 43 lbs./ft., even though we did see more gain, especially in peak torque. 62 degrees & 100% humidity were the actual test condition averages, with humidity consistent at 100% throughout, and 5 degrees of total variance in the ambient air temps. (On 87 octane, the power gains were 13 HP and 21 lbs./ft.)"
The best thing I could find on the HEMI Ram is a dyno pull made by an intake company called Air Ram and this is what they came up with on a bone stock HEMI:
263 HP and 315 ft lbs of Torque
Their air intake didn’t improve the truck significantly.
That's what I could find with a few minutes of searching. I'm still very pleased with the overall truck; I'm just hoping that the performance picks up a little bit. I noticed that a super crew 4*4 weighs 6200 lbs, so maybe my horsepower estimates are low due to incorrect weight. More weight moving down the track at the same E.T. means it has more H.P. I'm at 3000k miles now; I'll check the power at 5000K and post my findings for all to see.
For the dude who claims he busted a 16.3 at 93 mph, those numbers just don't make sense. You should be deep in the 15's with a MPH like that. Did you perhaps hit a 9 instead of an 8? An honest mistake since the keys are right next to each other.
For everyone else, keep this topic rollin, I'd like to see what all others have to say about their experience.

redregf150 OUT!

 

220hp/287tq to 247hp/350tq for the 5.4 vs. 263hp/315tq for the Hemi sounds about right. (That sure is a nice upgrade in torque for swapping octane!) This pretty much points to what seems to already be widely known - that the Ram will win the drag-race, while the F-150 is the better towing vehicle with the added torque (and the lower hp/torque-range.) Anyone have any dyno numbers to compare that with for Chevy's 5.3 and Nissan's (5.6 is it?)

Hopefully Ford's new 'hurricane' engine will turn out to be as strong as the speculation (especially when the 'new' Hemi comes out with 425hp.)

 

Yall also have to remember gears help fool the dyno you have more hp. 3.92's help out alot over 3.73's.

 

that hemi can make 1000 ponies and i still won't buy it. it's still a Dodge no matter how you look at it. just my 2 cents

 

Not to sound to ignorant but how do you calculate HP from time slips. Just curious. I ran my 99 5.4 Expy and got 15.831 @ around 86MPH. I have 3:55 gears temp was around 85 humidity was around 80%.
Any help would be appreciated.

 

Almost forgot the truck wieghed 5186 with me in it.

 

You would sure kick the poop out of my truck. Given those figures your truck is putting roughly 258HP to the ground and 304 to the flywheel. Is that dude stock?? I use to have the exact formula written down but now I simply use the computer program I have (technology...) I’ll do some digging and see what I come up with so you can run the calculation manually. And that question certainly doesn’t make you sound ignorant, simply curious. Better you ask and know than fake like you know and get caught. Too many morons do that.