hi i have a 97 f150 single cab stepside with the 4.2l v6.. what can i buy to squeeze horsepower out of this baby? any suggestions appreciated. thanks

stevie

 

I bought a Diablo Preator for mine works very well

 

well, the easyest way is a tuner, but before some of the vets come on and chew you out about it, i would kindly advise the use fo the "search" function. that should give you reading material enough for the next week.

 

buy a truck with the 5.4L...not trying to be cruel but why would you buy a full size pick-up with a V-6 in it?...just doesn't make sense to me....

 

K&N Filter will help some!

 

honda put a V6 in a inbred avalanche lol

 

well.. the truck is going to be given to me for my 18th birthday so im not exactly throwing the offer away..

 

"Inbred avalanch" ?!? oh please. the Avalanch its self is an inbred! the Ridegeline is just retarded! the greatest part about the honda advertising is how they say it has "off road roots" because its on a Pilot/ MDX platform... which...oh yeah... is an Accord platform.... OOPS! GO HONDA!!! not.

sorry about the rant- i get frustrated by stupidity.

as for real power from the 4.2l, thats gona take something radical like a supercharger. a few guys on here have done it, but its not a project for a beginer due to the large amounts of custom fab work required. in the end I'd say enjoy your B-day present, but just dont expect ot be doing any smoky burnouts in it. it will get you from A to B with decent milage, and haul stuff when you need it.

another option is to buy a 5.4l with low miles and swap it. engine swaps are fun, but take a long time. especialy if you dont know what your doing. its up to you in the end though.

one last thing: dont fall for any of the "turbonator," elactronic supercharger things, etc. they are a wast of money, and will do nothing but make your wallet skinnier.

 

bigsteve, enjoy your truck. At 18 its the perfect truck. take care of it and it will get you and your buddies anywhere you want to go. Big horsepower=big bucks to buy and to run.

 

5.4 swap sounds like it would be fun. i used to drive a nissan pickup 95 and me and my dad did the engine swap.. he mainly helped out with the dropping of the new engine i did the rest.. put 20,000 miles on it and still runs like a beauty .. but thanks guys for the suggestions.. cant wait til graduation ill have an 06 f150 4wd 4 door black lariat and im putting 6 inches under it

 

ya- my buddy and i swaped a 4.0l into a 3.0l ranger this summer. the actual swap went just fine, but the junkyard engine he got came out of an Exploder, so we had to completely go through the wiring and splice the two harnesses toghether. that was by far the most time consuming thing. i still think he should have done a 5.0l swap though- would have been a whole hell of a lot easier!

 

Ck the chips and programming forum...... 4.2 will provide some fun.
I have an old stock 4.3 gmc / 5 spd that I still drive frequently and it keeps up with the fraffic O.k...........it's only a 1/2 litre smaller than my v8.

 

the '97 4.2 isn't exactly the best motor to try and get more power out of. they are riddled with problems and are badly designed. i think one of the reasons for the problems is they fire on 2 cylinders at the same time making it a very noisy and vibrating engine. keep it stock and save your money for at least a newer v6 truck or something.

the only thing i would consider doing on that truck might be a gear swap to give it a little more oomph from a stop but otherwise leave it alone.