For my birthday and Christmas i have saved up enough money to do some performance modifications to my 2000 5.4 Expedition. What would be the best way to spend around $1000 on my truck? I was thinking programmer, x-pipe, cats, air force intake, underdrive pulleys, and a throttle body. I already have a true-dual exhaust system. Anyone have any suggestions or comments?

 

that sounds like good choices to me.
i think you've been planning awhile
huh

 

Yes i've been looking forward to this time of the year for a while.

 

gears are also very good to do i put 3.73 in my 94 mustang and it was like a whole new car it was much quicker

 

which gears would you recommend if i have 3.73's and 33 inch tires? 4.11 or 4.56?

 

4:11 would be more practical

 

Don't do anything. Save your money for gas.

 

what does it cost now to change out the gears and set up a diff?
he'll be out of money

 

For the amount of money you have to spend, I pop for a CAI and a tune.

FWIW -- don't waste your money on the spacer.......

 

I was just about to post this, spacers are a complete waste of cash and usually leave ya with an annoying whistle

 

I'd save the money on the underdrive pulleys too... not worth it for the heavy trucks.

 

x2
if you have sterio amps consider 130 amp alternator

those underdrives decrease alternator speed

 

AF1 CAI (w/home made air box; AF1 does not include a box in their design???), Troyer tunes (this would be the first thing I'd do and did do), E-fans -- I used kit # 295 from FAL. Very well made components however it is "universal" and I had to spend some time fabbing brackets to mount them. with E fans you will see an immediate increase in throttle response and mpgs (at least 1 mpg maybe more). I just ordered some underdrive pulleys from summit racing for 159.00 - steel crank pulley and harmonic dampner all in one (some other models require you to piggyback the factory dampner with the new pulley). that should be good for some more torque and hp diverted back to the drive shaft and probably some increase in mpgs.

On the exhaust - I've looked at the dyno power curves that are on line from various manufacturers. Most of them don't really offer any power gains until you are well above 3K rpms. I just don't hit those high numbers with my 03. Don't have too. I can do all the passing I need at or below 3K, so I don't see the real gain other than the sound. There maybe more gain than I think if the exhaust is combined with the CAI: more air in, more out, more power (and more fuel used too).

Having said all that, my first question to you would be what do you expect to get out of it? Are you looking for improvements in mpgs? hp? driveability?

The tunes will improve the range of power and shift points (driveability). My 03 has the 4.6, which with a factory tune is very poor - can't pass, no acceleration. You can feel it held back. Next, is mpg's. The best improvement there is to reduce the load on your engine - efans do that by getting rid of the mech fan which costs hp to turn (get more hp to the drive shaft with the parasitic loss removed). Same with the underdrive pulleys. They just redistribute the engine's available hp and torque. Adding the CAI and/or exhaust can get more hp, but the idea here is that they increase the engine's capacity to inhale air. Since the computer is made to maintain a balance of air and fuel, more air in means more fuel use = more hp, but at a cost. The CAI definately looks good under the hood though

So you need to ask yourself what you are trying to do then pick components accordingly.

 

Save you money on the throttle body.. You wont get much out of it without a blower!
A Troyer tune will be way better then any programmer!

Phil

 

I agree first thing is a tuner make sure you get one that allows you to download up dated tunes of the website