Alright guys, I'm a long time member here and an F150 lover, though I'm 28 and have only owned 2 of them. I am a DIY'er of most things, but I realize that I will be in well over my head with most of what I'd like to accomplish with this, so I'll lean heavily on the likes of Built54, Neal, WLF, etc. After all, it's your guy's fault, especially you & your vids Built54.

I just bought a house, so I finally have a 2 car garage to work out of. This really limited the possibilities before, as you can imagine. Also, I "car pool" (I hate that term) with my wife now, so I can be without the truck for a month or two with little issue. Also, we don't have a kid or even one on the way as of yet, so now is the time to shat or get off the pot.

Now, this won't be nearly as exciting, interesting, or entertaining as the other projects around here past / present because I'm shooting for a more modest approach, but I hope it can be fun none the less. Also, I'm not just BS'ing here. I have the funds to make this happen with your help. Enough jibba jabba...on with the details already.

I have a 2001 4x4 ext cab 4.6L V8 non-PI mated to the M5OD w/ 76k miles built in final quarter of 2000 right here in KC, MO. 3:55 gears w/ 8.8" open diff. Got her with 2 mi. on the odo for about $28K after A plan. She's been paid off for almost 2 years now. Here are the current specs:

- gasket matched TB and TB elbow, with opened up TB before the butterfly
- cleaned EGR ports, IAC, EGR valve, Seafoam'd every 10k miles.
- fairly fresh Denso plugs & upstream O2's
- ceramic coated WMS intake with K&N drop-in using chopped stock airbox
- deleted pre-cats, Flowmaster "Y pipe" into straight 2 1/2" dumped
- SCT Xcal II w/ Troyer tunes
- Troyer's E-Fans
- Troyer's underdrive pullies w/ Gator serp. belt
- Hurst prototype short-throw filled with Royal Purple
- Front / Rear diff & transfer case filled with Royal Purple
- improved upper control arms & upper / lower ball joints
- Rancho RS5000's all the way around
- cranked torsion bars
- 850 cca battery w/ 4ga. grounds
- tons of minor maintenance and misc. parts replaced and a flawless interior
- replaced slave cylinder & pass. side head gasket

Here are the issues with the truck:

- minor leak in rear pinion seal
- factory flaws in the black paint with 1 minor door ding and a slightly gouged fiberglass Flareside
- BOTH headgaskets have a minor external leak which seem to be getting worse. The pass. side just started AGAIN since the last oil change. Oil has collected on top of the tranny. Dealership says it has migrated there from the headgaskets.
- Tranny has it's bad days where it will barely go into gear without a fight
- Torsion bars are pretty heavily rusted in places
- Rear leaf springs will need "readjusted" soon
- loose idler arm

As I've said, I have the cash to address these issues in a number of ways, but I want to be smart with my money and can't afford to throw it away as I don't make a terribly great amount of money and it will take years to put it back. Also, with a house and cabin to pay for / maintain, as well as plans for a kid and health insurance to come...I can't afford to be stupid.

Ideally, I'd trade it for an 09 Powerstroke, but I can't afford, nor do I want to do the insane truck payment thing again anytime soon, and having an old body style really doesn't bother me. I also don't really have a use for such a beast of a truck other than to add a few inches.

...continued on second post

 

I'd like your advice on how to approach this, but here are my thoughts:

- Cosmetics

Line-X Xtra the entire exterior of the truck. (all painted surfaces) This will permanently seal the body and provides a tough, bombproof finish that doesn't need wax, and can't reasonably be scratches / dented. Adds about 80 lbs. of weight, and costs about $2,200 - $2,400.

- Gears

I had planned on running 4.10's with an Eaton locker since I'm running open exhaust and HEAVY 33's and do a bit of towing. This would also address the rear pinion seal leak would it not? Cost is $2,400. However, if I could get enough motor under the hood to overcome the shortcomings of the tall gears, I could pour this money into said motor, cutting about $1,700 of the cost by just doing the locker and pinion seal.

- Engine

With Built54's head-swap how-to, I could probably drink and cuss my way though the headgaskets, hopefully without pulling the motor / body, but I want to make damn sure this isn't a reoccurring problem. Was thinking about Cometic headgaskets (not sure if they even make them) and having some minor head work / valves done. Wouldn't mind cams either, and possibly lower intake restriction knocked out / gasket matched. I don't have anyone in mind for this work, and have no idea on cost or how much I could squeeze out of it. Likely not enough to overcome the crap for gears.

Would like to hear your thoughts / opinions on alternative options such as 4.6L 3v or 5.4L swap, boring / stroking my 4.6L 2v. I have to work within the limits of the 8.8" rear end and M5OD. Would prefer to stay NA due to cost / reliability issues, but nothing would make me happier than the whine of a roots blower to be honest.

Of course the idler arm and suspension issues are really no big deal, but they do add to the overall cost, so it's something to consider. I suppose I could live with the temperamental tranny until it's shats the bed, but I'm curious if anyone is making a respectable box out of this thing or if it would be a good time to swap for something else.

Like my other toys, the goal here is to make a mechanically & cosmetically BULLETPROOF truck that runs like a raped ape and will last another 20 years with minor issue at a price I can justify. Should be cake since I only drive <8,000 mi. per year now. Also, I haven't wrapped up a ton of money in lifts, bodykits, etc. I'm plenty happy with the look and stance, I just want it to run as good as it looks. She might get a few inches in the suspension down the road. I REALLY need to update my gallery, but check my sig. to see what we're working with.

As always, I appreciate your time guys.

 

What kind of budget. You keep saying you have the funds but how many of said funds do you have? Also are you looking to just be a motorhead or do you want to restore your truck. It sounds like you want the later more then the first with added power if you come by it.

My truck is set up just the same as yours. Minus the short throw shifter... How do you like it. I have thought about geting one for a while. I have considered everything you have posted above to included doing built54's head swap. If you invested $600 for cams and a nice set of heads youwould see a big differance so im told. And then you could always put them on a 5.4 in the future if you ever get that far.

Have you read JMC's post on the 5.4 conversion? He makes it sound do-able for anyone. And you already have the tuner to get it running. But then once you do that your looking at to much power for the tranny and 8.8 to hold. Hence why i havn't dug into that yet. Unless you want to be the first to mount a ZF-6 tranny up to your 5.4 and do an axle swap. LOT of money.

Gears will help a lot in every aspect of the game. I think that if you were to dump a grand in heads and then the 2 grand or so for gears you would see a compleatly differnt truck. And in the end thats what i think im guna do!

Good luck and im going to keep a close eye on this project. As i stated we have almost the same truck. Except my tranny is brand spankn new.. If your looking for a new one for cheap i might be able to hook you up. I got mine off ebay and the seller said he still had 2 more. And it was straight from ford brand spankn new. NOt a rebuilt... I was shocked. Anyways let me know if you want that sellers info.

Peace and Good luck!!!

 

Ya! I think we should see at least a current financial statement and two years tax returns before we post! HA!

Do the 410's right now. With the tall tires, you now have a rear ratio of 290 or so, not 355. I paid about $ 1,100 for the Eaton and gears installed complete.

Line X the whole truck? Please no.

 

I agree. Everyone seams to have money but when it comes dow nto it its always to much. THe gears are going to make here so much more fun to drive. Thtas my next mod. I to a lil drive in the same truck as us with the 4.6 5spd and 33's with the 4:10... I was thinking it had a 5.4 with all the "power" it felt like it had. Cant imagine a 5.4 with 4:10's

As for the lineX... I have seen it where they do the lower 1/3 and its still looks stupid. Dont do it!!!

 

The Hurst is absolutely a MUST. As is the Royal Purple ATF. I had been running Mobil-1 ATF and RP made the M1 seem stock.

Will a 5.4L mount up to the M5OD now? I did see that someone is making a universal bell housing on Modular Depot, thought I don't spend any time there and didn't read up much on it. I thought Crash said the M5OD was "good" to 450HP...???

I have enough to go completely ***** out, but have to keep in mind that it's money down the drain if I should have to bail on the truck, and it has to end up back in the bank at some point.

How much are those M5OD's going for shipped?

Think PI heads are a better value than having non-PI's worked over? This is only about an 11 HP gain at the flywheel isn't it? Will prob. go ahead and invest in 24# injectors and COP's at the same time.

 

Sure, I hate to spend the money, but it's better than spending the $54,000 I'd like to spend on a Powerstroke.

I have the 4x4, so the whole front end has to come out. Stuff another set of gears in there, and whammo...$2,400.

I agree that the Line-X'd bodies look stupid, but I'm talking about glossy black Kevlar Xtra, not flat red or ghey flat black Rhino. The appearance mod comes last, and I'm already quite sold on it. Better than rattle canned flat DIY camo.

This is not only about power and appearance, but reliability and smart spending.

I've seen it stated here many times that it's just as easy to drop in a new motor than to change the headgaskets...???

 

The 5.4 will mount right up and you can get tuning to run everything. THe only problem is exhast. Differnt hieghts. All i know about hte toughness of the M5 is that if you get on here then it will go bad under the 5.4. I have put a ton of thought into this and the ZF-6 tranny i told you about is the F250 6speed and it will bolt right up. But its an $1800 rebuilt tranny. I got my tranny shipped to a shop for $800 something. No more than $900. I cant remember. Put it in myself and i ran Amsoil ATF in there. Its well worth the $12 a quart!

 

Any idea how much I'd be looking at if I got into a brand new 5.4 swap?

I can't see paying $1,000 for PI heads for an 11 HP gain...that's just retarded when I can sink that money into a valve job and cams, possibly a DIY gasket match. Also, the 8.8 and the M5OD are not going to die on me with a 50 - 75 Hp gain...sure it's a lot heavier, but look at what the Mustangs are doing. I believe there is a lot more headroom than that. I'm POSITIVE there's nothing to worry about unless I went ***** out with a roots blower running some respectable boost.

It's easy to spend someone else's money, but I want to hear how you would spend the money if it were yours. If I'm going the job myself, I want to spend the money I'd be paying someone else in labor, on performance / reliability. My main reason in doing this myself isn't because I can't afford it, but because I enjoy it and I just don't trust anyone to do the job right. Hell, I can't even get the inside of the house painted properly.

I figure my situation is a lot more common than an "L" swap...I'm surprised / disappointed there isn't more interest / experience in this.

 

1.) the pi swap is only 300 plus tuning.... and you would see 11 hp and 29 torque at that.... If your talking 1000 for the swap your talking about cams too!!! and that would be way more gains. Probally like 50 or more ponys....

2.) The 5.4 swap would run about 3-4k and then you would have so many more options on top of that for performance. Think about the future. You could dump 4k on your 4.6 and get to where a 5.4 swap would give you and be topping out the engine. If you spend the 4k on the 5.4 swap and then in the future decide you want more you have the option to get more power throught the same mods you would have done to your 4.6....

That is why i am doing the swap.... Putting cams and pi heads on your truck with a gear change would give you the effect you desire thought... I think..


And the mustangs are doing it becuase it takes a lot les force to get a 3000 pound car moving 60MPH then it does a 6000 pound truck. thats hte problem.

 

255 lph fuel pump. 42 pound injectors. 90mm MAF. 150 shot of nitrous. custom tunes. When the tranny gives up the ghost upgrade it. When the dif gives up the ghost, upgrade it as well. when the motor goes, get built internals and then run a 250 shot. you said that you can car pool with your wife so it shouldn't be that big of a deal if **** breaks

 

Hmmmmm...thanks again twintips, I have some decisions to make. If I were to do the 5.4 swap, I could still afford it, but I'd have a lot harder of a time justifying the gears and Line-X. What is my best bet in PI heads...ebay? Which ones specifically should I be shopping for? I have plenty of reading to do here, and I'll get that done in the coming weeks, so no worries if you don't want to rehash it here.

NOS is out...save it for the dentist's office. I'm not a stop light terrorist.

 

if nitrous is out just do a 5.4 swap that already has the PI heads installed, full bolt on, 4.10 gears

 

Are we talking 260HP 5.4L 2v or 300HP 5.4L 3v? New or used? DIY or "out the door"? I was reading just last week that a guy paid $4,300 for a new V6 swap.

 

260 hp.... If your serious about teh swap i have it all... Install sheet... and hte head castings to get you started... Just let me know