I am planning to do a tune up on my 1999 F150 SC 4x4 XLT with the 5.4, and it has 76000. I have a few questions and I'm new at this!!!!

Which plug? Motorcraft or Bosh?

Does the K&N gas filter help any?

How do I clean the throttle body??

I would take any other advice of things I should check/replace

thank you

Jamie

 

I think you would have good luck with the Motorcraft or Bosch. I went with Motorcraft Platinum. Make sure you replace the plug wires too. I chose Bosch plug wires and bought them at Advance Auto for about $65.00.

Make sure you change the fuel filter and service the transmission and rear-end if these things have not already been done.

Good luck and welcome to F150online.

 

You 4.6 guys and your plug wires. We 5.4 guys aint got any, took me forever to figure out how in the hell my engine worked. Anyway I would goo with the Ford, had mine replaced by the dealer at 60,000 and now I am at 94000 might do it again soon. I have heard that the coil packs are so strong that the plugs will fire with little to no electrode left, so it is important to replace your plugs regularly. I just did my rearend at about 85,000 or 90,000 and it didnt need it at all lube was good gears were good everything. The thing that hurts is the $25 dollar bottle of differential lube thats X3 by the way. I also did the transfer case (2 QT's of ATF) I havent touched my tranny because I didnt do it early enough and I dont want to screw anything up by messing with it. When and if my tranny fluid starts to turn bad I will replace it. Throttle bodies are tricky and need to be done with special cleaner, I believe a little soapy water will work but NOT carb cleaner. I never really noticed any difference after my tune up but it gave me piece of mind and hopefully curbed any future problems. And have fun with that fuel filter.

 

Autolite Platinum Pro. Same design as OE platinum but these have platinum on the outside electrode as well.

I haven't found any good aftermarket wires yet! There's a wimpy MSD set available, Accel Superstock, or Bosch besides Motorcraft. I'm still looking.

Definitely change tranny fluid, filter, drain TC.

I'd use Home Depot Orange cleaner on a paper towel. Excellent degreaser without ruining anything. Use a q-tip dipped in windex to clean the MAF sensor wire/resistor.

K&N air filter is great investment. Good for the environment too... doesn't fill up the landfill. Do the air box mod.

Change the coolant... use distilled water. Change the thermostat if you can get at it also.

Grease the steering link grease nipples. Only two of them under these vehicles. Crazy! Someone suggested using a needle type attachment on your grease gun and inserting it under the balljoint rubber and adding grease. Good idea. Haven't done mine yet.

Check your serpentine fan belt! Look at the ribbed side and look for cracks.

 

yeah, i have the 5.4 also. I looked in there and didn't see any plug wires either. How in the hell does it work anyways?

 

Look real close at your fuel rail, the chrome thing on top of the valve covers, under it or beside it you will see really little wires those are for all intensive purposes your plug wires, they go to the white coil packs that are on top of the ingine under the fuel rail. The wires go back to the power packs they are on the drivers side if I remember right and are 2 clusters of 4 round packs which are more or less your distributor. I kinda like being able to dress up the engine with plug wires but it does look real clean without them.

 

Thanks, I have the K&N FPIK which is awesome and the Super chip.

 

The dealer said that my 2002 4.6L doesn't HAVE plug wires??

 

I let the air out of the front tires. It is amazing how much easier it is to get to the back two plugs on the passenger side.

if you don't have a compressor just take the wheels off

 

I prefer wires over COPs anyday. Big bucks to replace sh*tty COPs that go bad. Aftermarket are big bucks too. MSD & Accel and Granitelli (spel?) make them.

Having good luck with MSD coil packs, MSD wires and NGK iridium plugs right now.