I've had my 99 F250 for about a month now, and I hate to admit it, but it is kinda gutless. It has 90,000 on it, but it runs smooth as butter. I've put in a K&N, new plugs, and fuel filter. These all helped a little, but not as much as I hoped. I've driven the 4.6 a few times, and it feels a lot more responsive than my 5.4. Any ideas? I guess I could go have it dyno'd, but I'm almost afraid to.

 

warren guess what they are gutless

 

Nice to see someone else in WA.

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1997 XLT Teal 4.6L Flareside 4x4 ORP. Automatic, Reg. cab, tinted windows, bug deflector, Dual exhaust, K&N Generation 2 air filter, BullDog keyless entry/remote start(installed myself), Modern 16" wheels, bedliner, Covercraft tonneau cover, White faced gauges, electronic shift on the fly, Clarion ADX5655z Double Din Cassette & CD, and superchip. Going to add headers.

 

Warren,

If you wanted power you bought the wrong kind of truck. See my sig!

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2000 Black Lightning
#1326 of 4966
Born on 03/20/2000
PSP Chip
PSP Filter
Best time: 13.335 @ 103.91 mph

 

Sounds like something is wrong, I have a 97 150 SC 4x4 4.6L, 99 F250 HD SC 5.4L and a 2001 F150 Screw 4x4 5.4L. And I can tell you that the 5.4L should be faster and out pull the 4.6L


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2001 SUPER CREW 4x4 Lariat White

• Graphite Leather captain's chairs
• 5.4L
• Moonroof
• 6CD
• limited slip
• Tow and Off Road package
• Bed Extender

Mods

• Infinty speakers
• JBL powered sub
• Bug Guard
• Ford molded mud flaps (rear)
• K&N
• Magnaflow 3"
• Bed mat
• Snug Lid
• CRL Powerlite rear window

[This message has been edited by Screwit (edited 03-04-2001).]

 

What size tires do you have? What rear end?

btw, is this an F250 LD or an SD (HD?)?

[This message has been edited by Dennis (edited 03-04-2001).]

 

I've got 285/75 tires with 3.73 rear end, and it's a LD 250. I just went out and test drove a 4.6 and it seems about the same as mine, to tell the truth. My old 5.0 in my 93 seemed to pull better. I went to a dealer and checked into trading mine in. What a joke. The offered me $10K for mine and they wanted $19,800 for their 98 with a 4.6. It has a lot less miles, but that was an insult.

 

Thats odd that it lacks power. I've driven my parents' 97 F150 4.6L and their 2001 F150 5.4L, and though the 4.6 seemed to do pretty well, the 5.4L puts it to shame. Something isn't right if it feels gutless.

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1991 F250 R/C L/B 4X2
300 I6 5 speed

 

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[This message has been edited by 2000 F150 4x4 (edited 03-04-2001).]

 

Your LD truck should definitely outperform the 4.6 especially considering your rear end gear ratio. I think the highest option for the 4.6 is the 3.55 ratio.

I wonder if having 90,000 miles on the truck has anything to do with it?

 

Hey warren did you ever think that maybe the weight of the truck comes in play with your motor feeling gutless. My 5.4L in my F-150 has plenty of guts.

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2001 F-150 5.4L trition,
Regular cab with 8' bed
XLT with Black Clearcoat
4x4 3.55 limited slip
factory cab steps
class III tow package
Factory ordered: 12/5
recieved: 2/22

 

Yes, I've considered the weight. I'd assume that mine would weigh close to yours, maybe 3 or 400 lbs. more for the extra cab. I'm not saying the thing is a slug, but I have to say that I expected a lot more after driving a few 4.6's. I bought the truck sight unseen (never again) from a supposed friend in Canada. He said he could save me a lot of money. I paid $14K for a 99 with all the bells and whistles, and a lot of miles. From what he told me about it, (and from what I've found in the past) it had a lot of highway miles but was otherwise like new. I mean with 90K on it in 2 years, someone had to do a lot of driving, probably freeway, right? I do it for a living, and I know that 90K is nothing to a vehicle cruising down the interstate. However, the more I learn about this truck the more I think it was driven hard.
Live and learn, I guess. I'm not terribly worried about getting my money out of it, but I really don't feel like going through the trouble of selling it myself or trading it in just yet. I've only had it a month and I've spent that month polishing and tweaking it, not to mention pouring money into it. Well, not much-but some.

 

a 5.4 gutless?? that is just wrong.. did you buy it from a ford dealer? or from a private owner? i'd take it in, have them check it out, and with 90k on it, i'd consider a tune up.... especially if you got it from a private owner.. ya never know what abuse it went through..

 

Given the miles, could be a bunch of stuff, somoe of which could get expem$ive. As a first step, I'd do basic compression and cylinder leak-down tests; if you have weak compression, everything else will be weak. Assuming that checks out OK, I'd pop the cam covers and have a look-see for cam lobe wear; you could take some of the measurements to see how close to spec the cam lift is. Next would be to check back-pressure on the cat-cons and the rest of the exaust; on a high-mile truck, plugged cats are a real possibility; a few hundred miles of running with a bad missfire or as little as a single tank of leaded gas will kill the cat-cons. Make sure the exhaust pipes haven't been crunched; this is quite likely in a 4x4 driven over rocks.

One other item: I know on 98's, the 5.4 was only 15 HP and 40 lb/ft stronger than the 4.6, but had more torque lower in the rev band. We've heard that the 99's introduced the improved heads with the higher ratings, but if yours is an early production truck, it could be that you got one of the older engines, which could explain the unimpressive power differences compared to the F150 4.6.

Frankly, when I drove the 98 4.6 and 5.4, I was equally unimpressed with the difference in power and responsivenes; I decided on the 4.6, which I've been quite happy with.