Curious... 5 star tune for a 2 valve 5.4??

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johnboneske

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For those of you who have done it, is it worth it? Does doing a 5 star tune really help these 2 valve engines with the 4 speed trans? Its $450, or am I just better off waiting until I get a new truck in late summer? We will be towing our 7000 pound trailer come and of April, so is it worth it?
 

donl

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I have made the decision to keep my '03 4.6L Expedition with 154K miles and spend some money on upgrading and updating; I am not paying what Ford wants for a new Expy and I figured I would be happier with keeping and upgrading my '03. The motor and trans are both in excellent condition so I tossed the OEM clutch fan, intake and exhaust manifolds and installed electric fans, underdrive pulley kit, shorty headers, 4.10 gears and purchased the 5 Star tuner. The 5 Star price included three tunes and I am running the most conservative of the three.

I wish I could justify the expense of a dyno pull to measure the increase in performance and I might do that at some point but right now I am just enjoying the results which register strongly on the butt dyno. I can't tell you how much of the increase can be attributed to the tune but I can tell you that without the tune, the results would have been very different. 5 Star was easy to work with, very professional group.
 

ExplorerTom

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Hey donl, have you tracked your mileage with the 4.10 gears? I’ve been considering these- strongly.
 

1955moose

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Imagine same parts on the bigger motor! Did you lose power anywhere, like low end?

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donl

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ExplorerTom said:
Hey donl, have you tracked your mileage with the 4.10 gears? I’ve been considering these- strongly.

Just checked after running a full tank through and saw no loss in mileage. As you know, these vehicles are not known for their fuel efficiency. My "before" daily driver, commute, in town mileage was 13mpg and it is still 13mpg. I assume, always dangerous, that the under drive pulley and CAI installs might have improved fuel efficiency enough to offset any degradation associated with the 4.10 gears.

BTW, we did figure out the radiator/fan issue and I updated in the "Headers? Yes? No?" OP
 
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donl

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1955moose said:
Imagine same parts on the bigger motor! Did you lose power anywhere, like low end?

No loss of power anywhere. Increase is noticeable off idle and mid range and top register strong on the butt dyno; it's a different ride. I can actually spin the 20" (soon to be 22") tires with a "line lock" type start; couldn't do that before. Yep, the additional displacement would be a force multiplier with the same modifications.
 
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1955moose

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Good to know. Did you have any header fitment problems? We had a poster a couple weeks back, that ended up with F150 headers off an 05 I believe, because 2 brand of Expedition ones were way off on fit. What brand of shorty headers did you install? And what year, model were they for?

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donl

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Good to know. Did you have any header fitment problems? We had a poster a couple weeks back, that ended up with F150 headers off an 05 I believe, because 2 brand of Expedition ones were way off on fit. What brand of shorty headers did you install? And what year, model were they for?

I did have fitment issues with Gibson headers that were supposed to be "direct fit" for my '03. I did post an update to the previous posts so others would know of the issue. We looked at all other brands of headers for an '03 Expy and they all were the same basic configuration and, IMHO, none of them would fit.

We solved the problem with a set of JBA headers for the '04-'06 F-150. They were a direct bolt on; no clearance or hookup issues; they were perfect. I expect a set of Gibson or any other brand for the '04-'06 F-150 would have worked as well. The guys at Summit racing took some measurements for us as I saw a set of Summit "truck" headers for those F-150 years and asked them to take some measurements, which they did and it appeared they would fit. However, only available in paint and I wanted SS or ceramic so we ordered a set of JBA for that F-150 and problem solved. Gotta give kudos to the Summit guys that went above and beyond to help out with measurements. We did send them photos of the OEM exhaust manifold side by side with the Gibson headers to illustrate the problem so they could make a judgement call as well on fitment; very helpful tech support.
 

1955moose

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It was you that had that problem. Its nice to get a company that actually still cares these days. It's pretty rare. What would be interesting is if you had a before/after Dyno slip, to know the horsepower/ torque gains. What did you do for brackets for the radiator?

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donl

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It was you that had that problem. Its nice to get a company that actually still cares these days. It's pretty rare. What would be interesting is if you had a before/after Dyno slip, to know the horsepower/ torque gains. What did you do for brackets for the radiator?

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I know and would have done it if there was a facility closer to me. At some point, I will have a pull done to see what the after HP/TQ is and compare it to the factory specs which are probably higher than what the motor was making at 154K miles.

My tech did the fan install and IIRC, the brackets that came with the fan kit weren't quite right and he had to do some minor fabricating to make them work, at least to his satisfaction; the guy is an **** perfectionist. I would go take a look and a picture but just dropped the vehicle off for Phase II of the restoration; body work and paint. The old boat is going to look showroom fresh in another 3-4 weeks.;)
 
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