F53 Ford Motorhome Chassis Questions

C-Leigh Racing wrote:

427435 wrote:
The 2000 F53 was rated at 310 hp, but still only had 4 threads in the heads for the spark plugs--------------which have been no problem for me.

Hummm, interesting. I thought I had read 2001 was when HP went to 310, I could be wrong though.

Anybody ever hear what all it was Ford did to the V10 engines to get the HP increase.
Neil

Which HP increase, the 275 to 305/310, or the 362?

The first was moderate tuning, what you can do with fuel and timing maps.

The bigger increase was was the 3-valve heads, which improved intake flow at the upper end, allowing torque curve to stay high a little bit longer. Basically a slight retuning of the high RPM side of the intake plumbing to shift that curve slightly up in RPM. You see the extra 50 HP from 4800 RPM to redline.

The real gain for motorhome applications was that the 3 valve head also improved the ram effect on the low RPM side of the intake, so there is a noticable increase in torque available right off idle.

In the 2-valve engine, one intake valve had to cover the whole RPM range, and had to be big enough for maximum flow. With two smaller intake valves, one can be used for low RPM, the second opened for high RPM, and the area of the opening around the two smaller valves is more than what was around the single larger intake valve.

FWIW, having variable-length intake manifolds, one for low RPM, one for high RPM, showed up in cars here in a 2.5 L Mazda V-6; dual-length tuning had been used in motorcycles earlier, usually on the exhaust side. Ford owned a majority share in Mazda, so it was easier to get the technology. Applying it to a truck engine, rather than a racing engine or a high performance engine for a sports car or sport sedan, we can give Ford credit for that idea.

427435 wrote:
The 2000 F53 was rated at 310 hp, but still only had 4 threads in the heads for the spark plugs--------------which have been no problem for me.

Hummm, interesting. I thought I had read 2001 was when HP went to 310, I could be wrong though.

Anybody ever hear what all it was Ford did to the V10 engines to get the HP increase.
Neil

The 2000 F53 was rated at 310 hp, but still only had 4 threads in the heads for the spark plugs--------------which have been no problem for me.

My 2005 Bounder was built in Nov '04 on a F53 chassis built in June '04 with the 2v/310hp V10 w/4spd trans.

A friend in my FMCA chapter has a 2006 Bounder built in Oct 05 that has the 3v/362hp V10 w/5spd trans.

From my understanding, the 99 & 2000 year, was a 275 hp 2 valve V10, but only had 4 threads machined in the aluminum heads to hold the spark plugs in.
In 2001, different heads were installed/updated & included more threads to hold the plugs in.
All was not completely corrected though, some heads the angle cut into the heads where the plug would seat, was cut to an improper angle, didnt match the plugs, so some still had the plugs blow out.
2001 hp went up to 310.
In 2005 the new model V10 was three valve heads & hp went up to 362.
Neil

Thanks for the info, now I know what to look for.

Ford did not make a 2005 F53 chassis. They extended the 2004 model with the 2 valve per cylinder V-10 until early into 2005. When they started putting the 3 valve per cylinder V-10 in the chassis in early 2005 they designated it as a 2006 model chassis.

You can get a 2005 motorhome on either a 2004 F53 chassis or a 2006 F53 chassis. If the motorhome manufacturer had a slow year you might even get a 2006 model with a left over 2004 chassis.

2006 was the model year. A quick way to tell is the transmission mode select. The newer model will have a 'Tow/Haul' while older will have 'OD On/Off'. The specifications for the chassis can be found HERE.

I think it was 2006 but a 2006 could still have a 2005 under it as they use all the old ones up first. I think there is a way to tell by the vin number . If not sure call Ford and give them the vin and they could tell you for sure.