Need Advice on E450 Engine Mod

Pop the hood on your e450 and you have a cold intake
the only you will get more power out of free flow exhaust and intake is at wide open
you do not have a gas pedal only a air pedal

If you go to a cai, get a free flows exhaust to go with it. The exhaust is the most important thing to free up. As to K&N, I run one on my ranger, have had it for about 200000 miles. Yes it helped some, when I had my f250, I spoke to the guys at Gibson exhaust, they just recommended a k&N drop in to go with the exhaust which was a cat back. On my F350 diesel I just went with the exhaust and it helped some but without a dyno its just butt checked. I do run a hypertec economiser tune on the diesel. The ranger now has 300000+ and just yesterday I went through the emmissions test and was putting out less than 50% of permissable emmissions. The reason I went with cai on it was that I was driving 150 miles a day RT and the intake and exhaust helped with the milage but I also spent around $600 for the setup. The exhaust was made locally, 25% larger than stock and included a free flow cat and muffler. So that is what my experience shows, and yes test show that Clean K&N do allow in dirt, but other test have shown that the stock filters do also. The K&N or others filter better when a little dirty, but allow more air. The OEM filters work better when a little dirty but not asmuch air. I forget the study this was from, but it was just released within the last 6 months or so on the OEMS, and K&N has said the same historically FWIW.

Forgot to add, the ranger has never been in for major service! I did head gaskets last summer as I thought I had a blown one, turns out it was the timing chain/water jacket to block gasket that had failed. It did check out within specs when a compression test was run by me and an indy shop I took it to. So much for fear or dirt ruining stuff I guess. Just remember to keep th oil changes up and run good filters with it.

Tuning requires uploading a new program into the PCM using some sort of programmer. 5-Star tuning seems to be the best for the V10, but I'm also happy with my Predator after making some changes to the canned programs that came on it. But to get the best gains, you need to combine a new program with better breathing. With all those changes, the 2-valve V10 can out-perform a stock 3-valve.

Is it worth it? For me it was. I like being able to pass cars when going up the pass even with a trailer in tow. But if you are more patient than I am, or mostly stick to the truck lane anyways, then stock power levels should be fine.

jgorm1 wrote:
If I had a v10, I'd keep it stock and I can even tune it for free. I've tuned 100s of fords and I still tell customers that it's probably not worth tuning on a mostly stock vehicle. I would also not want a tune with more timing than stock when pulling heavy weight at WOT for minutes on end. Cars can get away with a bit more advance because they never at wot for minutes on end.

I have been doing some reading online (mostly sport truck sites) and noticed "tune" being mentioned quite a bit and read how the "tune" has increased HP and MPG but mostly HP.

I have a 2004 E-450 V10 and have this itch on getting the V10 "tuned".
What all is involved with a "tune" and how would it benefit my E-450? Along with a "tune", what else would improve or compliment a "tune"?

Or should I just forget about scratching that "itch"?

Anyone know the particle size rating on these different filters? At what point does it become insignificant?

Don't really understand the anecdotal preferences versus damages.

Why not just take the air filter element out of the stock filter? That would have about the same effect, air flow and filtration, at less up front cost.

crawford wrote:
E bay sells map sensors for V10 fords 59.99.

Dont waste money on this junk! the V10 runs mostly off the maf, not even sure if it has a map, and if it does, its used more for VE speed density stuff or barometric pressure.

E bay sells map sensors for V10 fords 59.99. But they do sell in part places splay cleaners for around 6 bucks and they do work. My K&M filter been in my V10 45,000. some who have them wash them and spray way to much oil back on them or don't them them dry really good. Now this may be the problem for sure.

If I had a v10, I'd keep it stock and I can even tune it for free. I've tuned 100s of fords and I still tell customers that it's probably not worth tuning on a mostly stock vehicle. I would also not want a tune with more timing than stock when pulling heavy weight at WOT for minutes on end. Cars can get away with a bit more advance because they never at wot for minutes on end.

Thank You for all the good advice. I think we are going to stick with the stock filter and no cold air intake. Save our money & put it in the tank & go motorcycle racing :)