Does anyone know of a good Ford forum to look through? I've got a 96 F250 460 and I'm looking to get a little more out of it? Any info would be great! Thanks
Whip800

Whip I have a lot of experience with Fords. What are you looking to do? F-150.com and Ford-trucks.com are two pretty good forums. If I'm not mistaken the 460s were speed density EFI units and don't respond too well to basic hot rodding techniques without computer calibration changes. But SuperChips Custom programming can get you fixed up with just about any mod you're considering. Exhaust and air intake mods shouldn't be a problem. A chip couldn't hurt performance either but almost always require premium fuel.

Cajun,
Thanks for the links. I've put a K&N intake on and I've left the exhaust alone for now. I'm starting to look into the chips but from what I've been told and also from what I've read they really don't do gasser much in the form of real performance. I've got a 5th wheel I'm towing around and I'm just wanting some general info to get a little more out of it. I know I'm going to get a diesel one of these days, it's just not going to be any time soon.
Whip

Take a good look at the baffling in the stock air intake tract. Seems I recall some of the internal baffling to keep noise down from the throttle body is somewhat restrictive on the 460.

While a chip can help a little, there are so many changes that could be made to the transmission settings that really help it perform better. A real problem with these early models was the settings for the converter lockup in 3rd and 4th. I was able to alter the stock settings in my 92 Bronco with some custom programming and it made the truck much more responsive and fun to drive.

Cajun

What will a chip do for the wife's 2008 F-350 Diesel Dually....

quote:

Originally posted by Voodoo:
Cajun

What will a chip do for the wife's 2008 F-350 Diesel Dually....

Void your warranty. Any other questions? Matter of fact I'm not 100% sure there is a chip for the 6.4's yet. But chipping one is going to cause your troubles with warranty. Don't risk it.

Snort's right to some extent. Ford will deny warranty, but depending on the circumstances you would have to take them to court in order to prevail, assuming you can prove it was not the chip that may have destroyed your engine. Not all chip manufacturers are reputable either. Some just add fuel to develop power and run very high exhaust temperatures. Bank Engineering and Superchips are both reputable. I hear a lot of good things about Bully Dog, but when you make as much power as they imply, I have to wonder about reliability.

Some guy on one of the Ford forums I used to frequent blew the eninge in his Ford Lightning. Ford accused him of using a chip which he neither confirmed or denied. He wanted to be present when a Ford tech dismantled the engine in the presence of some other Ford rep. When they took the oil pan off there were three main cap bolts sitting in the bottom of the pan. Not even Ford could blame that on a chip and replaced the engine. Had he not been presistent and present when the engine was taken apart, I doubt they would have honored the warranty. Personally, I think he did have a chip.

Most programmers today reflash the PCM. I'm sure they have some telltale feature to figure out if the original program parameters had ever been changed, because the flashing tool has the ability to restore the stock program. Bottom line, if something did happen to your engine, you're pretty much on your own. But you know how I am. I'd probably wait until I knew there were no factory defects and do what I wanted anyway.

quote:

Take a good look at the baffling in the stock air intake tract.

Do you mean in the airbox? This is what I put in. http://www.knfilters.com/search/product.aspx?Prod=63-1014
And tranny settings are what I'm more interested in, not that going faster isn't fun. That Ford-trucks, man there is a ton of info on there, thanks again. I'm going to have to learn a whole new language. Speaking of which, what do you mean by

quote:

A real problem with these early models was the settings for the converter lockup in 3rd and 4th.

I'm pretty sure you're talking about the torq converter but I just want to be sure! What programming did you use on your Bronco? I did see pics of the motor you put in that, man it really looked good. I did a search the other day and found the link.

Good Enuf for me....No chip then..

Yeah, I am talking about the converter lockup. In 3rd and 4th, it locked up under light load at low rpm. Once locked, it would not unlock until you really pushed the pedal pretty far. There were two problems with the factory programming, one is that it wasn't alllowed to downshift without a lot of pedal effort and the torque converter lockup was occurring at an rpm much lower than my engine wanted to operate and moreso dictated by vehicle speed than rpm. It was annoying with the stock engine and flat frustrating with the modded engine.

I used a product called the EEC-Tuner and had one of the guru's in the hacking game, crack my PCM code. He told me it was very similar to the programming in the Lightning. In any case, he built a file that gave me full access to all of my shift parameters. For engine management I used a Mustang PCM, so I had two PCMs controlling the truck, both equipped with EEC-tuners. The performance from that truck after I got control of the transmission functions made it an entirely differet vehicle.

Now that was some time back and they are light years ahead in cracking code. In fact, I bought the software from SuperChip custom tuning that gives me access to all my Expedition code and a flashing tool to reflash my PCM. I would look for a Superchip Custom dealer and inquire as to what they can do for you in terms of a chip. You may want to also check out Level 10 if you're more interested in trans programming. I was very happy with their modulator valve (shift kit of sorts). These guys only fool with transmissions.

I see what you're using in lieu of the air box. One thing about those open element filters is that it can injest underhood air which can be much hotter than ambient temps pulled from outside the engine compartment. The air temp sensor will reduce timing if air coming into the intake exceeds a certain programmed temperature. While it probably flows really well, you might be better off with something that is sealed and pulls cooler air into the intake.

I may be (OK, am definitely) old fashioned but it seems that the first step would involve making sure that an 11 year old engine was up to spec in the rings and valves before trying to boost power with add-ons. A "fresh" '96 engine might not need much improvement!

Bruce

I'm assuming that to be the case. The 460 was a very mild motor in truck form rated at 240 hp if my memory is right. There is a lot of potential there.

The motor only has 65k miles on it and it's strong. And I'm not trying to hot rod it, I was just looking for info on better towing. I haven't had any complaints with it's performance thus far, but with the price of gas, and I've been running 89 oct in it, I know I there are things I could be doing to help it out. Just needed a place to start looking and Cajun gave me a good one.

WHIP800: here's a execellent ford site . go into forums on your year of truck.these guys are good and informative.hope this helps....joe /www.ford-trucks.com/

Whip..

This is one of the ones I hang around on....There's alot of good guys with all kinds of info for ya.....

http://fordtruckworld.tenmagazines.com/ew/forum.asp?id=459&n=super_duty

John