Ford V-10 power upgrades?

[mxbundy]

Hi guys,

Need a little advice. you see I have a 99 Ford with the V-10 and I want to juice it up. I want to get a 5th wheel toybox and want a little more tourqe for the Cal. hill climbs.Any body have any sugestions?
I see that there is a lot of websites devoted to diesels, anybodyknow of one devoted to the gas burners?

thanks
mxbundy

 

[KevinB4stk]

I don't know of any siter but my dad has a Banks kit on his 00 V10 (headers, exhaust, intake system, no computor chip) his truck has 3:73 gears, it's a 4X4 crew cab, not a dualy. The kit gives considerable power increase, I mean like you can realy tell it's on there. He pulls a 28' 5th wheel camper with it sometimes and it does great.

 

[SLEEZ]

fordtrucks.com and ford-diesel.com have dedicated forums for gassers.

 

[slickpuss]

On my V-10 I put a chip on, exhaust, and a k&n set-up and it has helped a bit. I pull a 22 foot trailer with bikes in the trailer and in my truck and it does well. Ive pulled a 26 foot sailboat through the grapevine and back and never had to drop below 65mph. I am going to put different gearing in to compensate for my lift and tires. But aside from what I have done and the other small things such as a mass air flow setup all that I have seen is the supercharger kits, but they run around 3500 bucks. Also I dont know what your getting for mpg but Im usually at about 8mpg towing. The supercharger is actually supposed to improve that. Ive only seen sites really dedicated to the diesel or the F-150, its a shame.

 

[Highbeam]

It's a shame that ford can't make that engine do better. That huge gasser should be able to move mountains. How large is the v10? 8 mpg and people are worried about towing 22 foot trailers? It is unfortunate the engine is not more efficient.

This just reinforces my opinion that any large truck I own will be a diesel.

 

[slickpuss]

Ive used my friends truck to tow the same set up, and it didnt do much better. It pulls better on hills but accellerates slower and is harder to stop. But it does get better gas mileage. Its a pain to find a station with diesel out here also. His truck is identical to mine but a different color and diesel. His motor will last longer, but I dont plan on keeping my truck for 20 years. Its a give and take. I choose the v-10 because I dont like the diesel cons, such as cost, weight, noise, smell, and fuel availability. But the gasoline mpg is a major con. When not towing I get about 14mpg. I wish I could get the best of both worlds. But I still love my truck!!!

 

[slickpuss]

By the way the v-10 is a 6.8. I have pulled a lot bigger trailers and boats but thats what I do every other weekend. Also Im doing 80 mph on these trips and my diesel buddies will meet me there hours later at the rate of 55 mph.

 

[SLEEZ]

Originally posted by Highbeam
It's a shame that ford can't make that engine do better. That huge gasser should be able to move mountains. How large is the v10? 8 mpg and people are worried about towing 22 foot trailers? It is unfortunate the engine is not more efficient.

This just reinforces my opinion that any large truck I own will be a diesel.

Worried about pulling a 22ft trailer, don't make me laugh. I pull a 25ft trailer with ease. My truck came stock with 4:30 gearing, I'll pull as much as any diesel and with the same ease. The powerstroke will have the advantage up long, steep grades. I now have my truck lifted with 35's, so the gear ratio is at about 3:90 and still don't have any probs. pulling my trailer.

The upfront cost of a diesel doesn't justify me getting it for gas efficiency, if you can afford the truck, you don't need to worry about fuel prices.

 

[Patman]

I had a 1999 v10 that I special ordered. It was a good truck but had too many hydraulic clutch issues and Ford finally decided to give me $5K in Monopoly money if I stayed with them plus full retail on the trade and a significant cut on the new rig. My V10 would get 10-11 mpg like clockwork empty and 8-9 mpg with a load on the back. I swapped the air filter to an Amsoil oiled foam unit and changed all fluids out to Amsoil synthetics and bumped it up to 12-12.5 & 9.5-10.5 mpg. I considered adding ceramic coated headers and freeing up the exhaust plus a chip but it went away before that happened. My Powerstroke gets way better mileage under all conditions and contrary to opinion pulls a load MUCH better than the V10 did. It all comes down to what works for your situation, me I have 38K in about 15 months so a diesel is going to pay for itself really quick. If I hadn't had the hydraulis issues I'm sure I would still have the V10 though.

 

[SPD]

What Patman says. What ever works for you. I have a dodge w/v-10. About 12 just riding around (as long as I keep my foot out of it) and 9-10 pulling a 24ft camper. I listen to a diesel for 9 hrs a day at work and I have learned to hate the sound. That was the biggest reason and I don't drive mine every day.

 

[Brandon Moss]

Ford V-10

I will second any comments about the noise of the diesel. I test drove one 2 miles after also testing the V-10. Turned around and hopped out as fast as I could. It's bad enough with two kids, the radio, traffic, etc. to have to listen to that racket. Unless you put 100K on them in a hurry, I see no way to justify paying more for all the aggravation. I bought the V-10, and we pull a 4 horse gooseneck with it. Loaded easily 10k pounds. Best towing vehicle I ever had. Gas mileage is 10-12mpg w/o trailer and 6-10 depending on how many horses, gear etc. Better brakes would help a little, but the biggest pain with the Fords is the turning radius. It is like driving a boat. You get real good at 3 pt turns, backing in, parking away from stores, etc.

 

[Highbeam]

I agree the diesel's biggest problem was smoke and noise. Smoke has been nearly eliminated and the noise is nearly gone on the duramax but the other diesels are still annoyingly loud. If you ever had to drive through the mcDonalds you would have to shut it off. Too bad the others(dodge and ford) don't follow suit and quiet their engines, the diesel is the superior engine otherwise.

 

[Jaybird]

2003 Ford Power Stroke 600
Claimed quieter than a gasser.