I have a 2003 f250 super duty with the 5.4 triton. I have been doing a lot of reading and research over the last year on 5.4 builds and learned that the 5.4 can handle a 10:1 compression ratio and boost. I decided I wanted a manley rotating assembly and trick flow track heat heads with custom cams and a procharger d1-sc. This would allow me to keep my off boost performance while adding the go power when I wanted it. However when I called Houston performance about the build I was informed not to add any boost or compression due to the added 2500 lbs over the lightning. I was told that any added compression or any boost and I will have excellent dyno numbers but once I hit the highway I will have issues and will just have to keep pulling timing until it is right. I can not seem to find anyone that has done a super duty to find out what they did or their issues so I am trying here. Anyone here with experience or advice? Am I stuck with upper 200's at the rear tires.
Super duty 5.4 build
- Thread starter lhill1995
- Start date
I know this isn't normally y'all's thing but does nobody have any similar experience?
What are your goals? Are you just trying to add some pep or do you want to make it fast? If you're just looking for some passing power I don't see why it wouldn't work. But if you're looking to make it fast I think you're better off going with a diesel.
My goals are to make it more fun to drive while retaining reliability for a daily driver/work truck. The truck is great off road but I'm adding a 4" lift 35x12.5 tires and going to 4.88 gears. I currently run 33" and 3.73 gears. I plan on je 5.4 spec pistons for proper quench, good rods, trick flow heads, hps 5.4 intake, and mhs stage 1 blower cams or custom grinds with a little less duration also water meth injection. Let it rev to 6000 rpm. My thoughts were to let my gears and ability to rev help close the gap between me and the diesels. Right now my truck can keep up with stock diesels. They leave me at first but i can catch them after I'm wound up so the gears should help. I honestly want as much power as I can get to have the baddest off road and highway truck at work. Does this sound good? Should I go with a little more cam and Paschal's 5.4 to 5.8 stroker kit for more displacement? I plan on getting Paschal Performance to build the engine since they are 2 hours away from me.
MMR1000
trick flow heads + custom cams
whipple 3.4L supercharger kit
Aeromotive fuel system
ID1000's
kooks long tube headers
kooks mid pipe
3" exhaust
BTS 4r100 rebuild
triple disc 11" converter(2000-2200 stall)
Dont know why you need it but good luck, staying with the gas motor and shooting for the moon is extremely expensive. You're looking at 15k+ in just parts.
trick flow heads + custom cams
whipple 3.4L supercharger kit
Aeromotive fuel system
ID1000's
kooks long tube headers
kooks mid pipe
3" exhaust
BTS 4r100 rebuild
triple disc 11" converter(2000-2200 stall)
Dont know why you need it but good luck, staying with the gas motor and shooting for the moon is extremely expensive. You're looking at 15k+ in just parts.
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You'd be better off buying a diesel. The 5.4L in a Super Duty won't get off it's own face.
I'd drive it how it is. A stock diesel will be a huge improvement over the 5.4L, you may decide not even to mod it.
I'd drive it how it is. A stock diesel will be a huge improvement over the 5.4L, you may decide not even to mod it.
My truck out performs the diesels off road. I am a pipeline construction inspector so off road performance is important. My wife has the 6.7 powerstroke in her truck and I enjoy driving my 5.4 more. Gassers are more fun to drive to me. I do not want a positive displacement setup because i would like to keep my intake runner tuning. I plan to improve my engines performance then add on the centri blower. My main question is how much does the added load from my truck's 6500lb weight affect the amount of boost i can run for a particular amount of compression. I know a tuner can only do so much. Stock cranking compression is around 150psi so I was thinking of cam and compression specs for 170psi cranking compression on the new engine.
I would not be willing to spend 15-20k on a motor setup just to keep up with a chipped diesel. I would not use a centrifugal blower in this app either. With cams and a centri, bottom end will not really be there. A twinscrew setup would prob serve you better. Either way, its your money you will be wasting. I would just get a diesel. It will be cheaper and waaayyy more reliable in the long run if this is to be a daily driver.
Why would i buy something I dont like, and most likely pay out the rear for a used diesel with high mileage that my stock 2v 5.4 can outrun offroad and on? From what I have seen the high mileage diesels with performance mods are not reliable in my line of work and I do not like the new trucks. I am about to spend $15k-$20k on my truck because I love my truck. I just want more top end. Below 1800rpms performance is not a big deal because my truck does not spend much time there on the road and offroad I am not racing. I thought the centri would be good because if I had a problem with the blower I could remove it's belt then run it na much easier than a positive displacement. How will the centri hurt my bottom end? I am not familiar with them.
The centri generally doesn't have the torque down low that a PD blower has. That's because the centri doesn't make max boost until redline. That can be useful when trying to hook up. But you're looking at something that doesn't come into it's power band until 3500-4000rpm. With mine it starts pulling around 3000 and then really kicks in around 4k. So I keep it above 4k when I'm messing around. Having the extra cubes does help. That's why I went with the big bore stroker. My torque graph looks more like a twin screw. But I'm also running the blower at a decent rpm. You can also look into turbos. The right sized turbo will spool quicker then a centri and give decent top end.
The centri sounds like what I'm after then. I don't care to raise my performance below 3000rpms. I am happy with it. I looked into turbos but I will not have enough down time between jobs to build the turbo setup so maybe next time. I looked into the big bore setup but was warned that it would not have longevity by mmr. I think the stroker will be fine for me I believe they kept a good rod/stroke ratio and under 6k rpms piston speeds will not be bad. How many miles on your big bore?
I have about 20k on my set up. I daily drove it for a long time. And it was a lot of fun. But the kids got bigger so it made more sense to start driving the SUV. Especially after the wife got her car. Personally I'd keep the stock stroke of the 5.4. Keep the compression between 9.0 and 9.5. You don't want to go too low with a centri.
I was considering an air to water intercooler for better cooling. Do you have any experience with electric water pumps?
No personal experience. I prefer air to air.
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Ok thanks. Well with proper quench do you have any idea what I could get away with boost wise with 9.5 compression, cam with 216* intake duration 106*icl. Air to air intercooled and water meth?
Also is the p1sc a good choice or would the d1sc be a better fit?
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The only reason I said a Centri won't work as good is the weight of your truck. A twin screw will get all that weight moving much quicker. I have a Centri setup. I believe in them for top end power. But for a truck that weighs over 7k, no way in hell would I use a centri. It just doesn't make power in the right spots.
This depends on your octane and Temps driving. With 91 that we get in cali, 9 to 1 compression and 15 pounds of boost is pushing the limit. I assume pump gas as its your daily.
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You also need to look at lobe separation angle. You want a wider angle for a blower set up.
For the cubes I'd go with the D1. I ran one on a 4.6 and my current 5.3. It worked really well.
I'm at 9.5:1 and 19psi on 91 octane. No signs of detonation. Although I made sure to have plenty of fuel and kept the timing relatively low.
Yea it will be 91. We have 93 but I travel all over the U.S. so that sounds like a good setup then with some room for the tuner to keep it safe. Thank y'all for the help. I have been reading for a long time, but due to my application a few questions were not answered. I figured y'all svt guys could help. Also my truck only weighs 6500 which is only 400lbs more than the raptor I found a shipping weight for.
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