Mike,
as you probably know the performance market is pretty much non existant for the 4.2L v-6 right now. However, a few 3.8L mustang shops offer our heads,upper and lower intakes ported and polished and cams for our motors. They are claiming these mods will raise the hp to 240-250 on the 4.2.Do ya think thats a good estimate?

Also can the new cam be ground to give more low end power?

Would a custom burn be required for these mods?

Sorry about all the questions, I just want to make sure about these things before I go out and spend a healthy chunk of dough on them($1475 for a kit-includes everything I mentioned except a chip)I also release it would be cheaper to have my own parts ported and polished but, its an every day driver-got to keep the down time to a minimum.thanks in advance

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2000 f150 4x4 sport,black, 3.55 5spd ,4.2 liters of fury ----mods----
stereo,pioneer cd,cadance ultradrive amps,alpine 12 sub,eclipse mids&tweetsAppearance: profile bug guard,smoked headlight covers,Gts tailblazerII taillight covers painted to match truck,blue cargo lights,chrome exhaust tipFunctional:265/75 pirelli scorpion at,cranked torsion bars,black Delta tool box,valley towing class III reciever hitch,herculiner bed liner,taz floor mats Performance: Jet reusable air filter,modified airbox(crash1style)Coming Soon supercharger, jba headers,throttle body spacer,ravin cat back,superchips
lightningcrashz@hotmail.com

 

Hi LC,

One thing to remember is that these mods will produce more higher-rpm horsepower, but what happens to your lower-rpm torque may be a different story, so make sure to discuss that with your vendor. Also talk to your vendor about fuel injector sizing, as you're going to be maxed out here with the 19 lb. units that come standard on these motors in the F-150.

Those are the "traditional" type of mods to make the upper end of the motor flow better, so it sounds just fine to me on the surface, for making more horsepower.

Your F-150 truck needs a different camshaft profile compared to a lighter Mustang with the smaller 3.8 engine. You are zeroing in on the cause of the 4.2 V-6 motor being low in power below 2500 rpm, it is the camshaft profile that primarily governs this. You would have to talk directly to the cam grinder to see if that characteristic will change in this particular application. This can also be affected by simply degreeing in the cam a bit differently, just advance it in the block with an offset keyway bushing, that can make quite a bit of difference in some vehicles, I don't think anyone has ever really tried that and done the proper dyno testing to see what happens as a result on the 4.2 F-150 V-6.

These mods do require a custom program to get the most out of them, and we can easily handle that part of things for you. You don't have to have a custom program for the truck to run with those mods, assuming there isn't anything funky going on cam-wise, don't get me wrong; but to make them really work and get the most power out of them, yes, you'll definitely want a custom program, it's well worthwhile.

I can tell you that $1475 is *nothing* for a set of ported heads, intake, & new camshaft & lifters. I wouldn't worry about the price, that part sounds fine, I would be concerned with how their camshaft profile is going to work with your heavy truck and more engine displacement compared to the 3.8 Mustang it is actually designed for, that is my main concern here.

One other thing to consider is this: your 4.2 V-6 uses 19 lb. injectors stock, and they will support only about 240 hp before they start maxing out their capacity @ 100% of duty cycle (228 hp @ 80% duty cycle to be precise), so a set of 24 lb. injectors would be in order here, and they would need to be programmed for as well, but that's part of doing the custom program and can easily be handled. My point being, put another $200 or so in your budget for the larger injectors, that is only prudent with the power levels you'll be at. It's true you could drive it around just fine with the stock injectors most likely, you'll just be topped out at full-throttle as your rpms come up much above 4000 rpm or so roughly, so I would replace them with 24's, which will support up to 288 hp. in that 4.2 V-6 motor.

I understand you not being able to tear your truck down to modify your existing cylinder heads, that's fine since you're willing to pay the price, just make sure your installer will back you up should there be a problem, and most shops will, of course.

Overall, it sounds like an exciting project, and one that could very well pay off handsomely with improved performance & power, this sound be a lot of fun!

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Mike Troyer
Performance Products, Inc.
National Distributor of Superchips
(540) 862-9515
Email: mtroyer@compuserve.com
Performance Products F150Online Superchip ordering system: F150Online Superchip Ordering System
First National F-150 Online Rally Event Organizer

 

Thanks mike, This project will start as soon as tax return time gets here.(can't get here soon enough).One more question.woould 30lb injectors be ok as there will be a blower on this truck by the end of summer.(hopefully)

 

Hi LC,

No, 30# injectors are far too much, that's the size needed for 360 horsepower on a 6 cylinder motor! And when you use a giant injector like that and don't need anywhere near the fuel it delivers, then it can be problematic throttling their pulse width back down enough at every throttle position so you're not running way too rich (it can be done but it can take a few tries when we don't have direct access to the vehicle for A/F data), so the best thing to do by far is to use the "proper" size of fuel injector for the power level & number of cylinders in the motor.

With what you propose to do (this is without the blower), you need to be using 24# injectors. When you add the blower later on, you can either use an FMU along with the then-existing 24# injectors, or re-size the injectors at that point for the power level you'l be at with the blower. I prefer using the correct injector size "method", but using a standard blower FMU can work well too, so you can save the 24# units at that time, it's up to you. For now, go with 24# units, and if you;d like to go over any of this in detail, just give us a shout!

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Mike Troyer
Performance Products, Inc.
National Distributor of Superchips
(540) 862-9515
Email: mtroyer@compuserve.com
Performance Products F150Online Superchip ordering system: F150Online Superchip Ordering System
First National F-150 Online Rally Event Organizer

 

24# injectors it is then.I am fairly new to the performance world( well this is the vehicle that i have owned that I actually wanted to give more power to.Previous cars 89 chevy beretta gt,87 chrysler lebaron turbo coupe, and my first car 1987 ford escort exp.Boy that lebaron was fun)
This truck is gonna be a sleeper the only cue to whats been done to the motor is some V-6 H.O. fender badges(came out of the ford parts bin-from a mustang parts supplier) that are going on after the work is done to the motor.

I have also seen the dyno from the 3.8 with these mods.Torque is increased down low.
Would it be ok to not do the cam?Or is it a worthwhile thing because the motor is already gonna be taken apart. Also do you expect the gains from the chip to be the same as for "stock" 4.2?Thanks again

[This message has been edited by lightningcrashz (edited 11-24-2000).]

 

Hi LC,

I think you should go ahead and use the camshaft that is part of that kit as well, it was designed to work together as a system of parts, and if you don't use one of the parts (and the camshaft profile is critical), then you can't expect the results you would have been able to get, so my advice is, if they say the cam is part of that package and should be used, then take their advice, please, and use it too.

Glad to hear you've checked out the torque curves down low, you're doing your homework, excellent! Sounds like a good project then!

Now as far as what gains you are going to see from the Superchip on top of all that, most likely it will be a bit more than "normal" 4.2 V-6's with "standard" Superchips for their computer code. When custom programming for these mods, that is the normal result, to see more of a gain than you would on a "stock" engine. The normal numbers for a Superchip on a "standard" 4.2 V-5 F-150 are about 10%-12% more peak hp, and 15%-17% more peak torque. In your case, you'll probably be a bit above that, but the most important part is that all your mods will be properly compensated for, and your engine will be in an optimal state of tune for them, which helps you to get more gain from those mechanical mods. All in all, it will add up to a very worthwhile and enjoyable end result.

------------------
Mike Troyer
Performance Products, Inc.
National Distributor of Superchips
(540) 862-9515
Email: mtroyer@compuserve.com
Performance Products F150Online Superchip ordering system: F150Online Superchip Ordering System
First National F-150 Online Rally Event Organizer

[This message has been edited by Superchips_Distributor (edited 11-25-2000).]

 

Mike,
I have done some more talking with the vendors that will do the work on 4.2 parts.One of suggests extrude honing for the upper and lower intake and heads.Do you think the aditional gains would be worth the cost over the standard port and polish. Here you can check them out: www.supersixmotorsports.com/prod03.htm
www.rpm-mustangs.com/main.html

rpm-mustangs is the one that suggests the extrude honing. What do ya think?



[This message has been edited by lightningcrashz (edited 11-29-2000).]

 

Hi LC,

Extrude-honing can do nice things, it's a process whereby a high-pressure abrasive is forced thru the parts, and it's a process that tends to take the most material out of the area of highest restriction or obstruction. It's an old trick from Smokey Yunick, who did this to circumvent the rules in NASCAR racing at the time (back in the late 40's-early 50's), which prevented standard porting, but they didn't say anything about not using a high-pressure abrasive slurry mixture to do the porting.

Sometimes you have to run repeat the procedure 2 or more times on certain parts, it just all depends on the finish of the original part, etc.

Extrude-honing of the intake parts is fine, but I would not substitute Extrude-honing for standard porting & polishing of the cylinder heads themselves, without knowing all the exact details. Cylinder heads should have the standard 3 or 4-angle valve job, bronze-wall valve guides, then the port & polish, lap in the valves, etc., just like normal.

You use Extrude-honing when you *can't* do normal porting, in other words, as a rough general rule. Extrude-honing can be used on things like exhaust manifolds if you don't want to use or can't get headers, for example, that's a grewat idea. And I like it for the intake parts, Ford themselves uses Extrude-honing on the Ford Contour SVT intake parts.

I apologize, but I don't have the time to go check out the info at those 2 links, so I don't know what they're saying there, but I've just responded with my opinion here. In general, I love the Extrude-hoing process, it certainly has it's place, and can do great things. For the cylinder heads though, if you're going to do anything to them in my opinion, should be done "as usual", but agian, it depedns on *exactly* what they're doing.

For example, if they're just talking about using the Extrude-honing process to open up just the runners themselves, that portion of the cylinder heads, and then they're going to do the normal port & polish job to the combustion chambers as it's normally done, unshrouding the valves and shaping the combustion chamber in the traditional manner, along with the multi-angle valve job, etc., then that would be fine, and might give nice results. That may be what they're saying, again, I don't know, so that will bear further investigation. They may have done this and be getting good results, and if so, that's fine. I would want to know exactly what is being Extrude-honed, and then how they're going to do the rest of the normal "post & polish" job to the cylinder heads.

------------------
Mike Troyer
Performance Products, Inc.
National Distributor of Superchips
(540) 862-9515
Email: mtroyer@compuserve.com
Performance Products F150Online Superchip ordering system: F150Online Superchip Ordering System
First National F-150 Online Rally Event Organizer