I have a stock 08 5.4 with the exception of a K&N cold air intake installed.

I've been reading and reading and reading.....

I need help, need your opinion.

What programmer and what tune/custom tune do I need?

An estimate on price would help if you can give me one.

 

$390 for 15 hp?

That's twice what I paid for my intake system.

 

Yup, $390 is about what it would cost to buy a programmer and get a custom tune. And some guys will tell you that K&N's aren't good because they use oiled filters that can gunk up your MAF and a whole bunch of other stuff. An intake really won't do much to a truck without a tuner, and even then you'd be lucky to get 8 or 10 hp. I would wait on the tuner until you get an exhaust or bigger tires or something else that will need a tuner's assistance. It's not worth the cost just for the tuner. And people have been running aftermarket intakes on their late-model, computer-using, vehicles for a long time without tuners and most haven't had any issues. Yes, it is better to have the program to keep your truck from running lean, but it isn't going to make your engine blow up. So I say forego the program until you do additional things, if you even plan on doing them down the road

 

I disagree. The tuner adds about 25 to 30 hp to the 5.4 and was the mod I could not do without. It will wake your engine up whereas the intake is hardly noticeable. The improved shifting alone was worth the price for me.

 

For either style of K&N set up you do not need a tune. The computer can compensate for the new filter.

 

I have over a grand spent in plug replacement and diagnostics that would disagree with you. I added a K&N cai to my 05 with the 5.4 and within two months fried three plugs on a truck with less than 20k miles. Hardheaded as I am I left it installed and paid for it with two more trips to the shop for the same issues and spent more money.

I finally wised up and listened to Bluejay and got rid of the K&N and everything is right with the world again. For the money I spent at the shop I could have bought a nice tune.

 

with any Cai that relocates the maf out of the stock transfer location a custom tune should be utilized....

look into sct or diablo for programmers

as far as which tuner? search the chips and tuners forum....lots of good ones to pick from...

 

KMAC - the tuner is worth every penny IMO. Have you had your 5.4 tuned?

 

Not yet, I will be in a few months. I too think they are absolutely worth the money, but not JUST for an intake. I'm gonna be running intake and long tubes with my current catback, so that and the ability to compensate for bigger tires, and check OBD codes makes a tuner worth even more than they cost! But for the OP, I don't see one being worth his money if he's only interested in it for the intake and a tune for it.

I agree that a tuner will be necessary for his engine to be "safe" with the intake and for him to notice anything. But I also think the tunes that we get sent are not as good as ones that are done with the truck on a dyno and absolutely specific to that particular vehicle.

 

My 2005 5.4 was stock except for a SIDO exhaust, which does nothing for performance and I absolutely hated driving my truck the few times I had to return to stock. My email tune from PHP made the truck fun to drive. Woke it up. Well worth every penny.

 

I see your angle Kmac, but don't kid yourself, the tunes make a night and day difference regardless of any "extra" mods. So if you want a tuner get one for your stock truck and as you pile on the mods have the tunes adjusted.

 

I was actually thinking about getting one a little sooner so getting the long tubes and the SCT at the same time isn't as much of a shock to my bank account haha. Wonder what the OP is thinking or what route he's gonna take . . .

 

KMAC check out my profile and go back over my opinions/reviews of the tuning I've dabbled with the last year and a half. I wrote a lengthy VMP vs 5star comparison under a year ago. Recently I added the MPT 91 tow tune and it's nice too. You won't go wrong with any of the big names and the customer service from 5star and MPT is great. MPT offers a nice discount to forum members which makes their package quite a bit cheaper than anyone else. I am currently running a revised VMP tune which I like a lot but still feel the 5star has better torque converter lockup which adds a lot to the "feel".

Like I said in another thread, if I could get MPT's 1-2 shift and VMP's power above 4k all stuffed into the rest of 5stars package it would be perfect.

 

I was planning on running 5star purely because of the rep, service, and turn around time. I have seen a lot more people running MPT though recently. I'll definitely check your stuff out. I remember that you're the guy that's basically tried em all haha

 

I am on my 2nd vehicle where I only added a cai. Both fords. Both fine after thousands of miles, and dough nuts in the snow.

Sorry to hear about your issue.

A guy I work with bought an '11 Camaro v6 and did a cai - He couldn't keep his check engine light off. It was hilarious to me how **** those chevy's are. His chevy mechanic said change the tune and it will fix the check engine light, but it WILL void his chevy warranty. Nice right?

He had to take it back off and sell it.