F150 Super Crew owners, any out there?

[MTCFORUM]

Hello,

I'm new to this site, brand new actually. I was invited to join by Johnny Langton and Brian the Webmaster, I'm thrilled to be a part of this forum and hope I can learn a ton and also possibly contribute as well. I want to create a gallery of photos and I also want to post my signature with all my truck specs. but I can't seem to figure out how to do either or if it's even allowed. If there are members that can help, I'm all ears right now.

Until I get my info out, here's a copy of my sig from F150Online.com

Stock Stuff: *Born 20 April 2001, Bit the hook on 21 Sept 2001, *King Ranch Super Crew 4x4, *5.4L Triton V8, *4R70W Automatic Trans, *3.55 LS Axles, *Chestnut/Arizona Beige, *KR Premium Castano Dark Brown Leather Interior, *Captain's Chairs Front and Back, *P265/70R17 Goodyear Wrangler RT/S Tires, *Towing Package, *Premium Sound System, *Six Disc In Console CD Changer, *Bed Extender, *Power Moon Roof

Added stuff: *LT265/70R17 Goodyear Wrangler AT/S Tires, *Cranked Front Torsion Bars to get near level, *Electronic Trailer Brake Unit, *Bedrug Bedliner, *WeatherTech Vent Visors All Four Doors, *Better Built Deep Aluminum Tool Box (Modified to fit), *Kenwood Excelon Flip Face CD Stereo, *Kenwood 10 disc Changer in Front Console, *Pioneer Speakers 6x8 3 ways in front and 5x7 2 ways in the rear, *US Flag plate on front and US Flag frame around rear license plate, *Front windows tinted to 30%

~DM~
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[MTCFORUM]

edit: try to update your signature again, you should be able to do it now.

Brian

[MTCFORUM]

Got it, thanks. I had to severely reduce the fluff, not much room with 400 characters including spaces, but I think it explains it good enough. I must assume there is no photo gallery, oh well, I'll get over it. Just wanted to have a picture of my truck so others could see it if they so desired.

~DM~
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[MTCFORUM]

Seabass has an 02 5.4 supercab. Dale, Rick and myself have Lightnings. I don't think anyone else here is really into the trucks though.

[MTCFORUM]

I think there are a couple others with trucks around here. As far as the photo gallery, we haven't really set anything like that up yet. Some day it might happen <IMG NAME="icon" SRC="http://images.zeroforum.com/smile/emsmile.gif" BORDER="0">


Brian

[MTCFORUM]

I see Talleywacker here too...He's got a 4.2L truck,and I'll have one around Janurary if all goes as planned.
JL

[MTCFORUM]

I have a 01 supercab 4x4 with the 5.4. Best time at the track (IRP and Muncie Dragway) so far is 16.6?. All I have done to it is add a hard fiberglass bed cover, Line-x spray in bedliner, install factory skid plates and Westin nerf bars and switched to electric fans. So mostly I just added weight. I didn't buy it to race, but I have 2 down birds in the driveway and can't resist. Out of the 6 times I ran brackets with it I came home with one first place and 2 second place trophies. Not too bad and it pisses everyone off to get beat by a near stock 4X4. I can only say that it is the most consist thing I have ever driven at the track. Let me know the temp and humidity and I will tell you what to dial her in at.
Over the winter I am planning to replace the knocking 4.6 in my 94 bird with PI power and replace the head gaskets on my 90 that has the 3.8. Not necessarily in that order. I also have a 92 25th anniversary Cougar with the 5.0 and a bottom end noise that I cannot figure out. I bought it that way and haven't gotten around to it yet. It is a weird knock. Ideas anyone?
Too many projects...
I am very satisfied with my truck. Best I have ever had IMO. Except the fuel mileage. The fans and Mobil 1 helped out there a bit.

JL, I have been watching the hard time they are giving you over at f150online. Don't worry, we know better here. <IMG NAME="icon" SRC="http://images.zeroforum.com/smile/emsmile.gif" BORDER="0"> <IMG NAME="icon" SRC="http://images.zeroforum.com/smile/emcocktl.gif" BORDER="0">

Take care
Darrin

[MTCFORUM]

Darrin,

How much performance gain did the electric fans provide? How much did the units cost you and where did you purchase them? I'm considering the same mod as JL recommended that to me a couple of days ago. I've read about others doing it and never really gave it much consideration, but Johnny's recommendations just always seem to make more sense to me for some reason...

~DM~
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[Modified by DaveMan, 9:25 PM 11/6/2002]

[MTCFORUM]

For the money, I would go with 2 16" Derale fans. Or buy the custom one piece with 2 fans in it kit from Flex-a-lite, but oh man the $$$$. All $390 of them. I made a custom setup and used crap for fans. Autozone had 2 16" something or the other fans at $59 a pop in stock so I figured what the heck. I started out playing around and it got out of hand like it often does with me. I bought a dual temp fan switch for a BMW and put it into the available but wrong size threaded hole in the coolant crossover. The first fan kicks on at 197 and the other at 210 I think. Putting a 14mm thread sensor into a 3/8" thread hole was a bit of work involving brass threaded pipe and a hard to find 14mm tap. There are easier ways.
I also built a relay box with 3 relays. 1 for each fan and 1 to kick in the high temp fan with the AC compressor. I have maybe $200 and about 6 hours worth of work in all of it including relay box building. That stupid dual temp sensor was $48 by itself.
Was it worth it? Yes, I would do it again. Better 60' times. I had never been able to get better than a 2.5?, but after the fans I hit high 2.3's. No snickering, it's a damn big truck. I have yet to make a fair mileage comparison. It is better though. I was watching and I went further on the last 2 tanks than I ever have before.
My cheap crap fans work fine except for the vibration that you can feel when they kick in. I am going to switch to Derale fans as soon as the UPS guy drops them off. Hope that gets rid of my bad vibes.
Do it. Good luck and keep it simple. Me, I like pretty and unique and mine. That is a bad habit to get into.

Take care
Darrin

[MTCFORUM]

You do know that the EEC can be setup to control those fans by switching a few things around in the calibration via a chip,Right?
The Ford Crown Vic fan is the one to use for reliability,and good airflow rates. It's the same fan that JDM sells with their electric fan kit.
JL

[MTCFORUM]

Yeah, I figured the EEC was capable, but chip=$$$. I haven't heard of a chip giving enough in the way of fuel economy improvement for my purposes though. Racing the truck was not a long term plan, just a band-aid to get me through the season. (I saw those damn commercials about it on tv) My main goal was to keep it inexpensive and improve effeciency. Like I said, I got carried away with an idea. Kind of a Saturday morning "Hey, I think i will get rid of that clutch and fan today" sort of thing. I tend to do that. I don't know the specifics on how to advise someone to go that route either so I answered with what I knew. For those details and ideas, I will leave it up to those, like you, who can better advise based on knowledge instead of conjecture.
Take care and thanks for the reply

Darrin

[MTCFORUM]

No problem at all man..the thermostatic controls are nice,but if they fail(which I've seen alot of) you're stranded.The EEC simply closes a contact,and a relay is still needed.Plus it's also alot more accurate than the thermostatic controller for determining coolant temps.If you haven't seen where a chip will pay for itself with fuel economy..then you've been looking in the wrong place.There is also the improved transmission shift schedule and lockup schedule of the torque convertor,and that will also make trans life alot longer.Well worth the money...
Those other universal fans are not very reliable either,and tend to use more amperage than a comparable OE Ford fan,plus the OE Ford fans are tested to 100K mile durability.
JL

[MTCFORUM]

I have been helping explorer guys with chips for a while. Most of them are seeing a 1-3mpg gain on average. You may not think it's that much, but the way I drive, that will pay for a chip in less than a year. It may not make it enough to buy a chip alone, but as JL said, when you factor in the shift firmess, torque converter lockup, adaptive learning changes, spark improvments, the power and TQ gains, and some of the other nice features, a chip can be one of the best "bang for the buck" mods. Plus I have seen explorers gain over 20RWHP with a chip on the dyno. The F series numbers can't be that far away.

I also agree on the electric fan thing, I have done electric fan swaps before, and I always use ford fans. They have much higher testing standards and quality tests. That is one thing that you can't afford to have fail. Also if you put in an electric fan, you should be sure that you have an adequate alternator. I know when I put a Mark VIII electric fan in one of my tbirds, I smoked the alternator within hours.

If you have the option to have EEC control of the fan, that is the slick way to go. It is much more accurate than putting in a $3.99 temp sensor. Plus a chip burner can actually control the fan's on/off temperatures.

Brian

[MTCFORUM]

I agree on the reliability of the mechanical temperature switches. This is why I chose a piece from BMW that has very high reliability and a very high price to match. While this switch is capable of running the fans since It has 30 amp contacts, I am only running the relays off of it . For further safety there is a DPDT switch after each relay(except for the ac relay) to supply battery voltage for each fan to allow manual control in the event of a failure of relays, automatic switching, wiring and such. I also have 2 completely separate fans over my own concerns of reliability. If the primary dies, I can switch on the other with the the flip of it's DPDT and run that way. I won't have automatic switching until I either replace the fan or swap the leads from the relays and flip the switch again, but it will work to get me where I need to go.
Not that my design is the best way or that I would advise others to do this. I just like doing stuff like this. I can easily handle the wiring and switching, but I don't know crap about fans and my current fans definitely have their shortcomings. I bought what was available on a whim. I will say that they move a lot of air and just one of them is capable for normal driving, but they vibrate. I don't like that.
I am going to look into the chip aspect further, thanks for the advice. I am concerned slightly that even over 20000 miles and figuring a generous 3 MPG improvement with the 20 cent difference between the regular I now use and the premium that would have to use with a chip, that it will only save me $33.44 on fuel. I just don't know.
I am also planning to do the famous named tranny mods for my concerns that you mention in that area, but the truck has only 15000 miles on it and I am not going in that deep yet.
I would be interested in seeing the pinouts to control my 2 fans from the ECU. Sounds like something I would be interested in for sure if I do end up justifying a chip.
Good discussion here <IMG NAME="icon" SRC="http://images.zeroforum.com/smile/emthup.gif" BORDER="0">

Later
Darrin

I just got home and refigured my math based on my actual average fuel economy of 14.81mpg. Raising that by the higher 3mpg figure I would save $91.60 over 20000 miles with a 20c price difference between regular and premium. The $34.44 figure above is wrong.
Never eat lunch, talk to coworkers and do math at the same time. I figured $1.35 for regular and $1.59 for premium and that isn't a 20c difference. <IMG NAME="icon" SRC="http://images.zeroforum.com/smile/emhammer.gif" BORDER="0"> I thought that savings seemed a little low.<BR><BR>
[Modified by Darrin, 7:20 PM 11/7/2002]

[MTCFORUM]

Guys,

Thanks goes out to all, I can't reply fully now so I'll just let you know I appreciate all the help and discussion. I'll post again real soon.

Guys, in order to get the EEC to control the fan(s), where would the connections be tapped into? Would the firewall central plug need more connection pins added to the shell or block in vacant slots? I'm just wondering how the connections would be made. Do any of the other trucks that Ford builds already have the electric fans, if so then I've probably got the electrical schematics in my '01 truck service CD.

Thanks

~DM~
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[Modified by DaveMan, 6:49 AM 11/8/2002]