dukhunter

hi. i am thinking about supercharging my 1999 f150. it has a 5.4 with 130000 miles on it. the supercharger kits claim 100hp gain. (@ the crank i would imagine). what will this kind of power do to the tranny, and other drive line components. will the supercharger compromise the reliability of my engine. let me know what you think. thanks.

another thing you should know is that i do ALOT of towing. not very heavy 2500-3000 pounds, but i tow all the time.

driver444

Yes, superchargers add a ton of power. In and of themselves, they don't affect engine longevity. In other words, adding a supercharger does not reduce engine life by itself, BUT (and this is a BIG but), when you have a supercharger, you tend to "USE" it. That's where your mechanical breakdowns come into play.

Yes, adding a supercharger and "using it" will put much more strain on your driveline, from the crankshaft all the way to the rear axle and springs. If you don't in any way change your driving habits, you won't hurt a thing.

I have a friend that tows with a supercharged 5.4 in a 2005 F150. He's had no issues so far, and about 50,000 miles on the truck. It's a Roush charger, and it didn't void his warranty. Keep in mind that all newer SVT Fords that come with a factory supercharger also come with stronger engine components built into them.

Having said all this, I don't think the charger is a good idea for you. It's a minimum of $4500 for starters, and your truck really has too many miles on it to be putting that kind of money into the motor. I'd run it the way it is, and put the money in the bank.

Franchi

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I concur.

If you had 40k miles and were planning on keeping the truck a really long time, sure might be worth it. But if you did it now, it's just gonna cause more issues with the mileage sooner...

dukhunter

yeah, the miles thing is a concern to me. on the flip side, i just bought the truck, and i plan on keeping it for a long time. my dad has a 97 f150 that's going on 202,000 miles, and shows no sign of quitting. so if i assume my truck will go to 200,000 miles, that will give me 70,000 miles of trouble free high performance driving, then if the motor blows at 200,000, i will pull it out, and rebuild it, and do it all again. thanks for the info. i would like to hear what the rest of you have to say.