MRydder

Okay, so I have a 1993 F-150 XL single cab short box with a 4.9l 300 I6. I've been thinking on a few upgrades to this seemingly indestructible engine. I know there's going to be a lot of people saying "just buy a 302 V8", so before you say something like that I'd like to tell you I'm sticking with this truck.
Anyways, to the point. I've been thinking about upgrading my aspiration with the obvious cold air intake and exhaust.. seems like an easy idea until you're as picky as me and want to figure out what would be perfect. For exhaust I want to run some sort of cool true-dual if I can and try to run both pipes out of the side in front of the passenger rear wheel. I was thinking about getting the hooker headers header unit that goes from 6-2 pipes, run 2.5 inch piping from each one to a separate Magnaflow high flow cat (or should I delete cat?) then have each go to a Flowmaster super 40 series muffler then run both out the side beside eachother with some nice tips. So from the headers back it would be two true dual 2.5 inch pipes then dumped out the side. Has anyone on here done this before? Would there be any problems with this? any intelligent info on the matter would be great. Also I'm curious as to what the sound would be like?
Secondly, is there any good cold air intakes for this engine? I know there's a FIPK one by K&N but I've heard so many bad things about their air filters (as I work in a shop at General motors) so any suggestions are awesome.
I was going to eliminate the belt driven engine fan and replace it with a Flex-a-lite electric one to free up some power. Does anyone have any other suggestions on modifications to add power/torque to this engine with out doing a complete overhaul?

rusty84f-150

Stick with the stock intake box cuz it takes in fresh air from the grill area and do something different from the box to the engine. As for headers I'd stick with stock unless you have a cam and the motor is bored over. There is no point to a chip in these trucks as it doesn't make a big enough difference to notice. And do a basic tune up.

MRydder

Just completed a tune-up, I'm looking to replace the cam I think so thats why I was aiming for the header. Which leads me to the question of what a good cam would be for this motor? I don't know anything about cams so any info helps! I wasn't aware there was a chip upgrade for the 4.9

rusty84f-150

Look on summit for the cam. Still not worth doing headers if your doing just a cam.

MRydder

well I plan to do more upgrades as I learn more about them. I am asking for any advice as to how to upgrade the snot outta this beast.

rusty84f-150

There ain't very much to do to these 4.9L

1994 F-150 Driver

There have been a ton of discussions about headers on the 4.9L. Over on the inline 6 performance forum there are a lot of people who swear by the stock manifold. They say it will out-flow any header you can buy. I'm not entirely sure if that's true, but it seems to be a common theme I've seen on several sites. And you can do true duals off of the stock manifold because it splits the cylinders into 3 and 3. Does your state have emissions testing? If so you need to have cats (not saying you don't know that, but I'm just being through.) The high-flow cats will basically flow just as well as a cat delete.

If you have access to a junk yard, the Taurus e-fans will work great in our trucks and are cheaper than buying a new fan kit. Doing an ignition system upgrade is one of the best things you can do. If that has been done, then you can bump the base timing up to anywhere from 12 BTDC to 14 BTDC. You just have to play with that one to get the sweet spot. Once that is done you can put in a cooler thermo and that I6 will purr. I don't have much info on the cam subject, but I know there are good ones on summit like Rusty said. There are a lot of people on here that can give you good information about a cam upgrade though.

Edit: Sorry for the long winded response.
Edit 2: There isn't a chip for this engine. People sell them, but they are a scam. They are basically electric resistors you can plug in to help "performance." I think it just tricks the ECU by limiting the electric flow to it and makes the shift points a little higher.

MRydder

Wow thanks for the input!
Any idea as to what this exhaust would sound like? I read somewhere that you have to be careful as to how you set up a I6 exhaust to avoid it sounding ricey (which would suck).
Also I've been looking at an air ram hood that is built by Cervini's. I think its build for a 93 lightning but I was wondering if it can be modded or would just work with my 300. Does anyone have experience with this? Is there anything that could go wrong when hooking up something like this?
As far as ignition goes.. Should I go with MSD ignition and coil? What about distributor cap and spark plugs/wires? Brands?

1994 F-150 Driver

With those Super 40's on there it will sound good. Might be a little raspy/whiny in higher rpm's but nothing too bad. There are a bunch of good sound clips on youtube of the I6 with 40's.

I'm not sure on the hood, but with some modification I'm sure you could make it work. All you need to do is hook up the intake air box to the hood induction slots. Some rubber hosing might do the trick. As long as you keep air from leaking in at the seams, there would be no issue for that. They may even make a kit for that hood, but I'm not sure.

MSD coils are one of the best. They'll output the most for your money and last a long time. If you have the funds available the MSD ignition box would be a great upgrade, but it's not needed, your stock ignition control module will be just fine. For wires, I like the Taylor ThunderVolt 8.2mm wires. They are much better than the stock wires. Any wires that are bigger than stock wires and spiral-wound will be good. For spark plugs, these trucks really like Autolite or Motorcraft standard copper core plugs. They are the best for our engine imo. MSD doesn't make a dist cap for the I6, but any brass contact cap and rotor will be the exact same. Just make sure it's brass. MSD has the Street Fire Coil and the Ignition Blaster Coil for our trucks. The Street Fire is basically an OEM replacement. The Ignition Blaster Coil is a pumped up version, offering more power output and lower resistance. The Blaster is better, but you have to have better than stock wires otherwise they'll melt down with that much power.

MRydder

Okay great thanks!
So with the MSD blaster ignition coil, will the Taylor thundervolt 8.2 wires that you spoke of handle the power from that coil?
And I suppose I should have added that the air ram hood does come with the kit, but its made for the lightning.. I'm just not sure if the air box is any different in the lightning than it is in the 300.. Also unaware if the throttle body is different?