I am quoting my long time mechanic friend after giving him my truck to drive around all day to once and for all try to figure out my warm start weird crank and 2000 rpm hesitation. He owns an 05 by the way and yes I will agree that my 99 had more guts. He did'nt find anything at least diagnostically. Everything looks good, fuel trims, ignition and on and on. He noticed the hesitaion and said the title quote. He also said that what I described about my warm start he did'nt neccisarily experience and said I was paronoid. I swear it has all the symptoms of a leaky injector. A "flooded " type experience on warm starts and sometimes an extra long crank. It usually has an instantaneous start with almost no normal crank. It just sounds and feels weak. i practically have new everything over the last 10 months both fuel related parts and electrical, battery, starter, tune up and on and on. I've pulled the fuel rail and looked for leaks several times. My question is- can I have a bad injector even though my fuel trims are good? Or am I looking in the wrong place? I don't want to just live with it but fear that I may have to. All of my grounds are clean and tight by the way. I drove an hour to my mechanic friend who did'nt charge me for this and he was kind of my last hope.

 

His statement "These trucks are dogs" makes no sense to me. I have a 2007 with the 4.6; it has 130K on its odometer, and it runs fantastic, with plenty of "giddy-up" when I'm on it. All of the 5.4 owners boast on how poky the 4.6's are, yet when I come across a post such as yours, I'm puzzled.

Is there a way to dump the guts/programming of your stock PCM to see if the maps are messed up? What you describe to me are symptoms of timing; not enough advance at specific RPM ranges.
If you were in my neck of the woods, I'd have you drive my truck; you'd then see that the "baby brother of the 5.4 has plenty of guts, and therefore your 5.4 should be driving circles around it.

 

Mines not! Lol

 

My sister had an 08 and it was a dog, my 04 has always been pretty quick for the engine size, it's not either of the competitors 5.7 but it's good enough.

 

Mine runs like a bear.

 

I should have clarified his statement and my reply. My 5.4 does go when I stomp on it. This 04 feels "heavier" than my 99 and is just more of a different feel and possibly not as responsive but I have nothing else to compare it to. In my mechanics defense, he has literally owned over 100 cars/trucks and his 05 has a brand new engine and he was basing his oppinion on his experience. That being said, I am generally pleased with my 04 and for the most part it runs good. I"ve always felt it was lacking something though. Your reccomendation sounds interesting if I had any knowledge of what or how to do that. I am a weekend DIY kind of guy with limited diagnostic capabilities. I can look into that route and see what I can do. Thanks

 

My 5.4 has guts for sure. Edge Evo converted to Gryphon (my own custom settings), Gotts mod with AEM dryflow and true duals, 0-60 in low 7's all day and it tows my 28' pontoon and 29' TT with ease.

 

What can I say........ I like my truck and its got a few issues that Im trying to iron out before I die. I believe my truck is not performing to its full potential possibly. Im too boring to do all of the stuff to my truck that you guys do. I just want it to crank "normal" when warm and stop my 2000 rpm hiccup. I've already dropped thousands. None the less, thanks for the response

 

I always thought my old 4.6 was a little slow for me when I had it until I got my 5.4. You could definitely tell the extra power was there in the 5.4. However I didn't think the 4.6 was terrible.

 

5.4 was built for low end torque. It's a pickup truck, it was never created to be a rocket ship. Plenty of pull and that's what a truck has to have I.M.H.O.