About a month ago I got my truck, its a 2004 with 72,xxx miles on it. This is the second truck Ive had but the first one that I really want to keep in in good shape. My first truck was a 97 f 150 4.6l with 150K miles on it that ended up having alot of money being dropped into it because of problems comming up every 3 or 4 months. Heres my old truck



It was a fun truck to drive in high school but wasn't fun having to take it to the shop. The Hemi that I have now has no problem and feels to be as in good condition as my dads 07 ctd. The truck is all stock except for the chrome parts put on and the cab lights and as far as I know from carfax, nothing too much has been done mechanically besides of maybe a tune up way back when and regular oil changes. Ive been driving my truck for about month now and I have hand calculated about 10 - 11 mpg which is pretty much all city driving minus a few 10 mile trips on the highway a month. I didnt buy the truck for gas mileage and I have searched all the ways on here to improve gas mileage but I am not sure if it would benefit me more to have parts cleaned right now instead of improved. The truck get up pretty well and outruns my friends 07 v6 impala which isn't anything to boast about but i did it and ill live on it for now. Even though in my opinion the truck runs very nice although i dont have much to compare it to because my ford had no guts and my dad ctd is totally different. My feelings is that if the engine is cleaned that I would get better mpg and better overall performance which is what I would really like to have. I dont have much cash to drop on this truck right now because I cant work since I still have baseball going on. cat back magnaflow duel exhaust is going on the truck when ball season is over (a gift from the dad) but the money I spend on the truck I would like to have go to avoid problems and improving performance. I dont have much mechanical skills and anything that isnt easy I would have the local shop do. Should i get tune up or what to make sure my truck is in the best shape?

here a picture of my truck, I posted a few on new truck thread already...



Sorry for the long post, but i would really appreciate any advice of what to do to before adding anything extra to this truck. Thanks in advance

 

nice truck man. Like the chrome accents, especially the door handles. honestly, ur best bet is to find a friend that can help u work on it. Pretty much anything at a shop is going to be rediculous $$$ wise, and alot of the stuff you can do yourself at home.

 

wow dude, very nice truck. thats def. got a leveling kit on it. too much clearance in the wells to not have one. as for cleaning it up... first you'll need to figure out what kind of maintainence was done on it. if you dont have records for it, assume there wasnt any maintainence done. spark plugs (all 16 of em) go with copper because thats what the hemi likes. switching ALL fluids to full synthetic will help efficiency as well as longevity (engine oil, tranny fluid, diff fluid). check coolant (if its brown, flush the cooling system). check brake fluid (if its black, bleed the brakes).

a few mods that will make some big mpg gains for not much money:
1) full synthetic switch
2) e-fan (off_road_teach did an awesome DIY for this)
3) Cold Air Intake (for best bang for buck, check the DIY to make your own)

Be careful, if you start goin to crazy with the moddin, it gets REAL addictive, REAL quick. We love spendin each others money around here.

Finally, welcome to the DF. Enjoy your stay

 

When you expect cleaning up the engine to get you better mpgs, you're just wasting your breath. I spend $1600 on a tune-up on my truck, and I got nothing on my mpgs. So just deal with it where it is at, unless if you do performance mods to get you better mpgs.
But you have a nice looking truck. A leveling kit makes a world of difference on these trucks, it looks so tall with just that done to it.

 

Thanks guys for the input and compliments. Ill have to track down the carfax report to see exactly what was done then go from there. Plus I think my dad said he has a guy that works for him who knows a few things about vehilces so I might have to track him down to help me with my projects.

Actually, AF, the truck is lifted 5 or 6 inches i cant remeber,but it sits higher than a 2500 and it doesnt have a leveling kit on. The pictures are the best but the back end sits up higher than the front, it was cold out at the time and I didnt have much time to take pictures but ill get some better ones up.


Im not worried about the mpg's, i just figured that if it wasnt at its best performance power-wise that it would cut into the mpg

 

What size tires do you have on your truck? It might be a helper spring. The tires look like they are 33" tires, and you have the stock 20s. And your wheel wells don't look big enough for you to have much lift there. Not even a 3" body lift.

 

yea im probably mistaken, the lift was on when i bought it and i was going by what i thought i remembered. The tires i believe are 32s, the stock size? Any idea how much clearance there is between stock tires and stock suspension on a 4x4?

 

The stock tires are 275/60R20. That is 33" tires. Not sure on the clearance off-hand, but that can't be any amount of lift. Look at members like Dedogg. He has a 2.5" level with a 3" body lift, and he has the stock 20s and 33" stock tires. He has a hell of a lot more clearance room than you do on your truck.

 

looks like a 4 inch lift. if it sits down in the front crank up the tbars a bit. looks like you have alot of adjustment left going buy the angle of the upper control arm. jmo

 

beautiful truck. That is the first time I have seen the running lights on a half ton, and liked em.....