My daily has a 4.8L

The very best modification you can make is to re-gear the axles.
4.56 gears will make STOCK motor feel like a hotrod.

 

So you are happy with your 4.8 then? Decent mileage with the 4.56? I am about to do a swap on mine, as I have 35" tires on it

 

Tune
Cai
Efans

And a good tune up

Thats worth about 40hp or so. Easy, cost effective, and proven.

Some dont like cai's but ive always seen an improvement.

 

im in the same boat, 4.8 rcsb that im swapping a 6.2 in but plans got delayed since my zo6 had a trip down to RPM this summer for trans clutch and diff plus right now needs the heads redone since the timing chain let go and if that wasnt enough the 4l60e in my truck dropped overdrive so did a 4l80e swap

so im looking for the best bang for the buck to hold me over till i do the engine swap probably next winter now

i did the efan they really free up some HP truck rev's better, is more responsive and mpg went up too

scored a CAI on CL for $50 new in the box add noise if any thing at all lol

i have HPtuners so i turned off the torque management that was a big help made it feel so much better truck feels like i added 30+ HP (no engine tuning at this point) now you can feel the shifts and 2nd to 3rd truck still pulls where before it would fall on its face

sticking with manifolds to keep the low end torque but picked up the dual exhaust pipes from a 6.0 and passenger side manifold to install true dual exhaust with some 2.5" magnaflow mufflers and mustang resonators that i have on hand hoping that helps out some then probably mess with the tune

been keeping an eye out for a used 3.73 rear end to

my kid just bought a 2017 f150 ext cab 2.7 turbo im a truck in front when he bogs from a 40mph roll have not ran him since the 80e swap tho

 

I’d do 4.11 gears (depending on what size tire you run)
id then do a stall (3200) since the 4.8 lacks torque if you plan on keeping the 4.8.
then I’d save for a lq4 or lq9 (cheapest route)
also tuning the 4.8 will be one of the best mods other then the gearing.

 

35 inch tires put you solid into the 4.88 gear range..
4.8 liter motors are HAPPIEST with a bit of manifold pressure.

 

Agreed, I have 4.11 gears on mine with stock 31" tires and the truck runs better and gets better mileage than with the stock 3.42

 

I actually just did my 4.8 mod...i picked up a 6.0 with harness and PCM with 30K on it...for $1300.