Roush the name means performance. Supercharger. means power. Combine them and you have the Roushcharger. Roush's intercooled supercharger kit turns a mild mannered 2004-2007 Ford F-150 into a fire breathing torque monster. Two questions come to mind how much power and can it be improved upon?

The answers. lots and yes.

During the installation and tuning of Roush's intercooler supercharger on our Roush F-150 project truck we conducted dyno pulls on a Dynojet dynometer in order to get accurate numbers of the gains available over stock and how much more power is still available from the 5.4L 3V modular V8.


Here you see the dyno plot for the stock 5.4L. The graph shows power all the up to 5800 rpm. In real driving the vehicle will shift at 4900 rpm so keep that in mind. This Roush F-150 is equiped with Roush's 20-inch wheels so this number is slightly lower than it would be on F-150's with OEM tires and wheels. Stock power is 207.54 RWHP and 254.64 ft/lbs RW torque.


This is the same engine with the intercooled Roushcharger installed. Power is 329.23 RWHP and 371.51 ft/lbs RW torque. Very impressive. Notice the sudden drop-off at around 5300 rpm? The tune which Roush supplies dumps boost at exactly 5312 rpm. In normal driving conditions this isn't an issue because the truck shifts at 4900 rpm, well before the boost is dumped.

Next, Mike Troyer of Troyer Performance put his considerable F-150 tuning experience to work on this truck and the results were stunning. A slightly larger boost pulley was installed (only about 1/2lb extra boost). The primary reason for installing this pulley is rotational mass. The pulley supplied by Roush weighs in at over 10lbs while the after market pulley is just under 2.5 lbs.

Royal Purple 5w/20 synthetic oil was used to give this truck the added benefits of a good synthetic oil. When you're dealing with the power levels it will put out it pays in the long run not to put in cheap oil. We've since run oil analysis on the oil and the results are really good. These will be presented in a follow-up article.

Next, Mike worked on the PCM's tune. Torque management during shifts was vastly improved. This won't show up on the dyno but my experience shows that it makes a huge difference in both driveability on the street and ETs. Mike then worked on other aspects of the tune (I can't give specifics because it's proprietary) and we did another dyno run.


Here you see the results of Troyer Performance tuning. The truck gained a huge 44.33 RWHP and 45.31 ft/lbs RW torque for a total of 373.56 RWHP and 416.82 ft/lbs RW torque. Numbers like this, with a good set of tires, puts the truck in Ford Lightning performance range. Not bad for a 4 door Supercrew. Again you'll notice the boost dumping at 5312 rpm. Unfortunately, with these power levels the 4900 rpm shift point isn't optimal. A 5400 rpm wide-open-throttle shift point provides the quickest ETs and max power. Move the shift point to this rpm and you bump up against the boost dump and ultimately end up with lower ETs as a result....


Here is the final dyno run. Mike has worked some tuning magic to circumvent the 5312 rpm boost dump. The truck now makes power all the way up to the 5800 rpm rev limiter. Peak power is 376.48 RWHP and 415.55 ft/lbs RW torque. Even more important that these numbers is the WOT shift point can now be moved up from 4900 rpm to 5400 rpm. The most incredible thing about the custom tuning is we gained roughly 155 RWHP and 200 ft/lbs RW torque over the what the Roush tune provided at the rpm ranges beyond the boost dump! This shows you what can be accomplished with proper custom tuning.


Here are all three graphs overlayed, with RWHP on the top and RWTQ on the bottom. It illustrates the gains achieved better. The top/right of this article page has a text file attachment you can download to see the raw data dumps. Note the date/times are from when the file was exported by the software (January), not from the days of the pulls (November). Unfortunately we ran out of time (I had to be back in Atlanta for a business trip the following day) and could not go further but this gives a very good idea of how much can be gained with a competent tuner like Mike Troyer. Mike's tuned more F-150s than probably anyone else in the USA and knows a lot about squeezing out every ounce of safe performance from them (and not so safe if you're willing to do that). Mike is confident that with a little more time on my truck he can get it to the 400 RWHP mark without additional hardware. I hope to take him up on that offer soon.

On the street the Troyer Performance tuning is a sheer pleasure to drive. 1-2 shifting is much better, power comes on with less throttle and it'll light the tires across an entire intersection if you're so inclined to burn up your hard earned cash on tires. How fast will the truck go? I buried the needle around 130 mpg and my courage ran out long before the truck ran out of power. I'm planning some track time this spring to see what it will do. If you have an F-150 without a Roushcharger look up Troyer Performance and get one installed. You won't regret it. If you already have a Roushcharger... get a tune from Mike and you won't be able to wipe the grin off.

Roush F-150 Project Truck Source:
Troyer Performance
(540) 965-7123
www.troyerperformance.com

(Copyright 2007 Ken Payne, All Rights Reserved. This article is used by Internet Brands, Inc. with permission - no license is given beyond this permission and may be revoked by Ken Payne.)

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Spot welding is ideal for sheet metals, used widely in the automotive industry, steel pail production, even braces used in orthodontics. Sheets that are between .5 and 3 mm are ideal, as thicker metals can pose problems as it’s often difficult to heat in a single spot.

When it comes to welding equipment, and spot welders are the most common form, probably because they are easy and fast to use. It’s high speed forms a weld in a fraction of a second, which makes spot welding ideal for assembly lines.

This makes spot welding easily adaptable to automation. More and more manufacturing lines are using robotics in the interest of efficiency, consistency and speed. A large number of materials can be welded very quickly to the level of consistent perfection that’s demanded in the product manufacturing. You can rely on the same weld every time, insuring the uniformity of production.

Two shaped copper alloy electrodes concentrate the force of the welding current between the two objects being joined. A small “spot” results, and is quickly heated to its melting point, forming a small nugget of welding material after the current has been removed. Heat is controlled according to the strength of application and the length of which the current is applied.

Because spot welding is relatively easy to learn, it’s often used by artists and hobbyists, and is common in many home garages or studios.

Spot welding can also be done on aluminum, although as much as a 3 times higher thermal conductivity is required. This will require larger and more expensive welding equipment and spot welders.

As with any type of welding, safety is essential. Although it is a relatively easy weld to learn, spot welding is dangerous and requires proper safety equipment. It uses large amounts of current and heat. Electrodes must be clamped tightly. Wear eye protection to protect both against sparks and high amounts of ultraviolet light. Hands should also be protected, as the objects can become very hot. Spot welding should always be done in as controlled an environment as possible.

Unfortunately, the spot welding process tends to harden the metal, especially thick metals, causing it to wrap and reduce its material fatigue strength. This can lead to internal cracking, surface cracks and a bad appearance, as well as compromising the integrity of the metal. For most applications, however, spot welding works just fine and is easy to do, which is probably why it is so common.

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Finishing machines are used for the finishing process that is carried out on parts for the purposes of cleaning, deburring, polishing and separation of parts. There are many types of finishing machines. The two important and widely used ones are the tumbling barrel machines and the vibratory finishing machines. In the tumbling variety, a huge barrel holds the parts and finishing media, compounds and water. In the vibratory finishing machines, there are usually tubs or bowls that undergo a shaking action at a particular speed. The shaking action is caused by a shaft that is attached to the tub or bowl.

The vibratory finishing machines come as large floor models (that can be fixed to the floor) or as smaller bench models (that are fixed on tables or benches). When the machine shakes at a high rate of speed, it causes the parts and the media to rub against each other thus resulting in cleaning and polishing. Using the vibrating machines, it is possible to get a very precise cutting of burrs and parts. They are also very effective in removing debris and dirt lodged in nooks and crannies, like a bore for instance. This sort of cleaning is not possible in a tumbling barrel. Vibratory finishing machines are ideally suited for use on delicate and intricate parts; also for large and bulky surfaces like wing spans - because they have high speeds combined with very short strokes. This provides powerful finishing but at the same time places very less stress on the parts. Vibratory finishing machines can be automated or semi automated quite easily and are good for continuous or batch processing.

Finishing or deburring media are materials that provide an abrasive action on parts to aid in the finishing process. They can be natural or man made. They come in different shapes and sizes depending on the requirements. When media is used in finishing machines, they accomplish finishing tasks like cleaning of oils, grease, dirt, grime etc and deburring of jagged edges or removing extra material from parts. Natural deburring media like walnut shells and corn cob media are made from naturally available material - they are non toxic, environment friendly, reusable and cost effective.

Man made deburring media like ceramic media and plastic deburring media are used for heavy and aggressive finishing. They come in different shapes and sizes. Some of the standard shapes found in the deburring media are cones, cylinders, pyramids, three headed stars, triangles etc. These shapes aid in polishing and cleaning hard to reach recesses in the parts. Depending on the shape and size of the holes in the parts, the shape of the media is chosen. If the part has a complex design with many corners having different shapes, then a combination of media shapes can be used to achieve uniform finish in the parts. Companies having a vast experience in the finishing industry generally have the expertise to find tailor made solutions to any deburring requirements.

Grav Co LLC continues to manufacture the finest mass finishing equipment and supplies in the marketplace. We still build vibratory finishing machines, disc finishing, high speed and low speed barrel finishing, and spin finishing equipment in our Sturgis, Michigan plants. We also manufacture vibratory finishing media, treated cob meal and various liquid and powder compounds, and have a very good line of deburring media.
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