I have had my 06 F150 XLT dubbed the Black Stallion since 2007 in the upstate of SC at 900+ ft above sea level. Instantly after buying my truck I started on power adders on top of using only royal purple performance oil and filters for my truck. A quick list below
Granatelli high performance coil packs
K&N CAI
Edge Program tune for performance as well as mounting the programmer to the dash.
Gibson shorty headers
Dual glass packs after the factory cats (yes believe me I know they gotta go)

I just brought the truck back down to Long Island where im from this past summer. The sea level air was a blessing as well as the areas to really let this truck have some fun, that is until that damn hurricane.
The night of the hurricane I had to get to my son who was not home. I went through some deep deep flood waters that blocked any and every path between me and my son whos 19
the problem was on the way home. I was approx 2 blocks from home when a small car decided to try to manage a flooded rd, I was directly behind them when they stalled. This caused the chain reaction of me stopping and a wave of moving water to flood in which when I powered through it a second or two later caused the wave to flow well over the windshield. Once I exited the flooded area my truck started to ping!! I didnt know if I sucked in water or soaked a coil pack or two, either way I had no power and the check engine light was on, we limped home and parked. By the next morning in my driveway the truck started without issue. "Thank you God" was my first thought. I went out for a drive to check out the storms damage when at a stop light I heard what sounded almost like paper flapping as my engine ran. Later realized it was what it sounded like, exhaust leak at the header. Turned out I busted several bolts and blew the passenger header gasket.

Now two weeks and 1700 dollars later I got my truck out of the shop where they simply replaced the bolts and gaskets. The first thing the mechanic who worked on the stallion says to me is 'its got a ping".... Huh I asked since prior it had nothing more than an exhaust leak. What do you mean by ping? I asked. Oh its cheap headers but it may go away but I cant tighten the bolts anymore without risking breaking them. Now not to sound ungrateful but "F" that. So I paid my bill and went for a drive, A long *** drive... Zero power is all I can say. Less power then a simple exhaust leak.

Not asking anyone to diagnose via this but I was wondering why after the gaskets replacement and not before? What the hell could he have done and what do the NOT cheap cost of my headers that I originally installed on my garage floor back in 2010 have to do with the now huge power loss??

Any and all opinions are gratefully appropriated..


The Black Stallion 2 days before Ida