Al

From my experience, the synthetic oil is highly over rated.  I have tried it
on three different engines a Ford 460 & 302, and a Toyota 3 liter.  I track
my mileage on every tank full of fuel, by calculating the miles gone and
gallons of fuel used, not with a trip computer.

I have not been able to see any fuel mileage improvement, engine temperature
drop, or changes in oil pressure.

For the many times increase in cost, I say it is not worth it.  I do use
synthetic in my differentials and manual transmissions, I do not use
synthetic oil in any engines anymore.

I believe the performance chips are a good idea, But question the
prepackaged exhaust systems versus a new custom exhaust system fitted
locally...

Depends on how many bangs you want per buck.  (or more importantly,
how many bucks you've got to provide said bang)

I have an '02 F350 with 35s (soon to be 37s) and 4.30 gears.  I bought
a Superchips tuner and loaded up their ECM code.  BIG difference in
tranny shifting.  Much firmer and just feels better all the time.  I
did tweak some of the shift points to keep the engine in it's torque
band a little better but other that that, didn't mess with it.

Gas mileage went down and gas costs went up.  I've got to run premium
(91 octane MINIMUM) gas now and I'm sure the big tires and my heavy
right foot contributed to the loss of mileage.  I keep a log for the
truck and I went from about 10.7/gal to right around 9.9/gal.  Not
quite a 1MPG loss. Power is definitely up tho and the rev limiter is
either off or way higher than it used to be.  About $400.

Buddy of mine got the Banks Power Pack for his V10 with the OttoMind
"chip".  says he picked up a decent bit of HP and torque and a small
increase in mileage.  Cost installed was around $3,000.

Two other guys I know with V10 powered Super Duties went the forced
induction route.  One with a Vortech centrifugal supercharger and the
other with a Kenne Bell twin screw unit.  Both got serious HP/torque
increases and associated decreases in gas mileage.  Both units
installed with headers, intake etc were well into the 5 figure range
when it was all said and done.

I do run synthetic oil in the truck, but not sure if it's worth it for
economy's sake.  Mileage doesn't seem much different (if at all)
compared to the couple fills of Ford's synthetic blend..  I just sold
a 4Runner with 205k on it that only ran Castrol dino oil and it didn't
burn more than a 1/2 quart between changes.  Frequent changes are
going to be your best bet for longevity.  I run synthetic because I
flog the hell out of this truck with work and it's often hauling heavy
loads and earning it's keep.

I thought that the V-10 already had platinum plugs from the factory.

Maybe a big operation but put a twin turbo in it ^^
Have done it with a 4-cilinder but not on a V10
That should blast you from one point to another.

Joe
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Alfa Romeo 164 3.0 V6