Erik Radzins of House of Boost worked his tuning magic on a 2017 F-150 Raptor using HP Tuners hardware and software.
With the 2017 F-150 Raptor running loose on the streets and trails of America, it is now accessible to those who want to squeeze more power out of its potent, 3.5-liter EcoBoost engine. Case in point is this new truck tuned by Erik Radzins of House of Boost.
Erik strapped the truck down to the HOB Dynojet chassis dyno and plugged in his HP Tuners cable to dial in a more aggressive calibration. Fortunately, he has plenty of experience with other EcoBoost Fords.
Good gains were made per pound of boost increase until right at the 20-psi mark. —Erik Radzins, House of Boost
Apparently there is not a lot on the table for tuners, especially if you are running weak-sauce 87-octane fuel in the tank.
“Ford really did an amazing job as always tuning these things, so not everyone will be able to get huge gains without having really good fuel quality to go with it,” he added. “This thing was on good-quality 93 swill, so that helped, however I can see guys out in Cali being very limited in getting big results due to fuel limits. I would imagine with turbo upgrades and other tweaks that power fade above 4,000 rpm could be removed or at least improved.”
If you weren’t aware, Seventh gear is the proper selection for running a Raptor on the dyno because its ratio is 1:1. The rub, however, is that running in this gear puts the truck’s speed limiter at odds with the powerband. In this case, Eric left the limiter intact and ran the truck in Sixth gear with its 1.27:1 ratio.
“By customer request the speed limiter was not raised. Dyno runs were made in Sixth gear to allow a full pull to be made. If you run these trucks in Seventh they will actually load the a little harder and show a larger torque number. However, my intention wasn’t to set the internet on fire with big numbers, but focus on overall gains.”
Running in sixth gear with 93-octane in the tank, the truck baselined at 377.14 horsepower and 428.23 lb-ft of torque at the wheels. After the tune, the truck picked up peak-to-peak gains of 43.75 horsepower and 77.61 lb-ft of torque.
Those gains were chunky and impressive early in the rev range, but they do taper off as the pull continued. Still the peak-to-peak gains of 43.75 horsepower and 77.61 lb-ft of torque are impressive and you will feel that torque in the seat of the pants.
“The truck does made some great torque and power for what it is. It is no doubt a fun truck that feels very light, and reminds me of driving (as much as I hate to say this) a Duramax Chevy,” Erik said. “You can really feel the power fade away the longer the truck holds the gear, and you sit and hope that it will change gears again and put you back in the seat. So for a diesel guy that is very normal and isn’t really a bad thing.”
Despite those impressive EcoBoost gains, Erik, whose day job is tuner and social media evangelist at ProCharger, remains a fan of cubes and boost.
“However for me, I am more of a V8 kinda guy — really a V8 and ProCharger guy,” he confessed. “I drive around in my daily driven truck with more than enough power from the V8 as it comes stock, then I love being planted in the seat and the truck still pulling harder and harder as the rev range climbs. Then feeling a shift, and pulling all the way to redline.”
Of course, it’s still early on in the tuning of the Raptor, so the potential is there that it may win over even hardcore eight-cylinder fans. Having driven it on an off-road, we came away impressed, as did Erik.
If a tuned Raptor isn’t enough, you could always get your V8 fix with a matching Shelby GT350!
Ford really knocked this thing out of the park, and then some. — Erik Radzins, House of Boost
Certainly a Coyote Raptor is an intriguing crossbreed, but not one we are likely to see anytime soon. We will, undoubtedly, see people turning up the wick with tuning and mods, however. We can’t wait to see how the truck responds.
