F-150 Gets a Boost of Performance with Little Effort
A couple of bolt-ons and a tune turn this Coyote V8-powered F-150 into a quarter-mile monster.
If you’re looking at improving the performance of your F-150, you might drop a supercharger under and/or through the hood, bore out the block to increase displacement, and so on. All of that takes quite a bit of money, time, and effort, though.
But what if you’re a bit short on all of those things? Is there still a way to boost your truck’s performance? There is, if you go the bolt-on and tune route. Justin Dugan, host of YouTube channel AmericanTrucks Ford, presents a trio of upgrades made to his gray 2018 F-150, each bit coming together to transform his truck into a quarter-mile monster.
“First up on our F-150, I chose the JLT cold air intake system for the five-liter truck,” Dugan says. “Why? Well, JLT is just known for making power on the Mustangs or basically whatever else you put it on, including the F-150. It’s no-tune required, which is gonna be the majority of the intakes here for the newer F-150s because they are speed density-based and not mass air flow-based.”
Aside from looking good, the intake system should provide plenty of noise from the 5.0-liter Coyote V8, while keeping the engine cooler. Plus, it only takes a 7- or 8-millimeter socket and wrench to bolt it on.
The next link in the chain is an ID Motorsports 93 Octane tune, which Dugan has on his own Raptor, proclaiming it “runs like a beast” because of it. All that’s left to do is to bring in the final piece of the puzzle.
“Now, I selected the Roush cat back for the five-liter truck for two big reasons: A, it’s loud as hell, and that’s what we’re going with here for our testing in a little bit,” says Dugan. “B, it’s a very popular system, and it sounds great. This is one of our top-selling exhaust systems for the five-liter truck and for other gens as well. Fits great, nice materials, full stainless steel throughout.”
Dugan adds that the exhaust tips provide “a nice look” from the stock location, though it may take some cutting to get everything fitting nicely.
“We just wrapped up with our dyno runs after installing all the modifications and that ID Motorsports tune,” Dugan says. “But before we go over these numbers, I do want to clarify that, yes, the one-to-one gear ratio in the 10-speed automatic is seventh gear. However, there is a factory speed limiter in place which prevents us from getting a full pull in seventh and even six. So, in order to get a clean pull all the way to redline, we did our dyno pulls in fifth gear both before and after.”
The results? Before, the F-150 did 314 horsepower and 322 lb-ft of torque to the rear wheels running 33-inch wheels and 93 octane. After the modifications, though, the 5.0-liter generated 355 horses and 354 lb-ft of torque, a peak gain of 41 ponies and 32 lb-ft of torque. But how will those numbers go on the quarter-mile?
“Here we are at the beautiful Maple Grove Raceway on this nice, crisp fall day,” says Dugan. “We got some good air today… We don’t have a baseline number with this truck stock with the 33s, so we’re not looking to break any records out here today.”
Dugan believes his upgraded F-150 will knock out a number in the 13-second range due to its 33-inch tires and the fact it’s a Super Crew cab instead of a regular cab.
On Dugan’s first run, he puts the F-150 in four-high, and sends it down the quarter in 13.83 seconds at 99.55 mph, enough to require a helmet for his next runs. And speaking of, his second run, also in four-high but now in sport mode, is a bit slower at 13.90 at 99.47 mph. Dugan decides to shift the truck into two-wheel drive, resulting in a quarter-mile time of 13.96 at 100.34. All in all, not a bad effort with just a trio of bolt-ons and tunings.
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