F150 Ecoboost owners, check in

[JRB]

I appreciate you sharing your thoughts on this topic. Do the boots typically need to be replaced when the plugs are replaced?

Inspect them for cracks, if they're cracked then replace them or use a section of heat shrink tubing as a repair 'jacket' to prevent the crack from allowing the coil pack to ground to the valve cover or whatever instead of pumping the spark through the spark plug. Often times folks will replace a coil pack chasing a misfire issue instead of the boot, when the boot was actually the problem.

Hotter and drier climates tend to be harder on rubber components like that.

Understood, but does this imply that the baked in tune will eliminate or limit the learning of the ECU? I can commit to the octane, but would like to not be chasing a moving target that is based on what I may have been doing (or not) in the prior months.


Yeah, me too, I have read enough of your posts on the topic to value your input.

Depends entirely on the tune. For a canned tune from a programmer, just for CYA I wouldn't expect them to disable or limit the closed loop correction for things like knock count, but I've seen some weird shit. If you flash your PCM with an aftermarket tune that calls for 91 octane or better, I'd be fully committed to 91+ all the time no matter what. If circumstances dictated the use of 89 or 90 octane, I'd baby it at part throttle and I'd keep the revs as low as possible.

Glad to hear that my old hobby-turned-profession experience is helpful around here

[rd62]

I'm familiar with aftermarket tunes somewhat but not for applications such as the F150 Ecoboost. What benefits are you seeing and at what risks to reliability and warranty?

[JRB]

I'm familiar with aftermarket tunes somewhat but not for applications such as the F150 Ecoboost. What benefits are you seeing and at what risks to reliability and warranty?

Virtually every 'canned' tune from a reputable operation like SCT, Diablo, etc will be as reliable or more reliable than the stock mapping, and offer some very tangible improvements in power and MPG. With intakes, downpipes, and a custom dyno tune we'd routinely see 50-60whp and ~80 ft-lbs of torque increase on 13-15ish a 3.5L Ecoboost trucks. Better spool up too, and if the driver kept their foot out of it, usually better MPG. A canned tune on a 100% stock hardware Ecoboost truck would usually pick up 20-30hp and similar torque.

An OE tune is done for emissions, mpg, and power - in that order. So it's easy to change some parameters that improve both MPG and power at the expense of higher NOx or similar emissions, which most end users do not care about. Bear in mind though that these emissions increases aren't anything that anyone but the EPA would notice or care about so long as there's still a cat or two in the exhaust.
In some cases, such as the 2007-2009ish Subaru WRX's and STi's - the factory tuning was so aggressive for low emissions that it was dangerously lean in some critical high-torque high-load engine conditions, which led to Subaru replacing a shitload of fried engines under warranty. With those cars, an aftermarket tune was not just better HP and MPG but also massively safer and more reliable, too.

That kind of issue hasn't happened in any Ford that I'm aware of, but the balancing act between emissions, HP, and MPG is the same for every manufacturer and the gains for MPG and HP are almost always at the expense of emissions.


Warranty goes right out the window, though. Dealers are getting more and more proactive about checking the PCM for write counts (to detect if someone's remapped the PCM) and other anti-tuning measures.

Depending on your local dealership and your relationship with your service writer there, you can sometimes put the stock map back in the PCM and they'll look the other way. This is especially true if the issue has nothing to do with what can change in a PCM flash/rewrite. Meaning if you're in for warranty work because the A/C is going crazy or there's a weird rattling in a door, they're not likely to care about a tune.
But if you're in the dealership for a new engine or new turbos under warranty, you can bet they'll be scrutinizing whether or not it was tuned or physically modified as best they can.

[LittleLebowski]

These Bilstein B8 B5100 rear shock absorbers are a significant improvement over the stock ones and weren’t that hard to install.

[TOTS]

These Bilstein B8 B5100 rear shock absorbers are a significant improvement over the stock ones and weren’t that hard to install.

Heard great things about them. I think the fronts can be adjusted for ride leveling.

[mmc45414]

Heard great things about them. I think the fronts can be adjusted for ride leveling.

That is how my truck was leveled. ETA: I went up 1.75" in the front, they can go 2".

[LittleLebowski]

Heard great things about them. I think the fronts can be adjusted for ride leveling.

Yup, those are next, getting them done Friday hopefully. I'm going for the second highest setting.

[mmc45414]

I'm going for the second highest setting.

I believe that is what I asked for, one notch down from tallest.

[TOTS]

Wondering how much to level if I don’t want any squat with a load on the back. That’s the only thing holding me back.

[LittleLebowski]

Wondering how much to level if I don’t want any squat with a load on the back. That’s the only thing holding me back.

Depends on the load, second or third down.