Ordered the VASFab front differential brace from Beefcake from a recommendation from the F150 Ecoboost forums to help eliminate some of the wheel hop. I am still on the fence about traction bars and daily driving the truck.
My new 2021 F150 XLT Supercrew
- Thread starter kevinatfms
- Start date
Vas Fabrication front diff brace finally came. Made to order so it took longer than expected. Looks great and welds are damn good. Might try to install it this weekend.
Looks good.
Ordered the VAS Fabrication traction bars. Should help eliminate wheel hop that plagues this truck. A monoleaf main rear spring with a single overload spring is a terrible design choice for any truck with this much torque at a low RPM. I understand its to make the truck more comfortable but its insane the amount of movement the driveline has when just driving.
VAS Fab traction bars have shipped. Excited to get them in.
New blacked out F150 XLT fender badges from Badge King. Fit was fantastic.
Next is the front and rear Ford emblems.
Sent from my iPhone using the svtperformance.com mobile app
Next is the front and rear Ford emblems.
Sent from my iPhone using the svtperformance.com mobile app
Unleashed Tuning will be tuning the truck from here on out. 5 Star did a great job but the tunes ive been running just arent as smooth as id like. Alot of mid range surging during passing maneuvers.
I have had Unleashed tune our 2015 Edge(both of them) and our Explorer ST. The tunes are damn near perfect and drive like stock until you hit the loud pedal.
Went with a 93/E30/E50 tune set. Hope to start datalogging and getting this thing even more refined.
I have had Unleashed tune our 2015 Edge(both of them) and our Explorer ST. The tunes are damn near perfect and drive like stock until you hit the loud pedal.
Went with a 93/E30/E50 tune set. Hope to start datalogging and getting this thing even more refined.
Been driving around on the Unleashed 93 tow tune for the last few days and its superb. Much smoother throughout the mid range under load than the 5 Star tow/performance tune(s) i was running previously.
There are only two little issues. #1 is the auto start/stop is back on. I hate that with a passion. So a revision will need to be made to turn it off. #2 is the torque hit down low in the RPM range is almost gone. Its a more linear feel to it which probably makes it smoother than the 5 Star but i do miss that just wallop of torque right at 2000rpm that just turns it into a monster. Truck will still annihilate the tires from a stop but its much more refined than before....again, maybe not a bad thing.
Tried to fill up with E85 this morning to get some logs on my E30 tune for Unleashed to fine tune the E30/E50 tunes but the two stations near me both were out of order. Stuck with trying to find another station locally that has it.
There are only two little issues. #1 is the auto start/stop is back on. I hate that with a passion. So a revision will need to be made to turn it off. #2 is the torque hit down low in the RPM range is almost gone. Its a more linear feel to it which probably makes it smoother than the 5 Star but i do miss that just wallop of torque right at 2000rpm that just turns it into a monster. Truck will still annihilate the tires from a stop but its much more refined than before....again, maybe not a bad thing.
Tried to fill up with E85 this morning to get some logs on my E30 tune for Unleashed to fine tune the E30/E50 tunes but the two stations near me both were out of order. Stuck with trying to find another station locally that has it.
Added some blacked out Ford badges and an EcoBeast badge to the truck. Kinda corny but i like it so far. I do want to find a full blacked out badge as these vinyl decals didnt cover the chrome ring.
Also installed the VAS Fab front differential brace which i am sorry to say does not fit an FX4 without removal of the skid plate.
Also installed the VAS Fab front differential brace which i am sorry to say does not fit an FX4 without removal of the skid plate.
i got mine for exp sport from here, all black. factory ones get removed and install these.
They don't have the 2021 F150 badges.i got mine for exp sport from here, all black. factory ones get removed and install these.
Removed the broken flag nuts and VAS Fab diff brace as it did not allow the FX4 skid plate to be reinstalled. I want the skid plate due to jobsites i visit on occasion. So, found the Bwoody brace allows the skid plate to be installed and purchased it.
During the weekend i went and pulled the crossmember and VAS Fab brace, had to cut the old bolts/nuts off to remove the brace due to the absolutely garbage design by Ford.
Drilled the cross member for the Bwoody bracket and installed. Everything bolted back up like normal and used new nuts/bolts from Ford for the reinstallation of the skid plate.
VAS Fab top vs Bwoody bottom. The Bwoody brace is much smaller.
Bwoody brace installed.
These nuts are FLAT GARBAGE. Whomever designed and implemented these into the F150 needs to be kicked square in the nuts. They break off using just basic ratchets they are so flimsy. Just an idiotic piece of crap.
During the weekend i went and pulled the crossmember and VAS Fab brace, had to cut the old bolts/nuts off to remove the brace due to the absolutely garbage design by Ford.
Drilled the cross member for the Bwoody bracket and installed. Everything bolted back up like normal and used new nuts/bolts from Ford for the reinstallation of the skid plate.
VAS Fab top vs Bwoody bottom. The Bwoody brace is much smaller.
Bwoody brace installed.
These nuts are FLAT GARBAGE. Whomever designed and implemented these into the F150 needs to be kicked square in the nuts. They break off using just basic ratchets they are so flimsy. Just an idiotic piece of crap.
On revision 4 of my custom E30 tune with Unleashed Tuning. Truck is a complete monster on ethanol. Hopefully get to start E50 tuning shortly to max out the stock fuel system on the truck.
Would love to try and head to Mason Dixon Dragway for a test & tune night to get the truck solidly into the 12s on E30 and hopefully mid to low 12's on E50.
Would love to try and head to Mason Dixon Dragway for a test & tune night to get the truck solidly into the 12s on E30 and hopefully mid to low 12's on E50.
Be careful of that big torque hit down low as that can lead to issues if octane isn't on point, etc. Plus beware of LSPI. I had 5 Star for a while before Unleashed and I would take the smoothness of Unleashed over the issues I had with 5 Star (transmission tuning, pinging/detonation, etc.) any day.
Can't wait for you to try E50. It is sooooo much better than 93 on my Ranger that I drive E50 year 'round.
Oh i definitely felt like 5 Star was out to end the truck with the way it just went to 20psi at like 2700rpm. Felt WAY too aggressive and the transmission was not happy when the truck was not WOT. Like it had too much line pressure trying to keep up with the wastegate cycle.
Unleashed has been my go-to for Ecoboost tuning since our Edge Sport. Only reason i bought the 5 Star package(tuner + tune set) was that it was the first out of the gate. Once Unleashed confirmed he could tune the 2021+ trucks i was set.
So far with 50/50 mix of pump E85 and 93 it will hit a -.96 OAR within about 10-15 miles from filling up. Good fuel grade from the looks of the logs.
I finally found a good station near my work to get E85 so its been much easier. The three stations near my house have been very hit or miss the last few years.
Do you test the E% content every time you fill up for E50?
With that OAR you should be good to go. Just a suggestion, although the tuner will allow you to monitor quite a bit, and you can use a laptop to datalog for tune revisions, etc. it is cumbersome to use unless you are getting ready for those revisions. I recently purchased the Banks iDash Supergauge/Datamonster and love it. If you set it up for the Ford ECU, it has what you need and you can run so many different combinations of data on the screens/gauges at once it can be overwhelming. On one gauge I have OAR right at the top as well as other fueling data below. It will datalog as well with a simple SD card and converts it all to .csv. $295.
I test it every couple of weeks in the winter months and late spring/summer once a month. I see about E70/E75 in the winter and E80/E85 in the warmer months. No need to really test it every time if it remains that consistent. You could do that at first to see if it remains consistent, but I doubt you need to every time you fill. Not enough people run it to drain the tank that fast.
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