Poll: Stock or Pro Cal (What's your experience, Good, Bad, Meh?)

[Daweism]

This is interesting to me. At the raptor assault program, the FP guys told us that the 150 raptor could automatically reconfigure to use lower octane, that it would hurt the truck. But the truck ran to specs with the proper octane. So the RR must be a bit different. I just got the RR so I'm waiting for the '25 to be approved and I will do this upgrade.

The F-150 is not running an after market tune specifically dialed for 93. The tune for 2025 RR has been available for 2-3 weeks now outside of California.

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[Lion77]

All factory ECU calibrations from Ford can scale back down to 87 octane. This is pretty common in the industry overall. But with FI engines, you lose power going to a lower octane and your limited to lighter load activities.

My wife's Mazda CX-9 does the same thing as the RR, we actually normally run 87 in it, but at the cost of 27 hp. If we use it for a trip or load it up with cargo, we use 93. Also even with the factory calibration, at higher altitudes or with towing or high-performance driving, you still NEED to run 91. The service manual states that for certain high demand uses, you are required to run premium to avoiding pinging and possible engine damage, so using 87 in a TGDI engine has its limits.

With the Ford Performance Pro Cal high performance ECU strategy, you're giving up the ability to run octane below 91 for a significant increase in performance across the powerband. With the stock ECU cal., running 87 might cost you 30-40hp, but by giving up the ability to even scale back, you're ultimately gaining around 80-90hp vs. the power you would actually make running 87.

The factory ECU strategies are designed for scalability and with added safety in mind since your average joe may not understand that running 87 on an engine tuned for 91 or higher will damage it due severe knock and eventually pre-detonation that will crack a piston land or bend a connecting rod. So the safe route for a factory tune is to be very conservative and consider worst case (aka someone puts in 87, even if by accident).

The ability to run 87 also gives those who drive their vehicles daily for more mundane activities like a run to a Home Depot or to work a cheaper alternative fuel, so there are economic reasons as well. The trade-off is that you limit the maximum performance gains on 91 or higher by maintaining the ability to scale fuel octanes.

There's where the added power is coming from with the Pro Cal, eliminating the need for the ECU to scale back to lower octanes, so you can maximize performance on the premium fuels.

Forced Induction and high compression NA engines have always benefited from higher octane fuels (that's why for example my father in laws chevy small block race engine in his tube frame dirt oval car uses 106 Octan race gas, it makes about 850 HP and it's just naturally aspirated).

In fact, a few decades ago you couldn't even build a turbo engine that ran on 87 pump gas...DI, cooled EGR, VVT, more advance knock sensors and digital filtering techniques etc. have made that possible but there is still a big cost to performance using lower octane in a boosted engine.

For many of us on this forum, our RR's are dedicated performance vehicles. That's how I use mine, it's a 3rd car, not my daily use vehicle. I use it for family trips (i.e., camping, vacations), for fun hooning around back roads and trails, sand dunes in Michigan etc. and also as a utility vehicle since you can still tow 5,500 lbs even with the Pro Cal ECU strategy.

So for my uses, I have zero issue giving up fuels below 91 for the added 50 hp and 106 lb-ft of torque, which is a substantial gain in performance. Even the optimization of transmission tuning and throttle mapping alone are worth it for most of us.

Sorry for the excessively long post, but it's a bit of a complex subject and I have proclivity for excessively detailed answers . Plus, I started this thread so why not?

 

[Lion77]

I might also add that the Pro Cal is developed by Ford Performance, the Ranger Raptor is a Ford Performance vehicle, so it is a factory High Output ECU calibration, not some aftermarket upgrade that is likely to cause reliability issues longer term.

The Pro Cal is very well tested including going through the same OE durability cycles as the factory ECU strategy. If I had bought a Tacoma Trail Hunter or ZR2, I would NEVER use anything but the factory ECU tuning as neither of them offer anything else.

So, I don't personally consider the Ford Performance cal's as the same as your typical "aftermarket" because of the depth of reliability testing that goes into them. It would be very bad publicity for Ford and Ford Performance to sell Pro Cal's that cause early failure of their own vehicles....

 

[doncaddigan]

The F-150 is not running an after market tune specifically dialed for 93. The tune for 2025 RR has been available for 2-3 weeks now outside of California.

I asked at the dealership again for the 2025 tune in Illinois and it is not available. Where dd you see it was?

 

[Daweism]

I asked at the dealership again for the 2025 tune in Illinois and it is not available. Where dd you see it was?

Literally most of us 25s who wanted the tune have already installed it. Not much more proof we can give you it's available lol when it's already on our trucks.

 

[doncaddigan]

Literally most of us 25s who wanted the tune have already installed it. Not much more proof we can give you it's available lol when it's already on our trucks.

Awesome, thank you!

 

[Doc]

Unleashed stock 93 octane 2019 Ranger XL ..2.3 ..

 

[HighDesertRanger]

I asked at the dealership again for the 2025 tune in Illinois and it is not available. Where dd you see it was?

It's available for the 2025. I don't think being in Illinois matters. Your dealership may just not know it, but you can order it directly from Ford:

https://www.performanceparts.ford.com/part/M-9603-REB30

 

[ChicagoSummer]

I asked at the dealership again for the 2025 tune in Illinois and it is not available. Where dd you see it was?

I live in IL and got mine tuned yesterday

 

[KrillOill]

I think I'm going to install the tune myself. It's taking a chance with the warranty, but I haven't heard or read of many folks having issues yet. I changed my oil at 664 miles and it was clean (green from the break-in addititive for leaks) with no metals in the oil filter.

Here's the question though...does the dealer have to install/update the tune everytime there's an update? Seems like a money making scheme. Especially since the install seems to be so straight forward and simple.

Maybe it's just me and getting more suspicious in my old age. Just don't trust others doing maintenance on my vehicles.

 

[Lion77]

I think I'm going to install the tune myself. It's taking a chance with the warranty, but I haven't heard or read of many folks having issues yet. I changed my oil at 664 miles and it was clean (green from the break-in addititive for leaks) with no metals in the oil filter.

Here's the question though...does the dealer have to install/update the tune everytime there's an update? Seems like a money making scheme. Especially since the install seems to be so straight forward and simple.

Maybe it's just me and getting more suspicious in my old age. Just don't trust others doing maintenance on my vehicles.

The answers are going to be subjective. The legal language only specifically calls out initial installation requirements. It does NOT provide any context for "updates". I think the best thing to do would be to e-mail Ford Performance to ask them if doing a "self-update" is acceptable to them if the situation arises.

I think you're on pretty sure footing if you have an e-mail confirmation that it's ok to do a software update on your own since the process is much simpler than the initial install and there's nothing in the legal work that explicitly prohibits it that I'm aware of.

And I'm with you on NOT trusting others to do maintenance. I've had a lot of issues with the local Ford dealer, so I go an hour away if I need something done by the dealer but have resorted back to doing my own oil changes and tire rotations on the truck since I can get MC Full Synthetic and a filter from Rock Auto for $50 vs. a dealer price of $130.

With my Mazda's, I'm only saving $20 on their full synthetic oil changes / tire rotation vs. doing it myself and the local Mazda dealer does a good job (and that's all they offer, all their cars get FS Mazda Moly, they don't have any other options for oil).

On modern turbo engines, FS helps with long term reliability by preventing a variety of issues due to oil starvation and sludging (stuck piston rings, stuck chain tensioners, stuck hydraulic lash adjusters, oil starvation of bearings, particularly the turbos etc.). On any turbo engine, it's always going to be a full synthetic.

The anti-wear additive packages between FS and Blends is about the same, it's the base oil stock that really is the big difference and it does make a big difference over the life of the car in terms of engine reliability.

Testing different oils over 4 years and 1 MILLION miles - YouTube

BTW, the test engines were Ford Ecoboost 2.3L turbo's (same as whats in the Mustang Ecoboosts, Explorers and a variety of other Ford vehicles).

 

[Fordfknranger]

I might also add that the Pro Cal is developed by Ford Performance, the Ranger Raptor is a Ford Performance vehicle, so it is a factory High Output ECU calibration, not some aftermarket upgrade that is likely to cause reliability issues longer term.

The Pro Cal is very well tested including going through the same OE durability cycles as the factory ECU strategy. If I had bought a Tacoma Trail Hunter or ZR2, I would NEVER use anything but the factory ECU tuning as neither of them offer anything else.

So, I don't personally consider the Ford Performance cal's as the same as your typical "aftermarket" because of the depth of reliability testing that goes into them. It would be very bad publicity for Ford and Ford Performance to sell Pro Cal's that cause early failure of their own vehicles....

Actually Livernois motorsports are the ones who developed the tune. They cracked the 2021+ Ford F-150 first too. Ford ran with a watered down version of their tunes. It litteraly says Livernois when you're uploading it.

 

[Lion77]

FP has worked with Livernois in the past, may be possible they are using their base sw platform (i.e., the programmer is a private label), however that doesn't mean they developed the ecu calibration. FP uses a lot of different vendors and suppliers for hardware that meets their requirements, sometimes its an off the shelf part with their own modifications like the Bronco Method 703s other times its from scratch.

 

[Hoss]

One great thing about the Ford Performance Tune is that your not replacing the vehicle’s ECU. Aftermarket tuners want you to spend money on a replacement ECU with no warranty.

 

[Fordfknranger]

One great thing about the Ford Performance Tune is that your not replacing the vehicle’s ECU. Aftermarket tuners want you to spend money on a replacement ECU with no warranty.

But you also get a legit tune too. It's not a canned tune. They can tweak things to how you like. And you get substantially more power. I think it's insane in tow mode, stock and with the tune it wants to be in 10th all the time. I've had Livernois tunes in the past on 2021 Ranger & 2022 F-150 2.7 that were amazing. They lock out of 10th for towing too.

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