The 3.5L EcoBoost motors are marvelous engines, overflowing with potential. They respond well to bolt on performance modifications, but they truly come alive once you have them properly tuned. We got right to work modding our 2015 F150 EcoBoost project truck by throwing on an aFe cold air intake, MBRP exhaust system, aFe intercooler & tubing as well as an SCT Livewire TS+ with 5-Star custom tunes to make incredible power. On top of all these high-powered performance parts, we also threw in a UPR catch can to keep our engine running clean. You can purchase these exact mods in the product section at the bottom of this page.
Just like the 3.5L EcoBoosts found in the 2011 to 2014 F150s, the one under our hood had plenty of potential horsepower and torque waiting to be unlocked. We grabbed ourselves an aFe Stage 2 Magnum Force Pro 5R Cold Intake Kit to get things started off. While the intake doesn't add much on its own, it does help open up the door for some extra horsepower and torque once new tuning gets added into the mix. Not to mention, the intake looks absolutely awesome in our truck's engine bay and has an extremely aggressive sound. 2015 F150 2.7L & 3.5L EcoBoost aFe Magnum FORCE Pro 5R Cold Air Intake Kit
In order to get serious power gains we amped our F150 with an SCT Livewire TS+ loaded with 5-Star Custom Tunes. 5-Star's custom tuning changes key settings in your F150's Powertrain Control Module (PCM) so that your F150 EcoBoost makes a bunch more horsepower and torque. 5-Star's tuning works by adjusts your engine's boost pressure, ignition timing, fuel curves, and other parameters in your F150's engine computer to crank up the power output.
5-Star offers up Economy Tunes, Performance/Tow Tunes, outright Performance Tunes, and Transmission-only tunes in several different octane levels so that you can find the combinations that are perfect for your application or available fuel octane. We personally chose a 91 octane Performance Tune, which allowed our 2015 F150 3.5L EcoBoost to put down an impressive 420lb-ft of torque and 310 horsepower at the tires, up from a baseline run of 360lb-ft of torque and 300 horsepower, a gain of 60lb-ft of torque and 10 horsepower at its peak. With roughly an 18% drivetrain loss on our 4WD F150, that equates to 512lb-ft of torque and 378 horsepower at the crankshaft. While our peak horsepower difference was fairly small, there was a difference of over 30 or more horsepower earlier in the RPM band. On top of the power gains, we got improved shifting and fuel economy. 2015-2016 F150 3.5L EcoBoost SCT Livewire Tuner TS+ & 5-Star Custom Tunes
These 3.5L EcoBoost engines don't grow on trees so to help ensure we didn't have any reliability issues with the one under the hood of our Project Truck, we plumbed in UPR's 2015 F150 3.5L EcoBoost Dual-Valve Catch Cans. The purpose of UPR's catch cans is to capture as much PCV blow-by as possible to help eliminate intercooler condensation issues and reduce the chances of valve coking. The kit includes the catch cans, hoses, connectors and all the hardware required for installation. Despite how complex the system looks, the install was actually quite simple and only required a small amount of drilling to get it mounted. 2015-2016 F150 3.5L EcoBoost UPR Dual-Valve Oil Catch Can
The combination of living in one of the hottest cities in the country and driving our truck with a throttle happy foot means it gets difficult to keep our truck's intake air temperatures (IATs) under control. That's why we grabbed aFe's Complete Intercooler and Tubing Kit. This awesome performance package includes an aFe front-mount intercooler with an all-aluminum design, new cold-side piping to our trucks throttle body, and new hot-side tubing from our truck's turbochargers to the aFe intercooler. The aFe's intercooler is much more effective at cooling in-bound charge air than the factory model, while the new tubing improves overall airflow both into and out of the intercooler for some nice power gains. 2015-2016 F150 3.5L EcoBoost aFe Bladerunner Intercooler & Tubing Package
Our 2015 F150 3.5L EcoBoost didn't have much of an exhaust note to speak of from the factory, but we also didn't want something too loud with a ton of drone. The exhaust system we finally settled on was the MBRP 3" Installer Series Cat-Back Exhaust Kit. The MBRP 3" Cat-Backs for the 2015-2017 F150 EcoBoosts increase sound output and add just enough depth so that you can hear your 3.5L EcoBoost sing without it getting overbearing during your daily drive or while towing. 2015-2017 F150 2.7L / 3.5L EcoBoost MBRP 3" Installer Series Cat-Back Exhaust Kit
