Now that we finally got our grubby paws on an awesome 2012 F150 5.0L FX4 to play around with, we decided to get some hard, real-world performance figures for some of our most popular products and F150 performance packages for the 5.0L Coyote V8 trucks. Our truck was already looking awesome thanks to our ICON Stage 2 Suspension System, ReadyLift 3" Rear Block, XD Misfit Wheels, General Grabber tires, and our custom striping and hood decal, but now it was time to give our truck some actual bite to go along with its bark. We started our testing with our extremely popular Airaid MXP Intake and 5-Star Custom tune package that promises excellent gains in hassle-free package. We got the intake installed and our 5-Star custom tune uploaded before hitting the dyno down at Extreme Performance.
Our intake installation went extremely well, and just by looking at the intake, you can tell it's a serious piece of hardware. Airaid's intake is just a quality piece through-and-through, which is pretty much par for the course when it comes to our friends and neighbors over at Airaid. 5-Star's powerful custom tunes came pre-loaded on an SCT Livewire tuner and monitor that we stuck on our windshield, hooked to our OBD-II port and let loose on our truck's PCM. In just a few minutes, the Livewire had our truck ready to go for our testing. Already installed on our truck was an an aFe Mach Force XP Cat-Back kit that we used for a soon-to-be-uploaded YouTube video.
Our stock baseline run had our truck putting down 277 horsepower and 293 lb-ft of torque at the tires, which gives us a drivetrain loss of 23%, given the factory 360hp and 380lb-ft performance ratings. With the Airaid intake and 5-Star custom tune installed, our truck threw down 295 horsepower and 303lb-ft of torque at the tires, giving us an adjusted crankshaft 384 horsepower and 394 lb-ft of torque, for a total gain of 24hp and 14lb-ft at the crank.
While definitely not terrible performance gains, by any means, they were slightly lower than expected. Some of it can be attributed to the larger and much heavier wheel and tire package that we have on our truck, as well as the 46,000+ hard-driven miles that its seen. The low wheel power ratings are mostly caused by our huge drivetrain losses. Even though we ran the truck in two wheel drive, power still gets lost through the transfer case. Rear wheel drive F150s can expect up to 4% more power at their wheels. Another significant factor is our gasoline. Most manufacturers provide power numbers based on 93-octane gas. The best we can get in Arizona is 91-octane, and it's usually loaded with additives for high heat that can effect engine performance.
In the end, though, our Airaid Intake and 5-Star tuning package performed admirably, and got us excellent power in a convenient kit -- just as advertised.
