AMAZING article... I love the way a 3rd Party company was allowed to assess and make changes to the Ford F150, WITH Ford's permission and even later gave their adulation to Full-Race for their efforts. This in itself raises interesting questions. Everything I have read to this point endorses the, "AFE stage 2 cold air intake" (+33 RWHP and +34 RWTQ) or other such air box that opens the OEM restrictions on airflow. BUT, Full-Race was SOOO impressed with the OEM airbox, they only swapped out the filter element. What am I to believe? A manufacturer that is selling a $430 part backed up by Dyno's THEY purport to be accurate? Or a team of highly educated and skilled engineers that work in the real world environment. The "Full-Race" folks live and die by RWHP and RWTQ and here MAK Performance is offering the aforementioned AFE stage 2, along with the "BladeRunner Charge Pipe" for a mere $645 (Even though the BladeRunner Charge Pipe looks like a length of oversized radiator hose priced at $260...) So, for $645 "Full-Race" can add 43 RWHP and 46 RWTQ!!! That is an outrageous increase and worth the money but, that does not happen. Same thing with the Cat-back exhaust system. 2.5", vs 3" vs 4". I don't wish to disparage anyone here but I am interested in the truth, along with making my dream truck the best that it can possibly be.
First of all let me applaud you for doing what most people never do. Researching and Inquiring!!!!!
I will not knock full race or discredit their findings. However, we do believe that the products that we sell are improvements over the factory equipment. Good enough improvements to warrant spending the money on. We are not parts pushers. We will usually try to discourage customers from purchasing items that we don’t believe do a good job. If you notice on our website we don’t have every available ecoboost part for sale. The reason for that is that we know what works and what doesn’t, through various types of testing. A dyno is only a tool, and should only be used as one. Our very own y-pipe when we tested in house picked up minimal gains on our Mustang Dyno, when we went to the track in the same truck as the previous week and only difference being our Y-pipe. We picked up 2tenths and 2mph in the ¼ mile. Those who know anything about drag racing, or have been around it, know that 7-10hp does not translate into 2 tenths and 2mph. My point is that a dyno is not the be all tell all. Some products function better in the real world than on a dyno. Most of our customers have really experienced that first hand when swapping to our offroad y-pipe. Even outside testers have used our y-pipes against the competition and we come out ahead.
We have been in the industry for 20+ years, you can ask many different manufacturers who have worked with us in the past, and most will tell you that they in part dread working with us, because we are very honest about products when they don’t work. They know they will receive feedback, but they also know that they might not like some of the feedback they get. We might not be engineers, but we have worked/still work with the best engineers from all over this industry to create the best products in the performance market.
Now for some ecoboost knowledge.
That over-sized piece of radiator hose that you call an AFE charge pipe, is anything but. The slight design modification accounts for an extra 10rwhp/12ft/lbs. Not only claimed by AFE but also tested by an 3[SUP]rd[/SUP] party company.
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The exhaust debate in our eyes is pretty clear. We have tried 3in, 4in, and 3.5in. Our conclusion is that the 3.5in stainless works catback is the most powerful catback(and best sounding, zero drone!) we have tested. Once again that is supported by a 3[SUP]rd[/SUP] party company.
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We have no direct connection to 5startuning.They were interested in doing some testing and purchased a y-pipe and came to their own conclusions. Again we are not just pumping parts on the internet to sell to you guys. We are here to help you guys get the best combination possible for you ecoboost trucks. So yes the AFE package that we sell, we sell because we believe that it will be a good addition to you dream ecoboost truck.
If you have any questions feel free to ask.
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