5.4 vs 6.2 Liter Power

[Madcowranch]

After a mix of off road and on this first week with my new 6.2, I have a few observations concerning the motor. I will compare to the Toyota 5.7 and Chevy 6.0 HD since I currently drive both.

At first I was a little dissappointed when I mashed the go-pedal in the Raptor as far as head snapping acceleration...at least compared to the Toyota motor. And I will say the 5.7 will still smoke it on the street; but this 6.2 is all about the torque. It's like riding some mountainous wave of stump pulling power and has to be driven off road or pulling a load to appreciate. I took it up a STEEP hill yesterday that can't be taken at speed because it's so rough and has sections of thick gooey mud, and the Raptor didn't even break a sweat. I imagine this thing would have zero problems with my 22 ft stock trailer if the suspension were up to the task. And that's where this engine shines- it feels like it could power through just about anything. So it behaves a lot like my chevy 6.0 except way more power.

Ford has developed a great gas engine to go in their HD's from what I can tell and I love it in my Raptor!

Again, I only have 700 miles logged in the Raptor so far so take it for what it's worth...

 

[Madcowranch]

Also wanted to mention I got 11.7 mpg on first tank and 13.2 on second tank.

 

[SLB8SNK]

Also wanted to mention I got 11.7 mpg on first tank and 13.2 on second tank.

yup got 11.5 on my first and just filled up!

 

[jesse]

Hi and Thanks! Got my Raptor at Team Ford Also! Thanks for the great price and good service. For anyone needing a 6.2 this morning I saw a white and blue sitting on their lot.

Thanks for the feedback but I'm just not that into it. Maybe you and stevo are but to me the 5.4 and 6.2 on the road in city felt very similar. To me and it may be the hype I was expecting a much different experience between the two.

I can afford the trade in no problems but it's just a bad financial decision unless 1 sec 0-60 on the road means a lot to the buyer or a more responsive engine is worth the hit.

It wasn't like 911 vs 911 turbo, it was minimal like 911 vs 911S. IMO 100HP should be a game changer. I'm talking about in Drive not offroad mode or anything else.

I totally agree that there is more lag in response for the 5.4 for sure that bugs me, so does the tranny. That said would I trade my 5.4 for a 6.2? not really the difference in experience is minimal. Both are raptors.

This is just me but if I didn't own a raptor and could start all over again today my 1st choice would be a used 5.4 at a deal vs a new 6.2.

In my experience forum guys always shoot for the best, and split hairs for the sake of argument but If you gave the average potential raptor buyer a blind taste test I don't think they will see much of a difference.

In my past auto's 50hp made a big difference (cars) I can only assume the weight of the Raptor makes the extra 100HP less noticeable. Sorry I'm no truck expert.

Anyway you and stevo are the experts I'm just a customer and thats my 2 cents.

very well stated RIKU...I agree

 

[The Tank]

The lag in the throttle of the 5.4L can be tuned out. Because all new cars have electric throttles which don't have feedback Ford gives the throttle a bit of lag.

 

[BigJ]

X2, but for slightly different reasons. To my knowledge, the pedal and butterfly valves are both closed loop systems. Each knows where it's supposed to be given the input voltage.

But in any case, tank is right. One of the easiest tuning jobs there is on setups like ours is to remap the pedal to throttle positioning table. In my experience some tuners will actually only do that, and charge a small fortune for it, sendin the customer home believing he just picked up 100hp.

To put it another way, consider that we have 0-100% movement in our gas pedals, and also consider that we have 0-100% power available from the engine.

Let's say the stock map tells the system to apply 5% power when the pedal is at 10%, then apply 15% at 20% and so on (just an example). Now let's say you get "tuned". The tuner remaps the relationship to look like 15% power at 10% pedal, then 35% power at 20%, and so on.

You go away believing you just picked up huge power because you're getting pinned to your seat when normally you'd feel lag, for the same pedal position. But in truth you have no more power than you did before; it's just being applied sooner, at the expense of having it available later in the pedal stroke.

In this truck, I believe this is part of what Ford did in the Off Road modes. Its a good thing off road. Not so much on road.

 

[The Tank]

For something as small as getting rid of the throttle lag my tuner won't charge that much because it doesn't involve the dyno and takes him maybe 10 mins to write the tune. Now for a full tune that is a different story $125/hr for tuning and $100/hr for the dyno some places do flat rate tunes which unless you have a car that is going to be on the dyno all day its not worth it.

 

[BigJ]

Normally you're right Tank. But I've seen it with my own eyes. More than once. A "tuner" will take the car, do lots of stuff (seemingly) spend a few hours, charge a small fortune then give the keys back to a grinning owner. I've seen those tunes, looked thru them myself, read the code...

Not saying thats the norm. Not at all. But it does happen and you (the potential customer) need to know who you're dealing with and what you're buying. It's not good enough to just say it's a "tune". Really, that doesn't mean much a all.

PS: some off the shelf "canned" tunes do little more than remap as well.

 

[BigJ]

I should say it sounds like you're dealing with a good tuner. I don't mean to impugn his abilities at all. My comments are more general.

By the way, what does your tuner thing about the different modes of the Raptor? Can he/she change one map and not the others? Does that map persist between mode changes?

Could be a good option for many, if so.

 

[The Tank]

Normally you're right Tank. But I've seen it with my own eyes. More than once. A "tuner" will take the car, do lots of stuff (seemingly) spend a few hours, charge a small fortune then give the keys back to a grinning owner. I've seen those tunes, looked thru them myself, read the code...

Not saying thats the norm. Not at all. But it does happen and you (the potential customer) need to know who you're dealing with and what you're buying. It's not good enough to just say it's a "tune". Really, that doesn't mean much a all.

PS: some off the shelf "canned" tunes do little more than remap as well.

My Lightning spent 4 hours on the dyno because of everything I had done to it so it wasn't a simple tune. As far as canned tunes go I will never use one. Air quality has huge effects on tunes and the car. A canned tune for Southern Cali is not going to as spot on for someone who lives in FL where there is a lot more humidity. I always tell people with canned tunes to get the car on a dyno and check the A/F ratio.