I've read this whole thread. Some people here are on the ball, some appear utterly brainless.
1. Ford Motor is a massive company with a staggering R&D budget. They have 100+ years of building vehicles. They have built turbocharged engines for decades.
2. The EcoBoost line of vehicles is their bread and butter, especially the trucks. But the EcoBoost engine is used throughout almost all of their vehicles. If there was any widespread problem releated to condensation that could be solved by adding a small hole, which would cost Ford nothing, they would do it.
3. A forced-aspiration engine (turbo) needs to be a closed system. If water can escape from a small hole, then how much easier can pressurized air escape? Drilling a hole could introduce debris to you engine and also reduce boost pressures.
4. Ford did not move the license plate on the 2015+ F-150 trucks to the center to help "protect" the intercooler. They did so to accommodate the location of the adaptive cruise control radar sensor.
5. The intercooler fans and grille shutters are not designed with the idea of controlling condensation in the intercooler. For one thing, only the Raptor EcoBoost engine has the supplemental cooling fans, and non-turbo F-150 trucks also have the grille shutters, such as the 5.0L. The intercooler fans on the Raptor are designed to lower the charged air temp further than what could be achieved on the other EcoBoost trucks, in order to give the Raptor additional performance. The grille shutters are designed ultimately to increase fuel economy and lower emissions. They close when the engine is cold to help the engine warm up faster. They open to allow more cooling as needed. When closed at highway speed, they likely also reduce air drag.
6. The octane level of the fuel you buy will not cause the engine to run poorly under any circumstance so long as the minimum octane Ford has published is adhered to: 87. As others have said, sophisticated engine controls will retard timing to control knock at full throttle or heavy load. You will not make 450HP running on 87. However, the engine will run completely smoothly at all RPM ranges and most users will never notice a difference. I'm running 87 in my 2018 Raptor...only 1500 miles...but it runs perfectly well. I've also towed 11,500lbs with it up a steep hill already, well over the max towing limit...while running 87...and the truck performed very well.
The OP with the problem originally reported sounds more like a transmission problem than anything else. In normal mode, the transmission is quick to upshift and reluctant to downshift. When moderate to heavy throttle is suddenly applied, the transmission can be quite jerky to downshift, and it can be delayed. Often what happens is the truck is rolling along in a very high gear when more throttle is suddenly called for. After a brief delay, the truck downshifts. Halfway through the shift, the user is impatient and depresses the throttle further. This causes the truck to downshift further...sometimes halfway through the first shift, which causes a jerking / bucking sensation. My conclusion is that the Raptor has more turbo lag than any other EcoBoost engine I've driven. In Sport mode, the transmission is much quicker to downshift, and to downshift to a lower gear. It also delays upshifting into the higher gears. Combine that with the fact that the electronic throttle pedal is "front-loaded" in Sport mode, meaning most of the throttle opening occurs during the first 50% of throttle travel. This makes the truck feel much more responsive.
A word on the truck adapting to a driver: the engine will adapt to different conditions it encounters - reduce timing if knock occurs, even operate on three cylinders if it has overheated. But it *will not* adapt to a driving style "learned" after a user drives the vehicle for a period. The transmission, however, will "learn" a slightly modified shifting schedule after a period of time. I find that it is important for the driver to be consistent. It does not take very long for the shifting schedule to be adapted and it constantly updates as the driver changes driving styles. Hence, important to be consistent.
