Tuner advice

[Blue blood]

Hello fellow raptor owner/lovers. I have a 2012 6.2 stock raptor and I am starting to research tuners and upgrades. The first thing I plan on doing is Kooks or American racing headers, with exhaust redo. I have read about the difficult installation of the Kooks headers but haven’t heard of the American racing header installation yet. I know the Kooks are larger diameter which should equal better flow for future upgrades, as I would like to supercharge it someday. The next question is the tuner. The JDM sounds like a good choice but I am also looking at the Livernois cold air and tuner kit. Possibly the cam upgrade as well. Can anyone give me their experience on either of these options. Much appreciated in advance.

 

[MTF]

If your going to SC, save your money and do that first.
I'm getting 561 rwhp (that's around 715-725 fwhp) on full stock exhaust with the Whipple.
Stock exhaust on the Raptor is quite stout for OEM.
Throwing headers on would give you about another 15 to 20 rwhp
but the torque would increase about 40 ft-lbs. to 50 ft-lbs. in the lower rpm range.
And that depends on running cats or no cats and/or what cats.

I believe there are three header manufactures for the Raptor and come either in 1 3/4" or 1 7/8" tubes.
All require lifting the engine to get the headers in from what I've read on here.

You can't go wrong with either Tuner but I do not have personal experience with any other Tuner besides Whipple.

 

[PorterW1111]

If your going to SC, save your money and do that first.
I'm getting 561 rwhp (that's around 715-725 fwhp) on full stock exhaust with the Whipple.
Stock exhaust on the Raptor is quite stout for OEM.
Throwing headers on would give you about another 15 to 20 rwhp
but the torque would increase about 40 ft-lbs. to 50 ft-lbs. in the lower rpm range.
And that depends on running cats or no cats and/or what cats.

I believe there are three header manufactures for the Raptor and come either in 1 3/4" or 1 7/8" tubes.
All require lifting the engine to get the headers in from what I've read on here.

You can't go wrong with either Tuner but I do not have personal experience with any other Tuner besides Whipple.

I second this big time! Just start that SC jar. Hold off on anything else. When I picked up my ‘12 screw all I wanted was that SC...Now full suspension and fiberglass later...still no supercharger and I’m way more into the other stuff than I would have been just holding out...

 

[B E N]

JDM is pretty popular here, avoid 5-Star. Intake and tune will give you the most tangible benefits right away, there are some logic changes that make the truck more responsive and nicer to drive, you will be able to get a discount on your SC kit later on and hold on to the tuner.

For headers, they are a good supporting mod if you do end up supercharged, and will get you some decent gains right away. Other than intake/tune they are the next easy thing for power. Go ahead with the larger tubes, they cost a little more but if you ever decide to lean on the SC it will be worthwhile. Exhaust is all about the sound, best thing you can do is go to a raptor run and listen to as many different trucks as possible, beg the owners for a ride and see how it is to live with. Long tubes are going to give you good low end gains, which will be nice on the street.

Supercharger is nice, but it isn't something that everyone can handle right away. Everyone should experience boosted V8s at some point in their lives.

 

[Blue blood]

I would like to improve the sound of the stock unit, and hopefully add to the overall performance with the headers. The supercharger sounds highly recommend but which one is the better choice. The roush is slightly less expensive but yields less overall power that the Whipple. As I understand it they each have plus and minus issue with acces to plugs and alternator. Looking at some of the Lovernois packages I like the cam package with good power gains. So let me throw this out for inspection, if I do the cam package and long tube headers with exhaust upgrade this should be close to the same power as just installing a blower? Which affects drivability more? There are a lot of choices but I would like to hear from the guys who have done each way to see before I take the plunge.

 

[MTF]

Pay close attention to HP numbers, most advertised HP numbers are Fly Wheel (at the crank)
The Raptor's 6.2L advertised HP # is 411 fwhp

Tune, Cam, Headers and Cat-Back exhaust will add about 50 to 85 HP (that's flywheel HP) Total 500 HP


The Gen 4 Whipple Supercharger Stage II kit, adds 300+ (flywheel HP) Total 700 to 800 HP depending on mods.

 

[Blue blood]

Oh my bad. Does the stage one bring power up that high or is that a total number possible? I am guessing that the Whipple is your choice between the two screws.

 

[SVTTrooper]

avoid 5-Star

been running multiple 5 Star tunes for the past 2 years with no issues. what problem did you run into?

 

[B E N]

I remember having a couple of niggles but the thing that sticks out in my memory was a periodic surge during cruise, the engine would rev up like you mashed the gas then go back to cruising.. really irritating. I know it was tune related because when I returned to stock tuning the truck drove a bunch better. Fuel economy was also down on their "economy" tune, and there was something in the shift logic that would cause it to act funny on low speed 2-3 shifts, felt like excessive slip.

I keep thinking one day I will load their tune and read it to dissect what was up, but it's a pain and I keep finding better ways to spend time on the truck.

There are at least a few users that were dissatisfied with 5-star for gen 1. I normally wouldn't broadcast an avoidance message for any company based on one bad experience. The gen 1 ecoboost tune I had from them was pretty good. Their support sucks, and trying to get them to dial in or fix tune issues is a fools errand.

 

[CoronaRaptor]

I would go with the s/c off the bat, leave the exhaust for later, the exhaust with headers is expensive to buy and install. You're half way to a s/c already at this point. I've done the headers and exhaust, still dreaming of a s/c............