Justin's 2017 Ford Raptor Build

On this episode of the Haul, we're gonna put all of this onto that and have a whole lot of fun in the process. Well, here it is guys. My 2017 Raptor is in the shop, finally. I've own this thing for about a year now. It's been awesome. I'm having a lot of fun in it. But, as you can see, it is still painfully stock. Now, don't get me wrong, a stock Raptor, is still not that bad at the end of the day, but it's time to start moding this thing. So, we're gonna dive into the suspension a little bit more, give this thing some stopping power that it needs. Of course, add some performance, some armor, some lighting, and then at the end of the build, take it out, have a little bit of fun, get it muddy. Maybe take it off a sweet jumper, too.
 
You're gonna wanna subscribe to our YouTube channel guys for more cool builds like this, product overviews, and so much more. But for now, let's get this pig in the air, take these wheels off, and get into it. Now, one of the first things Joe and I are doing this morning with my Raptor is actually taking off one of the parts that makes it a Raptor in the first place, removing the Burley Fox Racing internal bypass stuff and replacing it with these absolutely massive three-O coil overs from our friends over at Sway-A-Way. Now, Sway-A-Way has been around since the late 1960s, making hardcore off-road suspension. And sure, they might not have that big flash name like Fox Racing or King. They certainly know what they're doing.
 
Now, recently our friends at AFP power took over the shop division here at Sway-A-Way, made a few tweaks, and are basically carrying the torch for the brand moving forward, and this is one of the newest products available for the second gen trucks, but just check these things out, man. Absolutely massive, true three-inch coil over here, mono tube design, and again, you have this big old reservoir. So, what's that mean? You're getting a lot more fluid in the coil over itself here, making for a lot more damping, and you're separating that fluid from the nitrogen in the reservoir, so a lot less shock cavitation, a lot less shock fade, things like that. 
 
The hearts of these things are work. You're gonna get more consistent shock performance overall. And on top of that, guys, you're just getting a lot of adjustment here with the Sway-A-Ways, in fact, independent of one another compression and rebound adjustment, so you can tweak these things to suit your driving style, your terrain, things like that, and you're also getting some height adjustment out of these things as well. Now, right out of the box or set up, to give you a roughly two to two-and-a-half inches of lift for the front end here making for a more leveled appearance overall, help you stuff some bigger rubber under there as well. We really can't wait to see how these things handle both on and off road.
 
All right. So, some small progress here, guys. The Sway-A-Way front passenger side is in, reservoir is mounted, and I got my stock tie rod end in my hand. Why? Well, because the next part we're installing comes with these beautiful new Billet tie rod ends to make room for what's gonna go here. Any guesses? Well, if you get big brake kit, you would be correct. So, I'm gonna stop talking, and get to work, and get these beautiful new pieces in place, and find what to do with this.
 
This right here is one of the most exciting parts for my build. I know it might not be that exciting to you guys watching at home, but for me, this is an incredible part. What you're looking at here is outcomes front and rear brake setup for the Gen two Raptors. And I actually caught my first glimpse of these things at the 2017 SEMA show. They had this thing stuffed behind a 17-inch wheel, but was more important or more I guess mind-blowing, was that this thing, this kit equipped on a Gen two Raptor was stopping from 60 miles an hour to zero and about 90 feet. 
 
Now, guys, for reference sake, that's roughly the same as a C6 ZO6 Corvette, absolutely mind-blowing. I'm gonna be eating my steering wheel, standing on the brake pedal once these guys are fully installed, but Billet aluminum bracket tree, really nice rotors and calipers. Again, that's where that tie rod kick came into play because we are just growing this thing a little bit more. So, you need to make room for it. And again, you're stuffing a 6-piston caliper behind a 17-inch wheel, which is crazy. Not too many people are doing that in the market. And I know my Gen two owners out there watching this, you know how bad the brakes kind of suck in these trucks, tends to do everything else pretty well, but stopping is just not one of them. Well, that's all gonna change here. Thanks to our friends at Alcon
 
All right, guys, well, to keep things consistent, we are yanking out the Fox Racing stuff in the rear just like we did up front to replace it with the corresponding Sway-A-Way 3Os. Look at that, compression adjustment, rebound adjustment on that side. You also have to finish up the Alcon brakes back here as well. And then, one of the trucks up in the air, we're just gonna finish up a couple things underneath the truck, throw an exhaust on this, attempt to make the EcoBoost sound a little bit more angry, and a little better. 
 
All right, so the boys and I are just finishing up the Corsa Sport exhaust system here on my second gen Raptor. Yes, I know, I'm putting an exhaust on an EcoBoost truck. A lot of you guys probably feel a certain way about that and hell, I can't blame you. But, of course, it has been known to make things sound a little bit better no matter what platform, and I had full confidence that this system will do the same for my rig. 
 
Talk about bigger is always better, right? Well, 5-inch black PVD tips, these things are coated in a way to really take some high temps, and they just look so damn good on there. So, even if this thing doesn't sound as good as a V8, it's certainly gonna look the part. If I wanna turn off the volume down the road, I can always add the resonator delete kit, essentially, turn this thing into the face-melting extreme. But I'm gonna kind of ease my way into a little bit more volume here with my Raptor. We're gonna do a couple more things underneath the truck here including a diff cover from our friends over at AFE power, dress things up a little bit, nothing too crazy there. Now, let's get the truck down a little bit and head up front or you got some more cool stuff waiting to go on.
 
The biggest performance killer on any forced induction application is heat and heat so. Well, as you can see, right now, we're carrying that problem here on my second Gen Raptor. Thanks to eliminating this puny little stocker and replacing it with this massive core and N tank setup from our friends over at ADD. Now, this thing, obviously, as you can see, just absolutely dwarfs the stocker in every way, which should help lead to more consistent performance through more consistent intake air temps. And again, as a Gen two Raptor owner, I can tell you, repeating performance is a little tough with these trucks because once they get hot, they tend to fall on their face. And we saw that with our stock Dyno numbers. So again, we're gonna be curing that, but in addition to helping our performance, we're also making room for so much more activities down here with the help of our next few modifications, which you will see very soon. Now, it's actually gonna move up into the grille opening. Another thing I really like, there's a certain bad ass tree to this thing when installed, seeing that big front now peeking out behind that grille. So that's our next step. We're getting this guy in place. Then we're gonna show you why we're moving this thing in addition to helping the performance.
 
Well, check it out, guys. We're making some serious progress. Up front here, we have the addictive desert designs from mount in place like we already showed you, because we added the Stealth Fighter winch bumper down below. Now, the first time I saw this thing on a Raptor, I fell in love, like, "That's the bumper for me. I have to get it." So, here it is, guys, with the winch in place. And listen, as someone who has gotten stranded on the beach and stuck before, it is not fun especially when you don't have any buddies around. So, I wanna make sure that is not gonna happen to me again. 
 
We also have the KC HiLites flex or a 40-inch bar in place. Joe is just finishing up wiring our barricade 9,500 pound winch. It's looking really good up front here. We did some small little goodies from Factor 55. The fairlead is in place right now. I also have one of their pro links going on as well, red, of course, because little white and red things happening all over the truck. What can I say? I'm OCD. I really dig the look, but we got a matching Stealth Fighter rear bumper coming on with some KC HiLites cubes. We'll get that on. And now, we're gonna add some performance goodies. And it's almost time to fire this thing up and makes some noise on the Dyno.
 
I'm finishing up the Roush quarter intake now, easily, one of the most popular systems for the 3.5 EcoBoost including a Raptor. It looks really OEM underneath the hood, and that's kind of Roush's MO. They like to make stuff that looks like it could have come like this from the factory and case-in-point here. The cold air fits right in nicely. We're gonna finish up a couple of things and see how this thing is doing.
 
That last lug nut, the build is essentially complete here. Yes, we still have to upload our tuned, Dyno everything, but let's talk about this wheel and tire combo. Black Rhino makes these wheels. It's called their sprocket. I really like what this company is doing in the truck market. They also have a wheel called the armory, which is very military looking. It's like an H1 wheel, but they're doing things a little bit differently in the truck wheel market, and I really dig this mesh style wheel. 
 
Now, it's wrapped in the very capable Nitto trail grappler 35 by 12.5. I didn't wanna go up to a 37. Yes, I know, it probably would look a lot tougher, but I drive this truck every day. Gas mileage sucks, and I have a long commute. So, I didn't wanna take a chunk out of that gas mileage any further by stepping up to a 37. And listen, guys, ever since Vaughn Gittin Jr. and I won the Ultra4 Nationals on a DOT trail grappler, I know what this thing is capable of. So, that is definitely the tire for me, but trucks looking good. I can't wait to get it down on the ground, load up our tune, head to the Dyno, and see if we're making some more power.
 
We're at our next part of the build, the custom tune. Now, yes, this is an EcoBoost truck. And our experience, these things like to make a lot of power and more importantly a lot more torque just using a simple calibration, a couple more pounds of boost, things like that. We're actually gonna use a tune from our friends at ID Motorsports loaded onto the new Rev-X device here. So, we have a 93-octane tune on this thing and hopefully, we'll improve on those baseline numbers with the help of our new goodies, of course, and this custom calibration.
 
Well, if you're on the fence about tuning your EcoBoost powered F150 or in this case Raptor, here's all the proof you need to sway your decision, right? Before the truck is making roughly 359 horsepower, 396-pound feet of torque to the tire, the truck is now making a whopping 428 horsepower and 477-pound feet of torque. The truck is making a lot more power underneath the curve. It's gonna feel like a monster pretty much everywhere in the power band, but especially down low. We're getting those nice fat torque gains before about 3000 rpm. So, I'm gonna get it out on the street, bed those new Alcon brakes. So, they're good and then we'll go out and have some fun.
 
Yeah. I mean, it feels way stronger now than it did before with the ID Motorsports tune. The truck feels stronger mainly down low and mid-range. Now, mostly your time in the power band is gonna be spent down low mid-range, things like that. Sure, you're gonna floor it once in a while and then you really light those turbos, but for the most part, I'm really digging this ID Motorsports tune. And listen, it's hard not to love that kind of power gain. And on top of the tune, thanks to that front mount from ADD. It's making repeatable power. He took nearly as bad as it did before with the stock intercooler in place. Now, when we had the truck on the Dyno, we showed you those initial numbers. I wanted to run it back just to see if the power drop-off, if it would heat soak really bad. And honestly, the truck made within four to five horsepower and same thing in the amount of torque back to back with this thing being hot. So, the fact that it made that kind of consistent power is a huge upgrade compared to what it was the before. Intercooler is doing its job on top of that tune making awesome power.
 
All right, the exhaust. Yes, I know. There's gonna be some comments. There always are. Obviously, these things don't sound nearly as good as a 6-2 or even a 5-4, but that being, said, Corsa, I really like what they did with this system. They're using their muffler. Of course, you get that drone free operation. So, obviously, this thing's whisper-quiet while driving on the street. It's a nice bump up over that factory system without being obnoxious. Let's see what these brakes are all about, shall we? There you go, 50 miles an hour. Hey, look it. There's that tool I've been looking for the last couple of months. Now, that was a full-blown panic stop mode, but it was pretty damn close. Listen, guys, the Alcon stuff is extremely nice. You're getting the six piston calipers up front, just these monstrous calipers, tons of clamping force. You're also getting a 4 Piston rear caliper, which just dwarfs the stock rear caliper. It's a noticeable improvement all around.
 
Last but not least, the suspension, right? I mean this stuff is completely bad ass. Overall, the trucks fit a lot nicer. In my opinion, not so much nose down rake, no rubbing whatsoever with the offset and the 35 by 12.5, which by the way are surprisingly quiet even on the street. It's a little firmer than stock. I will say that. But at the same time, it's not offensive. I don't think my family's gonna mind. I don't think my wife's gonna mind one bit, but not bad, not bone jarring. 
 
On road impressions, truck rides really nice, but that's enough on road stuff. What do you say we get this thing to where it belongs, off road, wind it up a