Upgrades

[Beehler219]

Currently have a bone stock 2015 non PP SHO. I'm looking for some help with making sure I make power safely. I see Livernois is one of the most talked about brands, so everything I've chosen so far is from them besides the CAI and exhaust. I'm going with a Roush CAI not sure if I want to go custom or bolt on for the exhaust. I will link everything below. If someone could let me know if I am missing anything crucial to making power or handling the power you're going to be adding, I would appreciate that a lot.

Thanks, Ryan




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[FREAK_SHO]

Most talked about for "reasons" on this and other sites. Please do yourself a favor, and research them here before making said purchase.

May be the best non purchase you make.

 

[Beehler219]

Most talked about for "reasons" on this and other sites. Please do yourself a favor, and research them here before making said purchase.

May be the best non purchase you make.

I posted that then started doing some deep looking and saw exactly what you are talking about. Is gearhead the way to go then?


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[76FoMoCo]

I posted that then started doing some deep looking and saw exactly what you are talking about. Is gearhead the way to go then?


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GH and AJP

 

[David Klopper]

Get the GH power pack with the bdx controller. Best upgrade for the money - https://www.ghtuning.com/product/2010-2019-sho-flex-explorer-sport-sct-x4-power-pack-package/

 

[kryptto]

Gearhead is your best way to go. Glad you kept reading.

 

[onanysunday]

So far so good with upgraded SOS ignition coils over Motorcraft. I recommend them. I had Pulstar plasma plugs but don't recommend them. They offered better seat of the pants performance but no durability and their customer support sucked. Everyone's setup will be different, but there are a few cheap upgrades I did while I wait for a tune. I wrapped the entire intake with DEI heat reflective tape, and added a large K&N air filter with carbon fiber heat shield. Also, get one of those coolant protection gauges and remove enough antifreeze to lower your 50/50 freeze protection (as much as you can safely get away with) by adding more distilled water as well as Hy-Per Coolant additive to lower temps. My car runs at about 84°C (183°F) consistently on a relatively hot 80°F day which is a little cooler than stock. I was averaging about 89°C (192°F) before doing this. Also, to save a few bucks on higher octane gas, I run 87 (while I wait for a performance tune) using a 60/40 mix of Xylol/Acetone at a ratio of 3.5oz per 10 gallons which is not enough to raise octane amount much, and yet somehow most definitely 'feels faster' after some trial and error testing. Also, upper cylinder lubricant with every fill-up.

3.5L EcoBoost 'Sultans of Spark' coils

 

[xekrubx]

I also have a 2015 non PP. Was kinda stoked to have a car that might parallel park itself and massage my back but nope. Don't have those options. I do have cooled seats though. And auto wipers. Not sure I like them yet.
I've had the car for about a month.
Previous owner did the H&R lowering springs. It is a little rough on bad roads and pronounced train tracks (my downtown area) but is mostly great. Super flat cornering. I'm still trying to see how fast I can take certain off ramps. I got LED "switchback" bulbs. They call them switchback but they don't switch anything. The running lights are white and the turn signal is super bright amber and they don't switch. One is just brighter. Like the amber is hilariously bright. Oh i used the same brand for reverse lights and also got the small corner bulbs but dont want to pull the bumper until i get their headlight bulbs. The brand is LASFIT. I got the black vinyl chrome delete kit for the window frames. Looks awesome but will test all your patience. Then I did the Roush intake. I covered the outside of the box in a shiny backed foam that was supposed to be sticky. Noy sticky enough. But reading the AIT it's not crazy. It cools back down when driving. Sitting parked or idling causes heat soak. Makes great noises. I'll likely get the tape like onanysunday posted. Oh I also did partial tail light tint that not only came out awful (I applied it poorly) but was also way too dark. 20% is too much. I reordered 35%.

 

[onanysunday]

I also have a 2015 non PP. Was kinda stoked to have a car that might parallel park itself and massage my back but nope. Don't have those options. I do have cooled seats though. And auto wipers. Not sure I like them yet.
I've had the car for about a month.
Previous owner did the H&R lowering springs. It is a little rough on bad roads and pronounced train tracks (my downtown area) but is mostly great. Super flat cornering. I'm still trying to see how fast I can take certain off ramps. I got LED "switchback" bulbs. They call them switchback but they don't switch anything. The running lights are white and the turn signal is super bright amber and they don't switch. One is just brighter. Like the amber is hilariously bright. Oh i used the same brand for reverse lights and also got the small corner bulbs but dont want to pull the bumper until i get their headlight bulbs. The brand is LASFIT. I got the black vinyl chrome delete kit for the window frames. Looks awesome but will test all your patience. Then I did the Roush intake. I covered the outside of the box in a shiny backed foam that was supposed to be sticky. Noy sticky enough. But reading the AIT it's not crazy. It cools back down when driving. Sitting parked or idling causes heat soak. Makes great noises. I'll likely get the tape like onanysunday posted. Oh I also did partial tail light tint that not only came out awful (I applied it poorly) but was also way too dark. 20% is too much. I reordered 35%.

Nice. The tape is good and says it reflects up to 80% of the nearby heat, but you may need more than you think and it's not very sticky either. Heat management is crucial with these engines I found. I don't have an upgraded intercooler or 170 thermostat, but I've lowered my water temp and IAT compared to what it was before. This shows up as increased power and performance. The intake tract consists of molded, hard plastic tubes and rubber hoses. As you can imagine, it doesn't stick as well to the pliable rubber hoses with all the heat cycles they go through. I find myself checking it every so often and pushing things back down or adding more to make it stick over problem areas. It seems kind of ridiculous, but I ended up using around two of the 30' foot 2" rolls and didn't even overlap too badly. I am going to get a BDX tuner with a few tunes from 5-startuning soon (hopefully).

The Lufi XS Revolution is also a cool little device. Sort of an all-in-one HUD. I have mine setup to display parameters missing from the dash. I mainly use it for a boost gauge, but I also have it set to display A/F Ratio, IAT, voltage and water temp (because my dash temp gauge doesn't work). Plugs into OBD port, is extremely customizable, and only $100 from AliExpress.

Lufi XS Revolution

 

[xekrubx]

Nice. The tape is good and says it reflects up to 80% of the nearby heat, but you may need more than you think and it's not very sticky either. Heat management is crucial with these engines I found. I don't have an upgraded intercooler or 170 thermostat, but I've lowered my water temp and IAT compared to what it was before. This shows up as increased power and performance. The intake tract consists of molded, hard plastic tubes and rubber hoses. As you can imagine, it doesn't stick as well to the pliable rubber hoses with all the heat cycles they go through. I find myself checking it every so often and pushing things back down or adding more to make it stick over problem areas. It seems kind of ridiculous, but I ended up using around two of the 30' foot 2" rolls and didn't even overlap too badly. I am going to get a BDX tuner with a few tunes from 5-startuning soon (hopefully).

The Lufi XS Revolution is also a cool little device. Sort of an all-in-one HUD. I have mine setup to display parameters missing from the dash. I mainly use it for a boost gauge, but I also have it set to display A/F Ratio, IAT, voltage and water temp (because my dash temp gauge doesn't work). Plugs into OBD port, is extremely customizable, and only $100 from AliExpress.

Lufi XS Revolution

These guys and their non sticky shields.

 

[BigStu123]

I also have a 2015 non PP. Was kinda stoked to have a car that might parallel park itself and massage my back but nope. Don't have those options. I do have cooled seats though. And auto wipers. Not sure I like them yet.
I've had the car for about a month.
Previous owner did the H&R lowering springs. It is a little rough on bad roads and pronounced train tracks (my downtown area) but is mostly great. Super flat cornering. I'm still trying to see how fast I can take certain off ramps. I got LED "switchback" bulbs. They call them switchback but they don't switch anything. The running lights are white and the turn signal is super bright amber and they don't switch. One is just brighter. Like the amber is hilariously bright. Oh i used the same brand for reverse lights and also got the small corner bulbs but dont want to pull the bumper until i get their headlight bulbs. The brand is LASFIT. I got the black vinyl chrome delete kit for the window frames. Looks awesome but will test all your patience. Then I did the Roush intake. I covered the outside of the box in a shiny backed foam that was supposed to be sticky. Noy sticky enough. But reading the AIT it's not crazy. It cools back down when driving. Sitting parked or idling causes heat soak. Makes great noises. I'll likely get the tape like onanysunday posted. Oh I also did partial tail light tint that not only came out awful (I applied it poorly) but was also way too dark. 20% is too much. I reordered 35%.

I had Lasfit bulbs for switchbacks but you’re right they are MAD ORANGE and I found the white wasn’t that bright. Switched to Auxito switchbacks and they are much better.


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[xekrubx]

I had Lasfit bulbs for switchbacks but you’re right they are MAD ORANGE and I found the white wasn’t that bright. Switched to Auxito switchbacks and they are much better.


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I'll look into this.
One side of mine does "flicker/vibrate" until it warms up.
That orange is hilariously bright. I feel bad for people facing me.
And I want more white.
Thank you so much for the suggestion.

 

[xekrubx]

I had Lasfit bulbs for switchbacks but you’re right they are MAD ORANGE and I found the white wasn’t that bright. Switched to Auxito switchbacks and they are much better.


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I'm seeing Auxito needing in line resistors.
I dont have the Ford tuner yet to turn off hyper flash.
Oh. Do you have pics of your LED?

 

[BigStu123]

I'll look into this.
One side of mine does "flicker/vibrate" until it warms up.
That orange is hilariously bright. I feel bad for people facing me.
And I want more white.
Thank you so much for the suggestion.

Auxito has the perfect ratio of orange to white in my opinion. Little pricey. You can get iBrightstar off of Amazon and those are fine too just slightly less quality. Brightness wise they are fine though. Also look into Forscan - will solve a lot of issues


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[BigStu123]

I'm seeing Auxito needing in line resistors.
I dont have the Ford tuner yet to turn off hyper flash.
Oh. Do you have pics of your LED?

So I’ve been told that the CANBUS built-in system (like with Lasfit) doesn’t work. I had a pair of Lasfits and I noticed after like 8-10 blinks it would start to hyperflash. Forscan is definitely the way to go. Let me find a pic.


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[onanysunday]

Get the GH power pack with the bdx controller. Best upgrade for the money - https://www.ghtuning.com/product/2010-2019-sho-flex-explorer-sport-sct-x4-power-pack-package/

What are "transverse applications"? I was trying to get 5startuning on board with selling me a BDX tuner but I can't get them to respond/ I don't know how to pay them since the BDX isn't available at their Taurus SHO weblink below. If I can't get them to take my money, I am not sure how reliable they'd be providing a tune after the fact..

https://5startuning.com/product-cat...0-2019-taurus-sho-3-5l-eb-tuners-programmers/

I thought maybe they'd charge less than $650 for a BDX with three supplied tunes, but maybe not? Anyone else have feedback on 5star? Do you need a 3 bar map sensor and 170 thermostat to get a tune? I know they may offer additional performance, but can't you tune for increased performance with the stock thermostat and map sensor? After all, the stock system isn't pushing the stock turbos or stock 2-bar map sensor close to their full potential- right? From what I understand, there are several safety features or performance "limiters" intentionally built into the ECU, and bypassing them should give increased performance just by itself..

 

[kryptto]

What are "transverse applications"? I was trying to get 5startuning on board with selling me a BDX tuner but I can't get them to respond/ I don't know how to pay them since the BDX isn't available at their Taurus SHO weblink below. If I can't get them to take my money, I am not sure how reliable they'd be providing a tune after the fact..

https://5startuning.com/product-cat...0-2019-taurus-sho-3-5l-eb-tuners-programmers/

I thought maybe they'd charge less than $650 for a BDX with three supplied tunes, but maybe not? Anyone else have feedback on 5star? Do you need a 3 bar map sensor and 170 thermostat to get a tune? I know they may offer additional performance, but can't you tune for increased performance with the stock thermostat and map sensor? After all, the stock system isn't pushing the stock turbos or stock 2-bar map sensor close to their full potential- right? From what I understand, there are several safety features or performance "limiters" intentionally built into the ECU, and bypassing them should give increased performance just by itself..

My suggestion, if you have stock exhaust or more clearly running with your catalytic converters go with:

SCT 7015 X4 Ford Programmer (2010-2018 SHO/FLEX) - Gearhead Sales

Shipping is unavailable to California. Please note: AO Tunes are not available for the 2010-2012 SHO - you will need to specify an octane rating on your tuning form Additional Ordering Information – Under normal circumstances custom tunes are delivered via email within two business days of...

www.ghtuning.com

*** A 3 BAR MAP SENSOR IS REQUIRED TO RUN OUR TUNING ON ALL TRANSVERSE APPLICATIONS ***​

A transverse engine is an engine mounted in a vehicle so that the engine's crankshaft axis is perpendicular to the direction of travel. Many modern front-wheel drive vehicles use this engine mounting configuration.

 

[onanysunday]

Ok, thanks. I may do that. So the V65 3.5 EB engine is transverse? I have the K&N 2820 clamp-on air filter, factory cats and a 2-into-2 glass pack muffler only. It's loud and should have increased intake and exhaust flow to work with (for added performance). Didn't the stock exhaust system come with like two sets of mufflers for some reason? Mine only has one muffler where the central muffler is pictured here.

EDIT: Updated exhaust component identification picture for reference

 

[kryptto]

Ok, thanks. I may do that. So the V65 3.5 EB engine is transverse? I have the K&N 2820 clamp-on air filter, factory cats and a 2-into-2 glass pack muffler only. It's loud and should have increased intake and exhaust flow to work with (for added performance). Didn't the stock exhaust system come with like two sets of mufflers for some reason? Mine only has one muffler where the central muffler is pictured here.

two downpipe cats - then a third cat, and resonator to cancel drone, then two mufflers.

 

[onanysunday]

I updated the exhaust photo in the above post to provide accurate info. It had me a bit confused at first with a resonator looking like a 3rd muffler and three cats which I wasn't expecting.