Ford Ranger Ford Performance Tune Review

[crazyrazor21]

Good product for those obsessive about retaining some sort of warranty, though in this case of the 3/36 warranty it may be completely useless depending on your mileage or buy date.

That is about all the good I can think of and that good is like a half-ass attempt by Ford to placate the sky is falling customers.

For half the price you have Livernoise, Unleashed, 5-Star, etc etc who will net you (on paper) about 90HP + 100TQ on premium. These tunes also address sloppy transmission mapping as well as takes the anemic electronic throttle and brings it back up to old school fly by (physical) wire response times. Press the gas with you big toe and you get immediate response.

As stated in the past, I have probably the least aerodynamic Ranger on US soil and run 285/70/17 (will be changing over to 255/85/17's in future). With a 93 Performance tune from 5-Star I noticed about a 2MPG increase over factory mapping. On top of that I run gear lock out at 7th and keep the trailer mode activated in town driving. I generally lock out to the 9th gear for highway travel, unless in an extremely flat area which I will open up 10th again and turn off trailer mode. This habit has increased my MPG in town by about another 1 MPG and probably 1 - 2 MPG on highway.

With all that said my grand total on MPG is about 16.5 in town and 18 on highway. Highway numbers may drop a good bit if I am engaged in "ludicrous" (yuck yuck spaceballs reference) speeds.

Without the tune and gear lock outs I was getting about 14.5 MPG with factory settings.

For those still unaware, you dont have to haul a trailer to take advantage of trailer mode. All this mode does is takes your RPMs about 500 higher before upshifting and also will utlize engine braking automatically.

This has the advantage of those not hauling trailers of keeping you much better in the ecoboost range of 2200 RPMs when cruising at speed limits. This also addresses going into an incline or steep hill and having to wait for your transmission to figure out what it wants to do as it downshifts (sometimes twice...). At 2200 RPM in 7th gear even a moderate incline might as well be flat land.

I've been running my 5-Star tune close to 2 years with zero issues.

Edit: Also for those concerned about running a lower max gear range, 7th gear is our transmissions 1:1 ratio gear.

It's rather well known that the Ford tune is made by livernois. Even when you download the software it says it's from Livernois. I tuned my 2020 Ranger on 9/26/2020. I plugged it back in yesterday and realized that I was on version 1 and they had just pushed version 9 of the tune. Biggest improvement is that with the version 9 my truck cannot skip gears. Thus eliminating the dreaded Ranger 3rd to 5th skip that slams into gear. My tuck has to go 3rd to 4th to 5th. The FPP tune is not just a one time deal. It wil continue to improve.

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[crazyrazor21]

I didn't think/know there were any engine changes between 21 and 22 to warrant this re-certification, hence why I bet the existing tune would work just fine.

Not entirely true. The 2019 to 2021 rangers have a different exhaust manifold and a different turbo design. Hence why exhaust for earlier model years are not compatible.

 

[Doc]

It's rather well known that the Ford tune is made by livernois. Even when you download the software it says it's from Livernois. I tuned my 2020 Ranger on 9/26/2020. I plugged it back in yesterday and realized that I was on version 1 and they had just pushed version 9 of the tune. Biggest improvement is that with the version 9 my truck cannot skip gears. Thus eliminating the dreaded Ranger 3rd to 5th skip that slams into gear. My tuck has to go 3rd to 4th to 5th. The FPP tune is not just a one time deal. It wil continue to improve.

I thought ford Racing used Mountune.

 

[crazyrazor21]

I thought ford Racing used Mountune.

In the beginning there wasn't too much information about who was doing the work behind the scenes. As of now, the Procal 4 software that is downloaded from the Ford Perfomance website states it's made by Livernois when you install it. It's also come out within the past year that Livernois was doing the tunes, which did shock me as well.

 

[LB'sTremor]

It's rather well known that the Ford tune is made by livernois. Even when you download the software it says it's from Livernois. I tuned my 2020 Ranger on 9/26/2020. I plugged it back in yesterday and realized that I was on version 1 and they had just pushed version 9 of the tune. Biggest improvement is that with the version 9 my truck cannot skip gears. Thus eliminating the dreaded Ranger 3rd to 5th skip that slams into gear. My tuck has to go 3rd to 4th to 5th. The FPP tune is not just a one time deal. It wil continue to improve.

This is good to know thx! (FPP = Livernios) so if the exhaust and turbo's are different on the new models do we know if the tune is differet?

LB

 

[crazyrazor21]

This is good to know thx! (FPP = Livernios) so if the exhaust and turbo's are different on the new models do we know if the tune is differet?

LB

I'm not sure. I'm guessing the changes were made for EPA restrictions, however due to Ford constantly updating the tunes I would suffice to believe that they are probably the same. It would be easier to make a tune thats safe for both engines than having to support two seperate tunes. To have to continuously update to tunes annually on the same truck would most likely be too cumbersome.

 

[Deleted member 15875]

It's rather well known that the Ford tune is made by livernois. Even when you download the software it says it's from Livernois. I tuned my 2020 Ranger on 9/26/2020. I plugged it back in yesterday and realized that I was on version 1 and they had just pushed version 9 of the tune. Biggest improvement is that with the version 9 my truck cannot skip gears. Thus eliminating the dreaded Ranger 3rd to 5th skip that slams into gear. My tuck has to go 3rd to 4th to 5th. The FPP tune is not just a one time deal. It wil continue to improve.

I wasn't aware they made the Ford tune. Just hope CARB gives the green light soon so I can get it for my Cal/22 Ranger.

 

[LB'sTremor]

I wasn't aware they made the Ford tune. Just hope CARB gives the green light soon so I can get it for my Cal/22 Ranger.

I think there is another thread that says it has been approved and a couple of people have installed it, I will have to dig for it...

 

[Deleted member 15875]

I think there is another thread that says it has been approved and a couple of people have installed it, I will have to dig for it...

I'm not sure I've seen anything to suggest it has over the past week. Still show on the website "2022 available for non-California vehicles"

 

[WNCblueridge]

It's rather well known that the Ford tune is made by livernois. Even when you download the software it says it's from Livernois. I tuned my 2020 Ranger on 9/26/2020. I plugged it back in yesterday and realized that I was on version 1 and they had just pushed version 9 of the tune. Biggest improvement is that with the version 9 my truck cannot skip gears. Thus eliminating the dreaded Ranger 3rd to 5th skip that slams into gear. My tuck has to go 3rd to 4th to 5th. The FPP tune is not just a one time deal. It wil continue to improve.

Is there a way to update without a laptop using only the plug in Ford Tuner? I am still on original version as well. Actually I returned to stock to save on buying premium for awhile but miss the tune and will prob reinstall Ford Performance tune soon. Would love to try the updates but dont recall seeing options for that on tuner settings

 

[crazyrazor21]

Is there a way to update without a laptop using only the plug in Ford Tuner? I am still on original version as well. Actually I returned to stock to save on buying premium for awhile but miss the tune and will prob reinstall Ford Performance tune soon. Would love to try the updates but dont recall seeing options for that on tuner settings

So you can put the tunr back on using the procal. However, when you connect it to the laptop you have the software on it will reach out and then prompt you to update the version. If you don't have th software anymore you can login to your ford performance account you created when you first tuned it and get the software.

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