Though it rocks Race Star wheels on the track, the ID Motorsports 2016 F-150 is a total sleeper on the street wearing the factory wheels and tires.
Understandably, the 5.0-liter engine in the Mustang garners a lot of attention, but the Coyote doesn’t just howl under pony-car hoods. Ford’s sales-leader, the F-150 pickup, is also available with the TiVCT V8. That means that the same mods that work so well on a Mustang will enhance an F-150. Case in point is the 2.9-liter Whipple supercharger.
Matt Alderman, tuning guru over at ID Motorsports, recently installed the Whipple 2015-2016 Ford F-150 supercharger system ($7,395) on the company’s in-house project truck, a 2016 F-150, with some impressive results. The installation is quite similar to the Mustang, as this kit features the same intercooled lower intake manifold and familiar supporting hardware.
The Whipple 2015-2016 Ford F-150 supercharger system looks right at home atop the Coyote engine in the ID Motorsports project truck.
“There are a lot of similarities between the two, but the main difference is the heat exchanger fluid reservoir. It’s huge and mounts to the frame,” Matt said. “Whipple really did an awesome job integrating the pump mount to the tank. By doing this they don’t have an issue with the pump losing its prime.”
Now he wanted to push the performance level — and because he wanted to do something a little different — Matt installed the standard kit but upgraded it for big boost by modifying the 2015-2017 Mustang 10-rib Race Belt System ($1,850) to work on the F-150 front engine accessory drive.
“When we did the 10-rib conversion, we compared to the Mustang to see the differences and decided to incorporate the plate for the pulleys from the Mustang since it allowed for the tensioner to be used in a convenient place,” he explained. “The only other challenge was the alternator pulley. The Mustang has an offset where as the F-150 does not. We were able to find a GM pulley that fit perfectly with just some minor machining where the nut from the alternator shaft makes contact. All in all there were few obstacles. I don’t rate it as a difficult task.”
Matt rounded out the combination with a set of DeatschWerks 95-lb/hr fuel injectors and a pair of Kooks 1 ¾-inch long-tube headers. While the Whipple kit is available with its own calibration, he added his own custom calibration to maximize the performance of this hardware combination while burning 93-octane fuel.
Matt modded a GM pulley to fit the F-150 alternator and make the 10-rib conversion kit — which includes an ATI balancer, a Dayco tensioner, aluminum pulleys, an adjustable idler pulley and a Gates high-rpm race belt — designed for the Mustang work on the truck. On the blower, they opted for a 3.75-inch pulley paired with the 20-percent-overdrive damper to yield 16 pounds of boost.
“Tuning the 2015-and-up Coyote has its challenges,” Matt confessed. “With the F-150 we add some more by taking the mass airflow sensor out of the equation. The variable cam timing also threw a few curve balls at us. We did get through all the differences and chalked it up to experience.”
And get through it they did. With the new custom calibration dialed in using SCT hardware and software, the ID Motorsports F-150 picked up huge gains at the rear wheels. Its horsepower jumped by just over 200 and torque grew by over 155 lb-ft.
With the addition of a Whipple supercharger, 10-rib belt conversion, Kooks headers, DeatschWerks injectors and a custom ID Motorsports calibration the F-150 put down 712 horsepower and 612 lb-ft of torque. Better yet, the gains are from the jump and carry on throughout the powerband.
Breaking 700 rear-wheel horsepower with a stock cat-back is the best part. — Matt Alderman, ID Motorsports
Next up for this truck is an upgraded fuel system designed to support the increased volume needed to burn E85. With this higher-octane fuel, Matt will be able to squeeze even more performance out of this Whipple-blown F-150.