Often here at JDM Engineering, we find customers come to us not only to have us work on or tune their vehicle, but to correct mistakes or shortcomings of other shops. Our customer from upper New York State purchased this raptor sight unseen in Florida, and to his dismay the vehicle was equipped with Stainless Works headers with no cats which are awesome for making power — but not so awesome when trying to pass NY inspection.
The customer then elected to purchase a stock set of manifolds and Y-pipe to ensure emissions compliance and contacted us to do a tune. After waiting patiently when our tuner Jim S.r. was stricken with pneumonia, the customer received his tune and the truck ran like absolute crap.
So why would we post something like this for the whole world to see, when our tune did not work right on this vehicle? To show our dedication to our customers and our willingness to resolve issues above and beyond what you as a customer pay for.
We have tuned thousands of Raptors since they hit the market, and are privy to the issues that can arise from improper tuning or parts. Oddly enough an Airaid cold air kit was attached to the vehicle, and this is the exact air kit we spec in all our stage 1 and 2 kits here and here. We kept in constant contact with our customer and after seeing fuel trims trying to add fuel well beyond factory and JDM Tolerance, we then asked the customer to do some legwork and photograph parts on the truck, and what we found was interesting and the root of all issues.
The above pictures illustrate why it is so important to make sure all parts are secured properly, and are in proper working order when tuning a vehicle remotely. First worth noting is the seal on the air induction tube is deformed allowing for less than optimal airflow over the MAF Sensor and dirt to enter the intake tract. Second, the air kit had the area around the MAF sensor hogged out, and this alone creates issues with airflow around the MAF sensor leading to surging. We at JDM even attempted this when the Airaid air kit first came out, and came to the conclusion, better to just install the air kit as is than to open it up with the hopes of a few horsepower. We salute our customer for having the mechanical aptitude to understand the problem with this air kit, and providing clear photos to provide a perfect example highlighting what we are as a company; dedicated to quality work beyond the sale.
A replacement Airaid was promptly ordered and given to the customer, and once placed on the truck — voila! The truck ran great as intended and passed inspection with no issues at all. Now we have a happy customer, and hopefully years down the road 2 more customers!
