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Round trip from NJ 7,583mi in 18 days with 11.8mpg average. I weighed the truck at a truck stop and total weight was over 8,000 loaded. For the extra weight I added stage 1 91 octane Whipple Tune, +3 Deavers, and E load/S speed rated KO2s
Trip was awesome, Raptor suspension handled the washboard roads like a champ, I was easily driving at 60mph on the dirt roads. Rock crawling was no problem; I could not believe how much abuse the tires took, so many sharp pointy rocks, it is difficult to avoid them. On the highway I didn’t even feel the extra weight or wind resistance. Note: I drove it hard, cruising at 84mph, passing at WOT and using manual up/dawn shifts while offroading, my rpms were constantly 3-6000rpms while offroad and up/down hills.
OK, here are the issues; I hope this helps someone with the planning on their trip: Nothing but us and the stars...and burros, coyotes.....etc
Death Valley requires lots of driving, and you have to fill up every chance you get. There are 3 gas stations in the area and one only has 87 octane the other claim 91 octane. I skipped the 87 octane and drove to the next just in time with 2 miles left. I filled with 91 octane, 5 min later my dash lit up with all warnings and initiated limp mode. I didn’t know what it was because my scanner just showed powertrain fault codes, I thought I was having tranny issues again. I cleared the codes, disconnected the battery to reset ECU and started to only drive in AWD. Everything was fine, codes returned only when I restarted truck so I spent the rest of my trip only turning off truck when sleeping and resetting ECU every morning. After I left Death Valley and I filled up in Vegas with Shell 91 octane the problem went away, that’s when I realized it was bad low octane gas. I stopped at a Ford dealer and had them read the stored codes and he said I had bunch of misfires. I didn’t notice the misfires because I was driving on dirt rds. So now I have to come up with a fix to the quality gas requirement for my tune, if I have this problem with a 91 octane tune I feel for those with a 93 octane tune. Truthfully, I didn’t find any gas higher than 91 octane until I returned to the northeast. I’m going to bring octane booster additive next time and hope that works.
Other than that all was great, Death Valley especially the Saline Valley is made for the Raptor types. I’ll send some of my favorite rds.
Octane booster is at best imprecise and at worst useless and misleading, you need something like a pasport that will allow you to change tunes on the fly as needed and just re-tune for crap gas when you get to bad gas land.
Octane booster is at best imprecise and at worst useless and misleading, you need something like a pasport that will allow you to change tunes on the fly as needed and just re-tune for crap gas when you get to bad gas land.
Gonna have to test some out and hope I find a brand that works, going back and forth with the whipple tune is not an option. Also, I can carry E85 gas and put in a gallon at every fill, I hear that works and ups the octane levels.
Gonna have to test some out and hope I find a brand that works, going back and forth with the whipple tune is not an option. Also, I can carry E85 gas and put in a gallon at every fill, I hear that works and ups the octane levels.
E85 is rated at 108 IIRC, but adding a gallon to what...20gals of regular fuel...I don't know if that's gonna give you your desired results
When I lived out there I used to bring 6 Jerrycans with my 74 Bronco, Fill everything up in Baker on the way in and then trips to Beatty Nevada. We had a 4X4 home made Rail that my buddy brought out so I had a trailer for mine to ride on but I had a spare tire holder that would carry 4.
That gas could have been in the ground at some of those stations since last year.
Round trip from NJ 7,583mi in 18 days with 11.8mpg average. I weighed the truck at a truck stop and total weight was over 8,000 loaded. For the extra weight I added stage 1 91 octane Whipple Tune, +3 Deavers, and E load/S speed rated KO2s
Trip was awesome, Raptor suspension handled the washboard roads like a champ, I was easily driving at 60mph on the dirt roads. Rock crawling was no problem; I could not believe how much abuse the tires took, so many sharp pointy rocks, it is difficult to avoid them. On the highway I didn’t even feel the extra weight or wind resistance. Note: I drove it hard, cruising at 84mph, passing at WOT and using manual up/dawn shifts while offroading, my rpms were constantly 3-6000rpms while offroad and up/down hills.
OK, here are the issues; I hope this helps someone with the planning on their trip: Nothing but us and the stars...and burros, coyotes.....etc
Death Valley requires lots of driving, and you have to fill up every chance you get. There are 3 gas stations in the area and one only has 87 octane the other claim 91 octane. I skipped the 87 octane and drove to the next just in time with 2 miles left. I filled with 91 octane, 5 min later my dash lit up with all warnings and initiated limp mode. I didn’t know what it was because my scanner just showed powertrain fault codes, I thought I was having tranny issues again. I cleared the codes, disconnected the battery to reset ECU and started to only drive in AWD. Everything was fine, codes returned only when I restarted truck so I spent the rest of my trip only turning off truck when sleeping and resetting ECU every morning. After I left Death Valley and I filled up in Vegas with Shell 91 octane the problem went away, that’s when I realized it was bad low octane gas. I stopped at a Ford dealer and had them read the stored codes and he said I had bunch of misfires. I didn’t notice the misfires because I was driving on dirt rds. So now I have to come up with a fix to the quality gas requirement for my tune, if I have this problem with a 91 octane tune I feel for those with a 93 octane tune. Truthfully, I didn’t find any gas higher than 91 octane until I returned to the northeast. I’m going to bring octane booster additive next time and hope that works.
Other than that all was great, Death Valley especially the Saline Valley is made for the Raptor types. I’ll send some of my favorite rds.
Check out Boostane Fuel additive. I have a Donzi boat that needs 93. I usually fill it at the gas station pumps but when not able I always keep a can on hand that I add to marina pump gas and it seems to work fine. I have friends that have been using it for years and had no issues. IMHO is it the best one around a little pricey but so is a detonated engine. I should know as I melted holes in 3 pistons last year and do not want to do that again. Check out their web site. There are also a bunch independent you tube videos of people using it making dyno pulls with it in race engines.
Someone else mentioned octane boosters do not work, most are smoke and mirrors and I agree with that but this product works for me. Most products will only raise your octane tenths of points. Boostane will easily take 87 or 89 up to 91to 93 octane according to how much you add and get you to the next fuel up. Hope this helps some of you.
Check out Boostane Fuel additive. I have a Donzi boat that needs 93. I usually fill it at the gas station pumps but when not able I always keep a can on hand that I add to marina pump gas and it seems to work fine. I have friends that have been using it for years and had no issues. IMHO is it the best one around a little pricey but so is a detonated engine. I should know as I melted holes in 3 pistons last year and do not want to do that again. Check out their web site. There are also a bunch independent you tube videos of people using it making dyno pulls with it in race engines.
Someone else mentioned octane boosters do not work, most are smoke and mirrors and I agree with that but this product works for me. Most products will only raise your octane tenths of points. Boostane will easily take 87 or 89 up to 91to 93 octane according to how much you add and get you to the next fuel up. Hope this helps some of you.
Thanks, I will def test this out. Took a look at the website and that marine additive is potent.
04-01-2019, 06:10 PM
Death Valley Trek, some issues......
