From the factory, the Bronco with the 2.7-liter EcoBoost promises 330 horsepower and 415 pound-feet (nearly 563 Nm) of torque on premium gasoline. Those numbers decrease to 265 ponies and 341 pound-feet (462 Nm) at the rear wheels, according to Palm Beach Dyno’s baseline testing.
How can you make a little more oomph without putting too much of a strain on the force-fed V6 engine? Palm Beach Dyno decided to try the JB4 tuner for the 2021 model year and later Bronco, which currently retails from $529 excluding the optional device connection. At press time, there are two such options: a data cable advertised at $40 or a phone app that retails at $140.
Burger Motorsports, the company that sells this plug-and-play tuning device, mentions power gains of up to 100 horsepower and 120 pound-feet (nearly 163 Nm) at the wheels. The JB4 is designed to work together with the factory engine control unit to remap the timing, fueling, and boost for better performance. What’s more, the JB4 is rocking CAN bus functionality that allows it to acquire relevant data from the ECU for real-time tuning.
Burger Motorsports further advertises it with 91- and 93-octane maps, along with E85, regular, valet mode, and a factory setting. The peeps at Palm Beach Dyno tried maps as extreme as E30+ for their four-door Bronco, and the most PBD squeezed out is 322 rear-wheel horsepower with an E30+ tune. Torque shot up to 419 pound-feet (568 Nm) at 3,740 rpm, which is good enough.
PBD founder and owner Ken Bjonnes subsequently tested how much of a difference this 93-octane JB4 tune makes on the road. As opposed to 7.3 seconds to 60 miles per hour (97 kilometers per hour) completely stock, the Bronco Wildtrak in the featured video improved to 6.89 seconds. Ken says the next step is more ethanol and some quarter-mile fun at the strip.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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