After spending some time updating a few cosmetic bits here and there, I decided to focus my attention to the performance of the truck. The first thing I decided to tackle was replacing the stock battery. It had already begun to corrode on the posts, so I went with an OPTIMA YellowTop D34 deepcycle battery. The battery is a Spiral-Cell AGM that is more vibration resistant than traditional lead acid batteries. 

The OPTIMA is smaller than the OE unit, so OPTIMA provides some spacers to help position it correctly. Other than the fact that both batteries are heavy AF, it's pretty straightforward install. Also, don't forget to use charge up the battery once installed. 

After about a year it's still kicking ass. 

The next step was addressing the stock intake. I went with the K&N Cold Air kit. Not only does it clean up the engine bay by eliminating the large stock airbox assembly, the kit also claims a horsepower increase as well. To add an extra level of dust and dirt protection, I added a Drycharger as well. I paired this with a less restrictive Black Widow muffler and a tune from SVC Off-Road so there was a noticeable change on the butt dyno. The install is pretty straightforward and between the directions and a YouTube video from K&N I was able to knock it out in about 2.5 hours. 

From there I addressed the exhaust. The stock exhaust was decent, but it didn't really strike fear into small compacts at every stoplight. I test drove a truck with a Corsa Xtreme catback, which sounds amazing, but it's also a $1200 kit, also the cat-back kits are susceptible to damage when off-roading hard. Because of these reasons I opted for a small, compact Black Widow Race Venom muffler, which is dumped before the rear axle. The muffler comes in raw stainless, so I hit it with some VHT header spray paint from Advance Auto Parts before dropping it off at the installer. 

Big thanks to Jake Rawsome from Rawspeed who welded up the muffler in place of the old system. The old muffler was about 50 pounds versus this one which is about 10. It isn't necessarily a straight-through muffler, but has an hourglass internal design to help with the sound and minimize drone. 

The exhaust is pretty throaty on cold starts and at wide-open throttle. It has a far more noticeable idle as well. It sounds like a proper truck now. Long tube headers would be a fantastic addition, but total between parts and labor puts that around $2000 and I'm piecing this thing together slowly. 

Next on the list was getting the most of the intake and exhaust, so I went with a tune from SVC Off Road loaded onto an SCT Tuner X4 that Jake at Rawspeed ordered up for me. For about $500 this was hands down one of the best modifications I've made to my truck. SVC specializes in Ford Raptor suspension and performance parts and have developed a tune that stays within the safety parameters of the stock ECU, but helps wake up the truck. The most noticeable difference is in the transmission, the factory setting has a tendency to "search" for the right gear when driving around town and this made a huge difference. Again, I don't have an official dyno sheet, but the butt dyno noticed an improvement over stock. 

Not sure what will be next. I was hooked up with a set of Method Race Wheels and 37 inch Nitto Ridge Grapplers, but I'd like to address the shocks before jumping into that upgrade. The service life of the Fox 2.5s that the Raptor comes from the factory with is around 40k-50k miles. I just passed 51k miles and would rather take care of everything at once, since once I change out the wheels and tires the truck will need an alignment. For options I can either upgrade to the beefier (and more expensive) Fox or King 3.0s or go with a rebuilt set of the OE shocks. 

With my old Wrangler I rushed into things versus saving up and doing them right once, so that's what I'm forcing myself to do this time around.

So stay tuned to see what's next.