My driving impressions for the 2.3 vs 2.7L engines

[Ford2021]

I have the 2.7 in my Ford Edge (FWD), I have it tuned. It eliminates any sort of lag and adds a nice amount of horsepower. On the higher of the 3 tunes when I launch it will even scratch when shifting into second. I have a six speed too, not the new 10 speed. There is a lot more to these engines than they come from factory with, I would assume there will be lots of aftermarket tunes etc for both. Just based on the early popularity

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[mylittlepony]

Modded stg2 BMW owner here. I will note that in sport modes it is common for the car to hang and not upshift until way late and I've certainly never heard anyone liking this. The good news is, a tune or trans tune can fix this and still maintain the sporty mode. I'm gonna hope with the popularity of the Bronco, there will plenty of aftermarket tuning that will easily make the auto trans enjoyable in any modes. Great write up op!

yea, installing a 'tranny kit' is like night & day for a sluggish shifting and slow rev-release...at least for my 95 wrangler with 3 speed auto trans, B&M high stall performance converter, pozzie rear locker, matted to a 4.0L high output straight 6 with roller rockers and ss headers.

ZIP ZIP cranium planted into the head rest on green!

that Broncos 2.7L learnin' tranny is gonna learn what to do for some city driving...

 

[dgorsett]

I've experienced the same holding in sport mode in the wife's 20 Explorer. It's a bit unsettling to say the least!

I get that when in tow/haul in my Ford Chassis motorhome. I'll momentarily shift out of tow haul to get it to upshift.

 

[371Kenny]

Well if Ford would just give us what want with the 2.7 and manual this wouldn't even be a discussion for a lot of us.

 

[BroncoMike75]

As a 2016 F150 2.7 owner for 4 years and have pulled everything from 26' boat to a backhoe, nothing but a 2.7 for me. Can't imagine the power to come out of the Bronco with the 2.7!!!!

 

[WuNgUn]

Holding the gear in Sport mode is totally normal. It's waiting for you to get back on it again!

 

[Austin26]

I've been looking online for a manual transmission new Ranger to drive thinking you had driven one before it finally clicked...

Thank you for the review. Do we have an idea of what it'll weigh or is it just a guess at this point?

 

[BroncowskiAZ]

One thing I HATED that I hope is related to the learning part of the equation is that when I was going up the on ramp in both trucks and was giving it probably 70% or so throttle, I would let off to probably 30% when I hit the speed I wanted, and the transmission would hold the gear I was in...and hold…and hold. I had to almost let my foot off the gas entirely for it to up shift and cruise along. I was audibly telling the transmission to up shift as it’s a really unnerving behavior out of a transmission. Maybe someone with experience can chime in on that.

I owned 2018 2.3L mustang for about 2.5 year and I hate the same thing. I believe that issue you described is part of the software set up, it never learned anything. I've been switching my lever from S to D once I felt that I wanted transmission to upshift and it works fine. Also it gives me a feeling that I'm more in control .
On the other hand when in D mode it is so smooth. I love that motor, it is my daily driver and it is so much fun to drive, but I'm getting my Bronco with 2.7L.

 

[BroncowskiAZ]

All the talk of the trans not wanting to shift without fully letting foot off the gas, the wife's Jeep does that shit and it annoys the hell out of me. I expect that out of a car trying to tow, not out of a Bronco!

Okay, so I believe that there is no problem with the 10 speed AT, it does that only in sport mode
to hold the gear for aggressive driving. Once is in a D mode it is smooth as butter, at least in my 2018 2.3L mustang.

 

[NurseA.J]

I know there are other threads out there, but I wanted to get our thoughts out there to everyone. My wife and I drove both on Tuesday (2.3L Ranger and 2.7L F-150) and I have included our thoughts below. We currently own 3 manual transmission cars and two automatics, so we drive them both! These thoughts are with us buying the 4 door, just an fyi.

2.3L:
Transmission that I would personally recommend with the 2.3L would be the manual, hands down. Ability to manually select the gears to ensure the motor is where it wants to be is imperative (3k and above). We both felt the auto felt slightly disconnected from the motor and it was like an awkward dance some of the time while driving. Its not a deal breaker for the 2.3L/auto combo, its just something that I would need to drive more to get used to. Even discounting the piped in sound, the 2.3L sounds great, love its growl. Its power delivery reminds me of our V70R 5 cylinder. From a start, its a bit slow, but once the turbo hits, its a really fun motor. Great rush to the top of the rev range.

One of the times we felt it was underpowered was on a decent hill, in traffic with someone who slowed and turned right in front of us. My wife then kicked it pretty good and I had this instant feeling I had to help it accelerate back up to speed on the hill. Not severe, just some, but I'm worried about 500lbs more mass being slowed and then needing to get back up to speed like that scenario. Its in no way BAD, just not as fast as I was anticipating. This wouldn’t be a problem for someone who doesn’t drive their car hard or aggressively, but we get on it a decent amount when we drive.

2.7L:
I'll refrain from any transmission recommendation for obvious reasons. V6 has power/torque all through the rev range, and didn’t have any kind of “peaky” power delivery feeling. More refined for sure, but it also had less character than the 2.3L for me, and I like to have that in a motor. I’m hoping that the Bronco’s lower amount of sound deadening will let this motor talk to the driver a bit. I can at least hope. Its quick, and it will have no issues moving the Bronco around. It did feel much different though, as it felt like the power was in the low/mid range for sure, and didn’t charge to the top with its power like the 2.3L. Just a different perceived power curve, so they have different personalities.

Seemed it was a bit less willing to kick down for passing, etc than the 2.3L but that could all be based on where the transmissions were at with their “learning” people talk about. Once it does, it hits you in the mouth. People won’t be disappointed with this motor and it will move the Bronco no problem, its just a different animal than the 2.3L, and delivers power in a different way, so its also about matching driving styles/wants with the motors.

Transmission:
Both had the issue we see in our Fusion with a delay between pushing the pedal down and when it reacts to throttle input, especially at low speeds when coasting at 10 mph or so and turning left across traffic, etc. Hope the “learning” can fix that a bit.

We also drove both of the trucks in “normal” and “sport” mode to see the differences. Normal is a bit more “muted” and doesn’t let you wind the motor out much, but its smooth and would be great for most non-aggressive drivers. Sport is different in good and bad ways as far as we could tell. You can wind the motor out more, get more speed, etc which is great. One thing I HATED that I hope is related to the learning part of the equation is that when I was going up the on ramp in both trucks and was giving it probably 70% or so throttle, I would let off to probably 30% when I hit the speed I wanted, and the transmission would hold the gear I was in...and hold…and hold. I had to almost let my foot off the gas entirely for it to up shift and cruise along. I was audibly telling the transmission to up shift as it’s a really unnerving behavior out of a transmission. Maybe someone with experience can chime in on that.

Final thoughts:
I think both motors will be up to the task for the Bronco, and it really depends on everyone’s personal expectation of “performance” from their Bronco. Here at altitude in Denver, and the way I like to drive, my wife and I will need to either get the 2.3L/stick combo which would require the ford performance tune for me, or the 2.7L auto. Its gonna come down to pricing and what we would need to cut out to get the bigger motor and still fit the budget.

No matter what motor you get, its going to be a great rig, a lot of fun and something we can all use to explore the world in ways we already do now (if you already wheel, etc.), or something that will allow us to explore our world more (my case). Can’t wait to see everyone on the road in their Broncos with huge smiles on their faces. Just thought I would share our thoughts. Good luck with all of your choices and make it your own!

Thank you for your input! I was thinking of going 2.7 but the Bronco will be a daily driver for me on the expressway for my round trip 98 mile daily commute to the hospital. My 2020 Escape titanium is a 2.0 ecoboost and is awesome. So I may be opting for auto 2.3. I don’t know how to drive a manual unfortunately.

 

[jbellousux]

I know there are other threads out there, but I wanted to get our thoughts out there to everyone. My wife and I drove both on Tuesday (2.3L Ranger and 2.7L F-150) and I have included our thoughts below. We currently own 3 manual transmission cars and two automatics, so we drive them both! These thoughts are with us buying the 4 door, just an fyi.

2.3L:
Transmission that I would personally recommend with the 2.3L would be the manual, hands down. Ability to manually select the gears to ensure the motor is where it wants to be is imperative (3k and above). We both felt the auto felt slightly disconnected from the motor and it was like an awkward dance some of the time while driving. Its not a deal breaker for the 2.3L/auto combo, its just something that I would need to drive more to get used to. Even discounting the piped in sound, the 2.3L sounds great, love its growl. Its power delivery reminds me of our V70R 5 cylinder. From a start, its a bit slow, but once the turbo hits, its a really fun motor. Great rush to the top of the rev range.

One of the times we felt it was underpowered was on a decent hill, in traffic with someone who slowed and turned right in front of us. My wife then kicked it pretty good and I had this instant feeling I had to help it accelerate back up to speed on the hill. Not severe, just some, but I'm worried about 500lbs more mass being slowed and then needing to get back up to speed like that scenario. Its in no way BAD, just not as fast as I was anticipating. This wouldn’t be a problem for someone who doesn’t drive their car hard or aggressively, but we get on it a decent amount when we drive.

2.7L:
I'll refrain from any transmission recommendation for obvious reasons. V6 has power/torque all through the rev range, and didn’t have any kind of “peaky” power delivery feeling. More refined for sure, but it also had less character than the 2.3L for me, and I like to have that in a motor. I’m hoping that the Bronco’s lower amount of sound deadening will let this motor talk to the driver a bit. I can at least hope. Its quick, and it will have no issues moving the Bronco around. It did feel much different though, as it felt like the power was in the low/mid range for sure, and didn’t charge to the top with its power like the 2.3L. Just a different perceived power curve, so they have different personalities.

Seemed it was a bit less willing to kick down for passing, etc than the 2.3L but that could all be based on where the transmissions were at with their “learning” people talk about. Once it does, it hits you in the mouth. People won’t be disappointed with this motor and it will move the Bronco no problem, its just a different animal than the 2.3L, and delivers power in a different way, so its also about matching driving styles/wants with the motors.

Transmission:
Both had the issue we see in our Fusion with a delay between pushing the pedal down and when it reacts to throttle input, especially at low speeds when coasting at 10 mph or so and turning left across traffic, etc. Hope the “learning” can fix that a bit.

We also drove both of the trucks in “normal” and “sport” mode to see the differences. Normal is a bit more “muted” and doesn’t let you wind the motor out much, but its smooth and would be great for most non-aggressive drivers. Sport is different in good and bad ways as far as we could tell. You can wind the motor out more, get more speed, etc which is great. One thing I HATED that I hope is related to the learning part of the equation is that when I was going up the on ramp in both trucks and was giving it probably 70% or so throttle, I would let off to probably 30% when I hit the speed I wanted, and the transmission would hold the gear I was in...and hold…and hold. I had to almost let my foot off the gas entirely for it to up shift and cruise along. I was audibly telling the transmission to up shift as it’s a really unnerving behavior out of a transmission. Maybe someone with experience can chime in on that.

Final thoughts:
I think both motors will be up to the task for the Bronco, and it really depends on everyone’s personal expectation of “performance” from their Bronco. Here at altitude in Denver, and the way I like to drive, my wife and I will need to either get the 2.3L/stick combo which would require the ford performance tune for me, or the 2.7L auto. Its gonna come down to pricing and what we would need to cut out to get the bigger motor and still fit the budget.

No matter what motor you get, its going to be a great rig, a lot of fun and something we can all use to explore the world in ways we already do now (if you already wheel, etc.), or something that will allow us to explore our world more (my case). Can’t wait to see everyone on the road in their Broncos with huge smiles on their faces. Just thought I would share our thoughts. Good luck with all of your choices and make it your own!

What is the Ford performance tune? About how much does it cost and will it void the warranty?

 

[Delasangre]

What is the Ford performance tune? About how much does it cost and will it void the warranty?

On the ranger with 2.3 it adds 45HP and 60Ft-lbs and retains the warranty and is about $900

 

[mC.242]

You can do it manually on the shifter. I was just testing to see if it would do it on its own in all the test cases.

Manual shifting an AT sucks though - I will sometimes do it in my Mazda6 off the line if I really want to make sure it's holding the gears to where I want them, but otherwise it's a total PITA and not worth the effort.

 

[Stitches1974]

What is the Ford performance tune? About how much does it cost and will it void the warranty?

Here is the ranger version and it doesn't void the warranty.
https://performanceparts.ford.com/part/M-9603-REB

 

[DrewBronc21]

Here is the ranger version and it doesn't void the warranty.
https://performanceparts.ford.com/part/M-9603-REB

it doesn‘t void the warranty but it could shorten it. It only covers for 3/36k as opposed to 5/60k factory drivetrain warranty. I don’t care either way but wanted to point that out.

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