Swamps Code Orange Bronco Raptor Build

[swamp2]

Kicker 500.1 sub amp and Kicker CompR 8" subwoofer install:

Some general tips and tricks I've not seen mentioned here:

1. Don't cut the larger mounting hole concentric with the factory hole. Offsetting it so the new driver clears the front protrusions in the enclosure prevents any required cutting/removing of these main body protrusions and repairing/plugging them later. I cut with a side cutting drywall bit in a dremel with the drywall router type base on the dremel tool.
2. Shave off the small protrusions from the factory screw holes and various tabs/stiffeners that prevent a totally flat mounting of the new sub.
   
   
3. The standard depth 8" sub (48CWR84) is just a hair too deep. Easily remedied by taking a sharp knife or box cutter to a couple of the ribs on the back wall.
   
4. Trim any interfering ribs away from your new mounting holes with wire cutters.
   
5. The plastic case is very epoxy "resistant" so I used #8 aluminum rivnuts for mounting.
   
   
   
6. I sealed the port. I used a Husky brand closed cell foam knee pad from Home Depot and Liquid Nails Fuze It. Fuze It is supposed to adhere to just about any substrate. Due to the poor adhesion of a dedicated plastic epoxy, I actually tested the adhesion of Fuze It to both the foam (stronger than the foam) and to the enclosure (decent, no where near a well bonded epoxy, but good enough for sealing). I cut and oversize piece of foam, sanded the inside of the terminus of the port with 60 grit and scared it with a dremel cut off wheel, cleaned everything with IPA, slathered up the foam with Fuze It and held it in place with clear packaging tape while the Fuze It cured. Worked great.
   
   
   
7. Don't struggle making custom plastic mounting plates for the amp and then struggle more trying to get perfect alignment and clearing the large plastic cover panel (or denting the cover panel badly as some did...). Mount the amp using:
   1. Standard upper left enclosure mounting hole, through the existing upper left amp base plate hole. Have the power side of the amp face the woofer itself. Cables will be tight but will fit without undue kinks/stress.
   2. Standard lower left enclosure mounting hole and simply drill a new hole in the amp base/mounting plate to line up.
   3. An offset aluminum L beam (hobby or good hardware store) and the existing enclosure upper right mounting hole.
      
   4. A custom fastener "stack", based on a threaded rod, through the existing lower right amplifier mounting hole through a drilled hole, all the way through the enclosure near the plugged port. From near side toward outside of the truck the fastener stack is: #8 nylock nut, #8 washer, 3.75" long #8 threaded rod, #8 fender washer (much larger OD than a standard washer), 2nd #8 nylock nut. I'll try to post a picture to better explain this.
   5. P.S. Don't try to get away with just 3 mounting points for the amp. I tried only #1-#3 above and she rattled good, hence I added the threaded rod solution in #4.
8. Wiring colors courtesy of @6inthefamily here.
   1. White with orange stripe = upfitter switch (dont use, tape off)
   2. Yellow with red stripe = power (dont use, tape off, ran new 8 guage power wire)
   3. Violet with green stripe = speaker positive
   4. Green with white stripe = speaker negative
   5. Black with green stripe = ground (don't use)
   6. Yellow with violet stripe = remote turn on
9. The speaker positive on the vehicle harness should be wired to both the L AND R amplifier positive inputs, similarly for the negatives.

She really moves some air and provides much more feel to the bass as compared to stock. I was definitely cursing trying to use my snap ring pliers trick to get the huge 8 Ga cable through the firewall grommet, but it was definitely worth it.

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[swamp2]

4" Kicker 46CSC44 speakers into the dash. Soldered, heat shrinked. Use the factory screws, much better than the Kicker supplied screws as they have nice wide washer like flanges.

 

[swamp2]

Inspired by @SierraBronco's near vehicle loss, I got a fire extinguisher. I scored a recently serviced/refilled Halon 3lb unit for $190. These can go for $475 new . Halon is very effective and won't damage anything (unlike powders). Went with Desert Does It mount. Very nice system, thanks @DesertDoesIt ! Preferred to mount it in the rear, but the swing out bike rack, gate and window is just too slow for any emergencies. Function over form!

 

[swamp2]

American Adventure Labs MASS floor system, refrigerator slide and drawer and hard mounted my Donetic CFX3 55IM. Have had these for months, but had stereo and NVH issues to sort out before these.

 

[swamp2]

ARB cable chain/guide for fridge:

Although not a perfectionist cable router like @Johnny Mo , I do like things tidy and to not get damaged. Thus this ARB product.

Unfortunately, it was a most of the day project and, quite frankly, a bitch. These things are "picky" and to furl and unfurl reliably, they have to be positioned, supported and have their length set perfectly. The kit is designed for a complete ARB rear setup so I knew some adapting would be needed, but damn...

The fully soldered/heat shrink, cable sheathed, custom cable was the easy part. The bracket had to be customized/cut/shaped so also threw a coat of epoxy primer on it. Fishing the zip ties through the side panel trims was also just not fun.

Fortunately, with the nose to the grindstone, it turned out great and functions perfectly.

 

[swamp2]

Suma rearview mirrors:

TLDR: . 100% blind spot elimination. Yes, BLIS sensor is a backup (for me personally at least)!

Following the lead of many others here. They are great. I'm very picky about my mirrors and their adjustment and these FULLY eliminated both drivers and passenger side blind spots, i.e. very specifically and when adjusted properly, when being overtaken by even a small car from either side, the image of the car smoothly transitions, with significant overlap from rearview to side mirror to direct view with a partial side glance.

I know it's preaching to the choir, but if you've never tried this adjustment of your mirrors, be open minded and give it a go. They are simply tilted much more outward than you will have them if you still suffer from blind spots. You don't need to see a huge swath of your own vehicle in your side mirrors and when you want to see some fender or bumper, you can still easily lean over and see plenty with this adjustment.

Interestingly, the factory drivers mirror is flat, whereas the passenger side is convex, just not enough convex like the Sumas are (both sides quite convex).

I think someone here said the mirrors used to be available in plain (no tint) but they are not now. They are available either in the (weird, IMHO) blue or in a medium dark tint. I went with with the latter. They are a bit too dark at night with tinted side windows but not massively worse than stock. Any lights or reflections you need to see are clearly visible.

Only nit is that the edges of the Suma's look a bit unfinished. I'd also prefer no logo/advertising.

Some installation notes.

1. It took quite a lot of force to dislodge factory mirrors. Felt like something was going to break.
2. One side for me ended up with a jammed motor and almost no mirror adjustment. I thought for sure I broke the motor. Luckily, with some general poking and fiddling it got unstuck and now it adjusts fine.
3. @RagnarKon explained the install pretty well. The factory BLIS clip is a real PITA. I had my son help and even with 4 hands and both my largest and smallest screwdrivers, it was tough.

 

[swamp2]

J&L Oil Separator:

Heard poor reviews on some of the other well known catch cans. This one is very nice, beefy tubing, easy quick connects, anodized aluminum body and bracket. Got the canister extension which should mean emptying only at every oil change.

Of course had to ditch the Phillips screws it came with in favor of socket pan heads.

I'm still not entirely confident such a mod is needed, but it certainly can't hurt.

 

[swamp2]

AlphaRex Alpha Black Headlights:

Thanks @Caleb@PandaMotorworks

Took forever to make this decision. Stock low and high beams are just so anemic. That was my primary driver.

These are a big upgrade, but are also some way from perfect. Overall I'd give them 8/10.

Install was easy. You definitely do not have to remove (even partially) fender liners nor the body colored trim piece below grill. Raptor has 3 connections to break to remove the grill. The only one slightly confusing was simply a hard compress with fingers to deform the connector to separate it. Push in pins that help locate the head lights on the top of the light housing are very tough to remove and basically get ruined. They are just pry out. Lost one metal clip on the grill and broke one push connector on the plastic deck part above the grill. Prices for those were $4 and $6 respectively. WHAT A RIP OFF. I almost threw them back on the parts counter at those prices...

So install easy but height/angle adjust was a huge bitch. These don't have the cool little angled gear adapters like factory to adjust easily with a hex key. I used every socket adapter, extension, ratchet size and TWO swivels (u-joints) to reach and turn the height adjusters. Still could barely reach and barely turn them. A 8mm closed end ratcheting wrench did the trick (which I bought after the job was done). I'm quite surprised no Bronco install videos mention this.

The start up and signaling animations are very cool as is the user selectable colors for the rings and dashes.

Brightness is better than factory but not quite what I expected (highs and lows). As other reviewers have noted cut off is nice and crisp with some very noticeable/distracting purple optical aberration at cut off.

As far as looks go (on and off) I'd give them 9/10. The only hits being that the rings as DRLs are slightly too dim and are a bit pixelated from the LEDs.

I think these are by far the best option available.

 

[swamp2]

Installed color changing ambient lights:

Added rear footwell lights, changed front footwell lights to color changing and Forscaned the change to bring selectable color to that Sync UI screen.

On the manual/no GUI FORScan changes I did get a warning about a bad checksum, but it wrote and everything works. Maybe that always happens when editing manually, I forget?

Blatantly ripping off pictures from @'21OBX in his thread about the mod here as I couldn't get good pics yet.

If you want to do this the required parts are:

1. 4 ea., FL3Z-14A318-L. These are called a "harness" but they are the color changing LEDs. About $30 ea. online.
2. 1 custom harness from @JHForman812 . This is very nice OEM look and quality.

This install video is OK:

You will need to trim (Dremel) the polarity guide nubs off of the single LED for the drivers location (black one). Factory LED connector is the white one. Other than that, everything is 100% plug-n-play.

You'll definitely want to place a couple of carefully placed zip ties under the seat to insure the harness is properly routed and won't get pinched nor chaffed.

 

[swamp2]

Finally got the rest of my American Adventure Labs drawers installed.

Lined all the drawers with some sweet, soft EPDM foam.

Also got rid of sharp edges on new MIC parts.

 

[swamp2]

Installed Ford Performance Diff Cover:

EDIT: The factory diff does absolutely have a drain plug. See this post.

Straight forward. Only minor things worth mentioning:

• This thing is heavy, beefy and cast iron. Factory is light, cast aluminum.
• Bring many extensions, tight getting ratchets and torque wrench in/on all of the bolts.
• Torque is criss cross pattern, 177 in lb +25°. Plug torque is 22 ft lb (all 3).
• The drain plug (only) has a magnet.
• Could only get about 3 1/4 quarts in whereas spec is 3.97. I thought about filling to the higher plug but just went with the lower and the 3 1/4.
• Decided to reuse both the factory bolts and factory gasket. Bolts look like probably more corrosion proof than new black supplied ones and the factory gasket looks way higher quality than the simple (supplied) Ford "Performance" one. Factory has nice molded in washers to prevent squeeze out and to insure correct gap/pressure on seal. The factory one is Ford blessed for reuse as well.
  
  
  
• Fluid looked very good. Some minor residue on walls to wipe away but this is my 3rd fluid change. Did it at 1k and something like 5k. Both significantly dirtier. Thanks again to @CarbonSteel for the change frequently during break in/initial miles advise!

 

[swamp2]

Sullivan CNC aluminum racing pedals :

Kind of a tough install...

Nice thick aluminum, good machining and nice black anodize. A slew of patterns/treads to pick from at Sullivan.

I didn't like the supplied hardware, all black, prefer stainless. Very hard to get the drill in place and straight. Just not enough room. Dead and throttle just used sheet metal screws, did pilot drill the throttle but dead is soft enough plastic that it wasn't required. Brake takes screws with nylocks and washers as the base pedal is steel. I used masking tape to mark the pedal, a popping punch to mark and center the drill, but most of the holes were on curves. The drill still wandered, despite using a small pilot drill. Had to go significantly oversize on a couple holes to get all 4 screws through. Washers made up the difference nicely.

I think I got the brake pedal upside down and the throttle pedal just a bit too high. Probably only things I would notice...

A great mod all in all.

 

[swamp2]

Foutz 1.5" Rear Spring Spacers (back in Feb...):

These leveled me out perfectly with all of my storage system (empty)/fridge/rack/tent. Note: I do have front spacers as well.

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