Pulled a camper with my BadSas 2.3

[Original Bender]

Absolutely would do it again. Bone stock 2.3, I will ad an upgraded intercooler with up and down/ charge pipes. I think it heat soaks quick when pulling large hills in Wyoming. Boost will hold at 20-21 psi for 5-15 seconds with 91-93 octane but then de-rates to 14-15 for the rest of the hill. It never got hotter than 235° and that was 70 mph and 100° outside temp. If I could just get it to breath better and dissipate heat faster, it may hold boost better. I averaged right at 10 mpg at 65-70 mph.

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[HalfmuleFarmer]

Weight of the camper?

 

[TruckCamper]

Absolutely would do it again. Bone stock 2.3, I will ad an upgraded intercooler with up and down/ charge pipes. I think it heat soaks quick when pulling large hills in Wyoming. Boost will hold at 20-21 psi for 5-15 seconds with 91-93 octane but then de-rates to 14-15 for the rest of the hill. It never got hotter than 235° and that was 70 mph and 100° outside temp. If I could just get it to breath better and dissipate heat faster, it may hold boost better. I averaged right at 10 mpg at 65-70 mph.

Towing with that much boost is a bad plan if you want to keep the engine around long term. Slow down! It's not a race. Towing is much safer under 60mph and better mpg. Hills at 45-50mph won't extend your drive as you'll bypass gas stations and much less strain on the motor. I like to keep sustained boost well under 10psi. I don't like being over 5psi for any length of time.

Intercooler won't fix your problem. We have an upgraded intercooler on our Raptor. Huge waste of money. It heat soaks no different that stock with a slight delay but then takes much longer to cool back off. Maybe this is a good solution for 10 second drag race but worthless for towing or sustained loads.

This is a tiny motor that is high strung. The max power / torque is not designed to be utilized 100% of the time (if you want longevity).

 

[Original Bender]

Weight of the camper?

2900 dry. I had just bags and food, didn’t fill water or even propane as we just drove from Cheyenne to Billings and used an RV park.

 

[Original Bender]

Towing with that much boost is a bad plan if you want to keep the engine around long term. Slow down! It's not a race. Towing is much safer under 60mph and better mpg. Hills at 45-50mph won't extend your drive as you'll bypass gas stations and much less strain on the motor. I like to keep sustained boost well under 10psi. I don't like being over 5psi for any length of time.

Intercooler won't fix your problem. We have an upgraded intercooler on our Raptor. Huge waste of money. It heat soaks no different that stock with a slight delay but then takes much longer to cool back off. Maybe this is a good solution for 10 second drag race but worthless for towing or sustained loads.

This is a tiny motor that is high strung. The max power / torque is not designed to be utilized 100% of the time (if you want longevity).

I will get an intercooler. And water injection at some point. The intercooler with better charge pipes will definitely reduce charge air temps. It doesn’t even need a tune really. Nothing wrong with 65-70 other than fuel mileage.

 

[Thor_1]

This is a tiny motor that is high strung. The max power / torque is not designed to be utilized 100% of the time (if you want longevity).

Exactly why Ford should have used the 2.7 as the base engine. The 2.3 doesn’t belong in the bronco.

 

[Vynull]

Towing with that much boost is a bad plan if you want to keep the engine around long term. Slow down! It's not a race. Towing is much safer under 60mph and better mpg. Hills at 45-50mph won't extend your drive as you'll bypass gas stations and much less strain on the motor. I like to keep sustained boost well under 10psi. I don't like being over 5psi for any length of time.

Intercooler won't fix your problem. We have an upgraded intercooler on our Raptor. Huge waste of money. It heat soaks no different that stock with a slight delay but then takes much longer to cool back off. Maybe this is a good solution for 10 second drag race but worthless for towing or sustained loads.

This is a tiny motor that is high strung. The max power / torque is not designed to be utilized 100% of the time (if you want longevity).

I agree with not stressing the motor for no reason, but disagree with your assessment that this is a tiny, high strung motor. The 2.3 has a longer stroke than the 2.7 (more low end torque) and is designed with a margin of error, like all modern turbocharged engines, that allows it to run extremely close to the detonation threshold for long, long time. The stresses these engines see during development cycles far far exceeds what you could do towing at 65-70. Think full load at peak torque for days on end.

I like being under 5-10 psi solely for gas mileage, but it has nothing to do with my faith in the ability for the engine to handle boost.

 

[Charley]

Okay, I really haven’t towed much of anything. I did own a 2019 Ranger for 5.5 years and spent plenty of time reading about its towing capabilities on the Ranger forum. .
Somewhere back in 2020, 2021 or 2022 there was probably talk of Bronco towing and references to the Ranger. Remember the Ranger for the first few years was strictly 2.3 with 3.73 gears and rated to tow 7,000 lbs.
yes the Bronco has crazy gearing. But the 2.3 has been the same.

So, don’t trash talk the 2.3 (except maybe that stupid oil filter location).

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