Marc Urbano|Car and Driver
- Ford’s performance calibration for the Bronco’s 2.3-liter turbo four adds 30 horsepower and 60 pound-feet of torque.
- With the calibration installed, our long-term Ford Bronco reached 60 mph four-tenths quicker, hitting that mark in 6.9 seconds.
- What’s more impressive is the plug-in tuner helped the Bronco’s real-world fuel economy improve from 19 to 21 mpg on our 75-mph highway test.
Welcome to Car and Driver’s Testing Hub, where we zoom in on the test numbers. We’ve been pushing vehicles to their limits since 1956 to provide objective data to bolster our subjective impressions (you can see how we test here).
Everybody wants more. Horsepower. Speed. Fuel economy. We want more too. When we came across Ford Performance’s 2.3-liter EcoBoost Performance Calibration kit, we ordered one up for our long-term 2022 Ford Bronco Badlands to see if a simple software flash could add some spice to its turbocharged mill.
The $825 calibration kit includes Ford Performance’s ProCal 4 delivery tool (also available separately for $495) and a code to download the calibration software from Ford Performance. With the tool connected to the Bronco’s OBDII port, the installation could not be more straightforward, and if the reprogramming is performed by a dealer or ASE-certified technician, the three-year/36,000-mile powertrain warranty remains in effect. Sorry, California. This tune isn’t approved for you.
Ford won’t say how much extra boost the software adds, but the gauge indicates a fair amount more. With the reflash installed, horsepower jumps to 330 ponies and peak torque rises to 385 pound-feet, gains of 30 and 60, respectively. There’s also more muscle across both the horsepower and torque curves. We didn’t need to leave the parking lot to feel how much the turbo four wakes up and adds to the off-roader’s drivability. And for Broncos equipped with a seven-speed manual like ours, the calibration kit adds rev-matched downshifts.
Not that our 5073-pound Bronco’s 7.3-second romp to 60 mph during its final test is particularly slow, but with the reflash installed, the calibration kit helped shave 0.4 second off that time, reaching the same mark in 6.9 ticks. The same amount of time was removed during the 5-to-60-mph test. But the 2.3-liter’s new power was on full display during the 30-to-50-mph and the 50-to-70-mph top-gear acceleration tests. Both tests happened roughly two seconds quicker, but we’d still be downshifting out in the real world. Hello, rev-matched downshifts.
Performance aside, the Bronco’s new lines of code impressed us during our 75-mph fuel-economy test. With the engine’s new way of thinking, the Bronco returned 21 mpg, a 23 percent improvement over the EPA’s 17-mpg highway rating and 2 mpg better than when we conducted the test with the engine’s stock calibration installed.
Not just a software delivery mechanism, the Ford Performance ProCal 4 tool can also calibrate the speedometer for different tire sizes and axle-ratio changes and operate as a diagnostic tool. It comes with a suction cup windshield mount, and the touchscreen can display and log whatever real-time data is available through the OBDII port. Unfortunately, the tool marries to the vehicle’s VIN, so it can’t be moved to other Ford products to be used for diagnostics or even as an auxiliary display. This means that if you buy another Bronco and want the extra horsepower, you can’t just purchase another software code but instead will need to buy another ProCal tool. In our opinion, that’s lame.
For any Bronco owner looking to squeeze more from their rig, the calibration kit is a must. And Bronco V-6 owners, you’re not forgotten. The Ford Performance team has dialed in 355 hp and 433 pound-feet of torque from the twin-turbo 2.7-liter V-6. That’s not quite Ford Bronco Raptor enthusiasm, but it should be enough to wake the six up.
