Stock 2022 Ford Maverick Makes 325 HP From a $600 Ethanol Tune
That’s 25% more power, all without turning a wrench.
The Ford Maverick is the little pickup truck that could. Thrifty, capable, and highly modifiable, it was just begging to be made quicker from the get-go. And now, even if owners don't have thousands to spend on mods, they can make their Mavericks much quicker with a cheap ethanol tune that unlocks 25% more horsepower without turning a bolt.
The tune is a recent release from Livernois Motorsports, a tuner known for its stock-friendly upgrades to turbo Fords such as the Bronco Sport and Flex. Its dyno measurement of a stock 2022 Ford Maverick Ecoboost showed that the truck makes 201 horsepower and 273 pound-feet of torque at the wheels, as opposed to the 250 and 277 respectively, at the crank. Livernois's 93-octane tune recovered those drivetrain losses and further improved on by its newly released ethanol tune.
In a video uploaded last week, Livernois claims an extra 12 hp and 19 lb-ft peak over its 93 tune, for 260 hp and 342 lb-ft at the wheels. Those are pretty much full-range gains, with the most coming at the very top end. If the Maverick's roughly 20% drivetrain loss stays even across both tunes, the ethanol tune makes about 325 horsepower at the crank. That's 54 hp more than a 2023 Subaru WRX, and probably enough to get the Maverick into the high 13s. Not bad for $600.
However, it notes that when we're talking about ethanol, we're not talking E85. Livernois says the tune is calibrated for E40, as the truck's stock fuel pump can't deliver enough flow to take advantage of E85. That blend isn't easy to find, but you can approximate it by filling half a tank with regular gas and half a tank with E85 to dilute it. Still, it makes you wonder what the Maverick might be capable of with a full E85 tune—or how quick it'll get when people throw serious money at it.
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