First published in Street Machine’s Australia’s Toughest Fords #3, 2005

Strange as it may seem to us Aussies, the Ford F-150 is the biggest-selling vehicle in the US, with more than 800,000 sold per year! While Ford Australia sells both the F-250 and F-350, the smaller F-150 is available from specialised importers only.

Damn shame, really, especially when you check out Brisbane bloke Aris Kontoleon’s Lariat Flair Side model. Even without the custom twin-turbo conversion, the Lariat is a pretty hot truck. Under the bonnet is the single overhead cam version of Ford’s 5.4-litre V8. And both rear doors open suicide-style, which is always cool. Then there’s the styling, with lots of curvy edges, flash tail-lights and those sexy step-side guards.

Aris fell in love with the F-truck on a trip to the States and arranged to buy a brand new 2000 model from VDC in Melbourne, who have low-volume compliance on these vehicles. He optioned it up with captain’s chairs, a sliding rear window and 10-stacker CD.

Still, 195kW doesn’t go all that far when you’ve got 2380kg of American iron to haul around. Aris got the itch for more power and consulted Todd Hobson from THEDGE Race Engines about what the best solution might be. That sure opened a can of worms! “The build process took two years and we spent the first three months of that on the theory,” says Todd.

With so many F-150s sold in the States each year, you can bet the aftermarket for these vehicles is huge. “A vast proportion of the modified F-150s in the US are supercharged,” says Aris, who points out that the factory hotty, the Lightning, is also supercharged.

“We spoke to a lot of people over there who are experienced with these trucks. While there are some single-turbo kits, it seems that no-one had gone the twin-turbo route. We wanted something that would come on boost from right down low, and the twins seemed to be the way to go.”

It also meant that virtually everything would have to be fabricated from scratch by Todd. He was certainly up for the challenge, making one piece at a time to keep the truck’s time in the workshop to a minimum.

The system he came up with is based around two 400hp Garrett ball bearing turbos, custom-built especially for this application. Todd made his own extractors to suit from 40mm steam pipe bends, making them as close to the ideal ‘tuned length’ design as possible. Keeping heat out of the engine bay and in the pipes was a priority.

“We looked at using aluminium shrouds, but that started to get overly complicated, so we decided to ceramic coat the pipes,” says Todd. “This keeps 50 percent of the heat within the pipes itself, which not only keeps the heat out of the engine bay but also gives you a small horsepower gain.” Completing the job is a pair of custom turbo bags for the exhaust housings.

No-one builds a serious turbo system without some form of intercooling these days, and Todd came up with a doozy based around two 380x410mm cores and custom-built end tanks top and bottom. The radiator is located further back and the ’cooler dropped down in front of it. The only other major mod needed to fit the turbo system in was to relocate the ABS system and to modify the fan shroud.

A trick airbox and custom-made, 90mm alloy-bodied airflow meter are tucked up under the driver’s side guard, containing a 12-inch K&N filter with custom tube work delivering fresh air to the hungry turbos. Using an airbox rather than pods is not only neater and potentially more effective in terms of power, but it’s quieter, too.

The hot waste gases from the turbo exit via Todd-built dump pipes and pass through dual three-inch cats into a dual 2.5-inch stainless system. Aris says the exhaust is quiet enough for his taste, but reckons the truck is still missing the traditional Ford V8 rumble. “I’m a GT man from way back and it just doesn’t have the same sound, at least with the standard cams. If you go any louder, it just drones, which is not on.”

Of course, all that extra air supplied by the huffers had to be matched by more fuel, so Aris ordered up eight Ford Motorsport injectors from the States as well as a pair of Lightning in-tank fuel pumps.

While that was easy, ECU tuning wasn’t, but Mark from Powertorque Engines overcame the obstacles. “We tried a MoTeC at first,” says Todd, which worked fine, except it couldn’t control the auto and couldn’t override the factory torque and rev limiters. The solution came from the US, with a Superchips controller. While this unit was cumbersome to work with, it did allow full access to the factory ECU and let them crank the V8 up to a stomping best of 401hp (299kW) at the treads on 11psi.

With full boost coming on at just 2000rpm, the Lariat can fry the tyres anywhere, any time. Aris pulled the ride height down three inches to suit the truck’s newfound power with a set of Belltech springs. He also replaced the dodgy factory rubber with a set of Bridgestones and added a pair of beefy swaybars to reduce body roll and understeer. A set of tramp rods have put an end to a pesky axle hop problem and the truck is ready to rock.

And that will do for now, though the boys are considering upgrading the internals in the future to allow them to run more boost.

Aris loves cruising in the truck, and while he doesn’t go looking for races, his next ambition is to head out to Willowbank to “see what she will do”. One thing this F-150 will do is surprise a lot of people – no risk!

1. Check this out for quality work! The intercooler uses two PWR tube and fin cores, with four end tanks. The tanks were made from flat sheet and each one is actually a mirror image of the opposite tank!

2. Turbo exhaust housings and manifolds get pretty damn hot. Todd had these tricky heat shield bags custom-made by a dude who produces similar items for aircraft. Each one has multiple layers made up of various materials.

3. Todd bought a larger airflow meter from the US, but was disappointed with the plastic construction. The solution? He made his own body from alloy and fitted it with the guts out of the aftermarket unit.

ARIS KONTOLEON
2000 Ford F-150 Lariat