Bully Dog Performance Programmer BDX F-150/ Raptor 2011-2020

Freddy: Today on CJ Off Road, we're going to make this EcoBoost perform a whole lot better with some help from Bully Dog. The EcoBoost F-150 is a powerful truck right from the factory but there's no such thing as too much power. So today we're going to make it perform a whole lot better with this BDX Bully Dog programmer. I have Joni from Bully Dog. What can you tell me about this product?

Joni: So we're really excited about this new release that we have. It's, as you mentioned, the newest, the latest, and greatest and it has a lot of things with it now that none of our other programmers have actually had before. For example, one of the favorite options is you no longer have to update these on computer. So there's no running back and forth, no additional wires to use. For Mac users, that's a really big bonus. So you could actually just link it in to your Wi-Fi, there's an option for check for updates on the device, and it just downloads those updates directly from the cloud. If you're someone that wants to do custom tuning, same basic concept. You give a dealer your serial number off of it, they build a file, send it over to you. You link it up to Wi-Fi, and it downloads directly into the device, which makes it really, really easy.

It is a hand-held, as you can see, but there is actually a mounting option for the guys that want to look at the gauges. There is that availability to do that. It also has the availability for 20 custom tunes now, so it's got a lot more room than any of the other devices have had before.

Freddy: Awesome. Let's get to the installation.

Tuning this truck with the BDX programmer to crank out more power, seriously couldn't be any easier. The first thing to do is plug it in to the OBD tube port.

Joni: So once you get it plugged into the diagnostic port, the first thing you're going to want to do is update it. We're going to go down to the device settings, select that. We're going to check for updates. We're going to select that, we need to confirm. Now, this is going to require Wi-Fi, so that's how we're going to continue. This is the best part about this, no running back to the computer to do any updates. You can just do it over Wi-Fi. It's gonna scan for your available networks. That's ours that we're going to select, then you're going to enter the passcode if there is one. Once it's connected to the Wi-Fi, it's going to notify you of that. Select OK and it's gonna start verifying your files from the cloud. We're going to go into program vehicle. We're gonna check for vehicle updates so we want to confirm that. Of course, it's gonna tell you that your internet is required, so we're gonna continue there.

Everything is up to date, so we go ahead and hit select. After it does your Wi-Fi updates, it's actually going to update the firmware on the device. Once it's done doing this, it'll be completed and we can go in and do the download to the vehicle for programming. Okay. So it's up to date, we're gonna go ahead and hit okay. We're going to pull down some files from the cloud on this particular download. It's gonna request the cloud files. There's our tune that we want, so we're going to select that and hit continue. Now it goes into downloading the files. We're actually going in the VCM; we're gonna reprogram it for the changes that we want to make.

When that starts to happen, there's going to be a lot of crazy things that go on, on the vehicle as well, like the lights are gonna come on, your alarms, and your bells, and your whistles, and everything are going to go off, which is completely normal so don't panic about that. Then also, when it's doing your download, you want to make sure you don't interrupt the download. Don't turn the vehicle on, you want to leave it in the accessory mode.

The first thing that's going to come up is your disclaimer, you have to accept that to continue. Now it's gonna ask you to turn the key on, which ours already is, so we're gonna hit continue. So it's asking us if this is a custom tune, it is, so we're gonna continue. So right now, it's telling us it's saving the stock data, so make sure you don't turn the ignition key off or disconnect the device.

Okay. Now it's finalizing our tune. Okay. Now it's going to write our tune. This is the part where it also becomes important to not disconnect the device, don't start the vehicle. This is what I'm talking about, doing the programming starts to set off all of the door dings, and things along those lines, which is totally normal. It always does a clearing of the DTCs at the end, just in case we happen to throw any codes during the download process, which does happen sometimes.

Okay, now it's telling us to turn the vehicle ignition key to off position. I'm gonna go ahead and select that and turn that off. Now, it's gonna ask me to turn the key on. So again, it's gonna give you all the directions and instructions so it's really important to follow what the programmer is saying. Congratulations, the vehicle has been programmed so it is complete. Once that's all over and done with, you'll want to start the vehicle. Then you can take it out for a spin.

Freddy: All right, we got our BDX programmer all installed. Joni, I want to thank you for coming out.

Joni: Thanks for having me.

Freddy: No problem. Got the truck running really good and I was surprised. Installing this really didn't take more than 20 minutes, super easy. If you want to learn more about this BDX programmer, visit CJPonyParts.com.