Whipple Charged Gen Juan Raptor Build

[blueherron96]

Figured it was time to start a build thread. This one is going to be long as I’ve had the truck for a couple years and have done a lot of work to it already so just bear with me.

I guess I’ll start at the beginning of it all. I was always intrigued by the raptor since it was released and after seeing Mike Higgins tearing up the Silver Lake Sand Dunes back in 2011 I knew I had to have one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDjODVPP6dM

Fast forward to 2023 and I was finally in a position to buy my dream truck. After 8 months of searching (now March of 2024), I finally found a 2014 that had pretty much everything I wanted to do to the truck (at the time lol) for a good price. And the biggest thing was NO RUST. So I jumped on a plane as fast as I could and flew from Michigan to the coast of Mississippi and picked up my dream truck and drove it 1200 miles back home.

Mod list when I bought it:

• ADD bumpers front and rear with rigid lights
• SYNC 3 head unit with full custom stereo
• Morimoto headlights
• 5% tint all around / 35% windshield
• Geiser progressive rate front springs on mid perch
• Stainless works catless headers
• Corsa extreme exhaust
• And the best part – a Whipple supercharger

 

[blueherron96]

After driving home in the dark and rain, I knew the 35% windshield tint had to go so after a full fluid maintenance it went to a good friend for a paint correction and ceramic coat application along with replacing the 35% windshield tint with 50% ceramic tint. The difference was unbelievable. I could actually see out of the windshield but still get the benefits of reduced interior temp and I don’t have to hunt for my sunglasses every time the sun comes out. It’s also light enough that I don’t get harassed by the popo.

 

[blueherron96]

I absolutely loved driving this thing. The power band with the Whipple is so addicting with the way it just keeps pulling. It wasn’t until I took it offroad for the first time that I fell in love with the truck and just could not stop laughing and grinning ear to ear.

This is when everything changed… Originally, I hadn’t planned on offroading it that hard and planned on it more just being mostly a street truck.

So, after a handful of dune trips throughout the year and some solo trail runs I had plans for the winter “build season” as we know it in Michigan to make the truck more offroad capable and ready to do some group runs.

 

[blueherron96]

I wasn’t really sold on the ADD rear bumper because it stuck out so far. After seeing a Mazzulla bumper in person, I was sold. I wanted to keep a rear hitch receiver for doing recoveries and since the Mazzulla bumper doesn’t come with one, I had to get creative. I didn’t want to do a hidden hitch with a flip up license plate like I have seen others do because during a rear hook recovery it could get ripped off when flipped up if pulling at an extreme angle. I decided to make my own brackets to mount the bumper which would include provisions for a cross bar for the hitch receiver.

Was able to get the receiver up as high as possible just underneath the license plate. The hitch receiver is bolted on with 6 ¾” bolts and everything is ¼” thickness and where the cross bar meets the frame horn brackets is doubled up ¼” plates. The bumper then bolts to the receiver very similar to the factory configuration.

This thing is stout. I jack the rear of the truck up from this location and it has been used to pull several stuck trucks out at the sand dunes without any issues.

 

[blueherron96]

I always get asked about my exhaust setup. With dovetailing the bedsides, the standard exit corsa exhaust wasn’t going to work. My wife and I also had a baby on the way and my wife wanted me to make the exhaust quieter for the baby. During one of the dune trips, my exhaust kept falling off so I ran most of the day with open headers dumped under the passenger floor. I absolutely loved the way that the open headers sounded in the dunes. I looked into cutouts, but the electronic ones are known to have all kinds of issues. I finally landed on a Valvetronic Designs valved muffler that uses a vacuum actuated valve.

I was able to adapt it to the piping from the corsa cat back setup so it was basically just a muffler swap. I cut the tailpipe into a over the axle dump so it would look better with the dovetailed bedsides. I really like the way that it came out and with the valve closed it sounds pretty close to stock and with the valve open it is an absolute screamer. Really wish I had better videos of it because the ones I have do not do it justice.

 

[blueherron96]

I knew if I wanted to do group events then I was going to need to upgrade my lighting and radio package. I needed to add chase lights and after doing a few group trail runs I understand why. Driving in the dust is knarly. I also wanted to upgrade the rigid lights that came with the truck because they just didn’t work as good as I thought they should so it got a full Baja Designs lighting package.

• 20” OnX6 bar for the front bumper
• XL80 ditch lights
• S2 pros for the rear bumper for reverse lights
• RPG third brake light w/ S2 sports and NMO antenna mount

Since the high beams of the Morimoto headlights really don’t do much, I wired the OnX6 to be triggered with the high beam switch. I didn’t want the light bar to come on every time I hit the high beam switch so instead of wiring the relay direct to the battery, I wired the power to the relay to an upfitter switch and the trigger wire to the high beams. This allows me to maintain normal operation of the high beams and if I flip upfitter switch 1 AND turn the high beams on, the OnX6 bar will turn on.

I also needed to upgrade from a 5W handheld radio to a 50W mounted radio. Ended up going with a Icom 2730A from LVJ Motorsports that comes programmed with just about every channel you would need for doing any raptor run in the country. I’m not a fan of the traditional dash or center console mount so decided to mount the face plate in the headliner with the main box under the passenger seat. For an antenna, Keith from LVJ recommended a longer steel whip antenna for doing trail runs and a shorter flexible antenna for daily driving or dune trips where we don’t get that far spread out.

 

[blueherron96]

On the final dune trip of the year, I blew the power steering pump. After talking to a lot of people, I decided to do the full Lee kit. While I was in there, I replaced the steering rack because it had some slop and a slight leak. While the rack was out, I serviced the front diff with new fluid and a Spicer cover. Also added an oil pressure sensor since these trucks don’t have one from the factory. While I was doing this, I also added a boost gauge so I could see how much boost the truck is making along with a carbon fiber gauge pod. This setup goes perfect with the Edge CTS3 monitor. Also swapped out the factory trans cooler for the “Saudi cooler” as well as deleted the quick connect fittings on the trans cooler lines that are known to fail.

 

[blueherron96]

And this is when everything started to snowball… It started with finding a set of used deaver +3 leaf springs for a good deal. Then I found a bypass rack and 3.0x16 triple bypass shocks for a deal I couldn’t pass up. It was getting close to spring, so I wasn’t going to have time to get the shocks done right but I did get the deavers and bypass rack w/ bed support installed.

I was trying to figure out what I was going to do for front shocks to pair with the bypasses out back and was leaning towards doing the gen 2 coil bucket conversion with King IBP coilovers for the gen 2. Then a set a of gen 2 FRS Foxes went on a sale that I couldn’t pass up. So I started gathering parts for the coil bucket conversion.

In the meantime, it was now spring and Silver Lake Sand Dunes opens every year on April 1. Was able to make it out for opening weekend which is always a different experience than the rest of the year because the sand is so smooth and you can just run laps all day long.

 

[blueherron96]

Had some fun in the sand and then it was time to get back to work with the gen 2 coilover conversion. While I was doing this, I decided to do a slot delete with some old adjustable Rogue control arms I had picked up with a bunch of other spare front end parts. The goal was to get this completed within 4 weeks because there was a big raptor event at the dunes in May that I wanted to go to.

 

[blueherron96]

Was able to get the gen 2 conversion wrapped up and made it to the event at Silver Lake. Had a blast and learned very quickly that the 550lb springs that came on the FRS coilovers were not near enough spring rate to hold the gen 1 up. After talking to a local shock guy, ended up swapping to 700lb springs and it is much better offroad.

 

[blueherron96]

The rest of 2025 was spent enjoying the truck. Lots of great adventures and some broken parts along the way. Here’s a photo dump of some of the adventures along with some of the carnage.

 

[blueherron96]

Photo dump continued...

 

[blueherron96]

Photo dump continued...

 

[blueherron96]

So that brings us to the winter of 2025. The big project this winter is a major overhaul of the rear suspension adding the 16” bypasses thru the bed. I started with cutting the shock mounts and front bed mounts off the frame. Replaced the bed mounts with some reinforced ones from TSW AZ. Got the holes cut in the bed to run the shocks thru. While disassembling the leaf spring packs to cycle the suspension, I found several cracked leafs. This was a big bummer because I didn’t plan on having to buy new leaf springs but that’s what happens when you buy used parts. At least I got a season out of them. I went with deaver +4.5s this time to have more free arch for more available up travel.

 

[blueherron96]

Once the deavers arrived, I got those torn down so I could start cycling the suspension. I’m trying to get everything I can out of this spring over setup so that means pushing the boundaries on up travel. Deaver recommends to not exceed 1” of negative arch on the spring. I ended up at 1.5” of negative arch. Any more up travel and the springs start crashing into the bump kit. I could clearance the bump kit for more up travel but the spring is already at its limit for negative arch. So with the bump height set, I was able to start designing the shock mounts. I wanted to integrate the shock mount and bump pad into one piece and I really like the way they came out. Not giving away travel numbers yet but I’m very happy with where it came out with the 16” stroke shocks.

 

[blueherron96]

Now it’s time for the highly debated topic of traction bars. The deavers alone were not enough to stop the wheel hop with the added power from the Whipple so I needed some kind of axle wrap control system. I looked at every available option on the market and really didn’t trust any of the claims that different brands make. It makes sense why they wouldn’t work with extended travel but I wanted to find out for myself just how much they would limit travel. So I built my own set of traction bars and quite frankly I’m impressed. Yes, you do give up some down travel. But the amount I’m giving up is almost negligible. I’ll get into final travel numbers later but I’m excited to do some testing with these in the dirt to see how much of a difference they make.

 

[blueherron96]

While I waited on limit straps to show up, I started working on the new layout for the bed cage. After using the bypass rack and bed support system for a year there were some things I really didn’t like about it and wanted to move some things around and add additional items such as an easily accessible box with my air compressor and recovery gear that wasn’t buried at the front of the bed and better storage for spare fluids. I was able to come up with a layout that works and will add rigidity to the rear frame section to hopefully cure some of the gen 1 twerk. I added mounting points to tie the bed cage directly to the frame in 2 additional spots. This is still a work in progress and will have x bracing between all the mounting points where the bed cage bolts to the bed and frame.

 

[blueherron96]

And this is where we are currently. Got the limit straps installed and am finally done cycling the suspension. Now it’s time to give these deavers a proper coating so they don’t rust so easily.

 

[BlackJacket705]

Cool shot in front of the Big Red Barn...