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Did This Amateur Video Capture A Ford F-150 Diesel Test Mule?

With a diesel powerplant now all-but-confirmed for the 2018 Ford F-150 full-size pickup, we ought to start seeing test mules running around on public roads with increasing frequency.

Is the truck in this video one of them?

The video, submitted to website Autoweek by a reader, shows a current-generation Ford F-150 with a rough hack job on the rear bumper to accommodate a pair of rearward-pointing exhaust outlets. Every spied F-150 diesel that we’ve seen up to this point has had just a single, side-exit exhaust, and one recorded on video back in January of this year even had that unmistakable diesel knock.

The alleged F-150 diesel in this video, however, is quite a bit harder to hear. For that reason, we can’t rule out other possibilities: that it’s testing a new exhaust system for an existing engine or playing host to a future Ford Ranger powerplant are two alternatives proposed by Autoweek.

We ought to know better in the coming months. A trusted source has told us that the future Ford F-150 diesel will be powered by a twin-turbocharged, 3.0-liter unit, and consulting firm AutoPacific believes that it come paired with the new Ford-GM 10-speed automatic transmission bound for duty in the new Raptor and 2017 F-150 with 3.5-liter EcoBoost.

Stay tuned.

Aaron Brzozowski is a writer and motoring enthusiast from Detroit with an affinity for '80s German steel. He is not active on the Twitter these days, but you may send him a courier pigeon.

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