Ford eco boost

[MGP4506]

couple years ago I bought a 2012 f 150 had low miles , have 142.000 on it now just got out of the shop $4000 worht of repairs , timing chains and all the bs that goes with it anyone else had good bad experience with one ?

My last work truck was a Ford F250. I will never own another one. My company bought 6 of them at the same time. All 6 spent more time in the garage than on the road.
From what I heard about the eco boost is there are many issues with them also.

 

[ArlyA]

My last work truck was a Ford F250. I will never own another one. My company bought 6 of them at the same time. All 6 spent more time in the garage than on the road.
From what I heard about the eco boost is there are many issues with them also.

What year?

 

[DynamicD]

And what engine? The 6.0 diesel and 6.4 diesels certainly have their documented issues... But the 6.7 Diesel seems to be pretty bullet proof.

 

[Farmer495]

I have an 11.

1) Drill weep hole in the intercooler, solves most misfire issues. (free)
2) Run iridium plugs (Ford ones) and change often. Less than $100 CDN to change DIY, solves all other misfire issues.
3) Frequent oil changes, it's cheap (Less than $50 CDN for synthetic oil and filter on sale DIY)

I bought it well used and did timing chains at about 130,000 miles for first time. It was throwing a cam position code and had was building crazy boost which cause huge lag. New chains solved all the issues.

Truck pulls like a diesel at low RPM.

A 4k repair doesn't bother me so much now when a new truck like it is 75-80 k here.

I'll drive it until it rots out.

 

[grsthegreat]

My 2020 rig has such get up and go, and is so quiet and smooth, i am really impressed. I tend to be hard on the peddle, so i only get 18 mpg. But after driving a slug of a diesel 94 dodge ram, i appreciate the quiet, powerful ford.

 

[deserteagle71]

I have an 11.

1) Drill weep hole in the intercooler, solves most misfire issues. (free)
2) Run iridium plugs (Ford ones) and change often. Less than $100 CDN to change DIY, solves all other misfire issues.
3) Frequent oil changes,

Truck pulls like a diesel at low RPM.

Excellent advice! Except that for newer model trucks - from my research 2016 up - the weep hole in the intercooler is no longer needed as Ford addressed the issue.

But yes - the Ecoboost engines (really, any turbocharged engine) is harder on spark plugs so generally accepted advice is to not wait until Ford's recommended 100,000 mile change interval but do it after about 50,000 - 70,000 miles. Also, the spark plugs on a boosted engine don't like large gaps. I was used to gapping my plugs to somewhere around .050 in my older engines. Owner's manual for my Ecoboost (8 years old) recommends a gap of .030 - .033. When I bought spark plugs for my Ecoboost recently at the local Ford dealer the parts guy looked up the specs for my truck and said the latest recommendation from Ford is to set the gap on new plugs at .028 so that's what I did.

Same with the oil changes. Don't wait for the Ford recommended interval of 10,000 miles! Change at 5,000 or sooner and you'll not have to do cam phasar or timing chain repairs.

Cautionary reminder! When you buy ignition parts like spark plugs/coil packs, buy them from a Ford dealer, local or on line. DO NOT buy them from Amazon or Ebay! Google "counterfeit spark plugs" and you'll see a whole list of people who bought on-line spark plugs from Ebay and ended up with a lot of problems. Turns out there are fake "genuine Motorcraft" spark plugs out there that look authentic and come in what appears to be official Motorcraft packaging. But those spark plugs are made of inferior materials and will cause all sorts of problems in short order. Like the center electrode being made of some kind of pot metal instead of Iridium, and the resistors that every spark plug has in the ceramic portion having wildly differing values. NGK spark plugs has a cautionary story to the same effect and gives several cases where engines were actually destroyed by these counterfeit spark plugs. So...if you see an ad on line for a set of 6 spark plugs for $25 - they are probably counterfeit. Genuine Motorcraft plugs for the Ecoboosts sell for $15 - $18 each!

I bought my first turbo diesel 24 years ago. Having pulled loads with big block V8s for years, it was a revelation to drive a truck with an engine that didn't have to run at 3000+ rpm when going up a steep hill or pulling 20,000 lbs. This little 3.5 Ecoboost is tuned to pull the same way. Lots of torque down low, below 2000 rpm. Transmission doesn't need to shift down when pulling a steep hill. As you say, it pulls like a diesel! One big difference though. Hook my turbodiesel to a heavy trailer and the fuel mileage will drop maybe 4 mpg. Hook my F150 Ecoboost to a trailer and the fuel mileage (21 mpg not towing) drops in half.

 

[ArlyA]

Excellent advice! Except that for newer model trucks - from my research 2016 up - the weep hole in the intercooler is no longer needed as Ford addressed the issue.

But yes - the Ecoboost engines (really, any turbocharged engine) is harder on spark plugs so generally accepted advice is to not wait until Ford's recommended 100,000 mile change interval but do it after about 50,000 - 70,000 miles. Also, the spark plugs on a boosted engine don't like large gaps. I was used to gapping my plugs to somewhere around .050 in my older engines. Owner's manual for my Ecoboost (8 years old) recommends a gap of .030 - .033. When I bought spark plugs for my Ecoboost recently at the local Ford dealer the parts guy looked up the specs for my truck and said the latest recommendation from Ford is to set the gap on new plugs at .028 so that's what I did.

Same with the oil changes. Don't wait for the Ford recommended interval of 10,000 miles! Change at 5,000 or sooner and you'll not have to do cam phasar or timing chain repairs.

Cautionary reminder! When you buy ignition parts like spark plugs/coil packs, buy them from a Ford dealer, local or on line. DO NOT buy them from Amazon or Ebay! Google "counterfeit spark plugs" and you'll see a whole list of people who bought on-line spark plugs from Ebay and ended up with a lot of problems. Turns out there are fake "genuine Motorcraft" spark plugs out there that look authentic and come in what appears to be official Motorcraft packaging. But those spark plugs are made of inferior materials and will cause all sorts of problems in short order. Like the center electrode being made of some kind of pot metal instead of Iridium, and the resistors that every spark plug has in the ceramic portion having wildly differing values. NGK spark plugs has a cautionary story to the same effect and gives several cases where engines were actually destroyed by these counterfeit spark plugs. So...if you see an ad on line for a set of 6 spark plugs for $25 - they are probably counterfeit. Genuine Motorcraft plugs for the Ecoboosts sell for $15 - $18 each!

I bought my first turbo diesel 24 years ago. Having pulled loads with big block V8s for years, it was a revelation to drive a truck with an engine that didn't have to run at 3000+ rpm when going up a steep hill or pulling 20,000 lbs. This little 3.5 Ecoboost is tuned to pull the same way. Lots of torque down low, below 2000 rpm. Transmission doesn't need to shift down when pulling a steep hill. As you say, it pulls like a diesel! One big difference though. Hook my turbodiesel to a heavy trailer and the fuel mileage will drop maybe 4 mpg. Hook my F150 Ecoboost to a trailer and the fuel mileage (21 mpg not towing) drops in half.

Ya, Ford said we could change engine oil at 5 to 10K. We went with the crazy 5. Seems those spark plugs might stay in, if left in the block to long. Maintenance is cheaper than new truck.

 

[Tomtint]

Good friend of mine is the mechanic for our towns Police units. They run Ford Explorers and a few F150s.. All have the EB 3.5. He says he drops the oil every 3500 miles and just does basic maintenance on the cars until they hit 125K miles and then they go to auction. He has very few problems with them.. And they are driven hard by people who didn't pay for them or care about them.

 

[ruffdog]

Excellent advice! Except that for newer model trucks - from my research 2016 up - the weep hole in the intercooler is no longer needed as Ford addressed the issue.

I wonder what they changed to solve that issue?

 

[kozal01]

They added electronically actuated louvers in front of the intercooler to cover it when not needed to eliminate the condensation, that was fixed in 2014 or 2015. I know my 15 has had no issues with intercooler condensation.