2.7 Ecoboost - An overbuilt beast with a flaw

[Hermann]

Seems like Ford's engines always seem to have an Achilles Heel. Too many to list

 

[Chris142]

Makes me appreciate my 2v modulars. I should pick up more vehicles with them. Driven right off the crank snout. That seems like the right way to do it. I guess a chain driven pump is also okay.

It seems that multiple companies had had issues with oil pump drives over the years. I know a lot of Ford vulcan engines and later Jeep 4.0 engines died when the oil pump drive from the fake distributor failed and either stopped spinning because the gear wore on the cam or wore on the distributor.

We had a powertech 3.7 die when the oil pump drive broke on a cold start. Apparently there's a long shaft that snapped.

Ford's were candy caning oil pump drive shafts back into the 60's when the nylon teeth came off the cam gear and locked up the oil pump.

 

[cptbarkey]

What about all the great examples of the failure modes of every oil pump type that’s ever been invented? Worn gears, snapped pump driveshafts, shattered gerotors, pickups that fell off, the list goes on. Are you swearing off all those types as well?

Any machine can be a smoke machine if you operate it wrong enough.

I swear off strawman arguments. They lead to chasing tails endlessly.

 

[fdcg27]

This little thing makes about the same power as something with 3X its displacement would have back in the good old days of the seventies.
With an old big-block Ford, Chevy or Dodge you might have gotten away with this foolishness.
With this modern and more highly stressed little turbo, maybe not.
The oil pump drive was obviously not the cause. Had it been a shaft made of either platinum or titanium the outcome would have been the same.
No oil pump, however driven, can make up for a driver running the engine out of oil.

 

[Bill7]

Note to Ford.

JUST STOP IT. QUIT USING THAT STUPID BELT TO DRIVE OIL PUMPS.

Every other part of the motor looks just fine, other than the oil-starved bearings, but come on. Not even 100k on the motor and that oil pump belt should already be replaced.

If the wife gets a Bronco, it will be a 2.3, even with the stupidity that is a non-keyed crank pulley.

I even looked up the 2024 parts, yep, still a belt. I don't even mind the plastic oil pan.

That bottom end though. Looks like they started building a diesel and then decided to switch over to gas.

I've done a lot of research on the Ford Ecoboost engines.
It's a fascinating engine with nearly every cutting edge technology (perhaps too much technology).
It's also probably harder on oil than any other engine for street vehicle use.
It's get's high temps from the twin turbos and F150's pulling 11,000 trailers up inclines at high RPMs,
it has timing chains which shear oil pretty bad,
it's a dirty engine with coolant intrusion and blowby and piston rings get dirty pretty fast.

Also, the F150's with the EcoBoost many times leave people stranded on the road at 50k miles with some $12,000 repair.

As smooth, powerful, luxurious, and super fast as it is, the reason I wouldn't buy one is the the reliability / longevity from a $ perspective.
So many owners are gettting sudden unexpected astronomical repairs bills.

If you're paying that much for a new Ford F150, you should get 200,000 miles with only minor repairs.

I know the Toyota pickups are boring and somewhat unrefined / primative compared to the F150,
but reliability and low cost of repairs (if any) is my most important criteria in buying any vehicle.

 

[SubieRubyRoo]

I know the Toyota pickups are boring and somewhat unrefined / primative compared to the F150,
but reliability and low cost of repairs (if any) is my most important criteria in buying any vehicle.

You mean the Toyota pickup with a twin-turbo, 3.5L V6 and 10-speed transmission, just like the F150 (but a decade later)?

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

 

[benjy]

just like big pharma a few lives or engines mean little until i gets really costly $$$$$$$$$$$$

 

[benjy]

besides oil starvation if driven hard the 2.7's are said to drop valves from a cheap batch from our GLOBAL parts sources where the lowest bidder gets the contract for said parts that hopefully meet the specs!!!!

 

[Bill7]

You mean the Toyota pickup with a twin-turbo, 3.5L V6 and 10-speed transmission, just like the F150 (but a decade later)?

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

Thanks for that info, I'll so some research on the Toyota pickups with the ecoboost imatation.
If I ever had to make a blind prediction, I would say the Toyota version has had extreme quality assurance testing for a very long time and probably has all the bugs identified and fixed before these engines went to production. If Toyota really has a bulllet proof version of the ecoboost, that could be an F150 killer for the next 10 years.

 

[MNgopher]

Amuses me everytime some post lumps every ecoboost engine together. They are all the same, except they aren't. The 2.7 and 3.5 are both ecoboosts, but they are clearly different engines.

And pointing to toyota getting it right is hilarious- I guess imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

 

[dnewton3]

Folks - Knock off the personal jabs or the thread gets locked.

As for the thread topic itself, this is a single failure which clearly had a root cause of oil loss. That's all; nothing more and nothing less. The video shows an oil pump drive belt in distress, but it probably would never be in that condition in "normal" care circumstances. Anything past that is just conjecture and hyperbole.

 

[Fabulous50s]

What's the big deal? Timing belts are often rated to 150,000 miles with many owners driving over 200K without a failure. Plus, driving an oil pump is much less stressful than driving a bunch of cams. And if it does fail, it's not instant death for the engine like a timing belt.

It's in freaking oil.....

 

[350Rocket]

Wait… so “one” failure from a truck with proven abuse is now reason to discount the millions of 2.7s working just fine in F150s, Fusions, and Broncos? Pfft.

Maybe we check back once these engines actually have enough years on them to judge reliability.

 

[ctechbob]

Amuses me everytime some post lumps every ecoboost engine together. They are all the same, except they aren't. The 2.7 and 3.5 are both ecoboosts, but they are clearly different engines.

And pointing to toyota getting it right is hilarious- I guess imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

Don't forget about the 2.0 and 2.3. Different yet again.

I'm a little biased, but except for the GDI only (Which rumor has it is going dual injection in 2024) I think the 2.3 is the sweet spot.

(The un-keyed crankshaft pulley also annoys me)

Granted, you're not going to put that in a big truck.

 

[SubieRubyRoo]

Maybe we check back once these engines actually have enough years on them to judge reliability.

9 model years, 2 different displacements, 12 or 13 different vehicle models across 2 different brands, millions of engines in service. Guess we’ll have to wait to decide on the “Nano” engine. Can’t possibly make a determination with that amount of data.

 

[supton]

I watched the vid when it came out, and I too was not so sure about the original owner carrying out after running out of oil. But that belt... looked bad. But is that superficial? I mean, tires can have some weather checking and usually it's not that bad... just not that great.

Question: has anyone torn down a 2.7 with one of these belts (that has run for a similar amount of miles) for a fault that wasn't oil related, and can show a pristine looking belt? thereby showing that this craptastic belt is a cascade fault of running out of oil and not related to the belt in oil concept?

 

[4WD]

wish we’d even once have a Ford or Chevy thread that stays in the same decade - I know the same year is too much to ask …

 

[4WD]

As for the thread topic itself, this is a single failure which clearly had a root cause of oil loss. That's all; nothing more and nothing less.

IMO, adding towing to your insurance policy (if not already covered) helps folks make the best decision - Park/Off.

 

[Dave Sherman]

I've watched his other videos, there's at least one other where the oil-bathed belt did not hold up well. Honda puts oil-bathed timing belts in their EU 2000 generators, they also don't seem to hold up well in the long run. Looking at what has to come apart to get to that oil pump drive belt, I have to agree with the OP, that does not seem like a good design. One could argue that the timing belt on a Honda J35 isn't a great design either on an interference engine, but those have a maintenance schedule and are intended to be replaced regularly.

 

[atikovi]

It's in freaking oil.....

And....?