UOA from the oldest Transit in my fleet. A little concerned about possible coolant contamination with this engine.
2015 Transit 250 (#1) 3.7L V6 - 7.3K miles - RGT 5w-30
- Thread starter mdtaylor86
- Start date
Why?
Sodium has spiked up to 2-3 times higher than it has ever been before. That coupled with the 3.7L's known issues with the internal water pump has me keeping an eye on it. I will see what the next report shows.
They are RWD. This is a Transit 250, mid roof, long wheelbase, so a full size van. Not a Transit Connect (the compact van).
The water pumps on the Duratec 3.7L V6 and 3.5L V6 (N/A) are completely internal and chain driven. When they go bad, they leak coolant directly into the sump.
I don't think that is correct. When you look at replacement pumps from Ford, they seem to be driven from the serpentine belt and not from the internal chain.
Water Pump for 2017 Ford Transit-350 | Auto Nation Ford White Bear Lake
parts.autonationfordwhitebearlake.com
Before I trashed my post, I was first certain they were internal on both the RWD applications and the transverse mounted engines.
However, I dug deeper and yes, I was not correct about the RWD applications. The water pump is external on the RWD applications. I have a transverse mounted 3.5L in my Taurus and that was the design I was remembering.
I am still concerned about a 2-3x jump in the sodium though.
If anyone is interested,
Here's the Wikipedia page on the Duratec/Cyclone engines
Here's a couple good videos about the internal water pumps on the transverse mounted 3.5L and 3.7L
Video 1
Video 2
However, I dug deeper and yes, I was not correct about the RWD applications. The water pump is external on the RWD applications. I have a transverse mounted 3.5L in my Taurus and that was the design I was remembering.
I am still concerned about a 2-3x jump in the sodium though.
If anyone is interested,
Here's the Wikipedia page on the Duratec/Cyclone engines
Here's a couple good videos about the internal water pumps on the transverse mounted 3.5L and 3.7L
Video 1
Video 2
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Pretty sure they’re on the outside, both the ‘15 & the ‘18 3.7 ones I‘ve had are like that. One of their few good features!
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Dang, took this picture for nothing! Looks just like the one posted above, 3 bolt pulley flange-
Take my advice, try to limit OCIs to 5K, keep using a quality full synthetic like RGT. Hopefully your drivetrains & torque converters do better than mine have!
Thanks for the picture anyway! Good to learn something (or at least be corrected so I know better now)!
Too late on the drive shafts and torque converters... At least those repairs were completely under warranty though.
The ‘15 was the one that lost the torque converter clutch, fortunately it was an Enterprise fleet rental, so they paid for it-but after 2+ months at a dealer (no parts/K member) & paying for a rental, which was probably $1K a week... the company paid for it anyway. I advised them to go back to GM, but they love Ford for some odd reason.
I don't know what your applications are but GM doesn't make a vehicle that has the cargo volume and payload capacity requirements we need that are met by the Ford Transits. GM needs to advance beyond the Express/Savana design. I see fewer and fewer of them every year, all being replaced by Transits, ProMasters, Sprinters, and NV Cargos.
The big Transits are pretty overrated on payload capacity & towing. The high roof has a lot of headroom, but the extended Express/Savana have just as much cargo space. I actually miss the Econoline vans, at least they could generally make 150K without catastrophic failures. Sprinters, in the rust belt-that's hilarious! I could have retired on what those cost us to keep on the road.
The Sprinters were nothing but money pits. Every repair was at least a couple grand, regardless of the repair. Resale value was abysmal.
We regularly have over 3K lbs in our Transits and have hauled over 2 tons without issue. Extended Express/Savana vans have nowhere near the payload height requirements we have. That was THE reason we got rid of all but one of them. We don't tow so I can't speak to that but they outperform our Savana 3500 for sure. The only reason we keep that around is because it has a box that allows for very tall payload we can't fit in the Transits.
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