2017 2.3 Eco Boost Explorer 8000 mile Trip

Whimsey · Wednesday at 3:25 PM

Got back recently from our 8000 mile 39 day trip from NJ to out West, AZ, UT and North, WY, SD and back. My wife over packs so the vehicle was overloaded, probably ~1300lbs with people and luggage. On flat terrain 80 mph was easy to maintain without turbo. In mountainous terrain the turbo sometimes was needed to keep up and outside of Salt Lake City on Route 80 It gave up temporarily. After letting it cool down and not pushing the turbo it was ok. Other than the Salt Lake RT 80 there was no other issues with mountains and the turbo. The 2.3 Eco Boost returned 23mpg overall for the the trip, considering it was 80 mph overall and mountainous terrain that's not bad with the weight in the vehicle. Overall the time in the vehicle was comfortable. I'm pleased with this vehicle and the long trip. The oil used was PUP 5W-30, none was used or more needed to be added.

Klutch9 · Wednesday at 3:31 PM

Sounds really fun! What do you mean that it ‘gave up’ though?

charbaby · Wednesday at 4:12 PM

That’s the best kind of driving the you could have done. Way to go and glad you had a good trip.
Sound like everything worked as it should have. Well done!

ctechbob · Wednesday at 6:41 PM

I consider the 2.3EB one of the best EB's Ford has ever built. The one in my Ranger was always outstanding and punched way above its weight when towing our travel trailer.

Now that they're supposed to have port injection along with the direct injection I think it beats even the mighty 2.7. Mainly for the gear driven oil pump and easily replaceable water pump.

mitsuman47 · Wednesday at 7:06 PM

While posting on an engine oil forum, bro casually mentions that his engine gave up, and then just moves on with no further details about the event.

ClutchDisc · Wednesday at 7:18 PM

mitsuman47 said:
While posting on an engine oil forum, bro casually mentions that his engine gave up, and then just moves on with no further details about the event.

Almost as if that’s a normal everyday occurrence…

Mainia · Wednesday at 7:30 PM

So was the "gave up" a high oil temp code? How did it warn you, engine light and scanned it or a sentence stating high oil temps?

MNgopher · Wednesday at 8:08 PM

ctechbob said:
Now that they're supposed to have port injection along with the direct injection I think it beats even the mighty 2.7. Mainly for the gear driven oil pump and easily replaceable water pump.

The 2.7 water pump is an external belt driven water pump, just like the 2.3 with a similar book time to replace. Not sure how thats any advantage... (and I say that owning a 2.3 in our 21 explorer and a 2.7 in the 16 F150...) Personally, I prefer the power delivery of the 2.7 along with a better engine tone... The 4 cyl is raspy in comparison.

Also note the newest 2.3 is a different engine than the older ones...

ctechbob · Wednesday at 8:09 PM

MNgopher said:
The 2.7 water pump is an external belt driven water pump, just like the 2.3 with a similar book time to replace. Not sure how thats any advantage... (and I say that owning a 2.3 in our 21 explorer and a 2.7 in the 16 F150...) Personally, I prefer the power delivery of the 2.7 along with a better engine tone... The 4 cyl is raspy in comparison.

Also note the newest 2.3 is a different engine than the older ones...

Mainly no belt on the oil pump. As for the sound, sure I can agree with that, but I put function way above form unless it is completely irritating, and the 2.3 never rose to that level.

Whimsey · Thursday at 11:31 AM

Sorry, should have gone into more detail about the problem. While on RT. 80 near Salt Lake doing 75-80 mph uphill, with the turbo engaged, it started slowing down then the check engine light came on. Got to the shoulder in limp mode and shut it down. Used my Torque Pro app to read the fault. It says I have a PENDING P0299, turbocharger under boost code. I checked what I could and didn't see anything obvious. I cleared the code and proceeded at a slower pace to avoid using the turbo as much as I could. The turbo engaged occasionally when needed without a problem. I had a mechanic check out the turbo system at our next destination, and could find no problem and thankfully we had no problems for the rest of the trip. One thing I have to check myself is the rubber snorkel feeding air to the turbo. I read that there are occasions where it breaks apart internally and can cause a blockage of the intake air. Though the turbo behaved for the rest of the trip. There was one other problem that happened in Sedona where the front grill shutters started closing and causing overheating. Luckily we found a great mechanic and he had us on our way in the same day. He even loaned us one of the shop trucks so we could at least get around while the truck was being repaired. It was a GREAT trip to see this wonderful country! As a side note we saw a lot of international tourists enjoying the sights. Finally, for a vehicle that started the trip at 114,000 mi on the odometer and ended at 122,000 miles it wasn't too bad overall.

Klutch9 · Thursday at 3:04 PM

Whimsey said:
Sorry, should have gone into more detail about the problem. While on RT. 80 near Salt Lake doing 75-80 mph uphill, with the turbo engaged, it started slowing down then the check engine light came on. Got to the shoulder in limp mode and shut it down. Used my Torque Pro app to read the fault. It says I have a PENDING P0299, turbocharger under boost code. I checked what I could and didn't see anything obvious. I cleared the code and proceeded at a slower pace to avoid using the turbo as much as I could. The turbo engaged occasionally when needed without a problem. I had a mechanic check out the turbo system at our next destination, and could find no problem and thankfully we had no problems for the rest of the trip. One thing I have to check myself is the rubber snorkel feeding air to the turbo. I read that there are occasions where it breaks apart internally and can cause a blockage of the intake air. Though the turbo behaved for the rest of the trip. There was one other problem that happened in Sedona where the front grill shutters started closing and causing overheating. Luckily we found a great mechanic and he had us on our way in the same day. He even loaned us one of the shop trucks so we could at least get around while the truck was being repaired. It was a GREAT trip to see this wonderful country! As a side note we saw a lot of international tourists enjoying the sights. Finally, for a vehicle that started the trip at 114,000 mi on the odometer and ended at 122,000 miles it wasn't too bad overall.

Do you monitor oil temps in your Explorer?

Interesting note about the turbo though. My 2016 2.3 has the tow package, which includes an air scoop in the front air dam that directs air to the transfer case and turbo area. But mine does not have active shutters though.

Whimsey · Thursday at 5:50 PM

Klutch9 said:
Do you monitor oil temps in your Explorer?

Interesting note about the turbo though. My 2016 2.3 has the tow package, which includes an air scoop in the front air dam that directs air to the transfer case and turbo area. But mine does not have active shutters though.

I don't have an oil temp gauge, as far as I know. The cluster info is minimal unfortunately.

Klutch9 · Thursday at 6:09 PM

Whimsey said:
I don't have an oil temp gauge, as far as I know. The cluster info is minimal unfortunately.

Was just curious. The car doesn't have one from factory. I added one of those filter sandwich adapters to mine and put a sensor there. Oil temps on this engine are quite low. I've only hit 200 F a couple times. The filter comes right after the sump so I assume the sump temp is the same.

2017 2.3 Eco Boost Explorer 8000 mile Trip

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