3.5 Ecoboost cam lobe wear?

I wouldn't put any parts in that until the cause of the oil starvation has been found.

Have you pulled the valve timing solenoids? no debris in there?

here's a teardown of a 2nd gen 3.5 ecoboost. similar, but less extreme damage on this one. had water in it were oil should be.


No debris in the solenoids. They look brand new.

I studies this video couple other times before going into the engine.
 
What oil filter was on there? With amsoil signature series oil being run, were the intervals extended? Was the oil filter up to extended intervals?
Just the Motorcraft specified oil filter. No extended intervals... 5k miles at most. Wasted a lot of money on oil.
 
What oil filter was on there? With amsoil signature series oil being run, were the intervals extended? Was the oil filter up to extended intervals?
5K OCI.

I wouldn't put any parts in that until the cause of the oil starvation has been found.

Have you pulled the valve timing solenoids? no debris in there?

here's a teardown of a 2nd gen 3.5 ecoboost. similar, but less extreme damage on this one. had water in it were oil should be.


WOW Less extreme? Crank friggen broke and butcher mech was in there previously. Rings were bound up and pistons were NASTY and loaded like a full diaper.
 
I've never heard of excessive cam wear on a 3.5. this is a new one for me. I've seen some of the first gens in older vehicle with hundreds of thousands of miles that were having phasers and timing done. They were maintained the exact same way and the cams and journals looked brand new.
As far as I know, it is not very common. Most people change the phasers to the new design and don't have issues. However, few others reached out and indicated they have the same problem.
 
Just the Motorcraft specified oil filter. No extended intervals... 5k miles at most. Wasted a lot of money on oil.
Your engine is super clean, but yeah, you could have used other oils. I do wonder how your secondary rings are (see video).....that said new engine parts going to be cha-ching as well.

Our new van will have same engine, ala 2025. Man I hope improved version!
 
Yikes heads are 1600 each, cams a couple hundred each plus all the extras.... seems like you're halfway to an engine... assuming they are available.

Wonder if a good machine shop could line hone the cam journals
 
Yikes heads are 1600 each, cams a couple hundred each plus all the extras.... seems like you're halfway to an engine... assuming they are available.

Wonder if a good machine shop could line hone the cam journals
Yeah, I am already $2K in parts, then new heads and cams are probably an additional $3.5k. A new long block is $7K. I am still exploring my options.
 
Your engine is super clean, but yeah, you could have used other oils. I do wonder how your secondary rings are (see video).....that said new engine parts going to be cha-ching as well.

Our new van will have same engine, ala 2025. Man I hope improved version!
The Ford rep crushed me like a bug. He said, we understand your concern and value you as a customer, but we can't help.
 
Yeah, I am already $2K in parts, then new heads and cams are probably an additional $3.5k. A new long block is $7K. I am still exploring my options.

Honestly, find the cause first, or be prepared to spend twice. Either it suffered from no oil, very thin oil (fuel or water) or it lunched some debris at some point. If it was just a poorly hardened cam, the journals should still be perfect.
 
Honestly, find the cause first, or be prepared to spend twice. Either it suffered from no oil, very thin oil (fuel or water) or it lunched some debris at some point. If it was just a poorly hardened cam, the journals should still be perfect.

Exactly. The clues are there. Possibly you had oil pressure and flow problems all along. Modern vehicles generally don't display oil pressure. Do you know what the oil pressure was?

The issues you describe and show are not common 3.5EB problems.

I am guessing that oil choice was not a factor here, and that something else was wrong. My company 2011 3.5EB had 160K hard miles on it when I retired. No issues what so ever.
 
Honestly, find the cause first, or be prepared to spend twice. Either it suffered from no oil, very thin oil (fuel or water) or it lunched some debris at some point. If it was just a poorly hardened cam, the journals should still be perfect.
Yup, the degree of damage has me thinking long block. Putting heads on it at this point, given the scope of the damage observed so far and the potential damage we don't know about, opens him up to wasting a ton of money and doing the job twice.
 
Exactly. The clues are there. Possibly you had oil pressure and flow problems all along. Modern vehicles generally don't display oil pressure. Do you know what the oil pressure was?

The issues you describe and show are not common 3.5EB problems.

I am guessing that oil choice was not a factor here, and that something else was wrong. My company 2011 3.5EB had 160K hard miles on it when I retired. No issues what so ever.
friend has a small commercial construction business. he put 200k on one pulling a 10k trailer. it finally shot a rod out of the side of the block after living at 4k rpms all its life. they then started it up and drove it back to the shop like that.
 
A fellow f150 owner reached out to me. He had the phaser rattle, got it fixed. He developed the top end knock that I am having. The dealer found similar failure, but the lobes were gone and sent metal through the engine. They put a long block in his truck. Another Expedition owner had the same issue with cams.

So, I guess more cases will start to show up as these vehicles age.

Remember, this is the Gen 2 Ecoboost used from 2017 to 2020 (or 2021). The Gen 1 used bucket lifters.
 
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