EcoBoast, Not Boost!

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Originally Posted By: fdcg27
The guy with the Ford tows a decent sized box trailer.
The Chevy guy tows a large travel trailer.
Neither drives slowly and the Chevy delivers consistently better fuel economy.
This shouldn't be surprising, since it takes X amount of fuel to deliver Y amount of power and the specific consumption of the engines in vehicles that we can buy aren't especially different.
Turbos do not a more efficient engine make.


Gears on both? Transmission speeds? Weight, height, width of the different trailers? That all makes a huge difference in the MPG no matter the truck. I know mine follows in the range of the V8's when towing. At full boost, IIRC the Ecoboost flows like almost a 7 liter engine so it makes sense it will drink fuel. Just like any other engine working hard towing.

It's the around town efficiencies that you get with turbos - the 90% of the time I am not towing I get decent fuel economy. Not great, but the gears in the truck are not set up for FE but for towing performance.

It's no miracle fuel economy engine but it does great around town and when towing is a beast. It tows like a Diesel without the added maintenance and fuel expense.
 
When you lift the hood of your F350 with the 6.7L TD it doesn't look simple either.
I see big money when I owned mine but I didn't have any issues. Sold it before I put a money in it.
Went with the 6.2L gasser but it ain't the same- nice and easy to work on but not the same
 
Originally Posted By: Reddy45
I still don't get how a factory 3.5L V6 can make 470lb-ft of torque at low rpm.


Boost. Lots of it. And a design to take the stress.
 
Originally Posted By: fdcg27
The guy with the Ford tows a decent sized box trailer.
The Chevy guy tows a large travel trailer.
Neither drives slowly and the Chevy delivers consistently better fuel economy.
This shouldn't be surprising, since it takes X amount of fuel to deliver Y amount of power and the specific consumption of the engines in vehicles that we can buy aren't especially different.
Turbos do not a more efficient engine make.



Are you seriously trying to compare 2 different situations to come to a conclusion? There is no way you can get any meaningful information comparing the 2 trucks in the situation you describe.
 
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I took a hard look at the F150 and genuinely liked the truck. The design philosophy - smaller turbo engine built to produce similar horsepower and torque to the larger V-8 engine - makes perfect sense to me. Under light load, that smaller engine will be more fuel efficient.

The F-150 has a beefy frame, and I liked the aluminum construction as well. It rides and drives very well. It's got good content for the price (value). It's a great truck, you can see why Ford sells so many of them. But that's part of the problem...Ford sells so many of them that the CAFE concerns are driving the engineering in directions that made me slightly uncomfortable. I didn't care for the radiator shutters that close on the highway (a failure and overheat waiting to happen) for example. The 8 speed is a new transmission. The 3.5 has some "issues" to be worked through.

For those reasons - I ended up buying a Tundra. The simple V-8 and 6 speed have been in production for a while. The Toyota was a bit more expensive, feature for feature, than the Ford (or the Chevy, or the Ram) but I am replacing a 26 year old Toyota truck and my principal concern was durability. I recognize that the Ford was likely a better value, and certainly got significantly better MPG, so I expect that Ford will continue to sell a lot of F-150s and I completely understand the folks who buy them. They're really nice trucks.

It just wasn't for me....
 
Curious what 8 speed you are referring to on the F150. The only transmission available on the F150 until the 2017 models come out is the 6R80 - the same six speed thats been available since 2009, and was used in other platforms like the Explorer behind the V8 starting in '06. The 10 Speed will start on some 2017 models... No 8 Speed available.

Also curious what "issues" with the 3.5 you are referring to. That engine has been in use in the F150 since 2011. It's being redone for the 2017's...

Guess I'm failing to see those as durability question marks...
 
Originally Posted By: bdcardinal
Ya things are not pretty when something lets go on one of those. The tech is really cool and all, but if I am buying a F150 I want a V8.


Have you seen the internals of the Coyote V8?...it's almost as complex as the Ecoboost engines without the turbo chargers and DI (yet)!
 
Originally Posted By: MNgopher
Curious what 8 speed you are referring to on the F150. The only transmission available on the F150 until the 2017 models come out is the 6R80 - the same six speed thats been available since 2009, and was used in other platforms like the Explorer behind the V8 starting in '06. The 10 Speed will start on some 2017 models... No 8 Speed available.

Also curious what "issues" with the 3.5 you are referring to. That engine has been in use in the F150 since 2011. It's being redone for the 2017's...

Guess I'm failing to see those as durability question marks...


The earlier 3.5's had a timing chain stretching issue. There is a tsb to correct it and I think a running change was made late 2014 to address the issue. Also some of the earlier ones had turbo issues but it was not that common. Other than that I don't think there were to many problems. The EB has a lot of FUD surrounding it but IMO it is pretty solid. I enjoy(ed) both of mine and feel they are one of the best towing gas engines available. FWIW my 2011 did not have the chain issue but I sold it with 65k miles on it, so it was still young.
 
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Originally Posted By: MNgopher
Curious what 8 speed you are referring to on the F150. The only transmission available on the F150 until the 2017 models come out is the 6R80 - the same six speed thats been available since 2009, and was used in other platforms like the Explorer behind the V8 starting in '06. The 10 Speed will start on some 2017 models... No 8 Speed available.

Also curious what "issues" with the 3.5 you are referring to. That engine has been in use in the F150 since 2011. It's being redone for the 2017's...

Guess I'm failing to see those as durability question marks...


I must have been confusing trucks - looked at a lot of them this past month. The 8 speed was in the Ram. I really liked the Ram as well, I wish every truck had the Ram Box storage system, but the one thing that I couldn't get past was that rotary knob gear selector...which was for the 8 speed.

My neighbor owns a NAPA Auto Care center. He's seen some ugly Ecoboost failures. He's not a fan...those are the "issues" to which I was referring.

Like I said, the F-150 was a really nice truck, it just wasn't for me.

I like Ford. I would buy another Ford in the future, and in the past, I've owned a 1970 Fairlane, 1995 Explorer and 2000 Expedition. I liked them all and they served me well, so please don't take my impressions as bashing, just explanation of why the F-150 wasn't for me.
 
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Saw several Ford Rangers in South Africa a few weeks ago - wicked trucks.
The 2.7L eB or the diesel they run need to be in the US market ...
 
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Wasn't taken as bashing - just confusing since Ford doesn't and still won't have an 8 Speed and overall the 3.5L Ecoboost has proven to be a decent engine. Of course, when there are are so many of them on the road, there are bound to be some failures along the way... Even the old reliable 2V 4.6 had some failures (at least they did in our fleet use
smile.gif
)

I test drove them all too - lot of stuff to keep straight! I liked the 8 Speed in the ram. Ultimately decided I couldn't take the exhaust note when towing a boat for hours to and from Canada. Just did that in June in a RAM, decided it wasn't for me...
 
Originally Posted By: Astro14
The 8 speed was in the Ram. I really liked the Ram as well, I wish every truck had the Ram Box storage system, but the one thing that I couldn't get past was that rotary knob gear selector...which was for the 8 speed.


I didn't know the Ram was using that knob shifter in their trucks. They've had some safety issues with them that my nephew told me about the other week:

http://money.cnn.com/2016/06/20/autos/jeep-recall-anton-yelchin/
 
Originally Posted By: BikeWhisperer
Originally Posted By: bdcardinal
Ya things are not pretty when something lets go on one of those. The tech is really cool and all, but if I am buying a F150 I want a V8.


Have you seen the internals of the Coyote V8?...it's almost as complex as the Ecoboost engines without the turbo chargers and DI (yet)!



Actually yes I have, more than most people on here. Plus I have built a few high power 4.6 DOHC engines.
 
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