Ford EcoBoost Question/Poll

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My wife and I are looking at SUV's. One of the contenders is the new Explorer ST. It seems that many of Ford's EcoBoost series of engines utilize composite oil pans. I'm aware that composite oil pans have been around for two decades (even on commercial, 1-million mile vehicles) and I'm very much in favor of engineering advances, but some basic research suggests that many of the EcoBoost engines are suffering from problems with these oil pans. I've read about all the problems with these pans, but I'd be equally interested in hearing/reading of cases in which people have had excellent experiences with these engines/oil pans. Can anyone testify to his/her satisfactory experience with an EcoBoost engine equipped with a composite oil pan? I'd be especially interested in hearing from individuals who have 150 or 200 thousand miles without any oil pan issues. Thanks!
 
Only thing I've seen about these are that people "don't like them" but give no hard reasons. They just don't think it's right that they're not made out of metal.
 
I think some of the early ones were leaking a small bit out of the drain hole. I think on the f150 they went back to metal pans, at least my 2016 has a metal one. Personally it would not bother me, I think the leaking issue has been addressed.
 
While not an ecoboost, my 5.7 HEMI equipped Durango had one of those composite pans. They had a metal bung that the drain bolt screwed into. At one point the bolt and bung seized together and required me to replace the entire pan.

And no, I didn't over tighten it.
 
Did FORD fix the exhaust leaking into the cabin issue?

Or was this just a LEO issue from excessive idling?

Do a 2 year lease and if it doesn't fall apart and you love it - buy it .

I'm afraid of most all vehicle relaibility these days!

Nevermind a tech laden FORD.
 
Originally Posted by ARCOgraphite
Did FORD fix the exhaust leaking into the cabin issue?

Or was this just a LEO issue from excessive idling?

Do a 2 year lease and if it doesn't fall apart and you love it - buy it .

I'm afraid of most all vehicle relaibility these days!

Nevermind a tech laden FORD.


The Explorer ST will be on the all new, now rear wheel drive platform.
 
ARCOgraphite, that is a great idea, actually, thanks! We've never leased a vehicle; we generally keep our cars forever. I've always struggled to find a good reason to lease a car, but could not find one, other than to satisfy an urge to always have a new vehicle (or, every two years, at least). In this case, it may be worth the small financial penalty to have a guaranteed exit strategy.

Skippy, yeah, the new RWD platform is what makes it so interesting; the AWD system is rather unimpressive. I purchased a Motorcraft Service subscription to do my research (access to the Factory Service Manual). It uses two clutch packs to engage the front wheels. One clutch pack engages the front differential, the other clutch pack is on the front left half shaft. The structure was designed rather well. It was extremely roomy inside, but the chassis still felt stiff and nimble. The suspension was well tuned for such a large vehicle. This, of course, was gathered from a very short test drive.

Overall we liked the car, but the composite oil pan and direct injection system cause concern. The Ascent is another contender. Much greater bang for the buck, but not fun to drive ... at all. I subscribed to the Subaru Technical Information System (or Service?) to get access to the Factory Service Manual and was surprised to discover that the Ascent comes with an "Oil Catch Tank."
 
Originally Posted by Thermo


Skippy, yeah, the new RWD platform is what makes it so interesting; the AWD system is rather unimpressive. I purchased a Motorcraft Service subscription to do my research (access to the Factory Service Manual). It uses two clutch packs to engage the front wheels. One clutch pack engages the front differential, the other clutch pack is on the front left half shaft. The structure was designed rather well. It was extremely roomy inside, but the chassis still felt stiff and nimble. The suspension was well tuned for such a large vehicle. This, of course, was gathered from a very short test drive.


I think they're going after the Durango with the new one. AWD system sounds similar to the Charger/Challenger/300 and their front axle disconnect.

I honestly wouldn't worry about that composite oil pan. I was "inspecting" the new pan of mine, it was in the back of my car for a week due to scheduling conflicts, and it was surprisingly beefy.
 
I'm at ~170K and I haven't had any issues yet, nor have I heard any issues about the other 1L ecoboosts.
 
BeerCan, my limited understanding of the situation is that Ford temporarily switched to metal pans on the F150's while they worked to resolve the issue. I believe the new F-150's are back to pastic.

Pew, you have a 1 L EcoBoost here in the States? Or did I misinterpret your statement? Which EcoBoost have you subjected to 170k miles? I'm very interested about your oil pan and drain plug combination and model year. Could you please share? Also, does your engine use direct injection? If so, has that presented any problems?

Skippy, yeah, the durability of the pan itself doesn't concern me. From what I've read, considerable testing was performed on these pans, and in many cases, they outperformed cast aluminum pans in several tests, including impact protection. It seems that they've been used on some commercial heavy duty vehicles since the late 90's. I think the polymer that is predominantly used is a glass-reinforced PA 6 (Nylon 6 (R)).

This is an article from 11 years ago: https://www.plasticstoday.com/content/oil-pans-possible-new-pa6/65343831210655

This article has no date: https://www.dsm.com/markets/enginee...lon/cases/akulon-ultraflow/oil-sump.html

My understanding with the Ford oil pans is that durability is not the issue. I believe one of the issues is with the plastic quarter-turn, o-ring style drain plug. I believe another is with the oil pan / engine block interface. Some have claimed that "warping" occurs in the composite pans. Perhaps, Aluminum and the plastic used in these pans have different coefficients of thermal expansion, which could stress the sealant used between the oil pan and the block. Then again, steel oil pans have been in use on aluminum engine blocks for decades. The ratio of the coefficient's of thermal expansion of Aluminum and Steel is about 2:1. For Nylon and Aluminum it's about 4:1 (https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/linear-expansion-coefficients-d_95.html). It seems that the melting point of Nylon 6 is around 215 deg. C (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nylon_6). Of course, perhaps the glass-reinforced formulation used in the oil pans has vastly different properties. In fact, the EngineeringToolbox site has an entry for the thermal expansion coefficient of glass-reinforced Nylon and it seems to be very similar to that of Aluminum, so the ratio would be roughly 1:1.

Of course, this is all just high-level analysis, using free online resources. I'd be very interested to hear from someone with a chemical background in plastics/polymers.
 
Originally Posted by Thermo
Pew, you have a 1 L EcoBoost here in the States? Or did I misinterpret your statement? Which EcoBoost have you subjected to 170k miles? I'm very interested about your oil pan and drain plug combination and model year. Could you please share? Also, does your engine use direct injection? If so, has that presented any problems?


Yes, 2015 Focus SE 1L, 3 Cyl, 6MT here in Illinois bought from the showroom "test" car @ 43 miles. I believe it's actually a metal oil pan but I can't recall correctly since I've only been under the car once (I take it into the dealer, it's cheaper and easier for me.)

Maybe E365 can answer this better than I can, he's the only other one I know on this forum with a 1L 3cyl focus.
 
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The 3.5L F150 gen2 had a plastic oil pan if built before late Feb 2018 (I forget the actually day). After that they went back to aluminum. I dont know if they corrected the issues and went back to plastic or not. My early march 18 build has aluminum.

Most complaints I saw online were oil leaks from the pan block mating surfaces.

IDK about any of the other vehicles that have the 3.5L engine, just the F150.
 
I think your use of the word "many" when talking about plastic pan issues might be inflating things a bit much. A few would be closer to reality, IMO. Sadly, some of those that did have issues were victims of service techs or service practices that caused return visits because the repair job wasn't done per the TSB's instruction. I think a search of actual issues reported on the larger Ecoboost related sites would yield a few threads and very few owners affected when compared to total units sold. My personal 2.7 just turned 50K miles and has had neither a pan issue or drain plug issue. I remember when plastic intakes first came out. OMG, they were going to cause issues.......
 
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doing timing belts on 2001 TT + jetta i jack the engine as needed with a block of wood under the stout aluminum oil pan, prolly not with lighter-cheaper materials!! most "improvements" today are for $$$$$ or meeting required specs!!
 
Originally Posted by Srt20
The 3.5L F150 gen2 had a plastic oil pan if built before late Feb 2018 (I forget the actually day). After that they went back to aluminum. I dont know if they corrected the issues and went back to plastic or not. My early march 18 build has aluminum.

Most complaints I saw online were oil leaks from the pan block mating surfaces.

IDK about any of the other vehicles that have the 3.5L engine, just the F150.



26Feb2018 per the parts catalog. Strangely the Raptor uses the same pan.
 
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