I am about to install a Ford zero hours reman engine to replace a damaged Ford Ecoboost engine. The original engine suffered what I now believe was a multi-staged failure mode which began with timing chain stretch causing a rattle at startup, eventually resulting in the timing chain driven water pump leaking coolant into the oil, causing the engine to overheat and bearings to have been damaged. I'd like to avoid the timing chain stretch issue (and the secondary effects) the with the reman engine this time around. So I need some recommendations for a very stout oil to use in this engine as well as thoughts on adding a secondary bypass filter. The failure of the engine occured with about 102k miles on it.
For historical reference, I broke the engine in on Motorcraft 5w-20 semi-syn for the first 10k miles then switched to Pennzoil Platinum/Ultra for most of the remaining oil changes. I had one run with Castrol Titanium (which performed poorly in this engine and was swapped early), a few changes with Valvoline full synthetic and then back to the Pennzoil. My most two recent oil changes were with Quaker State Ultimate Durability. At some point I also had a few OCIs where I increased the viscosity from 5w-20 to 5w-30 to see how the engine would run and noticed very little difference. At all times I stuck to 5k OCIs.
Mine is a 2010 model year Ecoboost with what I believe is the single link roller timing chain design. Beginning in 2011, Ford changed the timing chain design to a double wide chain with two links side by side. I do not know if the new one is a roller chain or not. I was able to x-ref the 2010 chain and determined it is the same chain that was used in the naturally aspirated Ford 3.5L engines in 2009 and 2010 if that helps. The oil spec in 2010 for the Ecoboost 3.5L engine was for a 5w-20, changed in in 2011 model year (with the new chain spec) to a 5w-30.
The chain issues started at around 75-80k miles with a rattle at startup. Many folks with Ecoboost engines have the issue and Ford does not have a TSB or root cause identified for it. It appears that a combination of chain stretch and guide wear results in the chain having slack at startup creating the noise and vibrations. I am convinced that this repeated vibration for about 20k miles is what caused the damage to the water pump resulting in the failure mode. As a side note, the Ecoboost in the F-150 (starting in 2012 model year) does have a TSB and chains are being replaced by Ford for stretch issues under warranty.
So, what can I do to prevent timing chain and guide damage from occurring again. The new engine is not gonna be cheap to say the least and need this one to last more than 100k miles.
For historical reference, I broke the engine in on Motorcraft 5w-20 semi-syn for the first 10k miles then switched to Pennzoil Platinum/Ultra for most of the remaining oil changes. I had one run with Castrol Titanium (which performed poorly in this engine and was swapped early), a few changes with Valvoline full synthetic and then back to the Pennzoil. My most two recent oil changes were with Quaker State Ultimate Durability. At some point I also had a few OCIs where I increased the viscosity from 5w-20 to 5w-30 to see how the engine would run and noticed very little difference. At all times I stuck to 5k OCIs.
Mine is a 2010 model year Ecoboost with what I believe is the single link roller timing chain design. Beginning in 2011, Ford changed the timing chain design to a double wide chain with two links side by side. I do not know if the new one is a roller chain or not. I was able to x-ref the 2010 chain and determined it is the same chain that was used in the naturally aspirated Ford 3.5L engines in 2009 and 2010 if that helps. The oil spec in 2010 for the Ecoboost 3.5L engine was for a 5w-20, changed in in 2011 model year (with the new chain spec) to a 5w-30.
The chain issues started at around 75-80k miles with a rattle at startup. Many folks with Ecoboost engines have the issue and Ford does not have a TSB or root cause identified for it. It appears that a combination of chain stretch and guide wear results in the chain having slack at startup creating the noise and vibrations. I am convinced that this repeated vibration for about 20k miles is what caused the damage to the water pump resulting in the failure mode. As a side note, the Ecoboost in the F-150 (starting in 2012 model year) does have a TSB and chains are being replaced by Ford for stretch issues under warranty.
So, what can I do to prevent timing chain and guide damage from occurring again. The new engine is not gonna be cheap to say the least and need this one to last more than 100k miles.