Has the ecoboost been fixed?

[Jenerik fish]

Hi there! I'm considering buying a 2016 platinum but have concerns over the 3.5 Liter Ecoboost engine. Many of my friends are calling it the Exploder. Have they fixed the issues they had with the F150 Ecoboost engine blowing up?

 

[Mike65]

Welcome.

 

[Sgt1411]

Hi there! I'm considering buying a 2016 platinum but have concerns over the 3.5 Liter Ecoboost engine. Many of my friends are calling it the Exploder. Have they fixed the issues they had with the F150 Ecoboost engine blowing up?

Any chance you could link a story about a 3.5L EcoBoost blowing up?

Never heard of such a thing.

 

[1995E]

Hi there! I'm considering buying a 2016 platinum but have concerns over the 3.5 Liter Ecoboost engine. Many of my friends are calling it the Exploder. Have they fixed the issues they had with the F150 Ecoboost engine blowing up?

Never have I heard about an Ecoboost engine blowing up unless if someone tuned it to really high horsepower and torque numbers of 600+. Other than that, the Ecoboost engine is pretty solid. Any induction services will destroy an Ecoboost though so I'd recommend you not do an induction service.

 

[chefduane]

The Explorer has been called an 'Exploder' ever since it was first introduced. Haters gonna' hate. And no offense if it's real, but 'Jenerik Fish' sure sounds like a troll name to me.

 

[p38fln]

I had a F-150 with the 3.5 L Ecoboost for a few years. Very solid engine, but mechanics at the local Ford dealer blamed anything and everything that went wrong with the engine on the forced induction system.

Still extremely upset that they tried to charge me for a new charge air cooler when it only needed a new set of plugs (which I put in myself) at 90,000 miles.

The symptoms were a sever loss of power, hesitation/stumble and missing under heavy throttle accompanied by a blinking service engine soon light, and of course the very first thing they said was that the charge air cooler had failed. I stuck a new set of plugs in it and it came right back to life. I mean fix the simple stuff first...don't just assume that the most expensive part of the system has failed.

 

[explosportguy]

OP troll. Look at the user name. The 3.5 eco boost is not "broken" and does not need to be "fixed". Go to the modified section and check out the success stories.

Having said that, based on my many discussions with various segments of the performance after market, many f150 owners are not happy because they cannot get the v8 sound they so long for out of any v6.

 

[Sgt1411]

I had a F-150 with the 3.5 L Ecoboost for a few years. Very solid engine, but mechanics at the local Ford dealer blamed anything and everything that went wrong with the engine on the forced induction system.

Still extremely upset that they tried to charge me for a new charge air cooler when it only needed a new set of plugs (which I put in myself) at 90,000 miles.

The symptoms were a sever loss of power, hesitation/stumble and missing under heavy throttle accompanied by a blinking service engine soon light, and of course the very first thing they said was that the charge air cooler had failed. I stuck a new set of plugs in it and it came right back to life. I mean fix the simple stuff first...don't just assume that the most expensive part of the system has failed.

The first batch of F150 EcoBoosts did have issues, they had the front licence plate holder blocking the Intercooler, until they redesigned a new one over to the side of the front facia.

Then they had those issues you mentioned so they did a completely new software update that fixed those issues.

There were TSB's on both those issues.

 

[ECinEI]

I mean fix the simple stuff first...don't just assume that the most expensive part of the system has failed.

You've just described Occam's razor or the the "law of parsimony".

This "principle states that among competing hypotheses that predict equally well, the one with the fewest assumptions should be selected."

Not thinking a lot of dealer techs operate like this.

OK, class over.

 

[Halwg]

Troll post.

 

[p38fln]

The TSB was the problem, as soon as I described symptoms from the TSB the dealer tech stopped looking for real problems. Also they charged $90 to read me a TSB over the phone when I took the truck in for repair then refused to refund the money after I fixed it myself and proved they were wrong. I complained to the corporate and got a canned ' it's between you and the dealer' response.

Added another dealer to my personal ' don't go there list '

I like Fords, I'm on my fifth one, but some of the dealers are just awful.

 

[Ecobeast]

Hi there! I'm considering buying a 2016 platinum but have concerns over the 3.5 Liter Ecoboost engine. Many of my friends are calling it the Exploder. Have they fixed the issues they had with the F150 Ecoboost engine blowing up?

Obvious troll is obvious

 

[LukerDooker]

2016 Ford Explorer 2.3L EcoBoost AWD First Test Review

http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/suvs/2016_ford_explorer_23l_ecoboost_awd_first_test_review/

"With customers not biting on the 2.0-liter engine, either, Ford ditched it for a Mustang-sourced EcoBoost 2.3-liter turbocharged engine for the crossover's mid-cycle refresh, and we recently had a chance to sample a 2016 Ford Explorer Limited 2.3L EcoBoost AWD to see if the new turbo engine fixes all that was wrong with the old."

 

[explosportguy]

http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/suvs/2016_ford_explorer_23l_ecoboost_awd_first_test_review/

"With customers not biting on the 2.0-liter engine, either, Ford ditched it for a Mustang-sourced EcoBoost 2.3-liter turbocharged engine for the crossover's mid-cycle refresh, and we recently had a chance to sample a 2016 Ford Explorer Limited 2.3L EcoBoost AWD to see if the new turbo engine fixes all that was wrong with the old."

Hi Luker, my post was referring to the 3.5 liter v6 twin turbo eco boost, not the inline 4.

 

[JerryC]

I had a 2012 F150 with the 3.5 EB engine. Great truck, just wanted something smaller and that great EB engine was why we even looked at the Explorer.

The issue in the F150's was that the intercooler would condense and collect water in it. If you had enough water in the intercooler and then went hard into boost the water would enter then engine in a large enough amount to cause problems, stumbling, limp mode and a check engine light. It would also foul the plugs. Ford had TSB's for ECU programming and an intercooler shield that blocked part of the intercooler.
As you might guess, the issue tended to more of a problem when it was cold and humid or wet outside.

There were two common home remedies:
1. drill a tiny hole in the intercooler to drain the condensate
2. drive the snot out of it frequently to clear out tiny amounts of condensate rather than let it build up.

We chose option two

There were some 3.5 EB that threw rods, but I never saw a definitive reason for that.

 

[Ryan02Stang]

Sounds like your friends are geeks OP!

 

[p38fln]

I learned that if you just gradually built up throttle on the F-150 you generally didn't have problems (Since the water was gradually sucked through the CAC). If you just stomped it to the floor, yep, problems - all the water in the CAC would get sucked into the engine at once.

They also automatically increased power with 91+ octane, oh that was a fun truck. 385 HP with 91 octane or something like that and 420 lb-ft, and that's without tuning or modifying it at all.

I got rid of it because it never saw a gas station it didn't like. I was going through something like $6,000 a year just for gas.

(Edit - corrected money for gas)

 

[wifes2011xlt]

Hi there! I'm considering buying a 2016 platinum but have concerns over the 3.5 Liter Ecoboost engine. Many of my friends are calling it the Exploder. Have they fixed the issues they had with the F150 Ecoboost engine blowing up?

No, they are still blowing up. I saw another one do it last night. Man, was that driver pissed.

 

[MaroGuy69]

We’ve had two, 2013&16, that had turbos go out and one engine lost compression on one bank. Neither was tuned. And each had less than 80k miles.

 

[peterk9]

We’ve had two, 2013&16, that had turbos go out and one engine lost compression on one bank. Neither was tuned. And each had less than 80k miles.

Welcome to the Forum.
Considering the last post before yours is over 5 years old, I doubt that the thread issue really isn't a great problem. All parts tend to have failures from time to time.

Peter