normal to have water/oil in air intake duct/3.5 ecoboost?

[Brian41]

If your standing at the front bumper looking into the engine bay, what I am referring to is the hose the runs from the left side of the intercooler to to the throttle body. I removed one of the hose clamps midway on this section and all of the insides of the tubes are very wet with what seems like either water or oil or a mixture. I have no idea if this is normal or not, but has me concerned considering the car has been having so many issues.

I just went an removed the tube that connects to the throttle body and there a decent amount of oil pooled in front of the part of the throttle before that part opens and closes.

 

[reserved50]

yes "normal" according to Ford. The oil ends up coating the backs of the intake valves and the water maybe helps it steam off some of the build up the oil causes. That sludge oil/water mix will accumulate in the bottom of the intercooler when driving for long periods on a colder day with only light acceleration on the highway. When you come to an onramp or need to accelerate hard at or near wide open throttle, all that turbo pressure pushes up that mix into the intake and blows out the spark. If you feel adventurous and your vehicle is out of warranty you can drill a small hole, roughly .080 just after the intercooler core in the end tank at the bottom when you have the bumper off. This allows the oil/water mix to blow out before making it to the intake but can leave an oily mist on the undercarriage.

...It will blow about a 1/4 cup of sludge every week

 

[Brian41]

yes "normal" according to Ford. The oil ends up coating the backs of the intake valves and the water maybe helps it steam off some of the build up the oil causes. That sludge oil/water mix will build up when driving for long periods on a colder day with only light acceleration on the highway. When you come to an onramp or need to accelerate hard at or near wide open throttle, all that turbo pressure pushes up that mix into the intake and blows out the spark. If you feel adventurous and your vehicle is out of warranty you can drill a small hole, roughly .080 just after the intercooler core in the end tank at the bottom when you have the bumper off. This allows the oil/water mix to blow out before making it to the intake but can leave an oily mist on the undercarriage.

...It will blow about a 1/4 cup of sludge every week

Ok thanks. I was hoping I had found the cause of my acceleration issues with abrupt and extreme power losses that last a few seconds and the rpms completley drop even though your pushing the pedal. I think i've given up on this car.

 

[reserved50]

if its doing it after travelling long distances, then you give it hard acceleration and it falls on its face like it ran out of steam. That's what I meant by blowing out spark, it pretty much kills the engine until all that sludge has burned through, which may take several seconds. After that it will run fine.

They had a huge problem with the F150s due to the piping allowing it to store quite a bit more compared to the Explorers. The Explorers have that rubber card covering the driver side of the intercooler to make it less efficient to heat up the air charge to keep it from puddling.

 

[ExPlat]

This sure sounds like the problem I am having with my car intermittently 'falling on it's face' as posted here:
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums...elerating-after-2nd-gear.464246/#post-3644061

At least I'll have something to discuss with the Service Mgr next time I'm at the Dealer.

 

[Brian41]

if its doing it after travelling long distances, then you give it hard acceleration and it falls on its face like it ran out of steam. That's what I meant by blowing out spark, it pretty much kills the engine until all that sludge has burned through, which may take several seconds. After that it will run fine.

They had a huge problem with the F150s due to the piping allowing it to store quite a bit more compared to the Explorers. The Explorers have that rubber card covering the driver side of the intercooler to make it less efficient to heat up the air charge to keep it from puddling.

Reserved 50,
you are the first one to give me a possible reason for my issues that makes sense. My biggest concern however, is that when this happens the power loss is drastic and a huge safety problem, so I'm confused on ford saying its normal, maybe the problem is still elsewhere.

The power loss is for a few seconds it feels almost as if I ran out of gas, but the engine is still running. The rpm's will plummet even though I'm mashing the pedal.. After the several second episode, the ex regain some power but will drive very sluggish immediately following.

It will then drive this way for a half hr or so and other times stay sluggish from several drives. I found that a good 40 min hard run on the highway often starts to get the car starting running normal.

This has been a viscous cycle for weeks now. The loss of power has now occurred 5 times in six weeks. I can't keep driving the car like this, its not safe. It throws no codes during that brief loss of power and because it is so intermittent, I have a better chance of winning the lottery than the dealer driving it and duplicating the power loss on the day its there.

If you have seen any of my other threads, I already had the Ex to 2 dealerships and they cannot duplicate. I don't know much about these engines, but the whole time it seemed like something was getting sucked into the engine cauing the issue and eventually cleared out, which is why what you wrote made sense.

I'm just at a complete loss of where to go from here because as your saying even if I go back to the dealership showing them this issue, from what you said ford consider's it normal. I am going to file with the NHTSA, but thats not going to get me anywhere.

 

[1995E]

It's because Ford does not know how to properly design a vehicle

 

[reserved50]

It's because Ford does not know how to properly design a vehicle

.

its normal to have oil blow past the turbo seals, pcv system etc but not to puddle, that's bad design. I'm not saying that's what the problem is, but that has happened before.

 

[Mbrooks420]

You are having a different problem if it is more than momentary.