I'll drink to that!

 

 

Ford engineer in a chat said to use high grade gas and work it hard to prevent the problem. Who knows more, your or him?

 

Since the backs of the intake valves in a DI engine never see the gas, the gas quality does not matter for the problem I am discussing, so that fact in itself makes me skeptical of his claim unless you or he can specifically say what the gas will do in terms of deposits on the backs of the intake valves. (Top tier fuels would help keep injectors, plugs, and combustion chambers/piston tops clean and I use them whenever I can.) I would agree that working the engine hard might help by moving more air past the intake valves and keeping them a bit cooler, maybe. But enough beating this dead horse for now. Neither you, the Ford engineer, nor I know what the future of DI engines is going to bring us in terms of problems after 100-200k miles. I'm also thinking that when engines get older and have more blowby, the PCV fumes are going to have more oil vapor in them. And therefore more gunk potential...

Let's talk in 5-10 years, OK? I keep saying that I do NOT want Ford to have any problems at all with the EB engine or any of their other products, but we both know that there have been some serious problems that were not caught in Ford's design and testing phase (case in point--the blown out plugs in mod motors which took Ford *only* 13 years to fix by adding a few more spark plug threads--also the "stuck plugs" in the 3 valve engines which came apart in some cases). Likewise 5R55 trans problems and wheel bearing and differential problems in Explorers (which scared me away from buying one a number of years ago).

I am a major Ford fan, have owned a bunch of Ford cars and trucks since 1978, and intend no offense to any other Ford lover or EB buyer. I am just "thinking out loud" about this problem....

George

 

but a lot of the carboned up intake valves have to do with the PCV system on the engine. I'm willing to bet that the Audi/ VWAG cars have some sort of crazily plumbed oil separator as a pcv system. My BMW 330ci has one and it is ridiculous. What a POS.

I never really messed with the PCV system on my Mazdaspeed 3 but it did not seem to gum up his intakes. I traded him in at 54k miles (I realize that is not many miles) and he ran like a top - still quite the player, and if there was some sort of carbonizing going on you'd think by then it'd start to mess with the performance of the car. Didn't happen. The MS3 did get hammered regularly and that may have helped, but mostly I think it was the no mods - top tier gas - quality synthetic oil with factory filters that had a major hand in it.

What I did worry about was the high pressure fuel pump: it never failed me, but BMW dealers have a literal lazy susan in the parts room dishing those out to the shop for their turbo engines. My brother's 335i took a pair of those in 55k miles- not a good track record at all; he didn't have a clogged up intake tract either - that car nearly destroyed his driving license with points before he got rid of it.

I guess what I am trying to say is we'll just have to see how all this plays out; I won't be modding mine so the warranty will be in full force.

Lets hope Ford comes through for me!!
Cheers

 

Here, Here, lets hope they come through for all of us, no matter what engine or model we have!