I think the key to long life from the EcoBoost engines is to work them hard. Go around to any Ecoboosted vehicle and you'll notice carbon buildup on the tail pipes. Get the engine warm and step on it and it will almost look like a diesel with what comes out of the tailpipe.

The grocery getting vehicles will have problems, but the ones that have fun or tow often will be clean. So go beat on your vehicle! It's a Ford, it can take it!

 

Basic design does resemble a diesel with forged crank and cross-bolted mains. For the carbon build-up, do what we used to call the "Italian Tune up" Get on the freeway, hammer down and work through the gears occasionally. Driving the kids to school and those short trips to the store are carbon builders in any engine.

 

Hook it up to something heavy and drag it around town for a couple of hours. This motor likes hard work.

 

Ha you could hook it up to my 2007 with the POS 5.4 that needs replaced.
That should be enough weight.

 

The 5.0 is still a modular engine but it is a Ti-VCT 4 valve. That's a far cry from any 4.6 ever offered in an F150. What's the tsb for carbon on the valves? Last I talked to a field service engineer he told me the Ecoboost was not experiencing carbon buildup on the valves like DI engines from other manufacturers. Of course the BG rep told us all about how bad it was and they were gonna quit running after 60k miles if we didn't use their fuel system treatment through the air intake. I had heard that the rich mixture on start up was causing the black soot on the tail pipes that is so common on the eco boost trucks.

 

Well if you are getting black soot on the tail pipes that tells you what's going on in the combustion chamber. I don't have the TSB with me but there is information from a ford tech on you tube. This explains what is going on and the TSB explains repair. This information from ford under warranty is to replace heads. Combustion cleaner will over heat the turbos causing failure. If you read about the 5.0LT it explains ford is using the 4.6 block with modified heads.

 

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...oboost+engines

This may be the thread that you are referring to. It's based on the 2.0L ecoboost, not the 3.5L.

 

^^ The 3.5l will have those same issues. Same design, DI, EGR and etc. Working the motor hard is not going to cut it and eliminate the problem. Huge oversight on Fords part.

 

Yes you are correct on the 5.0. Shares same block design as 4.6. I thought you were implying it was strictly a bored/stroked 4.6 which would be selling it extremely short as there's alot more technology to it than the 4.6. The surprise to me would be ford admitting to a problem with the 3.5 eb. They have alot riding on that engine and I'm sure they wanna keep its reputation as clean as possible. I will say that the only engine issues I ever seen personally from the ecoboosts were cac related. It was rare for one to come in with over 100k miles though.

 

I know we just came from an Audi 2.0L turbo with Direct injection and they were starting to have issues with carbon buildup....

VERY EXPENSIVE fix for them - and assume there will be the same issues here...