I just can't see the advantage, but this is pretty old anyhow. My dad drives for a Ford Dealership. He likes the v8 and thinks it gets the best mileage real world. He thinks the 5.0 is the most efficient engine...then again he says "79 and your doing fine...80 and your mine". Cop talk.

 

Unless it was a diesel 4 banger not a snowball's chance would I get a 4 cylinder F150. It would be constantly dropping out of OD on the road up a small hill, let alone a bit of a headwind. In a smaller truck yeah I wouldn't mind a turbo I4. But in something like an F150 you'd want V8 power (notice I said power).

 

For the weight of the vehicle and potential use, the V8 is the sweet spot.

 

And I say again, if it were an appropriately sized truck engine then it would be fine.

So many of us here are addicted to instant neck breaking power that we get from the V-8 and the ecoboost. Remember the 300? This engine served us well for over three decades in all the F-series trucks, UPS trucks, earlier model dump trucks and factory engines, generators, etc. Not exceedingly powerful but more than adequate to do the job reliably for hundreds of thousands of miles with simple maintenance.

Why couldn't a properly built four banger do the same? Do give me this crap about more cylinders spreads out the work load, the 300 and it's long list of predecessors debunked that theory for decades.

 

That was off idle torque and peaked at about 260ft/lbs at around 1500rpm. Great engine for what it was and it gave a whole new meaning to word reliable after 200k miles. It did what you wanted, might not be fast but it got the job done. It did its job in dump trucks for a long time. It was a truck engine as was the 460. But then you have people that go back and forth on which engine was better the 300 I6 or the 302 or 351? Each got crap for mileage by today's standards. But they were reliable, easy to work on and you could depend on them to get the job done.

Today it feels like you're play Russian Roulette with new vehicles, what light is coming on today? Simple yet reliable.

 

To the OPs question, yes.

 

I am with you on this one, with the wife's car and my truck and the two hobby cars, I have four on the road already, the hobby cars are not for going to work, if the insurance laws were different, I would have that three cylinder commuter car, the expense of having a fifth car to save a couple of gallons of gas just don't make no sense!

 

The interesting part to me is the "I don't have to justify my purchase." But, people who say that do feel that have to. Otherwise there is no reason to say it. "It don't make no sense," but it does because most people don't look at how little money they can save on gas. For most people it boils down to spending thousands on a gas saver to save hundred. Let's do the math: Let's go from 20 mpg to 25 mpg: Let's go 15,000 miles and $3/ per gallon, so you saved 20% on gas and so you burned 600 gallons of gas and saving 20%, saved 120 bucks.

Look at how much time we spend debating this.

 

Right now I'm mostly interested in the 2.7 EcoBoost. If there was a 4 cylinder EcoBoost that could do the job it certainly would be interesting to look at.

 

I have a feeling that a 4 banger would end up in a standard cab short bed 2wd and maybe 4wd trucks.

 

I don't know about an inline 4, those tend to be buzzy little beggars. Perhaps a 4 cylinder boxer design? Don't know.

 

Talking like a Subaru H4 type setup? Might be an interesting engine setup in a F150. Kind like those engines since the oil filer is right on top of the engine driver side upside down with kind of a bowl , most convenient place for a filter.

 

I disagree. As I've said, we have an Mercedes GLK w/a 4-banger twin-turbo'd diesel that puts out 369 lb-ft from 1600 RPM up. That compares favorably to the 2.7L EB's rating, and it isn't buzzy nor loud. In fact, it's RPM is almost exactly that of my 3.5L EB's on the highway - roughly 2000 RPM at 75 MPH. And with the door shut you forget it is a diesel.

 

It seems to me there is a lot of energy spent trying to figure out "why not, it works for diesels". These are very different. I might be missing something here, but all the ecoboost is designed to do is be a cheap replacement for a diesel. I don't see Ford dropping a 4 banger diesel into a light duty truck. The motor weighs too much and it would be too expensive.

 

I don't understand that. My wife's SUB with the MB diesel cost $10K less than I paid for my truck. And the SUV weighs less than my truck. Doesn't seem to fit with what you are saying.