Talk to the Ford engineers.

 

So in other words you have no data, no proof, nothing. Just a bunch of hot air.

 

I agree, nobody has any proof that the truck is programmed to run rich during break in. I dont think it is either. I know with my boat with dual 150 etecs they were programmed to use more oil until the motors broke in after 1000 hours. But that was stated by the dealer and they had proof to back it up. With this situation nobody can verify this. It would be nice if we had someone who worked at Ford on the forums.

 

I guess we can speculate all we want but Ford does say to wait until you have 2000-3000 miles before your mileage computations will be accurate and I think most of us have noticed the black exhaust pipe which could indicate a rich mixture. On the other hand, these engines are very tight when new and do take-time to break-in. That said, Ford has been known to attempt limit the damage one can cause and one can cause a lot of damage during the break-in period. So, are they running it rich during the first 3000 miles to help prevent damage and warranty claims?...possibly but, if they are, they might never tell us so all we can do right now is to wait...and Ford can monitor the silliness on this forum.

 

I spoke first hand to a Ford mechanic and he said he doesn't know where people came up with the idea these EB's are set to run rich for the first 3K miles. He thinks it's because most people are not getting close to the 21 MPG posted on the sticker.(his words) He said after break in these trucks most likely will not see a substancial improvement in MPG's.
I think he's dead on there.

He said the soot is normal and has nothing to do with it running rich for a break in period.

 

Excaliber551:
I guess I pretty-much agree with that assessment. So far from what I'm seeing with mine, 15 mpg might (stress "might") be possible (with a pretty light right foot) in a city/suburban environment. In a straight city environment with a 30 mph limit and stoplights every couple of blocks...never happen. I have an FX4 with 3.73's and I'm somewhat doubtful if I'll see a 21 hwy. A truck with the 3.15's might be able to show that with some regularity. After all, we're still dealing with a 5400 lb truck (with no load). 365 hp and some moderately deep gears (3.73). But, I traded off an '04 with the 5.4 and 3.55 gears so I'll be pretty happy with a 3-4 mpg increase (which I am seeing in a city/suburban environment). It would be interesting to know what gears were used when they "estimated" the mileage. As far as the "soot" goes. we'll see if it goes away after a few thousand miles.

On another subject, I have been resetting the trip-A odometer on fill-up and I've been surprised at the accuracy on the "gallons used" read-out. So far, it's been within 1/10 gallon on each of three fills...I expected worse accuracy.

 

why would the ecoboost have a "substantial" increase in breakin over the 5.0 or any other engine unless it was programmed differently. i have had lots of engines over the years and none had a substantial increase- unless you call around 1 mpg "substantial".

how come the 5.0's are getting better mpg both towing and unloaded?

ur comments are just hearsay and just one mechanics opinion.. have him call Ford and talk to the district service rep and maybe we will have the official answer

 

My experience that I posted on another forum:
I tell you, the EB vs 5.0 debate rages on daily so I finally got a chance to put up some figures concerning the EB engine and MPGs.
I just got back from a vacation in which my wife and I drove her '11 F150 Platinum EB 4X4 with 3.55 gears from Humble, Texas to Bisbee, Arizona and back.

This is a trip that wound up being 2281 miles long and covered altitude changes from 63 feet above sea level (Humble, Tx.) to 6008 feet (mountain pass on the way to Tombstone). It proved to be an excellent test of the new Ecoboost engine and proves the superiority of the F150 series as a vehicle to drive long distances with.

First, the truck: as stated above, with 36 psi in the tires, a crankcase full of Motorcraft 5W30 full synthetic oil and an FL2055 oil filter. Between my wife and I and all the junk we carried with us, I estimate the truck was carrying around 700 lbs payload plus fuel. This is not a story of how much towing the thing can do but rather what it is like to use a full zoot F150 for a vacation trip. Miles per gallon of fuel is the focus here, along with driveability and comfort.

The trip: driving from Humble, Texas to Bisbee, Arizona involves altitude changes from 63 feet above sea level to 5500 feet with speed limits that range from 65 mph to 80 mph (Kerrville Tx. to within 60 miles of El Paso,Tx). This also involves some really long grade climbs that sock it to any vehicle, much less a 5500 pound truck. When west Texas finally does level out, there are cross winds that can gust to 25 mph or better.
While in Bisbee, the truck was used to go to Tombstone, Az. once and to Sierra Vista, Az. twice; all these trips involve a mountain pass climb to 6450 feet to get to them.

Gasoline: I elected to use 89 octane gas for this trip, and before anyone cries foul, please allow me to state my reasons. Since the run up of gas prices, many principalities have begun to run sting operations on gas stations and their findings are disturbing: the least disturbing is the fact that you're not getting a full gallon of gas when the pump says so; the most disturbing is when tested for octane level, many times premium gas doesn't even make 90 octane. Well, if premium doesn't make 90, what does regular net you? I wasn't comfortable hitting the Texas Hill country full blast and wondering if the gas I was using met Fords' specs - thus, the 89 octane fuel. With all that said, here we go....

1). Houston, 63 ft elv, 89 octane, 68 degrees
3621.9 miles on the odo, cleared all the trip counters, light winds, speed limits are 65 to 70 mph, but we fudged A LOT (hey, we did it in one day, we were not screwing around).

2).Kerrville, Tx., 1723 ft elv, 89 octane, 82 degrees
39021.1 on the odo, 10-15 mph crosswinds,
TRUCK COMPUTER:17.3 gallons used, 16.1 mpg, 280 miles traveled, 4.09 hours duration - takes a long time to get out of Houston!
ACTUAL: 16.777 gallons at the pump, hand calculated to 16.689 mpg
Note: after clearing Kerrville, the 80 mph speed limit kicks in to within 60 miles of El Paso, Tx., that means we were doing 85-89 mph (tach registers between 2100-2300 rpm.

3). Fort Stockton, Tx.,2973 ft elv, 89 octane, 87 degrees,
4149.8 on the odo, 10-20 mph crosswinds,
TRUCK COMPUTER:16.6 gallons used, 14.8 mpg, 247.6 miles traveled, 3.09 hours duration.
ACTUAL: 17.074 gallons at the pump, hand calculated to 14.501 mpg.

4).Las Cruces, New Mexico, 3900 ft elv, 89 octane, 85 degrees
4432.2 on the odo, 10 mph winds, no gusts,
TRUCK COMPUTER: 15.8 gallons used, 17.8 mpg, 282.3 miles traveled, 3.48 hours duration.
ACTUAL:16.327 gallons at the pump, hand calculated to 17.29 mpg

5).Tank #4 took us to our destination in Bisbee with a little more than half a tank of fuel remaining. When we parked the truck the odo showed 4669 miles with a truck computed 19.5 mpg. The truck was used for small errands around town (real small town) and to go to Tombstone once and Sierra Vista twice. On each of these trips a mountain range had to be crested ( over 6000 ft elevation) to get where we wanted to go.
The truck was refilled in Bisbee, 2 days before time to leave, here are the stats:
Bisbee, Az., 5500 ft elv, 89 octane, 72 degrees, odo 4829.1, winds variable.
TRUCK COMPUTER:21.3 gallons used, 18.5 mpg, 396.7 miles traveled, 8.06 hrs duration.
ACTUAL:21.454 gallons at the pump, hand calculated to 18.49 mpg

6).El Paso, Tx. forgot to get the elevation, 89 octane, 92 degrees,
5126.7 on the odo, 10 mph winds
TRUCK COMPUTER: 16.3 gallons consumed, 18.2 mpg, 297.4 miles traveled, 5.22 hours. These MPG figures are skewed by two delays we went through, 30 minutes of road construction, and 30 minutes in line for a border patrol inspection.
ACTUAL:16.496 gallons at the pump, hand calculated to 18.02 mpg.

7).Fort Stockton, Tx., 2973 elv, 89 octane. 92 degrees, 5377.0 on the odo, crosswinds with dust devils and everything - 15-25 mph winds
TRUCK COMPUTER:13.4 gallon used, 18.6 mpg, 250 miles traveled, 3.23 hours duration.
ACTUAL:13.2 gallons at the pump, 18.946 mpg hand calculated.

8).Kerville, Tx.,1723 elv, 89 octane, 82 degrees, 5624.8 on the odo, winds calm.
TRUCK COMPUTER: 14.9 gallons used, 16.5 mpg, 247.5 miles traveled, 3.10 hours duration.
ACTUAL:14.754 gallons at the pump, 16.775 mpg hand calculated.
This last run consists of night driving at 65mph...

9). Home Again! I didn't refill the truck for this, by now you ought to have a feeling on how it went, but here are the truck computer figures:
TRUCK COMPUTER: odo 5907.7, 19.7 mpg, 4.29 hours duration, 14.1 gallons used.
Trip B was set at the start of all this and never cleared, so here are those stats: 35.5 hrs, 130.1 gallons used, 2280.9 miles covered, 17.5 mpg

OK, so that is it! Here are a few parting notes: The Ecoboost engine is powerful as all get out! In all the climbs we did it never downshifted once! We hit the speed limiter more than I like to admit! At altitude this engine doesn't get tired - nothing stops it! This truck is quiet, comfortable and drives like a much smaller vehicle at speed. Both coming and going we did in a day (it was a LONG day, but a day none the less). By being able to drive this thing in a day, there is no need for a hotel room - those can be as costly as 2 tanks of gas!!

 

Ford would NEVER run an engine too rich to "break it in". The risk of washing the cylinder walls and damaging the ring seat would be drastic. I can see an overly rich condition being used while under load/boost, but not during high vacuum low load cruise. I suspect that alot of what has to do with the 3000 mile mark, is driver characteristics. It is likely that the new" fun" factor will have worn off, and the driver will likely be driving less enthusiastically.

 

better go do some googleing. lots of engines have the ecu specificially programmed with break in paramaters

 

My EcoBoost appears to be getting better, or breaking in as some say. I'll know better once I get further along than 2,500 miles. I had a brand new Fusion in 2008 (2009 model) for 3 years. It made a significant increase in gas mileage in the 3-5k mile range.

 

What kind of mileage are you averaging so far Omaha?

 

This is a great thread

 

Where is the EB vs 5.0 thread mpg thread?

Thanks!

 

Ok, 3,000 miles on my 4x4, SC, with 3.73 gears, 80% high way miles on this tank and I got 19.2 mpg. This is figured by hand. The computer was showing 19.4.
Most of my tanks are avg. around 18.4. This is driving the speed limit.

Just thought I'd share the info.

J.Shoot