Well, when the ecoboost came out, everyone said "they should have made a diesel half ton"
Now, diesel fuel is so expensive that the cost recovery exceeds the ownership length for all but a very few truck owners.
I would say ford really made lucky with the crystal ball on that call.
Not only id diesel fuel super expensive, but the engines are costlier than ever to service and work on.

With the ram 1500 ecodiesel, and the titan with it's cummins v8 that gets less economy than rams ecodiesel, look like the ecoboost is kicking butt.
Better power, better tow ratings...less mileage, but who cares diesel is super expensive and cost per mile is what really counts!

Maybe things will change soon, with fuel prices, but right now I can't see any benefit at all to buying a ram diesel 1500 or titan cummins truck. The only benefits were fuel economy, and that has dried up hard lately. My guess is the diesel costs just as much if not more to go down the road, and if your not towing, there no point at all. And anyone serious about towing isn't going to use a ram 1500 or nissan titan half ton thats more of a 1/4 ton lol.

 

I wouldn't get too used to the currently low gas prices, this is very temporary, that being said the ecoboost is still a very good engine in the regards of low end diesel like torque! If diesel fuel were less expensive than gasoline, I might have a different opinion, but political moves by the government bureaucracies have made low sulfur fuel a reality that increased the price of diesel fuel by eliminating low volume producers of diesel fuel, in this country, all diesel is low or ultra low sulfur fuel weather it be agricultural or industrial, the only difference is the dye package for determining tax status of the fuel. Across France and Italy the regulations are going to favor small gas engines over diesel because of the diesel particulates and probably because the Europeans want more tax money to disuage use of private cars. I believe that ford and GM have made the right decisions regarding no half ton diesels although GM is going to put a diesel in their 7/8 half ton Colorado/canyon twins, maintenance wise, gas wins hands down, we are starting to have problems with the DPF(diesel particulate filter) in are class 8 trucks plugging up and regen cycles too soon and the dealer wanting to sell us a new one for 58 hundred dollars with a 2000 dollar core, they can be cleaned for 3 or 4 hundred dollars on the right kind of cleaning equipment, but the trucks are out of service until the filters are reinstalled. Their is rumor that in Europe, they are going to require some sort of particulate filter on direct gas injected engines, so I would imagine that that issue will follow the weather to the U.S. shores in the future. BY the way, a dt366 in an f super duty sounds like a cool project, should get good fuel economy, is this an e engine or mechanical?

 

Even before the price drop here diesel has been about 20 cents higher per liter. I know diesels get better economy, but you have to consider that they cost more, have more expensive maintenance, so the gap is very tiny to save any money at all. The TQ is always nice of course, but now with ecoboost engines, theres really no benefit to a small vehicle owner to have a diesel.
I might have a diesel truck, and be building another one, but if I was buying a new truck, it wouldn't be a diesel.

The dt360 engine is mechanical and about as simple as it gets. I am really anxious to get the engine swap project done but not enough time haha.

 

That's a good point about the Euro regulations getting a lot tighter on Diesel engines. Previously, a very high percentage of airbore pollution in urban areas came from diesel engines. North America has had pretty tight diesel emission regulations for a long time now.

 

I think it's going to be interesting to see some performance numbers and real world stats on the upcoming Nissan Titan with the 5.0L.

It won't be the fuel sipper that the ecodiesel is but it'll be a torque monster for sure. The engine will be limited by the chassis.

The ecoboost clearly gives an owner the best of both but the MPG's are sketchy across the line up.

 

There are a couple of things lost in all this.


And that is that the diesel is heavier, therefore payload and towing are reduced in diesels 1/2 tn. Maybe not a killer for the average 1/2 owner.


Secondly diesel emissions. I can see this being problematic for the grocery getter crowd. what oil to run in the winter, what to run in the summer? Regen..DEF, EGR...wrench light drive to clean...what!

 

The emissions regulations for diesels aren't going to get any more lenient. In fact, i could see diesels being regulated completely out of use for everything but large trucks.

 

Current Tier IV regulations put us at near zero levels for PM and NOx. There is talk of a Tier V but it's only talk at the moment. The only way small diesels will be regulated is if the consumer is not willing to pay the high price for them. The EPA can clean up lots more air by jumping on the homeowner with his chainsaws, lawnmower, tillers, weedeaters, snowblowers, boats, UTV's etc before they force a Tier 5 requirement upon industry. Polaris has already added a CAT to their UTV's.

 

I still think Ford needs a half ton diesel engine. As an Ecoboost owner, I have come to understand, as many here have, that it gets good fuel economy when one is easy on the throttle input, and has very impressive power when it is needed. The Ecoboost wont provide both power AND efficiency at the same time. Diesels are coming whether Ford likes it or not, so I believe it will become an option in the F-150 eventually, IMO.

 

Maybe.

I remember the same was said every time a new diesel was introduced in the domestic market. The 2005 Jeep CRD comes to mind. But they never sold many, and they ended up dying off after a couple of years.

In the last couple of years you've seen a LOT of new diesel introductions, and time will tell how they play out. Lots of folks remember the diesels of yore and won't even consider one, and others don't want the inconvenience that comes with finding fuel and paying the higher price for it. If energy prices stay low there will be less and less people willing to make the jump to a diesel car or light pickup.

If oil shoots back up over $100/barrel again you may well be right, as the payoff is bigger with high fuel prices. If not, I'm not so sure.

 

One word for diesel. Longevity. My 85 super cab idi was sold at 378000 on the clock. Still running. Look at vw and the TDI. With the right engine and modern block design a half ton diesel would dominate the business and light truck commercial market.

 

88 bucks to fill my '12 f150 ecoboost at costco today! 85.4 cents/liter!

why couldnt these prices been around when I went out to ontario! one place was 199.9/liter!

 

Modern diesels don't seem much more reliable than gas, and also dont seem to last much longer every time either. Gone are the days of idi mechanical reliability.

 

I've never heard of 1.99/liter gas up here, thats insane!

 

When I was in Italy/France for the 2006 Torino Olympics I noticed that the diesels in Europe had a really sweet smelling exhaust to them, not unlike what our exhaust has smelled like since the DPF's were introduced. I don't remember noticing whether or not the exhausts were clean at all though.