Now that you have driven the original poster off, how about giving it a rest? This forum is getting more like RV.net all the time which I hate to see. Everyone becomes an authority and starts spouting off until you just give up on finding an informative answer from someone who "actually owns and drives" the vehicle in question.
I for one do own an Ecoboost, use it for recreational towing over the manufacturers recommended weight and love it. This is my 7th F series Ford and by far the best. My nephew has owned an Ecoboost since 2011 and loves it much more than the Duramax it replaced and others I quizzed before making my decision agree also. Great engine with 6 years of history going back to 2009 under its belt so it is a proven product in my book and worlds better than the 2006 5.4 it replaced, which replaced a 4.6, which replaced a 351 Windsor, which replaced two 360's which replaced a Y block.

 

You will never know until you try one. My thoughts are until you do then bite your tongue. I doubted it at first but one trip in the mountains was all it took for me and there is no chance of me going back now, this will be my long term retirement vehicle, I have that much faith in it. Take a trip to a large volume F-150 dealership and look at the cutway engine parts and videos they have on display. I have built many an engine over the years from stock to high performance and was even a mechanic in a Ford dealership in the mid 70's and I have never seen a block, pistons, crank and connecting rods so overbuilt. The thing is a monster. Your opinion is your opinion but don't slam something you have zero experience with.

 

I love my EcoBoost F150, I have over 80,000 issue free miles. I could care less what Wards says about the engine. My 3.5 EB is a fantastic engine, it is a better towing engine than the 6.2L V8 and gets better mileage than the 6.2L.

 

for most people who don't tow, the 5.0 isn't exactly the best choice either. the 3.7 or 3.5NA is a far better choice, if offered.

so you've pontificated at great length about what you see as a fuel mileage problem, yet you consistently talk about the poor reliability. you're only half way there, keep going.

going back to your sources, though, name one diesel engine made in the last decade that operates at only 5psi of boost. your sources of information really stink. you tout the reliability of the powerstroke and stand firm that the ecoboost turbos are going to fail -- ignoring the fact that the powerstroke's turbo is vastly more complicated.

as best i can remember, there has been only one reported turbo failure on this board. there may have been more that i missed, but there have been many turbo failures reported on the 6.0,6.4,and even the 6.7.

you should cite your source on the ecoboost sales decline as well. not sure how that could be with every platform ford offers now has a ecoboost offering.

maybe the ecoboost's failure prone nature is a good thing for some, though, as i notice that our Highway Patrol cars are all ecoboost powered ... maybe if you just run from them long enough their turbos will blow up and you'll get away ....

 

I don't believe ecoboost sales are declining. a gas superduty is actually cheaper to buy new. a diesel is 9k more alone. I don't want or need a superduty. If you hate the ecoboost, that's fine. Just go buy a 5.0 and drive it. Don't need to hear opinions on how lousy the ecoboost is. Theres a lot of happy ecoboost owners, let them enjoy their trucks.

 

Here is a blurb from Ford, "In April, 2015 EcoBoost F-150 sales were a record 63 percent of all retail sales". See the link below for the full article.

http://corporate.ford.com/content/da...ss-release.pdf

 

I've read somewhere maybe here that sales of the 3.5L EB are down giving way to sales of the 2.7L EB.

 

I don't know about that. When I bought my '13 F150 I paid about $4,000 less than I would have gotten an equivalent gas Super Duty. I got $11,500 off MSRP, and I couldn't find anyone dealing that much on a Super Duty. It's tough to find an F150 with that much of a discount unless it's one of the top trim levels; mine were XLT models.

Wouldn't surprise me. I have a good friend who just picked up a crew cab 4X4 with the 2.7L engine that she replaced her Honda Pilot with. She absolutely loves it, and got over 19 MPG on her first tank. That's substantially better than the '11 Honda Pilot she traded for it.

 

f150 has had 4 engines available since 2011
3.7, 5.0, 3.5, 6.2.


I think the 6.2 was only offered after the 3.5 came into the picture to get the sales of people who wanted a towing monster but were not yet comfortable with the ecoboost.


now that the ecoboost has proven it's towing prowess, the 6.2 can go away and help ford meet their CAFE standards.

 

"If you own a turbocharged engine, you better change your oil more often."

HORSE HOCKY. I ran fairly long intervals on my 7.3L (given that it held 4 GALLONS of oil), as most folks do, especially if you run a good synthetic oil and do periodic OAs. I personally know guys that are going out to **20,000** miles on oil in their turbocharged diesels, but that takes time & effort with bypass oil filtration and closely monitoring with OAs. I did occasional OAs, but I settled on ~7500 mile OCIs, for the simple fact that 7500 miles was the break-even point on the 50% premium of running the Syn Rotella flavor. I could've gone 10k easily on a truck that was spec'ed at 5k OCIs, per OA reports.

Personally, I believe in running a good syn oil, especially with the issue of carbon buildup at the valves in DI engines which has been proven to be reduced with an oil like Pennzoil Ultra Platinum (no affiliation, it's just the oil that I choose to run). I'm going to do an OA on my first oil change (which I believe is MC 5W-30), just to see where I am, and then another once I have some miles on the Penn-UP. I'll post them here as I get them done.

As far as comparing a DI-T diesel with a gasoline engine, the only points I make are that they are both DI-T engines, and that the torque curves I've seen (especially after mods) are very similar to my diesel, except that the EB curve shifts higher in RPM (as expected). That's why when I first looked at & drove the EB back in 2010, I immediately recognized how the truck "felt" like my diesel. Seeing the dyno curves later on confirmed what my SOTP (seat of the pants) dyno told me... And before anyone says it, I am purposely looking at mod'ed & tuned numbers because I never intended on leaving mine stock.

My 7.3L from 2010 (mod'ed & tuned):


Typical 3.5L EcoBoost (stock vs. mod'ed & tuned):

 

You posted data between diesel & gas applications, as did I, so which apples are you referring to now? I'm simply posting my experiences with MY apples, where my DI-T gas engine equipped truck has a very similar torque curve to the DI-T diesel engine equipped truck it replaced. Those apples compare directly.

You also listed "buying turbos" as a reason to not buy the 3.5L EcoBoost, when as far as I've seen, they have been quite robust. It's this scare tactic that is ludicrous. How many warped 5.0L blocks have their been? Given a choice, I rather replace a turbo than the entire engine. Given the fact that extremely few owners have had to replace 5.0Ls, it's equally as ludicrous to use that as a reason to not buy the 5.0L.

Mileage is a wash a lot of use cases, even though I'm thinking the EB has the edge when towing.
Maintenance is a wash.
Both run on 87 octane just fine.

The myth of more frequent oil changes is addressed easily by taking the effort to do OAs and knowing EXACTLY when your oil should need changed based on your own use case and which oil you choose to use. I'll be doing that every oil change until/if/when I can correlate the OAs with the built-in monitor, and settle on the OCI that fits my use case.

So other than paying the premium for an engine that flat-out outperforms a 5.0L, where is all this "other money" a 5.0L would save? I CHOSE a better performer, because it's MY MONEY, and even though both might get the job done (I almost bought a 5.0L, BTW), I wanted (notice I didn't say NEED) the one that gives me more performance out of my truck as a daily driver, compared apples to apples......

 

still horse hockey.


the need for a more frequent oil change interval (OCI) is accounted for by specifying 5w30 instead of 5w20. The early versions of the 3.5EB spec'd 5w20, as that is what it was designed for. Finding out that over longer OCI's the turbos and DI did indeed shear the oil down close to or out of the 20-wt range, they spec'd the newer ones with 5w30 so that when the oil does shear it will still be well within the 20wt spec. (nothing official from ford on this, but it seems to make good sense)


most 30wt conventional oils will shear down to a 20wt in the 5,000 - 7,500 mile range anyway, even in a non-DI engine, so this is nothing new, but in order to safely achieve the 7500-10000 mile OCI ford wanted, they spec'd up to a 30wt so that it would stay at an acceptable viscosity over an extended period of time.


maybe Tom would be so kind as to post up his UOA from his 2013 EcoBoost. IIRC, it was an "extended" OCI (by most people's standard), and it showed good wear and durability.

 

One thing just occurred to me looking more closely at the graphs that is quite interesting, and call it apples to oranges if you like. But my 7.3L mod'ed & tuned was at a bit over 1000 ft-lbs at the wheels. The 3.5L mod'ed & tuned is a bit over 500 ft-lbs at the wheels. Half the displacement, half the torque just about to the digit in an almost identical curve. That math is nice.....

 

Can't we 5.0 and EcoBoost guys just get along and get back to bashing Chevy's and Rams


In all seriousness, I went with the 5.0 because I wanted a V8 in my truck....plain and simple. I like the power, the feel and the sound. I've got nothing against turbos.....got on in my VW and it's all thumbs up. They do require a little more thought when selecting oil, etc, but it's all good!


Over the long haul say 10 years, what will last longer for trouble free driving, well I guess that all depends on a number of factors. Time will tell. But in the mean time, no mater what engine you got, enjoy your truck!

 

They're not as different as you want us to think. Diesel engines break too. They need turbos, injectors, and much more expensive oil changes. They need regular fuel filter changes, and regular fuel treatment to insure against low lubricity fuel from destroying your expen$ive HPFP that will set you back $10,000. Very expensive to own and operate, but they make sense for those who need the capability they bring.

Not everyone with a trailer needs a diesel engine. As the former owner of two of them, they're not all sunshine and roses to own.