Welcome to the Forum Boomer and congrats on the purchase.

If you have any more info on the injection cleaning, please post it here. As Tseekins mentioned, there hasn't been anything mentioned around the forum about an approved process. But we know Ford has been working on one, so if it's released then that's good news.

I think the jury is still out on oil catch can systems. I've been looking at them for a while and I'm not sure there's any real benefit for a stock tuned EB. I don't think it will hurt the truck and keeping that crap out of the engine is not a bad thing, but not sure it is necessary. There are quite a few posts on the various Ford forums of EB motors with 200+ miles performing only routine maintenance per Ford's recommendation. The weep hole is probably just as effective and free.

There is a lot of good oil on the market these days. Motorcraft oil is very good and their filters are great too. Some are reporting quality issues on the filters, but I'm not sure it's at critical mass yet to be concerned. I'm running a Fram Ultra right now, but don't have any info to report yet. If you are an oil nerd like me, I recommend running a 5,000 mile cycle and doing an oil analysis to see how it is holding up. Fuel dilution can be an issue with turbo, direct injection motors and the EB is no different. Once you know your engine is not beating up oil, then run your oil per the oil life monitor.

Have fun with your new truck!

 

Welcome to the forum and congratulations on the new ride. Ive always had good luck following the recommended maintenance intervals from Ford. I was told by a service writer friend that the oil filter is probably more important than the oil.

 

I bought a 2013 FX4 crewcab with the ecoboost engine. I absolutely love the truck and the power but I am having two issues. one is that the gas mileage is worse than my 99 4x4 suburban at around 10mpg. But the bigger issue is that when the truck is good and warmed up (110 degrees outside and after driving for a good 20 minutes). I start getting a hesitation when I stop and then start again. For example. I stop at a stop sign to cross a 4-5 lane street, 0 mph, transmission in 1st, waiting for a break in traffic. I get a break, I floor it. I then idle across 3 or 4 lanes and then it suddenly kicks in. I have been in numerous close calls because the truck just sat there. I have taken it to a Ford Dealership where they charged me $460 for some work that did nothing. I picked up the truck and immediately reproduced the issue. I took it back and they wouldnt look at it. The said that I should drive it for 1000 miles for the computer to re-learn my driving habits. They stated "Flat spot on take off when hot is normal" This is not a flat spot and I wont tell you what I think of their responses. anyways, I played their game and took it and drove it for 1000 miles. I took it back today and told the same service manager that it was still having the same issues and asked if he would take a drive while it was hot enough to reproduce the issue. He said "No, I will get to it later" which means it will cool down and there will be no issue. Can someone please give me an idea of what I can do here?

Thanks,
Roark

 

Solving one item, when you need to take off quickly, do 2 things.
1. turn off the traction control while holding the button in until it also says 'advance track off'.
2. give it some revs, to about 1000, before you need to get going. The turbos have a lag anyway, and if you are having issues, you need to get some boost going before you let your foot off the break. Don't give it too much or you'll spin while stopped and never get traction, you can smoke your tire easily.

How many miles does it have? Everybody I know, who has one with higher miles, told me the same thing. around 50,000 just go ahead and change your spark plugs or you'll get issues with fuel delivery. I've got a few sales guys around the country with these and they all have 80k +. This may also help mileage. I get 13-14 around town and 17-18 on the freeway. I drive aggressively, but not crazy. And I check my highway miles on 'mild trips'. I know people claim more, but all my guys get the same.

Not sure if this helps. But use the first part to get across those lanes. If it's raining, put it in 4x4H, I do it all the time, or I spin.

 

Ya, I have tried holding the throttle a bit to get a small boost before entering the intersection. And you are correct in that you can smoke the tires quickly. When pulling into an intersection and making a left turn it sometimes will idle about 2/3 through the turn and then all of the sudden it engages and you end up with way too much power for a turn. I will try changing the spark plugs although I feel like that is most likely not the issue. Right now it's back at the dealer but they dont seem to have any ideas because there is not a code registered so they just say it checks out ok and everything is "Normal". I haven't been able to get them to actually drive it with me when it's hot and the problem wont surface when the engine is not really warmed up.

 

oh, and I have turned off the traction control as well to no avail.

Thanks,
Roark

 

ok, the latest from the Ford dealership. They state that ecoboost trucks are programmed to hesitate if its too hot (combination of engine temp and ambient air temp). They state that ALL ecoboost motors have this 3-5 second hesitation. Can anyone else duplicate the issue? of course, I live in Phoenix so I do have the higher outside temperatures. I am thinking of going to test drive one of their ecoboost trucks on the lot to see if I can reproduce it on their own truck.

Roark

 

That doesn't sound right. Mine has a very slight hesitation, maybe 1/2 second just enough to **** you off, but then it starts going. Towing with temps up well north of 210F it doesn't hesitate. Sounds like there is definitely an issue.

Have you tried the "throttle recalibration"? The PCM will change throttle response mapping based on driver history and this resets it. Definitely brought back some throttle response for me.

Turn key on, don't start engine, push throttle down slowly all the way to the bottom, release fast. Turn off key and repeat two more times (3 times total).

 

Thanks,
Ya I tried the re-calibration it didn't make a difference. I get the normal 1/2 second lag and I am OK with that but this is completely different. I can only reproduce it under certain circumstances. The engine has to be hot and the ambient air has to be extra hot. In fact I can only reproduce it when outside temperatures are above about 105. The more I thought about it, I am pretty sure the dealership never actually reproduced the issue. I took it to them in the condition where the issue was occurring but they said they wouldn't test drive it then that they would get to it later. So I am sure it cooled down. I got a call the next day late afternoon that the hesitation was normal. but that day the temperatures were cooler and after I picked up the truck I couldn't reproduce it because of the low temps. I am sure the only thing they reproduced was the normal turbo lag.

 

oh, and one more update. I called customer service and got nowhere. I got a blanket statement that they stand behind the dealer 100% with whatever they say. If the dealer says it is so then it is so... gone are the days when a company actually cared about a customer. And to think, if I ever need a question answered I can just go to a Ford dealership and their answers are as good as law.

I hate to be sarcastic but It's been to the dealership twice and they are about as rude as they get.

 

Mine does this when the ac is on and it is hot outside (I also live in phoenix). Turn AC off and wait for the fans to kick off and no more hesitation.

 

Thanks jdunk54nl,

I actually have an appointment with the service manager and the shop foreman tomorrow to look at it seriously. I will let you know what comes of it.

Roark

 

I saw this a bit late but you are correct. I had 2 of the serious misfire events, both occurred while passing a slower vehicle and both occurred about halfway past the vehicle I was passing. In my mind, it is a safety issue. Ford paid for the first cleaning of the CAC but didn't for the second. When I discussed drilling the hole with the SM, he said "drill it". The problem with Ford doing it is the EPA. As Tim said you can always plug it with with a very small marine-grade screw. I drilled it a month ago and am not sorry after being left out in the wrong lane with no power. Drilling the hole takes about 30 seconds including time to crawl under the front end. I also have a competition grade catch-can and anyone not having one would be mortified at all the crap that is filtered out of the PCV system BEFORE it goes back into the intake manifold! This is a DI engine so there is no gas washing the intake valves in the first gen 3.5's. It doesn't take much imagination to figure out the long term effects of that crap being burned onto hot valves. I understand the new engines have a system to help keep the intake valves clean. If the engineers added a way to keep the intake valves cleaner, what does that tell you about the first gen engines? Just say'n.

 

Let's not dig 93Cobra back up from the grave.

He got banned because he didn't know when to quit and let it go and derailed every thread he touched.

Good points, and I respect your opinions. But for the sake of my own sanity, please don't ever quote anything 93Cobra wrote.....

 

I wasn't aware of his demise. I'll try to refrain from it. I've been gone for a while...Thanks for the update.