Maybe. maybe not. It appears to use a bit, maybe it's leaking slightly, not sure, don't see anything but it's critical far as fluid level goes. Far as fluid, synthetic only... I know the difference.

I'm not fond of obscure filler ports. I look at that as a cost cutting measure only. Reminds me of GM and their non fill port. You have to drill a hole in the case to fill. Seems as though their boxes like to leak at the cooler line fittings.

For the average owner, I can see it. I run my vehicles to the end of their useful life and sell them for beaters. Just offed a 2004 Tracker with 250K miles. Severe cancer but mechanically, perfect. Still got a grand.

 

I prefer accessible fill ports also, but I would confirm a leak before even thinking of adding fluid. More common to get a bad reading from a surface that's not quite level or cold fluid, etc.

Lots of different trans fluid formulas out there these days; I would assume that you and I would know what our vehicles need. I would not trust a jiffy lube or other generic garage to put the right stuff in.

George

 

Never been to one George. Been by many but never stopped. I do all my own maintenance.

I look at Jiffy Lubes as a 'soccer mom' place. Not for me.

No one touches any vehicle I or my wife owns, but me or the dealer if it happens to be a warranty issue.

That reminded me, I have to change the oil in the Transit and replace the valve cover gasket and PCV valve... and add the catch can to the PCV vapor line.

Putting off the Focus GDI for a while. That entails pulling the intake. Have the gasket set but not the ambition. Great Ford idea, bury the PCV (which is a consumable item) under the intake runners. At least the Transit with it's wet intake has different runners and the valve is accessable, though hard to get to.... What hemostats are for I guess.

I may wait for 60 on the Focus and take it into the dealer and while it's apart, add the catch can. I know the techs at the dealer well. 2.5 hours in the flat rate manual for a 15 second PCV valve change.

 

Bummer about the PCV location. I had been thinking of an Edge as a next vehicle and like the 3.5 V6 and the 2.7 Ecoboost V6 in the Sport. But I found out that they bury the water pump deep inside the engine like an "innie" belly button instead of putting it on the outside. Might save space but if the water pump ever starts gushing coolant, it seems to go into the crankcase and takes a lot of disassembly to get to the pump.

Not good in my book. I've changed out a lot of water pumps but don't work on cars much any more (8 screws and 3 rods in my spine, so I don't hang over engines well). And a buried water pump would make me want to rule out an engine. Apparently $1500ish to have the water pump replaced unless it takes out the engine, in which case it's time for a new engine.

George

 

I'm still pretty mobile at 67, but then I farm and hunt and raise hell yet.

The eco-boost is a GDI engine. I don't want one myself. The engine in the Focus SE is an eco-boost without the hairdryer. The ST has the hairdryer. The Edge is the hairdryer model.

Toyota and Nissan addressed the issue already with a pulsed injector in the intake to provide a wet atmosphere and the cleaning ability of modern gasoline. Ford hasn't figured that out yet.

In my view, a GDI engine is a diesel without the high pressure injection pump and fuel system. Conversion would be easy and maybe that is the game plan.

Base compression is almost there and the block is structurally strong enough. Add some under piston oil squirters, an electronic diesel injection pump and glo plugs in place of the spark plugs and you have a diesel.

Water pump wise, that is a bugger but so it the alternator on the backside... you have to drop the rack to replace the juice box.

I look at it this way.. It's a world class manufacturing thing. Bet you didn't know but Class 8 diesel engine manufacturers (with the exception of Cummins) now put the PTO on the BACKSIDE of the engine. The entire drive, is on the back, fuel pump, lift pump, compressor and alternator...

That means what used to be an hour job changing out an air compressor is now major surgery.

Ford isn't the only guilty one by a long shot.

 

I'm *only* 64 and could go our right now and ride my bicycle 50 miles...but I can't hang over an engine compartment for hours any more.

Preaching to the choir on GDI. You would find a pretty good Chicken Little thread history started by me on FTE in the early days of the Eboost.

The next-gen EBoost 3.5 has dual injectors like Toyota, and one of my son's college buddies was working at Toyota engineering in Ann Arbor on GDI (and crank balancing on the Lexus supercar V10) about 8 years ago. They had a VW with GDI on the lot and it was his job to start the car and drive it across the parking lot and park it every day. I think they ended up with 25% gasoline content in the crankcase oil. And I've seen almost every ugly photo of intake valve backs on the Internet.

I was tempted by the 2.7 EBoost only because it gives musclecar performance in a nice-sized SUV...and there are 3.5 Eboosts with some good mileage on them in pickups (250k and stuff). I even saw the teardown of the Baja test 3.5 EB at the Detroit Auto Show some years ago and the intake valves on that looked OK.

I don't really trust turbos that much--only one I ever owned was an '86 Dodge Lancer which got a new turbo and a full engine rebuild at 70k when the head gasket died and mixed coolant into my oil. Just inside the 7/70 Mopar warranty thank God...

So yeah, I don't think I'm ready to plunk down real money for a GDI engine yet, or a turbo, but I would like a hotrod again while I still have some reflexes

George

 

Myself, I like hairdryers on diesels. I'm a bit older than you with no hardware...yet. Have all my digits too, that's unusual for a farmer...lol

I like 'go fast' vehicles too. Problem is, the Michigan insurance industry don't. I pay way too much insurance as it is on 2 tractors, all the implements, 3 vehicles and 3 'go fast' motorcycles. I cannot afford insurance on a hypercar.. I guess I could be like the people in Detroit proper and do the 'swap tag' number....lol