rub up your engines today I'm gonna talk
about why not to buy a Ford EcoBoost
engine for those of you who don't know
an EcoBoost engine system is an engine
that has turbocharged gasoline direct
fuel injection and variable valve timing
it can increase fuel economy and
decrease carbon dioxide emissions but of
course here's the warning you get a
turbocharged car with gasoline direct
injection it has more power the average
Joe like me it's going to be driving it
like a maniac stepping on the gas
revenue engine up and then of course it
gets worse Katimavik
now first let's break it down turbo
charging it's been around for a long
time it just uses your exhaust gas to
spin a turbine and then the other end of
the turbine that compresses air and
shoots more air into the engine giving
it more power and yes you can get better
gas mileage if you drive like the granny
going to church on Sunday but like I say
if you drive it hard that's going to
negate any positive effects most people
I know that have turbocharged cars they
get worse gas mileage because they drive
them harder now turbo charging is used
instead of super charging in most cars
because turbo charging is more efficient
it's using the gas that's in your
exhaust that's already there where
supercharger has a pulley that either
runs with an electric motor or runs off
of your crank with a fan belt and that
actually decreases gas mileage because
you're using up energy in or operate the
superchargers that's why they're all
turbocharged now because the gasoline
ratings by the government is higher now
the second aspect of these EcoBoost
engine is variable valve timing and
that's been around a while too I've even
made videos on apps the modern cars can
control how the valves open and close so
when you're just idling or cruising it
can have a lower profile to get better
gas mods but when you want to accelerate
you can open the valves up wider give
them a little longer duration so you can
have better acceleration and power now
Hondo is really the first company to
mass-produce efficient VVT variable
valve timing engines and they've been
around long enough that they're a pretty
reliable system with the exception of a
lot of
or motor craft ones wear out prematurely
gear is run by a chain and operates the
cams that assembly would start coming
apart and wobbling it's a design flaw
they work fine until they broke but they
broke too early I had to replace some of
them when I had seventy eighty thousand
miles on and the third part of the
EcoBoost engine is the GDI the gasoline
direct injection instead having fuel
injectors like this Toyota that spraying
the intake manifold and the fuels and
sucked in through the valves of the
engine the fuel injectors sprayed fuel
directly into the cylinders they're much
higher pressures to salt Toyota's maybe
45 psi the GDI ones are well over a
thousand psi inside it's an interesting
design but when you start bumping up the
pressures like that kind of asking for
problems as they age so when you combine
super high fuel pressure with super high
air pressure being pumped in by a turbo
variable valve timing where the cams can
move around so the valves open and close
less there are a lot of things that can
go wrong in these engines carbon buildup
on the intake valves now 2018 Ford
redesigned it passionately in their v6
engines are putting in f-150s so they
had both the port fuel injection like my
Toyota there that has lower pressure and
a GDI system that worked by computers so
that every once in a while the port ones
are used so they clean the valves up and
carbon doesn't build up because gasoline
is a very good solvent it has two
separate fuel injection system another
level of complexity run by computers and
I'm predicting hey probably have
problems with them in the future they
just started doing it last year knowing
how these things work out there's almost
always teething problem to those things
GM had their version of it and they put
it in their 4-cylinder engines they're
little bit four-cylinder engines and
those high-pressure fuel pumps they'd
have to put over a thousand psi out to
those GDI injectors tons of them went
bad and either would leak or wouldn't
work anymore and it didn't happen until
they were a few years old so may I take
the 2012 f150 that had the v6 between
the turbocharger and engine is was
called the intercooler because you don't
want to
to be too hot it cools it off and they
were getting condensation inside the
intercooler which are build-up water
then the water be stuck into the engine
and it caused problems a lot of
stumbling hesitation and that was 2012
it takes a few years to figure these
things up and if you have one of these
3.5 liter v6 EcoBoost engines realize
that the event at least nine software
updates they have to do with the vacuum
they have to do with the ignition timing
I may even have to do with the
transmission shifting so as you can see
this is kind of a work in progress
but if you have know one of these 3.5 v6
EcoBoost engine systems hey you're
having a problem first thing you do have
all the software calibrations check it's
easy for them to do with the dealer if
it needs upgraded software they can just
update the software and if you have an
hand on the software updated and you've
owned it for a long time
odds are it's going to need some
updating I get an f-150 with a v8 engine
in it I would want one that's proven
it's gonna hold up be able to pull stuff
and not have any problems they're
worried about gas mileage and power they
can always put smaller engines in there
not enough power so they add all this
stuff on top of a small engine it's a
recipe for disaster
in the long run now for it does put
EcoBoost in lots of their engines they
have a 2-liter four-cylinder one they
had to redesign them and the new design
doesn't share that much with the old
design they kind of found out that the
old design it wasn't panning out so well
when they redesigned it it's still a
2-liter engine but they put a
twin-scroll turbocharger compressor on
it changed a bunch of stuff it's lighter
they use a lot more aluminum and wait'll
something's been tried tested out and
proven that it's reliable especially
when it has anything to do with aluminum
parts and cars look at the Honda CRV
they went to all this aluminum stuff now
they've got an oil dilution problem that
fuel is getting into the oil because of
either the software the engine design I
just never had that problem before you
start ramping this technology up you're
just asking for failures here and there
because there's so much technology so
much higher pressure much larger use of
aluminum
which is anybody knows move it it's
pretty soft this stuff's gonna wear a
lot faster than cast-iron she all be
Cobras that they were making one point
in time they tried using an aluminum
block on that big v8
well they had engines overheat and
blowing aluminum just wouldn't hold up
they went back to making them with cast
iron blocks they stopped having the
overheating and cranking problems at the
aluminum ones had oh yeah that's great
technology better gas mileage lotta
Lotta I can make a lot of money fixing
those things when they break down too
you know but I'm not that kind of guy
that's the advantage of low overhead
like me work by myself for myself I
don't have to pay a million dollars in
overhead like at a big dealership just
to break even and sure there's all kinds
of pressure on the manufacturers to have
better gas mileage and pollute less and
Americans of course they still want fast
vehicles you don't want to drive around
some tiny little thing that doesn't go
fast but you're using smaller and
smaller engines usiness technology's
about the only way that you can do it
but believe me all this they had a
technology and complexity it's gonna
cost you in the long run if you keep
your cars longer than the warranty
period because car repair hey it's got a
long way from my grandfather's day he
was also a mechanic he fixed cars with
hammers screwdrivers listen with his
ears you can't do that with modern cars
even I can be stumped when a car comes
in and it doesn't shift right it might
have nothing to do with the transmission
it could be that there's a problem in
the fuel injection system and that feeds
back to the computer so the transmission
acts up and it's actually an engine
problem not a transmission problem even
though you feel it in the shifting
because you kind of get a hint that
they're guessing when they have nine
software updates to these systems I
would advise you not to buy an EcoBoost
system as they presently stand
so if you never want to miss another one
of my new car repair videos remembering
to ring that Bell
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