Ford Ecoboost 2.0L-Any Good

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Originally Posted By: Miller88
Originally Posted By: ccap41
Originally Posted By: Miller88
Originally Posted By: ccap41
I currently own a Ford Escape with the 2.0 and love it. Oh, it's AWD as well.

The fuel mileage can be very polarizing. From my experience winter blend fuel really hurts economy. I'm not a fast driver I will hover right around the speed limit and in the winter months, on top of cold starts and the vehicle warming up. I noticed an easy 2-3mpg hit over the winter and instantly on my first take that apparently had summer blend in it because it was the first significant jump in fuel economy and it hasn't fallen out of the ordinary since. My Escape currently has about 42k miles on it(I bought it with 34k) and haven’t had any issues. Here is a link to my Fuelly page and you can skim around and check out the winter/summer difference.

ccap's fuelly page

The power is adequate and will keep the enthusiast “entertained”. It obviously isn’t actually fast but it isn’t a dog either. Good passing power when you want it, good fuel economy when you want it. Set the cruise at 50mph and you’ll get 32mpg. Cruise around 75+ and you’re looking more at the epa ratings of 28mpg. Some still claim 30+mpg at those speeds but I call [censored]. I live in southern Illinois where the land is pretty dang flat and if there is a place to get good mpg here would be one of them. I’m not a sucker for the 91/93 octane fuel as there isn’t enough benefit or the additional cost. I actually run mid grade and that is just because I don’t feel like turbo cars should be utilizing the absolute minimum, that is just personal feeling though. But, I do always use a top tier station(one reason I don’t use premium as top tier stations are usually $0.30-0.50/gallon more than regular). I also only get to use 10% ethanol blended(junk) fuel here and many other Escape owners claim decent gains if you can use 100% gasoline fuel.


Any other questions about the new gen Escape feel free to ask. I can at least try and help you out.


Try the 91 for a bit and see what happens. After a few months I managed to convince my parents to run 91. The jump in mileage makes it a bit cheaper to run 91 octane gas. It's only like $20 per 1000 miles, but it is not more expensive.


Is that 91 octane 100% gasoline or contain 10% ethanol? Because I initially started with 87 octance as a little baseline, then I went up to 89, and I've tried 91 a couple times with no real significant different to justify any cost gains. But..I have heard good things about the 91/93 octane that is 100% gas.

I'll give it another shot though.


You bring up a good point. It's 91 ethanol free for everyday driving as they live 2 miles from a station that sells 91 ethanol free. There's a bigger price prmium for 91 ethanol free but it still comes out slightly cheaper. On trips we have used 10% ethanol 91 and didn't notice much of a mileage hit - it was still 30MPG cruising on the 91/10 , same as the 91/0.

I don't know the geography of where you are located, but there are a lot of hills here. The 2.0L has ridiculously tall gearing - 3.07 I believe - and it is always running at
My suspicion is that there would not be as significant of an improvement in an area that isn't as hilly.

Before they started using 91 in the Escape, I learned I was able to get better mileage out of it by dropping a gear or two using the select-shift on hills. It was running a higher RPM but not overfueling to prevent detonation. It's probably better for the intake valves - less fuel into the cylinders and past the rings is less junk on the intake valves.

Winter? All bets are off. They idle the thing for 25 minutes every morning before my mother's 20 minute commute to work.


Yeah, where I live is quite flat. Not much hills here in the mid west! lol So yeah I could see that making a difference if the additional power/tq is never really needed then it isn't as beneicial.

That's a good point about the downshifting for it up hills. I've noticed that myself(without manually downshifting). I'd see the instant mpg drop deep into the single digits up steeper inclines and when it does finally downshift the instant mpg actually increases, exactly like you said.

lol I understand idling in the winter with older vehicles but this ting warms up so fast it really only needs a couple minutes in my opinion. But I'm also fine getting in without it being 80 degrees inside the cabin lol.

I've tried to find ethanol free stations in my area and there just aren't any within a reasonable distance. It isn't worth driving a half hour to try to ethanol free gas.
Funny story, I was road tripping to visit my sister in Iowa a couple of months ago and before the trip I looked ahead for a station that was 100% gas. Awesome, found one along the route so i wouldn't waste time or anything. when I got into the town I put the exact address in my phone and it took me there.. it was closed/out of business. haha THEN the worst part actually. I just went to the next "top tier" station and I went to get my wallet to pay with my card, like I always do. Forgot my wallet at home. 3 hours from my destination, 2 1/2 hours from home. No money. I used to always keep cash in my car for situations like this but when I got my new(to me) Escape(November) I completely forgot to put money back in. LUCKILY for whatever reason I had a checkbook in my car..wih 2 checks..lol. The lady working there was really nice because they were supposed to see my ID as well but helped my out. Now that was a terrible feeling. I instantly knew I didn't even pick it up from home.

Okay, that was enough of being off topic!
 
I've got a Focus ST with the 2L Ecoboost. From a performance standpoint, it's an excellent engine. Very responsive, even at low throttle inputs and is generally a blast to drive. The torque curve is very pleasant and the car pulls from ~2500RPM or so. The car feels plenty powerful to me, and I've owned more than a few performance FI 4cyls.

Fuel economy is so-so. I'll touch up to 34 or so MPG with pure highway driving, but city driving - the majority of my travels - can be very disappointing, especially during winter. During the coldest months, I've seen as low as 15MPG; a pretty stellar disappointment for an 'eco' labeled engine. I'm not the only one either; Focus ST forums have plenty of posters complaining about poor city MPG.

I'm not sure of the difference between the engine as it sits in the ST vs the Explorer, but I'm under the impression they're virtually the same. YMMV.
 
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Originally Posted By: wag123

In the car business we have seen a fair number of early Ecoboost turbo failures and Ford is notoriously VERY difficult to deal with when it comes to fixing them under warranty.


I've been following the Taurus SHO forums since late 09 and the F150 Forums since last year. Not too many reports of turbo failures on Ecoboosts. There have been some but not that many at all vs the #'s sold.

As far as the 2.0 being a good engine, we'll find out as the wife has her eyes on an Escape with one of them. I will say that driving it, I was somewhat underwhelmed as it didn't' seem as fast as it's 6.something 0-60 stats said. Wonderful vehicle in all other aspects though.
 
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Originally Posted By: itguy08
Originally Posted By: wag123

In the car business we have seen a fair number of early Ecoboost turbo failures and Ford is notoriously VERY difficult to deal with when it comes to fixing them under warranty.


I've been following the Taurus SHO forums since late 09 and the F150 Forums since last year. Not too many reports of turbo failures on Ecoboosts. There have been some but not that many at all vs the #'s sold.

As far as the 2.0 being a good engine, we'll find out as the wife has her eyes on an Escape with one of them. I will say that driving it, I was somewhat underwhelmed as it didn't' seem as fast as it's 6.something 0-60 stats said. Wonderful vehicle in all other aspects though.


One thing I will never understand is why people are afraid of turbo failure on gas engines, but love turbodiesels.
 
Originally Posted By: Miller88

One thing I will never understand is why people are afraid of turbo failure on gas engines, but love turbodiesels.


I don't get that either. Or the ones that say the Ecoboost isn't a good truck engine because it's a V6. And point to the "awesome" Cummins in their Ram. Forgetting that it's a 6 as well. As are big rig engines!
 
I often wonder why there are many examples of turbo failures. I find it hard to believe that turbos for the smaller gas engines are all that much inferior to turbos on a large diesel engines. I took one Cummins motor to 1.4 million miles and it still had original turbo. Same for another Cummins, but I sold it at 930,000 miles. Presently at around 434,000 miles on a current one and still no turbo problem. What are these folks doing to their gassers that are causing them to blow turbos?
 
Originally Posted By: TiredTrucker
I often wonder why there are many examples of turbo failures. I find it hard to believe that turbos for the smaller gas engines are all that much inferior to turbos on a large diesel engines. I took one Cummins motor to 1.4 million miles and it still had original turbo. Same for another Cummins, but I sold it at 930,000 miles. Presently at around 434,000 miles on a current one and still no turbo problem. What are these folks doing to their gassers that are causing them to blow turbos?


I would bet that a lot of it comes down to the fact that your commercial rated trucks get heavier duty parts which are higher quality and more robust.
 
Like I stated, it is really a bit of a stretch to think that turbos for the gassers are inferior quality than larger turbos for heavy trucks. They are generally made by the same turbo OEM's. Would seem strange that, say, Borg Warner who makes the turbo on my semi truck would drop the quality on a turbo for a gasser. Or any of the other brands.

While the other engine components, your statement would probably be true.
 
We have one in our 2014 Focus ST. 20k on it and no engine related problems whatsoever, but again this is a very new car to us. It's a very fun and responsive engine. Good power, and good MPG for what it is. We average 26-27 MPG a tank. Granted that's a good amount of highway miles but I don't baby this thing either. The 23/33. MPG rating for our car is pretty much spot on in our experience.
 
10k on my wife's Lincoln MKC. Not many miles but love the motor so far. Just got back from a 3400 mile road trip and it performed beautifully, averaged 26mpg which I was pleased with considering many hills and averaging 74-80mph over half of the trip.
 
Originally Posted By: jigen
We have one in our 2014 Focus ST. 20k on it and no engine related problems whatsoever, but again this is a very new car to us. It's a very fun and responsive engine. Good power, and good MPG for what it is. We average 26-27 MPG a tank. Granted that's a good amount of highway miles but I don't baby this thing either. The 23/33. MPG rating for our car is pretty much spot on in our experience.


ST here too; got just over 35 MPG driving from NJ>MI with a car packed full of stuff. It's a wonderful engine.
 
35 MPG was the best long trip mileage I ever got as well. Kept it under 65MPH and was on mainly all flat roads. Impressive for what it is, dips fast when you hit 70+ MPH though.
 
Originally Posted By: jigen
35 MPG was the best long trip mileage I ever got as well. Kept it under 65MPH and was on mainly all flat roads. Impressive for what it is, dips fast when you hit 70+ MPH though.

I've noticed the same in my Escape.
 
I've noticed the same on pretty much any car I've had, the more over 65-70 you go, the worse the mileage is.

On a side note, I see a lot of 2.0 EB Escapes and Fusions. What about the 1.6 EB, who's tried that and what's the mileage like?
 
Originally Posted By: Brons2

On a side note, I see a lot of 2.0 EB Escapes and Fusions. What about the 1.6 EB, who's tried that and what's the mileage like?


Had one in a loaner Fusion. It was adequate. Nothing spectacular but didn't strain either. Basically a base engine. MPG was 25 or so, IIRC in mixed driving according to the computer.
 
Originally Posted By: Ethan1
Originally Posted By: glock19
Originally Posted By: Ethan1
There are some stellar cars coming out of Asia today but they aren't Hyundais and they most certainly aren't Subaru's. LOL


The Subaru hate on this forum is ridiculous. Not quite sure what they did to get BITOG's panties in a bunch besides become more popular.


They're almost the BITOG dream car. They really are the only automaker that seems to design with serviceability in mind. I mean, come on, external spin-on trans filters?! It's almost like they were designed for BITOG.

But then there's the oil burning and the headgaskets. What good is a gun-shy hunting dog? What good is a house built on sand?

It's not THAT uncommon for an automaker to buy a shipload of engines from another OEM and stick them in their own cars. If Subaru would bite the bullet and do that, I would buy one for me and one for my wife. The Japanese auto market is so incestuous that it should really take one phone call to get 50,000 Honda or Toyota motors lined up.


Or if they really want a good motor use GM or Chrysler.
 
Originally Posted By: TiredTrucker
I often wonder why there are many examples of turbo failures. I find it hard to believe that turbos for the smaller gas engines are all that much inferior to turbos on a large diesel engines. I took one Cummins motor to 1.4 million miles and it still had original turbo. Same for another Cummins, but I sold it at 930,000 miles. Presently at around 434,000 miles on a current one and still no turbo problem. What are these folks doing to their gassers that are causing them to blow turbos?


I'm no expert on turbos but I cannot imagine there is any similarity between a big truck turbo and a mass market consumer turbo. They are not even in the same league.
 
Originally Posted By: philipp10
I'm no expert on turbos but I cannot imagine there is any similarity between a big truck turbo and a mass market consumer turbo. They are not even in the same league.


What makes you think that a "big truck turbo" is not mass market?
 
Originally Posted By: KrisZ
philipp10 said:
I'm no expert on turbos but I cannot imagine there is any similarity between a big truck turbo and a mass market consumer turbo. They are not even in the same league.


What makes you think that a "big truck turbo" is not mass market?]

Big truck cost 5-10x that of a than typical car, no comparison.
 
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