2011 F-150 Ecoboost timing chain replacement

[14Accent]

Originally Posted By: turtlevette
Originally Posted By: 14Accent
Scratch that. She's up and running! It fired right up and settled into a sweet idle with almost no clatter at all.

One more test drive tomorrow and she'll be ready to deliver. I'm ready to move on!


How much if you don't mind.



All told I believe it came to around $2,200.

Originally Posted By: meep
very nice work. engine looks great inside too. Do you think the new chain guides will last any longer or will they wear quickly too?


Actually, the guides looked brand new. I didn't see any gouging or degradation, but 2 of them were a different design as was the tensioner.

 

[SOHCman]

I can't believe that massive, what, 5 row timing chain stretched!? Or was it the little single row chain closer to the cams? On the old Toyota 22R pickup people would change out the single row timing chain with a double row because the single row would stretch and rattle around 150K miles, but this ecoboost has a massive chain from the get-go.

Thanks for the pics!

 

[14Accent]

Originally Posted By: SOHCman
I can't believe that massive, what, 5 row timing chain stretched!? Or was it the little single row chain closer to the cams? On the old Toyota 22R pickup people would change out the single row timing chain with a double row because the single row would stretch and rattle around 150K miles, but this ecoboost has a massive chain from the get-go.

Thanks for the pics!


It's actually a 4 row chain. The two outer rows run against the center idler pulley you can see, and the inner rows are driven by the crank and drive the cams. It's a very beefy chain!

 

[supton]

Question: Did it get some oil that wasn't holding up well early life? Or does the plunger on this move "a lot" when the engine is running? I'm wondering why the varnished part is way out. Seems to me (and this is pure conjecture) that initial oils were leaving varnish behind, later oil was not--but that later oil wasn't kind to the chain. Or is there another explanation for the coloring?

Originally Posted By: 14Accent

 

[CR94]

Any information from the owner as to oils used in the engine and change intervals? Is the single-row chain "stretched" too?

 

[14Accent]

Originally Posted By: supton
Question: Did it get some oil that wasn't holding up well early life? Or does the plunger on this move "a lot" when the engine is running? I'm wondering why the varnished part is way out. Seems to me (and this is pure conjecture) that initial oils were leaving varnish behind, later oil was not--but that later oil wasn't kind to the chain. Or is there another explanation for the coloring?

Originally Posted By: 14Accent





My theory is that the varnish indicates the "installed" position when the engine was new. As the chain stretched, it moved the plunger out farther and farther but the engine caught the stretch before the tensioner rod had a chance to varnish at all. To me, that means the chain stretched much faster than the oil varnished.

 

[14Accent]

Originally Posted By: CR94
Any information from the owner as to oils used in the engine and change intervals? Is the single-row chain "stretched" too?


As far as I know, the owner just uses a syn-blend 5W30. I believe our house brand is Total, with a jobber filter. Nothing fancy.

 

[CarbonSteel]

Originally Posted By: 14Accent
Originally Posted By: CR94
Any information from the owner as to oils used in the engine and change intervals? Is the single-row chain "stretched" too?
As far as I know, the owner just uses a syn-blend 5W30. I believe our house brand is Total, with a jobber filter. Nothing fancy.
Lots of varnish for only 70K; I would stick with synthetics and medium OCIs unless the owner enjoys paying $2200 for that 70K service interval.

 

[itguy08]

Last theory that was floating around the F150 boards was that there was some debris in the blocks that would gum up the VVT and cause them to stretch the chain in short order. Some have just replaced the chains only to have the rattle back in short order too - you almost have to do the whole thing for a long lasting repair. Seems to be hit or miss - some get the rattle and run forever and some get the rattle and it throws the codes off. IIRC Ford has updated all the parts starting in 13 or 14 MY.

This thread has the latest TSB for those interested: https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1495602-tsb-15-0131-timing-belt-and-phasers.html Only real difference is that TSB references the rattle but if the CEL is on it's been rattling for a while.

 

[UncleDave]

Been following these trucks since they came out and the chain stretch seems to be a combo of things......

Lots and lots of chains and sprockets/ very thin oil/ a high pressure DI pump squeezing said oil/ very high mile long OC's baked into the maintenance minder/ a very high capability truck

add all these together and you have lots of particles going through these chains at every bend under tremendous pressure and load and staying in the sump a long time creating secondary wear.

The BITOG battle cry of following the minder and using the marginal factory stuff yielding " forever lifespans" simply doesn't apply to hard-working vehicles like loaded up half ton trucks.


Better oil, better filters, sane OCIs, and magnets where you can get them pulling iron away from your chains is only going to help and over the long haul will actually make a difference.

UD

 

[itguy08]

Originally Posted By: UncleDave


Been following these trucks since they came out and the chain stretch seems to be a combo of things......

Lots and lots of chains and sprockets/ very thin oil/ a high pressure DI pump squeezing said oil/ very high mile long OC's baked into the maintenance minder/ a very high capability truck

add all these together and you have lots of particles going through these chains at every bend under tremendous pressure and load and staying in the sump a long time creating secondary wear.

The BITOG battle cry of following the minder and using the marginal factory stuff yielding " forever lifespans" simply doesn't apply to hard-working vehicles like loaded up half ton trucks.


Better oil, better filters, sane OCIs, and magnets where you can get them pulling iron away from your chains is only going to help and over the long haul will actually make a difference.


Owning 2 EB 3.5's I've also been following them quite close as well. I don't think it's too thin of an oil. The F150's EB 3.5 has spec'ed 5w30 since it came out in 2011. The only EB 3.5 that said 5w20 was the 2010 SHO and MKS. They got 5w30 caps and reccomendations in 2011. Theory was that they standardized on 5w30 because of the F150 not because of any problems. My 125k SHO has had a pretty steady diet of 5w20 and it's fine - it will rattle sometimes on startup but no codes and runs great.

From what I remember on the F150 forums there was no real correlation between use and chain issues. Some guys did 5k on synthetic and had the rattle and others beat the you know what out of them on dino and 10k and no issues. Seemed to me that the debris issue messing the VCT made the most sense.

On the SHO I'm doing my own OC's now (since 80k) so it's synthetic and a Fram Ultra every other OLM interval (7500 miles). On the F150 I'm OLM or 6 months with synthetic and a Fram Ultra every other change. I figure the additional filtering will help a lot.

 

[CR94]

Originally Posted By: itguy08
... On the F150 I'm OLM or 6 months with synthetic and a Fram Ultra every other change. ...
What can you see caught in the filters when they come off?

 

[meep]

this thread will have me changing oil in mine before the OLM hits. 7500 with full syn I suspect will be my regimin. '18 2.7 EB with seasonal towing.

 

[UncleDave]

The 20 in the first year of the truck was to thin.

20 in autos is fine, they are under little load comparatively.

The 30 in subsequent years was fine but the sump is challenged with very high OCI's combined with fuel dilution and very tight subsystems add in the giant chain subsystems and high pressure DI pump adding substantive load and you have a whole lot of oil shearing and secondary particle generation in a rig like that.

One could do nothing, or they could -

Oil it with higher quality oil
Filter the oil better..
Dump it sooner
Pull out whatever you can with a mag - whatever you can keep out of those chain pin bushings and vvt assembly means something
Or possibly do all 3 to protect that chain, DI pump, and VVt system as clean as best you can.


Uncle Dave

 

[itguy08]

Originally Posted By: CR94
Originally Posted By: itguy08
... On the F150 I'm OLM or 6 months with synthetic and a Fram Ultra every other change. ...
What can you see caught in the filters when they come off?


Not sure - I don't cut them open. I just send them off to Walmart with the oil to be recycled. But I figure the better the filter the better it is for the engine.

 

[itguy08]

Originally Posted By: UncleDave
The 20 in the first year of the truck was to thin.


They NEVER Specc'ed 5w20 in the F150's Ecoboost 3.5. It was always 5w30 when the engine started going in the 2011's. I've got one sitting in the driveway and it's 5w30.

The first year of the EB in the 2010 cars had 5w20 and by 2011 it was changed to 5w30 too. No explanation from Ford, no TSB stating it was fine, no engine changes. Doesn't seem to bother them too much.

As with you I drop the oil early and use a good fileter. So far in 88k the chains are still noise free and it does get worked towing our camper.

 

[UncleDave]

It's not just the varnish -

A quick look below and behind the tensioner shows a bunch of buildup- something went too far.



UD

 

[UncleDave]

This one had 20 on the oil cap. Didn't go through the manual but checked it several times with the owner.

We were all surprised and delighted when it showed up in our group- wish Id have taken a shot of it.

I was able to put several thousand towing miles on it.

UD

 

[itguy08]

Originally Posted By: UncleDave
This one had 20 on the oil cap. Didn't go through the manual but checked it several times with the owner.

We were all surprised and delighted when it showed up in our group- wish Id have taken a shot of it.

I was able to put several thousand towing miles on it.


I don't doubt you but that is odd as the Ecoboosts in the F150's have hiistorically been the only engines that used 5w30. Was it an 18? I'm wondering if they changed the oil recommendation with the new engine.

 

[UncleDave]

Originally Posted By: itguy08
Originally Posted By: UncleDave
This one had 20 on the oil cap. Didn't go through the manual but checked it several times with the owner.

We were all surprised and delighted when it showed up in our group- wish Id have taken a shot of it.

I was able to put several thousand towing miles on it.


I don't doubt you but that is odd as the Ecoboosts in the F150's have hiistorically been the only engines that used 5w30. Was it an 18? I'm wondering if they changed the oil recommendation with the new engine.


It was a first year truck. My buddy had it for 60Kish and upgraded to an F250 diesel.

This was a 3:73 max tow truck/Pretty awesome truck - best half ton tower ever period.

My other buddy had a 3:55 bench set truck that had 30 on the cap.

Kinda bizzare.

UD