Disconnecting Active Grill Shutters Ford F150 RaptorExpedition Lincoln Navigator

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Everyone is in agreement that too much heat is bad for the engine and transmission. Another fact most people are in agreement with is every degree above 200 is a worse and worse situation. 180-200 seems to be that sweet spot for the engine. For the Ecoboost engine in particular 190-200 seems to be the best temperature.

However the 2nd generation Ecoboost in particular comes with these active grill shutters designed to keep the engine hot. These are great for cold weather climates like Canada but horrible if its not cold outside. The only purpose of the shutters is for the governments CAFE meaning Ford trys to squeeze out every last bit of MPG they can not caring about reliability.

Therefore if you not in a cold climate I suggest disconnecting the shutters. Its fairly easy. The only hard part is getting out the plastic retainers and I suggest using a specific tool so you dont damage them.

My suggestion is to disconnect the shutters then monitor temperature. If it stays between 190-200 you are fine. However if it pops over 200 then move to either a 180 or 170 degree thermostat. Most owners will do well with the 180 and Motorcraft makes one that will fit. If you order the thermostat for the 2019 Lincoln MKT Livery they will send you a 180 degree which will fit. However those who 1) do a lot of towing or 2) modify or tune the engine or 3) find themselves in a climate over 90 degrees like Arizona or 4) race or track their vehicle will want the 170 degree thermostat. Casual and commuting truck owners will do well with a 180 degree thermostat whereas more aggressive owners who push their truck to extremes will need the 170.

I have the 170 degree thermostat and have disconnected the.shutters but the engine coolant is constantly in the 180s and I suspect it would be ideal if it were to hang in the 190s. Even pushing the vehicle hard in Excite (Sport) mode in 90 degree weather it gets to 198! Never made it over 200! So I think I would be better off with 180 degree thermostat.

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Shutters open as soon as the A/C is turned on. Unless you're torturing yourself by driving around in the heat with the A/C off, disconnecting the shutters does nothing.
 
Originally Posted by Navi
Everyone is in agreement that too much heat is bad for the engine and transmission. Another fact most people are in agreement with is every degree above 200 is a worse and worse situation. 180-200 seems to be that sweet spot for the engine. For the Ecoboost engine in particular 190-200 seems to be the best temperature.


Navi,

From a more technical point of view, cylinder wall temperatures do directly affect wear rates. Boundary layer, Mixed and Hydrodynamic lubrication breaks down under ever higher cylinder wall temperatures. The point at which wear increases seems to be a cylinder wall temperature of 140 deg C. Ultra thin oils can, under high temperatures, create high rates of wear. Some testing shows that under elevated temperatures, an SAE 10 oil has twice the ring wear rate as an SAE 40 oil. As always, oil viscosity at 300F is a valid predictor of ring and cylinder wear.

Today's chrome faced rings, coated pistons, compacted graphite iron cylinder walls and Nikasil bores do reduce wear rates.

The reason I bring all of this up is that your 200 degree number is A) too low, and B) a water temperature number and C) fails to take into account heat transfer rates from the ring pack through the cylinder liner and into the water.

You may not be aware that the top compression ring commonly operates at temperatures as high as 500 degrees F.

I will readily admit that I am not the worlds leading expert on cylinder life and temperature. My manufacturing/testing experience was from many years ago and was related to testing 2nd generation Ford turbocharged engines (and race engines). We knew back then that pushing water temperature to 220 degrees was beneficial to cylinder wear rates. I still believe that part of the reason today's engines last so long are the comparatively higher operating temperatures vs years ago (and faster warm ups) along with the quality of wear parts. And of course, the elimination of the carb.

https://books.google.com/books?id=Z...%20rates%20and%20temperature&f=false
 
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With all of that in mind, a large temperature differential between outlet water and inlet water is also unhelpful. The goal is to have the coolant circulate fast enough to remove heat and to remove just enough heat, without introducing cold water into the engine.
 
Overthinking a problem that's not there imo.
These engines work fine in hot states like Arizona, with stock thermostats.
Better off just going up one or 2 grades of oil if you're concerned about temps.
Any name brand 5W-30 SP would be fine.
Again, imo.
 
Later model Ram 1500 owners have done this shutter mod as well. You have to keep the actuator and position sensor intact or it will throw a code, but you can pop out the louvers.

For Rams, this active grill shutter thing is supposed to make aerodynamics better, increasing fuel economy when they're closed. At least that's how they market it. They don't mention it for warm up or keeping temps hotter.

The only time I'm fiddling with mine is if something jambs up on it.
 
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Those shutters were not on all years of F150 Ecoboost...just the more recent years.

This post from another forum illustrates my point. Basically without shutters you looking at a temperature of about 200 degrees but with them more like 215.

Now if the shutters were so detrimental to operation how come they were not there in the earlier models? My answer is new CAFE requirements and this is how Ford squeezes more mpg out of the engine.

Another question...how come they have a 180 degree thermostat on the 3.7 liter Duratec but a 190 degree 3.5 liter Ecoboost Duratec? I think its because they planned on phasing the 3.7 liter out and so they have the 190 degree stat to squeeze out more mpg.
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How come my 10 speed went out at 70000 miles? Ive had a lot of problems in fact that many earlier model years did not...
 
I will say that those shutters are good for business. Anytime a vehicle with them gets in a front end collision those things break and they are not cheap.
 
Someone who is going to trade in the vehicle long before the engine would wear out in either scenario would be money ahead to keep the mpg, no matter how small.

Lower than stock thermostats are a good example of things that you can buy in a parts store, but should not.
 
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Originally Posted by JTK
Later model Ram 1500 owners have done this shutter mod as well. You have to keep the actuator and position sensor intact or it will throw a code, but you can pop out the louvers.

For Rams, this active grill shutter thing is supposed to make aerodynamics better, increasing fuel economy when they're closed. At least that's how they market it. They don't mention it for warm up or keeping temps hotter.

The only time I'm fiddling with mine is if something jambs up on it.


Our RAM has the fastest warm-up of any vehicle we've ever owned by a massive margin. I expect the shutters have a significant role in that. I can't see any reason to delete them?
 
Originally Posted by mk378
Someone who is going to trade in the vehicle long before the engine would wear out in either scenario would be money ahead to keep the mpg, no matter how small.

Lower than stock thermostats are a good example of things that you can buy in a parts store, but should not.


Yeah, on a computer controlled EFI engine a lower temp thermostat is bad news.
 
Originally Posted by Navi


Another question...how come they have a 180 degree thermostat on the 3.7 liter Duratec but a 190 degree 3.5 liter Ecoboost Duratec? I think its because they planned on phasing the 3.7 liter out and so they have the 190 degree stat to squeeze out more mpg.


Thermostat effectiveness varies from engine to engine. On some cars the neck "sticks out further", for lack of a better term, from "the core" of the engine which is what they really care about, temp-wise.

So if their target temp by the water jackets is 210 degrees, and under average circulation, heat rejection, ambient air temps they need a 180 degree stat to get it, that's what they'll use. And if a different motor needs 190, it, too, will get what it needs.

This is why we're seeing a movement to electric water pumps, active thermostats, and other goodies. Because the technology is becoming available... because it's desired.
 
IIRC you have an extended warranty on the SUV, which you have had a lot of use of.
There may be a scenario where you have an engine issue, the homemade fixes you installed are reasons for voiding the warranty claim.
Car computers have become quite sophisticated and track many parameters.

As a side note, spoke with some Ford engineers at their launch of the 6.0L PSD at the Alabama plant where it was made, was probably 2003.
I asked about diesel tunes and their thoughts on them.
They said they bought every tune on the market to see what effect it had on their engine.

Just so they could deny warranty.
 
While I might elect to remove the shutters should they fail one day, leaving me with a questionable replacement cost, today my f150 bests the "other" car, a v6 sedan, by 3mpg average. I'll have my 3 mpg, please and thank you. Great job, Ford.
 
Disabling the shutters...changing thermostat has been going on now since they put them into the vehicles. I found a thread dated 2014 talking about the 170 degree thermostat.

Reische offers a lot of information on their 170 degree thermostat.

https://reischeperformance.com/WhyLowTemp.html
 
Originally Posted by OVERKILL
Originally Posted by JTK
Later model Ram 1500 owners have done this shutter mod as well. You have to keep the actuator and position sensor intact or it will throw a code, but you can pop out the louvers.

For Rams, this active grill shutter thing is supposed to make aerodynamics better, increasing fuel economy when they're closed. At least that's how they market it. They don't mention it for warm up or keeping temps hotter.

The only time I'm fiddling with mine is if something jambs up on it.


Our RAM has the fastest warm-up of any vehicle we've ever owned by a massive margin. I expect the shutters have a significant role in that. I can't see any reason to delete them?


I love how quickly it warms up. When it's hot out I haven't seen mine closed, even if I have the AC off. That being said, if they do break sometime in the future, I'll pop the louvers out and keep the rest of the system intact just to keep the CEL off.
 
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