Blown 2.7L Ecoboost Engines -TSB, What Root Cause?

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This is a serious weird issue.

Anybody know what's going wrong with the cylinders and/or rings? Thermal warping (uneven cooling) maybe? Metallurgy problem?

Wow, that smoking TSB should be a full-blown recall, but I guess people will bring it in if symptoms are there (disturbing symptoms!) and your Ford dealership is sharp enough to know the TSB exists. Many times service writers don't even know there is a TSB in the large sea of TSB's they have.
Here is a summary of the text from the TSB:
FORD:
2016 F-150
ISSUE
Some 2016 F-150 vehicles equipped with a 2.7L gasoline turbocharged direct injection (GTDI) engine and built on 1-
Apr-2016 and through 1-Oct-2016 may exhibit white or blue smoke from the exhaust, rough idle in neutral or park at
normal operating temperature or after a hot restart. The vehicle may also exhibit diagnostic trouble code (DTC) P0300,
P0301, P0302, P0303, P0304, P0305, P0306, P0316, P0524 and/or P06DD with the excessive oil consumption. Oil
consumption may be 1 Liter (1 quart) in less than 4,800 km (3,000 miles).
ACTION
Follow the Service Procedure steps to correct the condition.
SERVICE PROCEDURE
1. Connect the Ford Integrated Diagnostic System (IDS) service tool or equivalent scan tool to the data link connector
(DLC). Check for DTC P0524 and/or P06DD with any misfire codes stored in the powertrain control module (PCM)
memory?
a. Yes - replace the engine long block assembly. Refer to Workshop Manual (WSM), Section 303-01.
b. No - replace the cylinder heads. Refer to WSM, Section 303-01.


--------------

"I bought my new F150 XL Supercab 2.7 Ecoboost on November 12, 2016. Truck went through 3 quarts of oil before its 5,000 mile service. My dealer said that was normal for these high tolerance, high performance engines. I asked if the white/blue smoke was normal also and was told they hadn't heard anything about that, to which I said I must have the first one. My 5,000 mile service was on April 15, 2017 with 4,966 miles on the truck. " -- https://www.fordf150.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=123809

Its amazing what I've heard dealers tell people over the last 30 years. I'm no longer surprised, yet always disgusted. These are car people saying stuff like this. Grown adults. Just wow.
 
You expect car companies to tell the truth? That would make them liable,and open to lawsuits,and lemon law buyouts.Dont want to get lied to,dont buy a new vehicle.If it can make it to 60-80K without falling apart,it might make it another 60-80K.Buy new and maybe have it blow up by 30K.....
 
I just found this: "dealt with engioneering hotline on one at work, they stated failing valve guides. oil pressure concerns are due to the oil level dropping enough to start to starve the pump of oil.
original TSB we replaced with a longblock if there was any sigs of oil pressure codes stored. now with the new TSB we have to fill oil and test oil pressure if the codes are there. if it passes you just get heads"
-- from a f150 forum https://www.f150forum.com/f118/2016-17-f...-2077-a-381323/ if you want to read a million posts

So I guess the valve guides go first (bad metal hardening maybe in there), then oil level drops, which could starve the rings of oil pump flow, then you get the ruined cylinders/rings blowing more oil out the exhaust.

More info may be forthcoming.
 
FWIW it isn't the service writer's job to look up TSBs. When the technician hooks up the IDS and the vehicle info is loaded, any applicable TSBs will be presented. Service writer is just there to take your order and tell you the status when requested.
 
By reading the TSB and the F-150 Forum, this is what I THINK MAY BE happening. The heads are using oil, either through defective guides or seals. In some cases it happens so fast, the lower end gets screwed from lack of oil. The lack of oil is screwing with the VVT, which causes rough idle.
What I can't figure is how this happens so fast. I can't imagine ALL of the guides or seals failing at once.
 
Sounds a lot like the Pentastar cylinder head debacle FCA can't seem to figure out and certainly won't release any info on.

FYI: a recall is only issued if the defect or problem is deemed so bad it endangers the driver's life or could cause serious injury to them or their passengers.

So while things like this and the Pentastar cylinder head issue and the 90's Chevy transmission circuit board f-ups should all have been identified by the car makers when they realized there was a serious problem, and then promptly fixed free of charge, that is just not ever going to happen if they are forced to handle it that way. And they are only forced to handle things that way when there is an official recall.

otherwise, the car makers are perfectly happy to put out these vague TSBs for problems known only to them at first, and then by their techs as the scuttlebutt spreads and the TSBs are deciphered.

Not wanting to accidently give the public any useful details about what's going on or how to avoid it, you can bet your last dollar the car makers will then set about choking off any other sources of information regarding the issues in question.

Oh sure, they'll issue a statement maybe if the public get's riled up, but you can bet it will be released on a Friday where everybody will miss it anyway or forget about it by the following Monday. And they will dang sure have their crafty department of psychopaths in the marketing dept. draft any released statement in such a way so that it says the absolute least and offers no inkling about what is going on or how to keep it from happening. While at the same time making it sound like they truly care about their customers.

That's a bunch of BEE ESS!!!

It sux, but it's the way things are...and likely always will be.
 
Originally Posted By: bigj_16
By reading the TSB and the F-150 Forum, this is what I THINK MAY BE happening. The heads are using oil, either through defective guides or seals. In some cases it happens so fast, the lower end gets screwed from lack of oil. The lack of oil is screwing with the VVT, which causes rough idle.
What I can't figure is how this happens so fast. I can't imagine ALL of the guides or seals failing at once.


Referencing my last post in this thread - The failing heads on the Pentastars all fail due to misfires caused by bad valve seats IIRC. And the underlying culprit is apparently a casting problem. But the thing is, they've gone through several iterations of head castings, and it's still occurring. They also won't tell anyone what causes the failure to happen in one head but not another. And they won't tell anyone any tips to keep it from occurring in their own vehicles.

I'm not saying these two problems are identical, but there are certain aspects to both that make me think there are other similar aspects to these cases.

- they don't have a true, 100% identified cause for the bad parts; and therefore they don't know exactly what needs to be fixed.
- if they do know what needs to be fixed, they don't know how it is getting "broken" and thus do not know how to go about preventing it from happening in the first place.
- they are deathly afraid of the general public (those who are customers or potential customers) getting wind of the story for fear it will crater that segment of their sales (social media wildfire, etc.)

Who knows, it will certainly be interesting to learn what is finally fingered as the culprit in this one, if anything ever is...
 
What drew my attention to this was I drove to school one day(28 miles, mainly highway). Had about 1500 miles on the truck. Nice day, 70 degrees. I parked about 9:30 a.m. Very dry, had not rained for weeks. When I came back about 2.5 hours later, on start up I noticed blue smoke. I literally thought it was someone beside me. It was a fairly big cloud. Then I noticed none of the cars around me had anyone in them, and that the smoke was coming from me. Then I read the TSB thread on the F-150 forum. My wife's truck did it later with about 3k miles. It had set all week in the garage. Neither has had any real consumption, except mine on the road trip, which was 2800 miles at 80-85. It used a quart or so, which isn't out of the ordinary for those conditions.
 
Love this statement from an F150 forum (very revealing):
"This is from the service procedure provided to me:
When the heads are examined the valve guides are being measured and inspected for a wear pattern that "is typically shaped like an hour glass". An hour glass wear pattern would be caused by the valve ~sort of~ "pivoting" or "rocking" in the guide. The guides are not serviceable so the heads must be replaced."
 
Originally Posted By: The_Nuke
FYI: a recall is only issued if the defect or problem is deemed so bad it endangers the driver's life or could cause serious injury to them or their passengers

I've seen full recalls, not just TSBs, as a "Customer Satisfaction" recall. My 2016 Ford Focus Electric has one of those free upgrades. Not an actual breaking part, but an upgrade, and they mailed out Recall Notices. Not an NHTSA recall to be sure (just a modem upgrade for the Focus).

To be fair to Ford, they only want people to come in for repairs, under warranty, if they actually see a problem with their 2.7L ecoboost.
We could argue that Ford should send letters out to ALL 2.7L ecoboost owners to "be on the lookout for oil consumption and/or smoke" issues.
Yet that would be alarmist and maybe unnecessarily malign their machine quality, they feel!!!
 
I've seen so many problems over the last few years (recalls, failing parts) because improper or no carbonitriding or other metal hardening techniques.
Timing chains, and I have a current differential spider gear shaft Ford recall pending for my car.
This has got to be an RCA (root cause anlysis) pointing to an uneducated factory worker and/or Quality Process Control asleep at the parts supplier factory for those valve stems or guides.
 
Originally Posted By: oil_film_movies
I've seen so many problems over the last few years (recalls, failing parts) because improper or no carbonitriding or other metal hardening techniques.
Timing chains, and I have a current differential spider gear shaft Ford recall pending for my car.
This has got to be an RCA (root cause anlysis) pointing to an uneducated factory worker and/or Quality Process Control asleep at the parts supplier factory for those valve stems or guides.

A lot of this originates in China. If the company's Q/A guys don't sit on top of the factory, they will substitute inferior metals or skip steps. You can get good stuff out of China, metal wise, but it's a [censored] shoot.
 
That sucks people paying a lot of coin for these trucks and there's been a lot of problems with ecoboost V6's
I hope Ford find a solution quick
 
Originally Posted By: Ram02
That sucks people paying a lot of coin for these trucks and there's been a lot of problems with ecoboost V6's
I hope Ford find a solution quick
Ummm, Ford could buy & install GM pushrod V8's in their pickup trucks instead....
27.gif
 
Originally Posted By: oil_film_movies
Originally Posted By: Ram02
That sucks people paying a lot of coin for these trucks and there's been a lot of problems with ecoboost V6's
I hope Ford find a solution quick
Ummm, Ford could buy & install GM pushrod V8's in their pickup trucks instead....
27.gif



Good one, the ford/chevy jabs will go on forever just like Michigan/Ohio. I think the real fix is to just get to Ford 5.0 Naturally aspirated V8 to begin with.
 
Ford is forgetting bread and butter engines.

I would only buy the coyote v8 or naturally aspirated v6.

Luckily i am set for life with my old expe.

I am sorry to hear this for op.
 
Originally Posted By: oil_film_movies
Love this statement from an F150 forum (very revealing):
"This is from the service procedure provided to me:
When the heads are examined the valve guides are being measured and inspected for a wear pattern that "is typically shaped like an hour glass". An hour glass wear pattern would be caused by the valve ~sort of~ "pivoting" or "rocking" in the guide. The guides are not serviceable so the heads must be replaced."



Good info.
Hate to be so cynical towards Ford but of course it's gotta be one of the parts of this engine that was their sole responsibility- the gasoline heads. It's not an issue with the diesel variants in other markets.

That non-serviceable valve guide thing reeks of an econo move too- saves a bit on manufacturing? Sometimes being cheap ends up costing the most. I wonder what changes were made post October 2016 and if they are effective- would be nice if they went back to normal, serviceable valve guides made of a more common alloy. I guess we'll wait and see what pops up, but a wear-related failure at such low miles is alarming, even the classic Mitsubishi 6G72 with it's slipping valve guide issues lasted longer
 
They spent so much on the bottom end with its six bolt mains, forged components and etc maybe they shouldve sprung for press in bronze valve guides on the top end too.
 
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