Tech Has Three Ford F-150 3.5L V6 EcoBoost Trucks To Fix: Video

Ford technician and man behind the YouTube channel FordTechMakuloco, Brian Makuloco, has churned out his fair share of interesting and informative videos pertaining to common issues with a wide berth of Blue Oval models and specific powerplants over the years – many of them addressing the EcoBoost family, specifically. This includes the twin turbocharged 3.5L V6 EcoBoost, which he has become quite familiar with due to the fact that quite a few of them experience issues and wind up on his doorstep in need of repair. Now, there are three Ford F-150 pickups with failed 3.5L EcoBoosts at that particular location.

All three of these 3.5L EcoBoost-powered Ford F-150 pickups are in need of a new engine, and all are from a different model year – 2011, 2015, and 2017 – each with no compression in spite of having relatively few miles on the clock, save for the newer model, which has a second-generation version of this particular powerplant. The newer Ford F-150 is also consuming coolant at an alarming rate, billowing out white smoke while it runs.

Makuloco notes that the second-generation 3.5 tends to experience this problem after 200k miles, which serves as a bit of a warning to folks that are in the market for one of these models. He doesn’t go into detail regarding what’s causing these issues in this particular video, but Makuloco has covered that information in some prior clips, at least.

 

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These problems are often caused by the need for a timing job, though he’s also seen at least one “freak accident” where a piston exploded and caused a total engine failure, too. Otherwise, the most common causes of 3.5L EcoBoost failure pertain to the phasers, which can rattle upon startup until oil pressure improves and locks them in place, the tensioner arms and guides, intake gaskets, oil pump gasket, oil ring, one-time use bolts, and the thermostat housing bypass gasket, as well as sticky solenoids, the high-pressure line, and molded connection hoses – in addition to roller followers in second-gen engines.