Over the years, automotive technician and the man behind the YouTube channel FordTechMakuloco, Brian Makuloco, has covered all sorts of Ford-related issues he's come across while working on customer vehicles. Many of those issues pertain to the EcoBoost family of engines, as certain generations and iterations of those powerplants are known to have potentially fatal flaws, particularly when they're not maintained properly. That was recently the case with this Ford F-150 that rolled into Makuloco's shop, too.
This particular 2011 Ford F-150 is powered by the first-generation, twin turbocharged 3.5L V6 EcoBoost engine, but sadly, it's one of three that arrived in Makuloco's shop in the span of one week in a failed state. This particular engine failed due to chain stretch issues, though the owner just continued to drive it, regardless. Eventually, the chain stretch got so bad and the RPMs were so high that contact occurred, there's zero compression, and all the valves are stuck open.
This engine had around 147k miles on it when this happened, though chain stretch is quite a common problem with these first-generation 3.5L V6 EcoBoost engines. In this case, as Makuloco points out, the owner could have saved it by bringing his truck in when it started displaying error codes, rather than just pressing on until it completely let loose. Generally, the first-generation versions of this powerplant are quite reliable, so in this case at least, we can attribute its premature demise to owner neglect.
Thus, this Ford F-150 owner learned a very expensive lesson, either because they didn't quite have the finances lined up to take it to the shop previously, or perhaps they just didn't heed the warning signs that things were about to go very badly. Luckily, this can now serve as a proper warning for others, and perhaps save them from making the same mistake - after all, it's much cheaper to replace a chain than an entire engine.
No Comments yet