F-150 Ecoboost Milestone

Been an avid Chevy truck man for a very long time "37yrs" and currently looking hard at the EB. Yup...just might :)

Turtle n Peeps wrote:

...
The EB already has an exhaust brake; it just on the other end of things. It's called a throttle plate. :)

Well, I'm admittedly a dummy about these things. All I know is that some diesels have a switch that allows you to activate an "exhaust brake" which I *think* increases the exhaust back pressure by throwing a valve downstream of the turbo. Or maybe the turbo vanes are moved somehow.

Anyway, as I understand it, an exhaust brake on Diesels has more to do with the turbo part than the diesel part. So why not on the Ecoboost? Sure could use it. Or maybe somebody has already come up with a mod ??

brulaz wrote:
Jake brakes are a bit complicated and noisy for my tastes. But maybe an exhaust brake downstream of the turbo would help the Ecoboost. Dunno much about them though.

Not that worried about tranny heat as it's locked in gear, not using the converter where most of the heat gets generated.

The EB already has an exhaust brake; it just on the other end of things. It's called a throttle plate. :)

pappcam wrote:

...
Did you have Tow/Haul mode on? I had my combo below in the Black Hills of SD and I had no problems on long inclines or declines. The tranny should be slowing the truck down in Tow/Haul mode and you shouldn't need to be on the brakes constantly.

Tow/haul? Not good enough. I had it Manual, 2nd gear.

Like I said, it ran up to 40mph in 2nd between the 20mph hairpin turns. And I needed the brakes to get it back down to 20 mph. 1st was too low, would red-line at 20mph. My foot was never near the throttle,

Again, like I said, not all hills are the same. I'm told the average percent slope on this one is only 5%, but it's narrow (35 mph max) with many 20 mph hairpins.

brulaz wrote:

Tystevens wrote:

parkersdad wrote:
It's funny how everybody sees things different. My buddy pulled to the campground last weekend in the mountains and said the eco boost motor did fine until he was coming down the mountain. He needs a bigger truck. He is searching as we speak. Also he is only pulling about 6800 pounds. I guess it's all where you live. If you're in the mountains all the time the eco-boost will not cut it as far as breaking goes. My wife and I mostly go to the mountains and tow about 10,000 pounds. I will stick to diesel myself. Enjoy whatever you have.

Hmmm ... I suppose you could say we have mountains here in Utah. Just about every trip we take is necessarily in the mountains. Of course, it is all subjective, but my EB does fine coming down the hills IMO. I mean, last weekend we were coming down a 7-8% grade at freeway speeds, and I didn't have to do anything but tap the brake pedal a couple times. True, the braking isn't as good as a bigger displacement -- the EB needed to shift down to 3rd gear as opposed to 4th like other rigs I've had -- but it seemed to do fine for me.

Depends upon the hills I think. We had some trouble coming down a 5% average grade (West side of Newfound Gap in Great Smoky Mountain National Park). Small windy road, 35mph max. Many, many hairpin 20mph turns. Truck was in 2nd, would wind up to 40mph between those hairpin turns if I didn't brake it back to 20mph.

Half way down you could smell the truck's brakes. Started using the trailer brakes manually to relieve the truck brakes. Think the trailer drum brakes had expanded so much from the heat that they had lost some of their effectiveness. Other than the stink, the truck brakes kept on working.

Never had a problem before, and never on major highways out west. Only this one hill. Pretty sure a bigger V8 or diesel would have had more engine braking in 2nd. The Ecoboost ran us up that same hill as fast as we could go, without any issues at all. And with another gear between 1st and 2nd it would have been fine I think. Understand Ford is working on a new tranny with more gears. The EcoB could use it for this reason if nothing else.

Did you have Tow/Haul mode on? I had my combo below in the Black Hills of SD and I had no problems on long inclines or declines. The tranny should be slowing the truck down in Tow/Haul mode and you shouldn't need to be on the brakes constantly.

Jake brakes are a bit complicated and noisy for my tastes. But maybe an exhaust brake downstream of the turbo would help the Ecoboost. Dunno much about them though.

Not that worried about tranny heat as it's locked in gear, not using the converter where most of the heat gets generated.

Also with the diesel you have a Jake break. We came down out of Boone North Carolina last weekend and didn't have to touch anything but the gas pedal to get going again. The Jake brake slowed me down so much I had to keep getting into the gas to get going. The point I am trying to make is I would rather not use my transmission all. I like the airbrake to keep my transmission nice and cool

Tystevens wrote:

parkersdad wrote:
It's funny how everybody sees things different. My buddy pulled to the campground last weekend in the mountains and said the eco boost motor did fine until he was coming down the mountain. He needs a bigger truck. He is searching as we speak. Also he is only pulling about 6800 pounds. I guess it's all where you live. If you're in the mountains all the time the eco-boost will not cut it as far as breaking goes. My wife and I mostly go to the mountains and tow about 10,000 pounds. I will stick to diesel myself. Enjoy whatever you have.

Hmmm ... I suppose you could say we have mountains here in Utah. Just about every trip we take is necessarily in the mountains. Of course, it is all subjective, but my EB does fine coming down the hills IMO. I mean, last weekend we were coming down a 7-8% grade at freeway speeds, and I didn't have to do anything but tap the brake pedal a couple times. True, the braking isn't as good as a bigger displacement -- the EB needed to shift down to 3rd gear as opposed to 4th like other rigs I've had -- but it seemed to do fine for me.

Depends upon the hills I think. We had some trouble coming down a 5% average grade (West side of Newfound Gap in Great Smoky Mountain National Park). Small windy road, 35mph max. Many, many hairpin 20mph turns. Truck was in 2nd, would wind up to 40mph between those hairpin turns if I didn't brake it back to 20mph.

Half way down you could smell the truck's brakes. Started using the trailer brakes manually to relieve the truck brakes. Think the trailer drum brakes had expanded so much from the heat that they had lost some of their effectiveness. Other than the stink, the truck brakes kept on working.

Never had a problem before, and never on major highways out west. Only this one hill. Pretty sure a bigger V8 or diesel would have had more engine braking in 2nd. The Ecoboost ran us up that same hill as fast as we could go, without any issues at all. And with another gear between 1st and 2nd it would have been fine I think. Understand Ford is working on a new tranny with more gears. The EcoB could use it for this reason if nothing else.

parkersdad wrote:
It's funny how everybody sees things different. My buddy pulled to the campground last weekend in the mountains and said the eco boost motor did fine until he was coming down the mountain. He needs a bigger truck. He is searching as we speak. Also he is only pulling about 6800 pounds. I guess it's all where you live. If you're in the mountains all the time the eco-boost will not cut it as far as breaking goes. My wife and I mostly go to the mountains and tow about 10,000 pounds. I will stick to diesel myself. Enjoy whatever you have.

Hmmm ... I suppose you could say we have mountains here in Utah. Just about every trip we take is necessarily in the mountains. Of course, it is all subjective, but my EB does fine coming down the hills IMO. I mean, last weekend we were coming down a 7-8% grade at freeway speeds, and I didn't have to do anything but tap the brake pedal a couple times. True, the braking isn't as good as a bigger displacement -- the EB needed to shift down to 3rd gear as opposed to 4th like other rigs I've had -- but it seemed to do fine for me.

Kevin O. wrote:

parkersdad wrote:

Perrysburg Dodgeboy wrote:

Fordlover wrote:
link to story

"Ford introduced the F150 with the high tech EcoBoost V6 engine for the 2011 model year with quite a bit of skepticism, but those naysayers have been proven to be very, very wrong as the Motor Company has sold more than a half million F150 pickups powered by the EcoBoost V6 in just over three years"

500,000 Eco F-150's in ~3 years, impressive.

I have said it before, Ford hit it out of the park with the EB. They did have some issues at first and their mileage is no where near what they stated . But they are holding up and for a V-6 in a truck doing towing, that is impressive.

Don

I agree but I do think it is crazy to here people say it pulls like a diesel. Let's not get crazy. We are talking a minivan motor with a turbo versus a real big displacement diesel pulling machine.

The only reason why people say it tows like a diesel is because it reaches max torque at 2500rpms . When towing 7500lbs i never see anything higher than 2700rpms on the steepest hills to maintain the speed limit.

Just for the record a minivan motor doesn't come with 6 bolt main caps with forged internals.... ;)

Yep, the towing experience is similar to towing with a diesel. Obviously, in no way is it a direct competitor for the 6+ liter diesels in 3/4 and 1 ton trucks.

But when towing w/in its ratings, the Ecoboost is "diesel-like" in that it makes its torque way down low, is able to hold high gears, and doesn't go screaming toward the redline every time a hill approaches.