F150 ecoboost towing

ShinerBock wrote:
OP, there is a bit of misinformation here(which is probably due to some not owning a turbocharged engine) so watch out who you get info from and do a bit of research to verify.

First off, higher octane does make the engine run lean. It only allows the engine to advance timing since the higher octane fuel is more resistant to "pre-detonation". High loads and high temps will generally increase the chances of pre-detonation with regular octane so a premium octane is recommended in these cases.

Secondly, high temps are not only due to it being a small engine. With a turbocharged engine of any size you have to watch your EGTs(Exhaust Gas Temperature). EGT's will shoot up really high when the engine is at low rpm, but a high load/boost on the turbo. As I said this will happen in any size turbocharged engine whether it is your Ecoboost, a 6.7L Cummins, or a 15L Cat/Cummins. The cause is being in to high of a gear in a high load/boost situation. With the amount of torque these engines put out they can pull a hill in a higher gear, but it is not wise to do so for long hills due to the EGTs. Take my 6.7L Cummins for example. Power wise, it will pull 7k up a hill in 6th gear at 1500 rpm doing 70 mph all day long. However, this low rpm and high boost situation causes my EGTs to sky rocket on lomg hills so I drop it down to 5th to around 2000 rpm to keep the EGTs down. This happens with big 18 wheeler diesels as well so it does not matter the engine size and each engine type has its right rpm range to keep its EGTs down.

What probably happen in your case was that it was pulling a hill at too low of a gear which caused your EGTs to go up along with your turbos. Since your turbos are water and oil cooled, this caused your coolant temp to go up as well. The truck nannies probably kicked in to drop you to a lower gear to raise the rpms so your EGTs will drop. With my 2011 Ecoboost, I have an app that tells me my temps. If I am pulling a hill in the 2000-3000 rpm range then I EGTs would start to climb on a long hill. If I dropped it down a gear to pull the hill at 3000-4000rpm then the EGTs always stayed at a safe temp along with the coolant temp.