A look under the covers of a 110k mile 2.3 EcoBoost engine

Hey hey!

My car has been modded since about 500mi on its clock and serviced with mostly Pennzoil synthetic oil at about 3-5k intervals.

I'm pretty happy with the condition! I also had the oil pan off to remove the balance shaft assembly when I did the flywheel and clutch, and the bottom end looked just as spotless.

I had the intake manifold off not too long ago to do a mild, aka ziptie band with a can of crc gdi solution, carbon cleaning and the valves weren't too badly coated. I do run the URP dual catch can, but only for about half the mileage. Before that the oil used to pool up in the intake manifold fairly often, but that is probably due to the high flow downpipe.

Just wanted to share my results with the group.

The maintenance of the vehicle for a short distance will definitely keep the engine in good condition

I wonder how my engines look because I do 15k intervals lol. glad to see yours is wearing greatly

FreePenguin said:

I wonder how my engines look because I do 15k intervals lol. glad to see yours is wearing greatly

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Looks great! Oil changes do help!

One suggestion from when I had my BMW 4 cyl engine serviced at 96,000 miles. The nylon timing gear belt guides were ready to break-they installed new ones and covered a percentage of the cost.

I would check your nylon belt guides and replace now so they don't break and jam up your bottom gear sprocket. This has been a real problem with pre-2015 BMW 4 cyl engines. Mine was caught just in time.

"Your mileage may vary"

CVCashmere

FreePenguin said:

I wonder how my engines look because I do 15k intervals lol. glad to see yours is wearing greatly

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The LS motor in my Tahoe had a lifter tick at 125k So I replaced some lifters. Used a popular synthetic/ blend. No varnish. I was surprised at how extremely clean it was inside.

Could have just been the oil change intervals I used.

Other motors that I used conventional motor oil did have some varnish.



(NO OIL CHALLENGES PLEASE) Not trying to start something. Life's too short.

Thanks for the heads up. I'm the type to change parts just to freshen things up, but this was an impromptu timing cover removal while I was working on swapping the crankshaft balancer and needed the car back on the road the next day. The job required a new friction washer, of which I only learned after removing the balancer, and that's burried inside the cover. I got to fix the infamous timing cover oil leaks while I was at it.

CVCashmere said:

Looks great! Oil changes do help!

One suggestion from when I had my BMW 4 cyl engine serviced at 96,000 miles. The nylon timing gear belt guides were ready to break-they installed new ones and covered a percentage of the cost.

I would check your nylon belt guides and replace now so they don't break and jam up your bottom gear sprocket. This has been a real problem with pre-2015 BMW 4 cyl engines. Mine was caught just in time.

"Your mileage may vary"

CVCashmere

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CustomS550 said:

Hey hey!

My car has been modded since about 500mi on its clock and serviced with mostly Pennzoil synthetic oil at about 3-5k intervals.

I'm pretty happy with the condition! I also had the oil pan off to remove the balance shaft assembly when I did the flywheel and clutch, and the bottom end looked just as spotless.

I had the intake manifold off not too long ago to do a mild, aka ziptie band with a can of crc gdi solution, carbon cleaning and the valves weren't too badly coated. I do run the URP dual catch can, but only for about half the mileage. Before that the oil used to pool up in the intake manifold fairly often, but that is probably due to the high flow downpipe.

Just wanted to share my results with the group.

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Looks excellent in there OP! Hats off to you.
I am exactly the same way with all my engines in the past and my current 5.0 in my PP2. Just one of those who does early intervals, way earlier than what's recc'd by the OEM, Ford in this case. Oil is relatively cheap, repairs are not. Most of us in the know already know whey OEMs are extending out the oil change and other maintenance / fluid swap intervals.
If I open up the 5.0, I expect it to look very similar at when at that mileage.

I am impressed with how clean the OPs engine looks. I am encouraged that my Ecoboost will live a long life with a good preventive maintenance plan. Nice to see good pictures of high mileage engines. I have 360000 miles on my 2000 4.7 liter V8 engine Jeep Grand Chearokee without having the oil pan or valve covers off.

Hi-PO Stang said:

I am impressed with how clean the OPs engine looks. I am encouraged that my Ecoboost will live a long life with a good preventive maintenance plan. Nice to see good pictures of high mileage engines. I have 360000 miles on my 2000 4.7 liter V8 engine Jeep Grand Chearokee without having the oil pan or valve covers off.

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Any oil consumption? That's super impressive. I have an '02 4.7 HO that drinks oil for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I had a Cherokee with a 4.0 and 219k that would barely move on the dipstick between changes.

My pleasure! I wish I took a picture of the bottom end, too. Mine has been treating me well, that's for sure. It's posting an even 150psi compression

Hanavarian said:

Thanks for posting that! Ford make great small highly stressed motors!

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Great thread - thanks for posting.

Since you have the UPR cans, how much are they collecting and at what interval?

My fault, I have the dual check valve but not dual can system. I usually empty it every 500mi, and the amount varies on the level of beating the engine gets. If I'm zipping around town it fills up with about 4oz fluid, but if I'm cruising on a long higway trip it gets filled with only about 2oz. Keep in mind that I gutted the PVC valve and that a HF downpipe seems to affect the crankcase pressure. I have a thread on this topic from a few years ago where the engine was pinging due to all of the oil pooling up in the intake manifold from the stock PVC system not being able to keep up with the mods. Since the catch can the OAR has been perfect except for a few occasions of bad gas.

Cobra Jet said:

Great thread - thanks for posting.

Since you have the UPR cans, how much are they collecting and at what interval?

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CustomS550 said:

I'm pretty happy with the condition! I also had the oil pan off to remove the balance shaft assembly when I did the flywheel and clutch, and the bottom end looked just as spotless.

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I'm curious. Can you notice any difference with the balance shaft delete?

Yes! The engine is noticeably lighter feeling up top. As for NVH, I can only really tell a difference when the engine cranks over or shuts down. It sounds a bit crunchy. There is slight buzzing noise, like that of panels, under the hood or body somewhere, but only at certain RPM, but that could be from the exhaust. I decided to remove the balance assembly after replacing the flywheel/ clutch and continuing to experience engine vibration at lower RPM. I had a feeling that the balance assembly was misaligned with the crankshaft, or something similar, from the factory as my engine had a 2.5-3k vibration since new which became worse with the new parts. With the balance assembly removed the vibration is gone, strangely enough! But, I also had to do the clutch job twice as the OE pressure plate I received seems to have been defective and would not disengage completely preventing the trans from shifting! I ended up putting the original 100k mile pressure plate back in with the new disk, flywheel, throwing bearing and all is good again! The pedal effort even became lighter than it ever has been

I'll probably be doing the job over soon as I'm slightly bothered by having the original PP in there and the trans is now a bit whiny since I put the Motul dual clutch trans fluid in, however that might be a coincidence. It does shift better with it, though! The trans probably took a slight beating in the time I was diagnosing the clutch disengagement issue.

TeeLew said:

I'm curious. Can you notice any difference with the balance shaft delete?

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That looks absolutely fantastic for 110k miles, pretty solid being a small high strung boosted motor no doubt these can make it past 200k+ easily, all it needs it care.