2018 Ecoboost Engine Failure @ 58k Miles

[TicTocTach]

2018, EBPP, 58k miles, bought new by me. Oil changed every 5-6k miles, always synthetic, always 93 octane. FP tune installed by a dealership.

Was about 2 hours into a road trip last Friday when the engine failed running down I-45. Car was in adaptive cruise control at 75mph, 10th gear, and rather than slow down behind some traffic, I gave her a little gas while changing lanes to pass - maybe 1/4 throttle. Heard kind of a pop and clunk, followed by a shudder and some rattly sounds under the car - I thought I ran over some junk in the road until I looked in my rear view mirror to see a cloud of smoke pouring out the back of the car. Oil pressure dropped to near zero so I pulled over as fast as I could. Oil sprayed all over the inside of the engine bay, and oil was flying around while the engine barely loped along. There was a small fire on the engine mount that I was able to blow out, thankfully. While running there was kind of a chuffing sound.

Got a call from the dealership technician this afternoon and he said that there was a chunk of the front of the engine block missing to the point that combustion flames were coming out of the block when the engine was running…. I asked for pictures… That extended warranty just paid for itself about 4x over…

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[MD18EcoStang]

Sounds like maybe it didn't downshift and briefly lugged the engine. I have a MT and I'm careful to avoid too much throttle when in cruise control, without a downshift... That sucks, but glad you're covered!

 

[Oakley]

daaang

 

[ice445]

Hopefully extended covers it despite the FP tune...

Sounds like LSPI got you given the circumstances surrounding the failure. Just takes one bad fill up at the pump. Maybe you got 87 instead of 93 and never realized (and how would you in normal driving)

 

[TicTocTach]

Hopefully extended covers it despite the FP tune...

Sounds like LSPI got you given the circumstances surrounding the failure. Just takes one bad fill up at the pump. Maybe you got 87 instead of 93 and never realized (and how would you in normal driving)

I was driving in Track Mode and 75-ish is right on the cusp of the 9/10 shift. I kind of remember the downshift, but it may also have been the shudder from the pop. Everything happened in like half a second.

I've been religious about the 93 - the only time I couldn't vouch for what was in the tank is the day I bought the car. They did a sloppy job of filling the car up so before I got on the highway I put as much 93 in as I could and drove easy on the 2.5 hour trip home. There's a chance some fuel pump got mixed up gas I guess, but I've never pushed the wrong fuel type.

 

[ice445]

I was driving in Track Mode and 75-ish is right on the cusp of the 9/10 shift. I kind of remember the downshift, but it may also have been the shudder from the pop. Everything happened in like half a second.

I've been religious about the 93 - the only time I couldn't vouch for what was in the tank is the day I bought the car. They did a sloppy job of filling the car up so before I got on the highway I put as much 93 in as I could and drove easy on the 2.5 hour trip home. There's a chance some fuel pump got mixed up gas I guess, but I've never pushed the wrong fuel type.

Yeah sometimes mixups happen, I have no doubt you always chose 93

 

[Andy13186]

How long ago was the tune installed? Glad they are covering it. Lucky you werent over 60k miles.

 

[TicTocTach]

How long ago was the tune installed? Glad they are covering it. Lucky you werent over 60k miles.

FP tune was installed in May of 2020 with 22k miles on her. I've pounded on her pretty regularly but not in an abusive way. There will be a few times per week that she sees an honest WOT for a few gear changes, but that's not crazy stuff. The warranty I bought is 8 yrs / 100k miles - I figured the AC evaporator would be what got me...

 

[Qcman17]

Hopefully extended covers it despite the FP tune...

Same hopefully they don't blame the tune. My car has 3.5 years left on a 8 year 50k mile ESP warranty and I won't do anything more than hang fuzzy dice from the mirror as long as its in effect.

 

[Garfy]

I was driving in Track Mode and 75-ish is right on the cusp of the 9/10 shift. I kind of remember the downshift, but it may also have been the shudder from the pop. Everything happened in like half a second.

I've been religious about the 93 - the only time I couldn't vouch for what was in the tank is the day I bought the car. They did a sloppy job of filling the car up so before I got on the highway I put as much 93 in as I could and drove easy on the 2.5 hour trip home. There's a chance some fuel pump got mixed up gas I guess, but I've never pushed the wrong fuel type.

I don't think running 87 octane would cause an issue (or does your owner's manual specify you must NOT run 87). Granted I don't have an EB but my 5.0 will run fine on 87, just much less power because the knock sensors would detect the beginning of detonation long before you could even begin to hear the "ping". My manual just says that running premium would result in better performance (which I know is true from my testing). I've run the car with 87 in it WOT a few times w/o issues as the PCM merely reduces ignition timing to prevent detonation. That's what the job of my 4 knock sensors are, which surprised me because in the older days, V-type engines only had 2, one on each bank. Also, the fact that you weren't flogging the car to death when the failure occurred tells me it's not the fuel octane but more likely a defect that took this long to occur. I mean, we've heard of defective components in an aircraft that took a long time to manifest itself (like the jackscrew on 737s).

 

[Oakley]

Same hopefully they don't blame the tune. My car has 3.5 years left on a 8 year 50k mile ESP warranty and I won't do anything more than hang fuzzy dice from the mirror as long as its in effect.

this is why I'm still afraid of tunes. even ford got something wrong. the most i wanna do is suspension stuff and maybe a catback.

 

[ice445]

I don't think running 87 octane would cause an issue (or does your owner's manual specify you must NOT run 87). Granted I don't have an EB but my 5.0 will run fine on 87, just much less power because the knock sensors would detect the beginning of detonation long before you could even begin to hear the "ping". My manual just says that running premium would result in better performance (which I know is true from my testing). I've run the car with 87 in it WOT a few times w/o issues as the PCM merely reduces ignition timing to prevent detonation. That's what the job of my 4 knock sensors are, which surprised me because in the older days, V-type engines only had 2, one on each bank. Also, the fact that you weren't flogging the car to death when the failure occurred tells me it's not the fuel octane but more likely a defect that took this long to occur. I mean, we've heard of defective components in an aircraft that took a long time to manifest itself (like the jackscrew on 737s).

The ecoboost is completely different from the GT, plus he's tuned so 87 is just simply not allowed. Could be a defect, sure. But given how LSPI usually goes on these motors, low rpm and moderate load is more likely to kill versus beating on it.

Ultimately it doesn't matter too much why it broke, but I do hope it's a simple warranty claim for OP

 

[MD18EcoStang]

The ecoboost is completely different from the GT, plus he's tuned so 87 is just simply not allowed. Could be a defect, sure. But given how LSPI usually goes on these motors, low rpm and moderate load is more likely to kill versus beating on it.

Ultimately it doesn't matter too much why it broke, but I do hope it's a simple warranty claim for OP

Right. The FP tune requires premium fuel, at least 91 octane.

 

[MD18EcoStang]

IIRC, a number of these situations (at least the ones I remember reading about - not that there are a ton of them) have occurred with the 10-speed automatic. Makes me wonder if there's not some sort of an issue with the shift strategy algorithm when paired with the Ecoboost.

 

[PoCoBob]

Since the oil pressure dropped to near nothing it would suggest a massive bearing failure. Most likely a connecting rod, which would explain the hole in the block. If it's a Ford tune you have they shouldn't be able to deny your warranty claim. Good luck and keep us posted.

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