Head Gasket Issues

[Maggneto]

As a preventative measure I, and others, have installed the CFM valve cover breather that allows positive crankcase pressure to be released to atmosphere while a check ball stops air from being sucked into the engine under vacuum. Unchecked positive crankcase pressure can blow thru seals and gaskets.

I just posted my observations to Mustang Ecboost Net a few days ago and here is a quick recap of my observations.

1.> No more timing cover oil leaks after installing the CFM breather.
2.> Significantly less blow by captured in the catch can.

https://www.mustangecoboost.net/threads/cfm-valve-cover-breather-observations-and-cleaning.25675/

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[monte87]

Hello!

Longtime lurker, first-time poster. I’ve searched this forum and others extensively, so forgive me if this topic has already been covered and I missed it. I’m trying to gauge how prevalent head gasket failures are on the 2.3-liter EcoBoost engine. Is this a common occurrence or an isolated issue? To be clear, I have not had this problem, but recently I learned how troublesome the smaller 2.0-liter EcoBoost engine seems to be.

My daily driver is an entry-level 2017 EcoBoost fastback with the six-speed manual transmission and a Lightning Blue paint job (the BEST color). The car is 100% stock, has about 15,000 miles on it and has given me ZERO trouble since I bought it new nearly six years ago. My Mustang is smooth, quiet, unexpectedly fuel efficient and plenty quick for what I need. Still, I was considering the Ford Performance tune to wake things up a little, but now I’m not so sure.

In my research, I haven’t seen too many reports of EcoBoost Mustang head gasket failures, but far fewer of these cars have been built than Edges, Escapes and Fusions that came with the smaller 2.0-liter engine. The Mustang head gasket failures I’ve read about seem to stem from modifications.

FordTechMakuloco’s recent YouTube video is what really sent me down this path, and the more I’ve researched the head gasket issue, the angrier it’s made me, especially since my mom owns a 2017 Edge. How could Ford screw up something so basic -- and important? I’m irrationally upset about this problem that I haven’t even faced yet, !

If the 2.0-liter EcoBoost engine is failing with such apparent regularity, how could a larger-displacement version with more power and torque ever hold together? The blocks, heads and gaskets are all the same between the 2.0- and 2.3-liter engines, right? An open-deck design with grooves cut between the cylinders seems like an exceptionally terrible idea in a boosted engine, especially in a performance application like the Mustang where people are going to turn up the wick.

Anyway, thanks for reading my longwinded post. I appreciate any feedback. Thanks!

I dealt with my old 2016 ford fusion 2.0 EB engine and it was a COOLANT INTRUSION issue between cylinders 2 and 3.. Which always seem to be the culprit on these engines. I started to notice at 8k miles the constant loss of coolant. I brought it into dealer 2x for full coolant pressure testing documentation, they found no external leaks. They gave me the normal, we found nothing and turbo cars always use a little coolant excuse. LMAOOOOOOO due to heat expansion and contraction. Blah, Blah!!!
At 18k miles same story, went back to dealer and they actually pulled plugs and did a boroscoping of the cylinders this time and did another coolant pressure testing and claimed they found nothing.
Engines don't consume coolant normally on a weekly basis, so i brought the car to a friend of mine at a speedshop, they boroscoped the cylinders and found the leak. The dealership lied to me and claimed nothings as usual..
At 20k miles i got rid of car and never looked back. Personally, I would never want another Ecoboost car, to many headaches, not worth it and ford just doesnt wanna do the right thing. The issue is def a block and head defect..........
Anthony
Anyways

 

[ice445]

I dealt with my old 2016 ford fusion 2.0 EB engine and it was a COOLANT INTRUSION issue between cylinders 2 and 3.. Which always seem to be the culprit on these engines. I started to notice at 8k miles the constant loss of coolant. I brought it into dealer 2x for full coolant pressure testing documentation, they found no external leaks. They gave me the normal, we found nothing and turbo cars always use a little coolant excuse. LMAOOOOOOO due to heat expansion and contraction. Blah, Blah!!!
At 18k miles same story, went back to dealer and they actually pulled plugs and did a boroscoping of the cylinders this time and did another coolant pressure testing and claimed they found nothing.
Engines don't consume coolant normally on a weekly basis, so i brought the car to a friend of mine at a speedshop, they boroscoped the cylinders and found the leak. The dealership lied to me and claimed nothings as usual..
At 20k miles i got rid of car and never looked back. Personally, I would never want another Ecoboost car, to many headaches, not worth it and ford just doesnt wanna do the right thing. The issue is def a block and head defect..........
Anthony
Anyways

That's one thing I absolutely hate about dealerships, willful incompetence. "It's working as intended because either we're too lazy to fix it, or we know the manufacturer will fight us on approval/payout". Such a joke. So many issues go unfixed until they become catastrophic.

 

[monte87]

That's one thing I absolutely hate about dealerships, willful incompetence. "It's working as intended because either we're too lazy to fix it, or we know the manufacturer will fight us on approval/payout". Such a joke. So many issues go unfixed until they become catastrophic.

1000% agreed.... its always some bullshit with them. As a matter of fact, I had car looked at same week and both did the same borosccoping.. so just shows you.
I really liked that ecoboost engine, it was fuel efficient and peppy for sure. Sad stuff....
Anthony

P.S. they always said. Stop by and we will top it off for you.. like I have nothing better to do w my time than goto dealer and sit and wait 2 hours for them to do that, no thanks.. engines don't just eat coolant. It's not normal and they try to convince you that.

 

[ice445]

1000% agreed.... its always some bullshit with them. As a matter of fact, I had car looked at same week and both did the same borosccoping.. so just shows you.
I really liked that ecoboost engine, it was fuel efficient and peppy for sure. Sad stuff....
Anthony

P.S. they always said. Stop by and we will top it off for you.. like I have nothing better to do w my time than goto dealer and sit and wait 2 hours for them to do that, no thanks.. engines don't just eat coolant. It's not normal and they try to convince you that.

Exactly. Makes warranty feel kinda useless, to be honest. Unless there's a rod hanging out the block, or a stored code, they won't do shit. And don't even get me started on the ways they try to get out of paying when a rod IS hanging out of the block. "Well, you did have non OEM mufflers..."

But yeah, for me the biggest complaint is just the wait times. I mean, I get it, there's a line and all. But waiting 2-3 hours for simple things like an oil change is just infuriating.

 

[monte87]

Exactly. Makes warranty feel kinda useless, to be honest. Unless there's a rod hanging out the block, or a stored code, they won't do shit. And don't even get me started on the ways they try to get out of paying when a rod IS hanging out of the block. "Well, you did have non OEM mufflers..."

But yeah, for me the biggest complaint is just the wait times. I mean, I get it, there's a line and all. But waiting 2-3 hours for simple things like an oil change is just infuriating.

PRICELESS!!!! lol You made my morning, thanks. That was hilarious about OEM mufflers hahahah They suck, I HATE stealerships. The wait times are ridiculous, hence the reason i do my own oil changes and maintenance. I only go there for some documentation, here and there.

P.S. The best was when the tech came out and explained coolant loss and turbo cars and expansion and contraction, yada, yadaaaaaaaaaaa!!! The fusion wasnt a track car lol and i can see that maybe every 6 months a slight loss, not adding a 1/2 of poland spring bottle of water every 8 ounces per week of coolant!!! Go away w that! Plus all the 1.5's, 2.0s and 2.3s all have the same issues via COOLANT INTRUSION................ Do the right thing!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Texstang]

P.S. The best was when the tech came out and explained coolant loss and turbo cars and expansion and contraction, yada, yadaaaaaaaaaaa!!! The fusion wasnt a track car lol and i can see that maybe every 6 months a slight loss, not adding a 1/2 of poland spring bottle of water every 8 ounces per week of coolant!!! Go away w that! Plus all the 1.5's, 2.0s and 2.3s all have the same issues via COOLANT INTRUSION................ Do the right thing!!!!!!!!!!

I had a similar experience when I took mine in the first time. I had initially went in stating that the coolant level was low, and that the car would smoke on startup maybe once every 3 starts or so. I understand if they couldn't immediately replicate that, and to be fair it was late Jan or early Feb, so it could've been written off as condensation, but they told me they pressure tested the cooling system and when I picked up the car, there was no note about the pressure test being performed. I also told them that I looked in the cylinders with a boroscope and found coolant in #4 cylinder and I was told that was normal! I called and spoke to the service manager after I picked the car up and was finally able to get it diagnosed and fixed after getting assigned to another service writer. It was not a very pleasant experience, and I got the impression that they just wanted me out of there.

 

[TeeLew]

Personally, I would never want another Ecoboost car, to many headaches, not worth it and ford just doesnt wanna do the right thing. The issue is def a block and head defect..........
Anthony
Anyways

In a strange way, I completely understand the sentiment, I just don't share it. Eco's have great *potential*, but in mass production have too many failures. They're finicky little engines, there's no doubt about that. The open deck block is particularly fragile. Having said this, they're powerful engines if built correctly and there's very little that can match them in either the bang/buck or just as a 2-ish liter turbo in general. They fill an interesting niche.

 

[Coyote Chase]

I was watching a video from HP Academy and they showed a graph, showing how pre-ignition affects cylinder pressure. I've heard about LSPI and engine failure, but not much on why it causes so much damage.

 

[Buldawg76]

Pre ignition cause so much damage since when the fuel/air mix is ignited to early it allows the cylinder pressure to peak before the piston has traveled past TDC in the cylinder, so it tries to push the piston and rod backwards against the direction of rotation and breaks things like rods, cranks and piston crowns. Ideally you want to fire the plug at the perfect time so that peak cylinder pressure occurs just past TDC so all the push/force is accelerating the piston/rod in direction of rotation.

It is also very dependent on the quality of fuel being used as well as loads, RPMS, compression ratio, N/A or forced induction, ETC. It can be caused by incorrect ignition timing or hot spots of carbon build up or other small protrusions inside the cylinder that can become hot enough to glow red hot causing the pre ignition.

BD

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