Ford F-150 | Ecoboost vs. 5.0 V8 (I've owned both)

Hi youtube, this is ian from big rock media, so after posting my f-150 review several months ago, I received a lot of questions and comments about the

ecoboost

engine versus the 5 liter v8 and this really turns into a debate between turbocharger. a smaller engine versus providing a larger displacement v8 without a turbocharger there are a lot of concerns and debates about the reliability of the

ecoboost

with the twin turbo versus the perceived long term reliability of the 5 liter v8 or any other v8 engine, so nowadays that is what are we going to talk about this little badge right here, this ecoboost badge, what does it mean, how do I like to drive it? but most of all how does it compare to the last f-150 i had which was a 2015 f-150 with the 5 liter v8 and the 6 speed transmission and let's compare that to this truck which is a 2017 platinum with the 2nd gen ecoboost 3.5 and the 10 speed automatic, so I've actually

owned

both

, not just I've theorized about them, so I'll tell you why I made the switch, what the good and bad tradeoffs were, and if I would buy this one truck again, so that's how I'm going to break this down first.

Why did I make the switch from the 5 liter van to the ecoboost van? Then I'll give you the pros and cons of each engine as I see them, and thirdly, we'll delve into the type of reliability. discussion about the ecoboost engine and finally I will tell you what I would buy if I bought a new truck today. Well first let's go over what led me to trade in my 2015 with the 5 liter v8 coyote for this truck, a 2017 platinum with a 2nd gen ecoboost 3.5 and the 10 speed is fine so to tell the story I have to go back to 2017.

So at that time I was driving a 2015 chevy colorado which was the new generation colorado that they are still selling today. I really love the Colorado for its smaller size, how easy it was to park, the fuel economy, and the everyday livability of that truck. Now the problem with that truck arose when I tried to tow our travel trailer, which at the time was a forest river r-pod but I also wanted to take a motorcycle and the truck bed with me now that I had made the stupid mistake of getting the truck bed. five feet without colorado which meant I couldn't tow a travel trailer and have a motorcycle because with the tailgate all the way down it would really interfere with the travel trailer hitch, also when there is a lot of weight in the bed and also between a trailer On the road, the Colorado's V6 engine felt a little strained, so I started trying to drive different trucks and see what was now in the past.

I had

owned

a Toyota Tundra, a 2010 model, and I had also owned an older GMC Sierra, so I never owned a Ford at the time and was curious to see how. They were my local dealer who had just gotten a used 2015 crew cab short bed with the 5 liter v8, the 6 speed transmission, it didn't have the 10 speed at the time, it had the 302a package which was a good package. On the xlt it had a R373 towing package and other things and it was a very well equipped truck at a great price after testing it quite a bit I fell in love with the 5-0 engine and what that truck was like.

I drove generally and we ended up making a deal, so I traded in my Colorado and drove home with the 2015 F-150. Now I also forgot to mention that I had owned a Mustang with the Coyote V8, so I was already predisposed to like the engine, so when I found it in the truck package, it really was a no brainer for me now during the time I had that truck, I didn't have any problems with it, it drove great, the sound was amazing, there's a lot. Of the things I liked about that engine and that truck in particular, so why then would I get rid of that beautiful protective metallic green F-150 and get this truck?

That's the story I'm going to tell you now, so when we traded in we traded in our pod trailer for a bigger, heavier launch trailer, that's when things started to change, so we went on a trip that I can remember in particular, where we went up and over

both

sides of the rocky mountains throughout Colorado and Utah and over those high passes, I remember many times where we were, you know, eight, nine, ten thousand feet or even more, you know the truck in second gear , four or five thousand rpm trying to get up those grades, you see a smaller, naturally aspirated V8, especially something like the 5-0, while it's a great engine, it doesn't really have much torque at the very low end of the range. of revolutions, so to drag a heavy load uphill you need to use very high revolutions, there it goes, yes, yes, well, that's right. a 6 speed and it keeps the revs high, that's what it's all about, if you want to maintain speed you've got to have the torque and you've got to be able to downshift and get the revs back from that ride.

We ended up driving all the way through Utah on like 70, I think it is, and there was a really strong headwind and I remember for most of the drive through Utah that day we were in second or third gear at more than 4000 rpm. They were getting about six, five to six miles per gallon and the truck didn't really seem to enjoy it much now, this was made worse by the fact that it had 34 or 35 inch tires, it actually had beam tires and wheels on that. truck that changed the final drive gear, I admit that, but the other thing that bothered me about that particular truck was that I made the mistake of not checking when I bought it and it actually had the 23 gallon gas tank, not the from 36. one gallon tank that you can get as an optional upgrade now, if you've ever towed a trailer you know you're getting between 8 and 10 miles per gallon and when you only have about 20 gallons of gas that means you're looking for fuel every 150 to 200 miles, which wears out very quickly, so needless to say, as I was driving home from that trip I really started to think about what my next truck would be like, so I learned that ecoboost engines were known for having almost torque at low rpm similar to diesel due to the turbocharger they have which gear are you in now fifth gear fifth gear so it seems like fifth gear is what you like yeah fifth gear rated sixty right yeah yeah that's four okay shame yeah kick down Yes, and that certainly gets up to 3600 rpm, which is still not much for a gasoline engine, but you still have power in reserve.

I mean, yeah, I could crank up steel at 90 miles an hour if you let me. No, I won't. Touch me, you really like me, no, no, it seems like there's a lot of power left, well, it's based on the lowest gear. I'm almost surprised it was sitting in fifth gear the whole time. 3100 rpm. Okay, it was also claimed that they got a little better miles per gallon and seemed like a really good package and something that had worked for Ford for quite some time. Now I also wanted some other features on my truck, so my adaptive cruise control and ventilated seats and other things that probably aren't worth it for most of you, but it's something I kind of wanted now, I didn't feel like it was time to go to a heavy truck because after all , our trailer was under 6000 pounds and I didn't really have the use case to get a diesel. and all the maintenance expenses and the upfront cost of that so I wanted to stick with a half ton gas truck so I went to try driving stuff again so I tried the new GM trucks with the 53 v8 and the 62 v8.

I liked the 62 with 8 speeds. I tried the ram with the 5.7 hemi. The newer ram was very attractive. The 2019 redesign with a better interior that looked great, but I kept coming back to the Ford and every time I tested an f-150 with the 3.5 ecoboost, I was blown away by the power and torque and how it handled, so after After limiting my search to an F-150 with the Ecoboost, I started looking for platinum, so I ended up finding this. white platinum in the Los Angeles area and made a deal on the truck, long story short I have had my 2017 f-150 here for about a year and a half and it has been a really great truck so far so why don't we get started Let's talk about the different engine options, why I chose the ecoboost, and how it's different from the other engines.

If you've looked at the F-150 and are looking for one, you'll notice that there are now a ton of engine options. That's a great thing for the consumer because you have a lot of different options to choose from and you can choose what fits your needs, but the question is what engine should you get for how you're using it, in the F-150 of these. generations as of 2015, you can get several different engines, you can get a base naturally aspirated v6 engine mainly found in similar work trucks, after the base v6 you move up to the 2.7 liter ecoboost, now the 2.7 It is a newer engine that Ford 3.5 developed for use in many of its different vehicles.

It makes less power and torque than the 3.5 and also has a slightly different design, but we're not going to go into that in detail in this video after the 2.7 technically. In terms of power and torque, you have the 5-liter V8. Now the 5 liter v8, sometimes called the coyote v8, is a very popular option for the f-150. Ford also uses it in a mustang. Many people know it from Mustang and it is certainly a great engine for that car now after the 5 liter v8 you go to the 3.5 ecoboost the 3.5 ecoboost is one of the best sellers in the f-150 in this generation, a truck that generated quite a bit of power . although they have increased it for 2021.

I should also mention that you have a three liter power diesel, it is not a very popular option because it is an expensive option to upgrade and when you look at the power and torque compared to the other one. engines for the price you have to pay, it doesn't make much sense for most people, but some people who just love diesels will go for that option now, for 2021, they have added a hybrid engine which is an amazing option if you are looking a new 21, but that truck is just arriving at dealerships. I don't even know if you can buy one while I'm filming this, so we're not going to get it. too much on that, but the hybrid adds quite a bit of power and a lot of torque, 570 lb-ft of torque, which is a big accomplishment for a half-ton truck, so for this video I'm really focusing on the coyote v8 versus the 3.5 ecoboost Now, a lot of the things I'm going to say about the turbo versus the v8 would apply to the 2.7 as well, but I'm going to focus on the power numbers and engineering of the 3.5 because I think that's what a lot of you are with.

Comparing now, I would be remiss if I didn't mention transmissions because transmissions affect how the truck will drive depending on what engine you get and also depending on the year, up to 2016, the only transmission. uh on the f-150 it was the

ford

6r80 six speed automatic transmission uh it was a good transmission um it doesn't seem to have too many failure points now for 2017

ford

introduced the 10 speed transmission that they had jointly developed with gm and put it in the truck ecoboost 3.5, but not in some of the other engine options they had in 2017, but for 2018 the coyote v8 also got 10 speed which was a pretty big improvement.

Now we have to talk about the changes to the ecoboost the 3.5 ecoboost for 2017 and then a little bit also about the changes to the 5 liter for 2018. So in 2017 Ford introduced the second generation ecoboost 3-5, now this was something similar to the 3.5 that they offered before, but it was redesigned, so in 2017 for the second generation they added port and direct fuel injection to the engine, so having dual injection really helps prevent carbon buildup in the valves, that's important because if you just have direct fuel injection, what tends to happen is your valves get carbonized by adding fuel injection into the port to give an extra type of blast there to keep the heat, it doesn't build up as much carbon, so which is a nice feature to have.

I was still running worn out borgs or turbos, but the turbos were different, they had different blades on the turbos, the truck had higher compression, they also made changes to the cams, cam phasers, it had two cam chains instead of one, so they checked and did. Quite a few changes were made to the engine with the goal of making it more reliable and durable and they took what they learned from you know, seven or eight years of producing the first generation ecoboost three five. Now I mentioned the coyote v8, so for 2018 no. The coyote v8 only got the 10r80 10 speed transmission but also received dual injection.

Now they also made some other small changes to the engine in 2018, but we're not going to go into details there, so let's quickly review the power. ratings of these different engines, so the Coyote five-liter until 2018 was rated at 385 horsepower and 387 torque, sothat that was the engine I had in my 2015 f-150, uh, the 2018 second generation 5.0 and then they increased it to 395. horsepower and 400 torque, so there was a small increase in power combined with The fact that you got the 10 speed in 2018, that truck felt a little livelier, so the first generation ecoboost like the 2010 around 2010 until 2016. The f-150 in the three and five had 365 horsepower. strength and 420 pound-feet of torque.

Now you notice that the horsepower is slightly below the 5-liter V8 of that era, but the torque is higher, but the most important thing is the torque curve that you have to control. Do you mind and we will post some pictures of the torque curve here. The ecoboost engines make more torque at low revs much more than the v8s, so it's not just the p, it's up to 375 horsepower and 470 pound-feet of torque, so there's a nice increase in torque. 50 foot-pound-feet of torque, so we'll get to the pros and cons of the coyote v8 versus the ecoboost.motors in a minute, but first I want to talk about fuel economy, so I'm not going to go too deep into the fuel savings.

I'm not even going to list the EPA ratings because first of all you can look them up on your own if I don't care but I'm also sharing my experience of what I found between the v8 and the ecoboost is that the fuel economy is not dramatically different between engines. Now I understand Ford's idea behind the ecoboost brand and you know how the brand is made. I know how marketing is done. It works, I know how companies work, so they wanted to give this green image to all these engines saying, well, they have smaller displacement, but we're adding forced induction so that they give you better fuel economy in real life.

In the world they don't really give you much better fuel economy, if any, and the reason is that in real world driving, you're dipping into turbo boost and once you add that boost and drive with boost , you have to add fuel to make up for all that air building up in the engine and if you really think about it, if you're driving 70 miles per hour down the highway, all things being equal, it takes a certain amount of horsepower to overcome wind resistance and friction. resistance of your tires and pushing your truck down the highway, so yes, there are slight differences in efficiency between the different engines, but ultimately there are other factors that come into play, so I don't really like the name ecoboost, I think it's a misleading name, but again marketing.

That's what marketing is all about. I don't think this will get much better economy than my coyote v8 got for towing or towing a 5000 pound trailer. I get about 11 miles per gallon than this and would get about 10 to 11 miles per gallon. on my 5-0, so it was pretty much the same now, I will say if you go out on the highway and set the cruise control to 65 in this truck, I can have a good day, I can get 24 miles per gallon, maybe . on the highway at constant speed, now the 5 liter V8 engine wasn't really able to catch up, you could get 22 23 on that similar run, but again, a pretty small change in overall efficiency for city driving again, I wouldn't do it. do.

I see a lot of difference between the ecoboost and the five liter, I guess if you really stayed off the boost and were super light on your feet maybe the ecoboost would give you better economy but to be honest it's pretty minimal so no I would use fuel economy as a real deciding factor. The caveat to what I'm saying is that I'm talking about the 3.5 ecoboost here in this discussion, the 27 gets a little better economy than the 35 and the coyote v8, so you need to keep this in mind if you don't have a lot of heavy loads and If you want better fuel economy, the 2-7 is something you should really consider to weigh the pros and cons between different engines. uh, what are the first things you notice when you ride them back to back?

So there are a couple of things. One of the first most obvious things you notice is the difference in sound. Needless to say, the Coyote is an incredible sounding engine. Yeah, I went to the floor, you know, the coyote wakes up at like 4,500 rpm, it sounds like it goes straight to the red light too, right at 57, it goes red, while the ecoboost engines sound like, you know, amplified vacuum cleaners. that they now give you. uh they sound like a fake engine sound on the speakers but it's not that convincing, I don't find it offensive at all but it also doesn't sound anything like the deep growl of the coyote or any v8 for that matter now the Another thing you'll notice when you drive them back to back and this will be amplified the more weight you carry or tow the ecoboost engines are, especially the 35 right at the end of the rpm range, like right out of idle you feel the push of the torque as if it were propelling you towards Go ahead and you don't get that on the Coyote V8.

The way the v8 drives is that it is a linear power band, but the rpm, torque and horsepower increase with rpm, so it is satisfying to drive. but you really have to wring your neck to get power out of it, whereas with this engine with the 3.5 it can short shift all day from 2500 to 3000 rpm and propel you very well, whereas if you try to get the same acceleration with the 5 engine liters, you're going to rev a lot more now, that's just a matter of personal preference, but again, as you start towing or heavier loads with that low-end torque, I mean, that's really why people turn to diesels , so the ecoboost.

To me it's like a middle ground between a naturally aspirated petrol engine and a diesel because of the way it delivers that torque at low revs, so my pros and cons of the 5 liter versus the 3.5 and 5 liter are the pros: it is very reliable. It doesn't have many reliability issues now there is a warning I think in 2018 and then they had some deceleration noises. If you go to the forums, there are many people who have had this problem and some trucks have even complied with the lemon law. buybacks, but I don't know how widespread it is, so we won't go too deep into that, but overall the 5-liter has been a good engine for Ford.

The 5 liter also has something good that some people don't know about. is that it has an oil capacity of eight liters or eight quarts that allows you to maybe go a little further between changes and I like to have that extra oil the ecoboost engine at least three five only has capacity for six liters of oil so I tend to change it much more frequently, of course, the other advantage of the 5.0, as we have already mentioned, is the sound. Now the disadvantages of the 5.0 are the lack of torque and not only the lack of peak torque, but also the lack of torque at low revs.

It just can't match the ecoboost so the other possible downside to the coyote is that the adjustment potential isn't as much as with the boosted motor, so with boosted motors you have the ability if you want to increase the boost pressure. through aftermarket solutions and basically make your truck make a ton more power, you can add something like 100 pound-feet of torque and almost 100 horsepower just by flashing your computer on the ecoboost trucks and there's no way that it can do that with a 5 liter engine. v8 is something to consider so the pros of the ecoboost 35 are the max torque and torque curve are just incredible on this engine you can make huge gains by tuning it it feels really really fast and it's a lot of fun racing with people with he. it tows incredibly well and ultimately that's why I upgraded to the 35.

I think if I wasn't towing a travel trailer I would probably have the coyote v8 just because I like its reliability, I like its sound and I don't need to have it. the complication of twin turbos if I'm not towing a lot of heavy load. Disadvantages of the ecoboost engine We've already gone through some of this, but it doesn't sound very good, it's a lot more complex, so in theory, there's a lot more to go wrong with two turbochargers and all the plumbing involved with that. There's also something that a lot of car reviewers don't talk about: a small turbocharged engine will generate a lot more heat, which is why the ecoboost engines get very hot when I'm towing my trailer up steep grades and I'm raising my coolant temperature a bit, the My engine temperature goes up quite a bit, you know, 230 240, now some people have said it's normal, some people have said oh It's not normal that something is wrong.

I can't find anything wrong with my truck. Other people have experienced this. I think in general when running a lot of boost in a small engine like this, there's no way around it. There is a lot of heat. get into that engine and you have to deal with it, so that's something to consider, so how do you decide which engine to get? I mean, that's really the question, so I think what it comes down to is whether you're willing to give up sound. of the v8 and the reliability and the lower complexity that that engine has and swap it for more low end torque, more peak torque and better performance when hauling weight and towing trailers, then you should get the ecoboost, but if you're not really interested in pulling loads heavy and you can live without that nice boost of torque at low revs and you really like the sound of the v8 and you like the fact that there are no twin turbos and all that stuff that can break, then you should definitely stick with the v8 choice.

You won't see a big difference in fuel economy. The initial cost is pretty similar when you buy the truck. The resale value is about the same, so you know you really have to decide what you're going to do with the truck, but of course. A test drive will also be the most helpful for you. Now for the 2018 revisions of the 5.0, it's a little stronger and with 10 speeds it definitely feels a little quicker, but when you're towing trailers, you'll still be running at those high revs much longer than you would be with the ecoboost engine. If you're okay with that then that's fine, the 5 liter engine is fully suited to pulling heavy trailers, but the ecoboost is just better now.

I said we were going to try to talk about reliability, so it's very difficult to talk about reliability because there aren't many sources of accurate data on reliability on these trucks. If you look at organizations like JD Power, which is actually kind of a marketing company. and even other groups like Consumer Reports, it's a little hard to separate truth from fiction and there's always some type of advertising from manufacturers that kind of gets in there and makes it not as objective when you're researching things online , you have to maintain one thing. Keep in mind that people go online on truck or motorcycle forums or whatever, usually to complain about a problem they are having or to find a solution to something that is happening to them that is wrong with their vehicle, so Don't do it if you're happy with your truck and you just live with it, no problems and you don't go online to say "Oh, I really like this.

Who else likes it?" No, you go online to complain or have problems so that you can perceive that there is reliability. problem with a certain engine or a certain vehicle, but how can you separate that from the hype on the Internet and perhaps a few dozen owners voicing their problems? That's really an anecdote and not a data set, so you can't really base it on that. Unfortunately, no engine is perfect and no vehicle is perfect, so while the ecoboost has more complexity and certainly in the long run has a lot more things that can break and cost more money to repair, there really is no hard data to say that the coyote is perfect.

It's going to be more reliable than the 35 or the 27 or anything else, so you might be wondering what I would buy for my next truck, so I'm very happy with this truck, other than the fact that I mentioned it. It gets a little hot when I'm towing, sometimes that bothers me and I'm a little worried about the long term reliability of the EcoBoost engine, but I'm still within the factory warranty. I have about 53,000 miles on it. Warranty expires at 60,000 miles. I think once that warranty is up, once it gets past 60,000 miles, I'll probably be a little more nervous at that point about reliability, but I'm not confident enough that I can do it.

Change this right away for me, it won't just be about engine choice in my next truck, but more about hauling capacity, so if you watched my video on towing for dummies or towing made easy, I talk a lot. about how to calculate your payload and how that affects the type of trailer you can tow and the fact is that when I tow my little 20 foot lens trailer and load my motorcycle on the bed of this truck, I am overloading my truck. above the maximum payload so with only a 1500 pound payload on this particular truck I really don't have much room to carry weight when I'm towing my trailer when you add the weight of the trailer tongue plus the stuff what I want to put on the truck bed, passengers,cargo, etc., so if I were to buy another half ton truck, you know there are so many good options.

I like the GM trucks with the 62 v8 and I think they have 10 speeds, now I can. I don't remember it driving very well. I still really like Fords. I've never owned a Ram, but I admit their interior quality is incredible and they drive great because they now have coil springs in the back of those 1500s. For 2021, Ford has redesigned an upgrade, I should say the F-150, and they have some revised engine options, so the hybrid ecoboost is quite tempting in the new F-150 because of the 570 pound-feet of torque, that's impressive power you can get. that onboard generator up to 7000 watts, which is great.

I have to admit it's a pretty cool thing to get, but I spec'd one of those trucks on Ford's website for the 2021 f-150 and was able to build it. an XLT truck doesn't even cost nearly sixty thousand dollars, so we're going up quite a bit for half-ton trucks in terms of pricing. Now, if I look at heavy duty trucks, I'm not going to buy a diesel anytime soon. because I don't need that, I don't carry more than ten thousand pounds, you know, I don't tow huge things, I don't need the complexity, the weight and the expense of a huge turbodiesel engine, but what I am interested in is the Godzilla 7.3 Engine in the F250 and the F350.

I think it could be a very good option for a lot of people like me who want something between half ton and heavy truck, so whether you like it or not, forced induction, whether turbocharged. supercharging or blending is taking the automotive world by storm, there is no way around it, car manufacturers are looking for efficiency gains they can achieve to meet government standards, they are trying to reduce emissions, so by placing amounts smaller engines and adding force induction are able to achieve that goal for the consumer, maybe you get a little more torque, maybe a little better drivability, that's debatable and also debatable if you get better fuel economy, but The fact is, that's where the industry is.

There is a large percentage of new cars that come with turbo engines, something that has never been the case before, so if you are looking for a new used F-150, I really hope you found this comparison helpful. You know, take a test drive. trucks do their research and make the right decision for you, hit the subscribe button if you haven't already, hit the approve button. It really helps me with these videos to create more content and I'll see you there. be careful, have a good holiday