F150 Eco boost

Looking at a used F150 with the Eco boost 3.5
Any issues with engine for power, reliability etc?
Is the mileage near the numbers they are saying?

35K on mine now, and it is getting a little better gas mileage than it had been, but a long ways shy of claims. I love the truck/ motor, but buying new again, I will head back to V8 if the situation is the same. By the same, I mean, it was like a 2K upgrade… and I will never recoup that.

Every Ford I have ever had got better gas mileage with 40K miles that it had at any time before it got up there… for whatever reason.

Not sure how, others may be able to help… but there are some long threads from the past here somewhere. I suck at searching for those.

I have the 5.0 2013 f150 and I love the truck I used to get a new ford every 2 years I have had this truck for over 2 years now and I can’t part with it I’ll have it for a long time. I have 75,000 miles on it.
I currently just bought a 04 f150 long box for work so I’ll save some miles on th 2013.
Whatever u pick enjoy.

Sorry can’t tell ya about the ecoboost but I also have the 2013 F150 but have the 5.0 and I absolutely love the truck!! Greatest vehicle I’ve ever owned! I’ve gotten up to 22 MPG with mine but the average is about 17. Good luck with whatever you decide.

My dad has own his for almost 2 years. He tows a large travel trailer and a big Skeeter with no problem. He is also impressed with the mileage.

I drove it a few times and it is pretty fun lighting up the tires!

I just purchased a used 2013 Ford F150 with the 5.0 engine with 19,000 miles. Glad to hear the gas mileage people are getting. Friend of mine has the same engine and said he was getting 20 to 21 mpg during the warm weather. I can live with that!

I’ve read a lot about it and they all say the same thing. EB has power. Great for towing but not special mileage. Overall its a wash between the 5.0 and the EB. Personally I would get the 5.0 but only because I’m an old V8 kind of guy. Buddy has an EB and its a good truck.

I bought a new 2014 F150 with the 5.0 about a month ago. I am seeing about 15.8 right now. My buddy, has a 2013 with the Ecoboost. He is at 16.8. Both of these numbers are combined highway and city miles, although mine only has about 1300 on it. His has just shy of 30,000. Both trucks are pretty much identical. Super crews with 6 1/2′ box. He has a box cover. I don’t.

Interesting to hear about the over rated gas millage on the eco boosts. The silverados seem to have the same thing going. Rated 21mpg hwy. My trip to Texas and back it said 16 or 17 for average. Think the best ive seen is closer to 20 but that is not towing anything and putting along at 55 to 60 mph.

my co-worker is on his 2nd ecoboost. first one he traded in on a brand new one this year. has less than 20k miles on it and he just walked up to me a few weeks ago and said one of the turbos is going out already. I am a ford guy mainly because they didnt take a government buyout to get out of their troubles. The ecoboost is new technology and the 5.0 has been around for many many years and is proven. For me, ill stick with what i know works as no truck gets great mileage regardless of the motor. Maybe in a few years the technology will be proven but im in the market for a new ford too and im not considering the eco-boost

Pretty sure all car companies get highway mpg going 45-50 mph. Never heard of anyone getting the advertised mileage for any car or truck. I’m thinking about getting an F150 and I’m leaning towards the 5.0

and you sure cant beat the sound of the V8!! The EB is really quiet…That’s not a truck.

A buddy has one. It was in the shop 6 times before 40k miles. It has been fine since then and he has over 100k miles on it. Pulling my boat, a skeeter bass boat, he gets 3 mpg better than me. He does drive slower too. I drive a Chevy with 5.3 ltr. Non towing milage is around 20 or 21 he claims. Seems to have plenty of power.

Been a Ford guy 30 plus years but went with a Ram in 2013. I know turbos have come a long way but the bottom line is put your foot in it and the turbos going. My Ram has the 5.7 with 6 speed tranny. Gets 17-20 without a load and around 14 pulling a 27′ travel trailer. I stayed away from the Eco boost because turbos are hard on a motor. One great thing for truck guys Ford, Ram and Chev just keep improving them.

Yeah I am looking at getting one come this summer. Got enough use out of my 2002 5.4 liter so its time to get a “new” used one. I have been leaning towards the ecoboost but the 5.0 is definitely a good option as well. I have been researching the difference between them but in the end they both look like good options besides the lemons you get here and there but keep posting because its great to get personal opinions on them.

got my eco boost in October and love it. 16.8 combined in/out of town driving. With just a bit of tail wind I got 19 MPG up to Walker (fully loaded) last weekend. The thing is quiet, really quiet. Got the extended warranty just in case there’s any problems with the turbo’s but hauling around the 18 1/2 foot Starcraft you can barely tell it’s still hooked up. I still can’t get over the power band of 45 to 75, put the gas pedal down and she’s at 75 really quickly. Heck of a deal on the 2014’s if you can find one. Thanks

Rick Thelin wrote:

Been a Ford guy 30 plus years but went with a Ram in 2013. I know turbos have come a long way but the bottom line is put your foot in it and the turbos going. My Ram has the 5.7 with 6 speed tranny. Gets 17-20 without a load and around 14 pulling a 27′ travel trailer. I stayed away from the Eco boost because turbos are hard on a motor. One great thing for truck guys Ford, Ram and Chev just keep improving them.

Most diesels are turbos and mine has almost 400k on the original turbo, so i wouldn’t say they are hard on a motor or let that sway you to not get one.

I have no experience with the EB but a couple buddys have 5.0 and very impressed with power and MPG.

My F150 EB is about 1.5 years old now and I’m very happy with it so far. It’s got tons of torque for towing and that’s mainly why I bought it. Gas mileage really vary’s based on wind, hills, etc. There are times when you’ll get better mileage than the 5.0 and times when you’ll get worse. Overall, I believe they are pretty darn close. I think for light duty towing, the 5.0 might be the way to go, but for towing heavier loads, the EB really has an advantage with all that torque. I think most guys would be really happy with either.

wicathunter11 wrote:

Pretty sure all car companies get highway mpg going 45-50 mph. Never heard of anyone getting the advertised mileage for any car or truck. I’m thinking about getting an F150 and I’m leaning towards the 5.0

I get the advertised mileage out of my 09 silverado. Back in college I exceeded the mileage raring in my cavalier.

I only know 1 guy who has the EB and I know he has had it in at least twice with turbo issues but he still seems to like it overall. I think he was averaging (not hauling) about 1-1.5 mpg better than me for mixed driving, so 18.5-19 mpg.

Here is my opinion. To date have a 9K miles on the Eco with 50% towing something

I bought a new F150 FX4 in August of last year, the dealer let me test drive 2 of them with the boat hooked up, one had the 5.0 and the other was the Eco. Below is what I found. The truck I previously had was a 2005 F150 with the 5.4

Both new F150’s had the 3.55 rear end, the 5.0L FX4 truck was fully loaded on the inside and 20″ tires/rims. The Eco boost had the standard FX4 interior and 18″ tires/rims (tires on both were all terrain)

I test drove the 5.0L with the boat first. It had good acceleration on the uphill on ramp to the highway with the nice V8 rumble. At crusing speed (70mph) it didnt need to down shift when going uphill on the highway (not a major hill though). When I accelerated to pass someone, it would down shift and you could feel that the boat was back there but is was a definate improvement over what I have been used to. When exiting the highway, the braking was not much different that what I have been used to (no trailer brakes for me). From the highway, we went onto a country backroad with more hills. The truck would downshift more often on this road (55 to 60mph and not using tow haul mode). Regarding any hesitation when towing, when I accellerated to pass someone, the downshift and accelleration was instantaineous but I could tell I was pulling the boat. From a stop, there was no hesitation on accelleration. Overall, I was impressed with the performance compared to what I was used to.

Next we hooked up to the Eco Boost. When pulling out from a stop sign, there is a slight hesitation (I would guess it to be less than 1/4 sec) but then you accellerate very well (better than the 5.0). Going uphill on the same on ramp to the highway, the accelleration is noticeably better than the 5.0 and it seemed to me that if the truck was already moving, the slight hesitation mentioned above was no longer there. Cruising speed on the highway was the same as the 5.0, it didnt downshift at all when going up small hills. When I accellerated to pass someone, you could not feel that there was a boat behind me at all – the accelleration made me think holy $^%#!. I noticed it and the Salesperson was the first to say it out loud. When exiting the highway, braking was no different than the 5.0L. When driving on the country backroad (55 to 60mph), the truck did not down shift at all (not using tow haul mode)

Once I got done with both test drives, there were 3 other people that asked which truck pulled the boat better (dealer employees) as they have never had anyone test drive both while towing something.

Just from research, I expected there to be a little difference between the 2 motors, but I was very suprised at how much the Eco boost outperformed the 5.0 while towing.

It would expect that when not towing, it would be much tougher to tell a difference in performace between them.

crappie55369 wrote:

my co-worker is on his 2nd ecoboost. first one he traded in on a brand new one this year. has less than 20k miles on it and he just walked up to me a few weeks ago and said one of the turbos is going out already. I am a ford guy mainly because they didnt take a government buyout to get out of their troubles. The ecoboost is new technology and the 5.0 has been around for many many years and is proven. For me, ill stick with what i know works as no truck gets great mileage regardless of the motor. Maybe in a few years the technology will be proven but im in the market for a new ford too and im not considering the eco-boost

Just an FYI…the current 5.0 V8 was introduced in 2011 (same year the 3.5 EB was introduced). Really hasn’t been around for “many many years”.

I bought a new EB in 2011 drove it for 2.5 years and put 88k miles on it. Never had a problem, had extended warranty and never used it. Great truck, tons of interior room of the Super Crew and the 6.5′ box was perfect. The only reason I didn’t buy another one was because I went back to a diesel. Otherwise I would most likely have a newer Ford EB. Would buy again, I suggest getting the extended warranty for piece of mind if nothing else.

I have the 5.0 in my 2013 I purchased new. So far, I’ve got 33,000 miles on it. Other than a warped brake rotor that was replaced under warranty, this truck has never seen the shop outside of regular oil changes.

I get probably 14-15 mpg in city driving, and 17-19 interstate/highway driving. I tow a 19′ Alumacraft all over and don’t know it’s back there, unless the wind is really blowing hard.

To me, the sound of a V8 never gets old. Slap a Flowmaster on one of these 5.0’s and there isn’t a better sounding V8 around.

Andy

I’ve got an EcoBoost and it’s a great truck. Overall I’m at 15.7 miles per gallon since I’ve owned it but that includes literally hundreds of hours spent last year driving slowly in circles around the neighborhood or idling in the driveway (while I worked in the garage) because that was the only way our little guy would take a nap as a baby. I am able to get the listed mileage on trips if the temps are above 20 degrees and I’m driving 60 mph… It seems to me that the EcoBoost mileage drops off more significantly than my previous vehicles once I get up to freeway speeds. Without having driven a newer 5.0 for comparison I would guess that the mileage is about a wash. As others have said the towing performance has been top notch for anything that should be reasonably towed by a 1/2 ton.

i have a 01 f150 5.4L Triton V8 with 144K miles and got 14mpg regularly before, now 15/16 recently. i may just as well keep what i have-bigger V8 thats not suppose to work as hard-although it does have trouble uphill while towing a 16ft boat, or loaded three place snowmobile trailer.

mh454 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>crappie55369 wrote:</div>
my co-worker is on his 2nd ecoboost. first one he traded in on a brand new one this year. has less than 20k miles on it and he just walked up to me a few weeks ago and said one of the turbos is going out already. I am a ford guy mainly because they didnt take a government buyout to get out of their troubles. The ecoboost is new technology and the 5.0 has been around for many many years and is proven. For me, ill stick with what i know works as no truck gets great mileage regardless of the motor. Maybe in a few years the technology will be proven but im in the market for a new ford too and im not considering the eco-boost

Just an FYI…the current 5.0 V8 was introduced in 2011 (same year the 3.5 EB was introduced). Really hasn’t been around for “many many years”.

i guess what i was referring to was the standard V8 engine in a truck design vs the relative newness of putting turbos in a truck. turbos in a truck is new technology compared to the tride and true V8 providing power. im not a mechanic but vehicles are getting more complicated with more computers and all kinds of other crap and this leads to some improvements but also it leads to more breakdowns. I see adding turbos to a truck as being an example of this. For my money, ill stick with engineering that worked for years past until the turbo trucks have been around for a while and there is more of a test sample to see how durable they are. Just my 2 cents

I was looking to buy a new truck a couple years ago. I was really intrigued with what the EcoBoost had to offer so I did some research. Overall what I found out was pretty encouraging but I also read about some real horror stories that some folks were having with the EB engine.
As with anything new, there will be bumps in the road that get fixed in time but I didn’t want to potentially have to deal with all that so I went with a 2012 F150 extended cab with the 5.0. I’m pushing 30k miles and am averaging 17.4 mpg = less in the city and more on the highway. It pulls my boat/trailers no problem and does everything else I want it to. The only thing I would change is going with an 8 foot box instead of the 6.5 foot box.

I’m glad to see that those on this thread who have the EB seem to be happy with their choice. Maybe I’ll go the EB route too down the road when it’s time for some new wheels.