acadianbob

The internal design of a boosted engine is different than normally aspirated and considerably more robust; especially for the size of the engine. The "strain" is managed and compensated for by oversized bearings, extra oil cooling etc. IMO, there will be no extra wear in a turbo engine compared to normally aspirated.

acdii

Many don't take into consideration that the Ecoboost is designed as a turbo charged engine, not a normal engine with a pair of turbos added as an after thought. It is designed and built much like a diesel is, and diesels with turbos go 100's of thousands of miles without wearing out.

5.0GN tow

The 2.7 is built more like a diesel, not so much the 3.5. The 3.5 uses the standard 3.5 block and adds some things but its a standard duratech 3.5 block.

The 5.0 is built very strong on the bottom end using a deep skirt block. External oil coolers are standard as are piston oil squirters. The block is sleeved and the crank is forged, it has a huge 8 quart oil capacity. The oil pan has a windage tray to help lubrication at high rpms, and the main bearings are cross bolted with cast iron caps. In short the 5.0 is built to be run hard and take it.

harleyfiremedic

Just got back from my first real trip with my 2016 F150 2.7 ecoboost. I towed my enclosed trailer with my and my wife's motorcycles inside. Total weight somewhere around 2500lbs give or take. Towed like a dream, aftermarket brake controller worked great. This trip was from Massachusetts across NY and PA down to Maryland Panhandle. Lots of big (east coast big anyway) mountains along the way. I have no complaints at all. Here is a shot of the trip screen just as I arrived at the driveway at home.

<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/26863251@N02/28694952031/in/dateposted/" title="Untitled"><img src="https://c8.staticflickr.com/9/8860/28694952031_b267a0c13c.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="Untitled"></a>

acdii

Actually it shares the block design, but the block itself is not the same as the NA 3.5. The EB block has beefed up areas, extra passages for fluids, and added bosses for the turbos. It is a 6 bolt main, very strong. It also incorporates everything the 5.0 does and more. Try as you might, you will never get turbos to bolt up to a standard 3.5 block. There are 2 different part numbers for the blocks.

acdii

Now thats respectable mileage!

5.0GN tow

That may be, but I have family in the engine side or Ford and the design of the block is essentially the same, it is why they used the 3.5 to start with, it was a proven design. They added ribs, dropped compression to work with boost, redesigned the heads to be DI, and used better material in the crank and valves. They still use as does the 5.0 Cast pistons such, but with better surface treatments. They are both(5.0 and 3.5ECO) multi use blocks with variations to suit application.

acdii

No argument the block design is the same, but it is modified strictly for use with turbos, for both cooling and lubrication and for the added stress of running boost. Ford would be committing engine suicide if they were to just slap turbos on a NA 3.5 and sell it as the powerhouse they do. They would fail rather quickly.

Its very similar to what Ford did with the 2.5 inline 4 used in their cars. they used the same block design in the hybrids, but with a different head design and engine cycle for the Hybrids. Very strong fuel efficient engine in both versions. The 2010 Hybrid I had got up to 65 MPG on the highway, which for that model the electric motors stop working at 45 MPH, and it runs 100% on gas. Somewhere I still have a dash pic I took of that trip.

Nothing at all wrong with sharing a block design between power plants, as long as they are modified to put up with the stresses of the design, which the 3.5 EB certainly is.