McClintoc

iTrader: (1)

There is some marketing in there as well. If you are going to buy a SuperDuty, Ford would prefer you pay the premium for the PowerStroke so they put a much weaker motor in there as standard.

Gerrard155

You also have to think about the buyers. HD truck buyers are highly averse to change-far more so than half ton buyers. Dont forget the ecoboost was a huge gamble in 2011-there was real risk in switching to it. Multiply that by 1000 and that would be roughly the risk of switching the HD trucks to an ecoboost.

Smokewagun

The EcoBoost has proven itself though. Everything Ford makes has the option. If it was truly a gamble now, would something like 90% of all F150s be ordered with the EcoBoost?
I respectfully disagree an Eco would be 1000x gamble. It's a learning curve. Just like the acceptance of the V6 sound in an F150. Soon it will be the norm. I don't think the 3.5L EcoBoost is the proper displacement, though, for a 7,000 dry weight truck. Make it a 5.0L.😀

CiDhed

The diesel needs boost to make the power too. When is the last time you've seen an actual heavy duty truck powered by gas? The gas V8 isn't the heavy duty engine, the powerstroke is.

People need to quit being silly about this. The Mod V8 is a great engine and I love the sound but it's had plenty of reliability issues over the years to get to where it's at now. That same knowledge has been applied to the smaller turbo engines and outside of intercooler issues they have proven themselves to be just as reliable as the V8. Neither the Mod V8 or ttv6 are true heavy duty engines though, they might be able to do the work of one but that crown isn't theirs to wear.

J15

The diesel has nearly twice as much displacement to work with. That's not even getting into fundamental differences in how the two engines operate. Apples to oranges.

CiDhed

Yeah, apples(non-hd gas engines) to oranges(actual heavy duty diesel engines). If you are buying a three quarter ton or higher for actual work you should be looking into the diesel options.

There isn't a proven reliably difference between the gas engines. Gas engines can do heavy duty work, diesels are designed for heavy duty work.

jrc1978

Diesel motors would make much more sense in this scenario than naturally aspirated V8 motors. NA V8s, according to my sales guy at the Ford dealer, are for old guys who are afraid of technology and change.

gopherman

Yes...because your sales guy knows everything there is to know about internal combustion engines. I think all of you arguing that a turbocharged diesel is similar to a turbocharged gas engine need to go and read what the actual differences are. How combustion happens is very different and has an impact on how well that engine will fare under load. An NA gas V8 as the baseline HD motor makes more sense than the EB especially when we're talking about having to push the engine to its full potential for an extended period of time. The temperatures are much higher and the conditions are far more volatile in a gasoline boosted engine, especially at higher RPM's. Under normal conditions, computers can compensate for this and adjust fuel ratios accordingly, but under prolonged periods, fuel trims would adjust to outside of an acceptable operating envelope and could cause damage to the engine itself. The same goes for NA V8's but less so than a turbocharged engine. I would agree that the actual HD engine of choice is the PowerStroke....but for a base-level engine, the 6.2 is more appropriate than the 3.5. I won't comment on the reliability issues being resolved with the 3.5 either.

I'm a 30 year old engineer that felt the 5.0 was better designed to last than the 3.5...a thermodynamics course and internal combustion engines course taught me so. So that sales guy might want you to buy the 3.5 because he's been told to do so...and will do it by downplaying the V8, but at the end of the day there's a reason the V8 is still available and it's not just to appease customers.

jrc1978

Nothing in your long winded response related to my comment at all. Nowhere did I make a comparison between the EB and NA V8. The quote in my comment stated hauling "tens of thousands of pounds" for extended periods of time, to which I replied with saying a diesel would be better suited for that purpose. The last part of my response was a jab intended for those who take their motor of choice too seriously.

gopherman

So what alternative were you trying to suggest when you made your jab at NA V8's? It would seem to me it the point you were trying to get across is that the 3.5EB is an alternative to the NA V8 in this application...hence my response that "new technology" has not yet made the EB a good candidate for HD applications. I don't think anyone is arguing that an NA V8 is better suited for HD work than a turbodiesel. The argument in this thread has been EB vs NA V8 in a an HD capacity. I would recheck what you wrote and think about what you were trying to get across by your "NA V8s, according to my sales guy at the Ford dealer, are for old guys who are afraid of technology and change" comment.