Is it time to prep for a new engine?
Hey all,
I bought my 2018 SLT 4x4 roughly a year ago around this time. It was a single owner trade in to a dealer and had 164,xxx KMs on it (~102K Miles). The day after I bought it, the alternator crapped out and left me stranded for a few seconds in traffic due to the start stop function, got the dealer to replace the alternator and it's been great ever since.
In the past year I've put about 22K KMs on it (~14K Miles) just driving around the city taking the kid to school, picking her up stuff like that. About six months ago I began noticing low oil levels prior to scheduled oil change intervals, by roughly a good couple of quarts. This past oil change around the end of July it was down significantly more around 4 quarts I'd say.
There are no obvious signs of leakage either from above or below, and the only tell tale sign of any issue audibly is a loud valve/lifter tick predominately at idle (~600-700 RPM), and more pronounced at low acceleration around ~800 to ~1000 RPM. Anything above ~1500 RPM it's inaudible, this is most predominant after cold start, and eases up at operating temp.
I just took the truck on a round trip to Northern Mexico (not running drugs, promise!) which was grand total of roughly 6K KMs (~3700 Miles) Winnipeg - Saltillo. It was a champ the whole way there and back, aside from a flat caused by a road 'gator 3 hours south of the US/Mexico border. I took it to a shop for an oil change on arrival on the way down and again it was low by a good 4 quarts, babied it home and kept the levels topped up which tended to send the tick to sleep.
Tick's back and the level is about 1.5-2 qt low. No clue what's causing the oil consumption, the gas mileage is still superb, I've had the diff's taken care of, transfer case etc. I knew when I bought it I would be looking down the barrel of an engine swap but not for at least a good 2-3 years. With current interest rates being what they are here in Canada, financing another truck is out of the question given the trade in value and the remaining balance owing (it's about a 10K differential, CAD) so the best option for me right now is to plan for a new engine.
Was going to go with a crate engine from Ford but if there are other options I'm open to that, or if it's likely something else entirely all the better. Truck right now is sitting around 187,900 KM (~117K Miles). Ever since I owned it I've always done full synthetic and changed it every 5000 KMs or so. First F150/Ford of any kind with a Coyote motor so not sure what to expect out of these units.
I bought my 2018 SLT 4x4 roughly a year ago around this time. It was a single owner trade in to a dealer and had 164,xxx KMs on it (~102K Miles). The day after I bought it, the alternator crapped out and left me stranded for a few seconds in traffic due to the start stop function, got the dealer to replace the alternator and it's been great ever since.
In the past year I've put about 22K KMs on it (~14K Miles) just driving around the city taking the kid to school, picking her up stuff like that. About six months ago I began noticing low oil levels prior to scheduled oil change intervals, by roughly a good couple of quarts. This past oil change around the end of July it was down significantly more around 4 quarts I'd say.
There are no obvious signs of leakage either from above or below, and the only tell tale sign of any issue audibly is a loud valve/lifter tick predominately at idle (~600-700 RPM), and more pronounced at low acceleration around ~800 to ~1000 RPM. Anything above ~1500 RPM it's inaudible, this is most predominant after cold start, and eases up at operating temp.
I just took the truck on a round trip to Northern Mexico (not running drugs, promise!) which was grand total of roughly 6K KMs (~3700 Miles) Winnipeg - Saltillo. It was a champ the whole way there and back, aside from a flat caused by a road 'gator 3 hours south of the US/Mexico border. I took it to a shop for an oil change on arrival on the way down and again it was low by a good 4 quarts, babied it home and kept the levels topped up which tended to send the tick to sleep.
Tick's back and the level is about 1.5-2 qt low. No clue what's causing the oil consumption, the gas mileage is still superb, I've had the diff's taken care of, transfer case etc. I knew when I bought it I would be looking down the barrel of an engine swap but not for at least a good 2-3 years. With current interest rates being what they are here in Canada, financing another truck is out of the question given the trade in value and the remaining balance owing (it's about a 10K differential, CAD) so the best option for me right now is to plan for a new engine.
Was going to go with a crate engine from Ford but if there are other options I'm open to that, or if it's likely something else entirely all the better. Truck right now is sitting around 187,900 KM (~117K Miles). Ever since I owned it I've always done full synthetic and changed it every 5000 KMs or so. First F150/Ford of any kind with a Coyote motor so not sure what to expect out of these units.

