cbass149

2011 F150 3.5L ecoboost XLT supercrew 4x4. 107,000k miles.
I have researched this issue everywhere over the internet before finally finding this forum. I'm new to the forum and turbo assisted engines in general. Thank you for having me!!
I have a stutter in the truck while under moderate acceleration that can be herd inside the cab. From what i have found on the internet prior to finding this forum is that its a possible turbo failure on one side or the other. The tachometer does pulse with the noise when it is herd in the cab. This is an ongoing issue that is apparent every time i moderately accelerate. The truck is fairly new to me so i cannot say the the performance is greatly inhibited by this. Other than this noise it seems to run great and does not seem to have significant power loss under normal driving conditions.I am hoping that someone on here has dealt with this issue before and can confirm the issue and suggest possible solutions. This U tube video is the exact sound i am dealing with. The noise its making starts at exactly the 16 second mark in this video.


If this is the turbo or west-gate failure. is there a way to isolate the turbo's from drivers & passengers side to determine which one is the issue? Thank you for any help and suggestions!

doctorschlachter

Change out all spark plugs and drill the intercooler at lowest point with a 1/16" drill bit.

Very, very common issues on the older ecoboost engines.

chimmike

I agree with changing spark plugs, and have the coil packs checked. You may have one or two faulty coil packs.

EDIT: I am not a fan of drilling the intercooler. You create a boost leak and the turbos have to work harder to overcome the leak....which could decrease their overall life.
I'd recommend disconnecting/removing the intercooler and cleaning/draining it out.

cbass149

Awesome input. Thank you Dr & Mike!! I will try these and report back. Hopefully its not a turbo issue. I want to eventually upgrade the cooler,among many other upgrades, but will try cleaning / draining it for now and see what happens.

PerryB

Drill the 1/16" weep hole. The tiny air leak is a fraction of a percent of the engines air consumption and can potentially save your engine. Its like a pinhole in a fire hose.

doctorschlachter

Yep, do yourself a favor and drill it.
I had to do mine, tons of people have done it, there are no negative effects.
If you are worried about boost loss (which you shouldn't), install a drain valve.

cbass149

update,
Changed the plugs and drilled the inter-cooler. All the plugs old plugs were in great shape visually when removed. so this tells me that there is not one cylinder having a rough time with combustion or build up. could be wrong here but the new plugs did not have any effect.
The inter-cooler did drain a small amount of oil but the oil it did drain was pure (black) but no evidence of water mixed with oil like some of the videos i have seen. i drove it around and blew out all the oil i could before tapping 1/2" toothpick back into the hole. now i have a manual valve for the cooler until i can afford the upgrade cooler and no oil stains on the driveway!
however the symptoms are the exact same. still making the missing sound, or possibly Spooling noise? boost leak?? when under moderate acceleration.
I plan to replace all the coil packs with accel upgrade packs next and see if this helps. with the appearance of the plugs, it does not seem to me that the issue is ignition, but this is something i planned to do anyway.
Any other recommendations would be welcome. Thank you all!

brandonWright

Mine was doing similar things for a while. Never threw codes until I was towing home from racing 400miles away. I got a throttle body (drive by wire )code, and went into limp mode. I was burning oil 1-2 quarts previous to my issues. Long story short. Oil seal on driver side turbo failed and sent oil into intake coating Throttle body. I was able to get it home by cleaning Throttle body every 30-50 miles. My idle has been rough for sometime and this was my issue. Replaced turbo and throttle body. All good.

K9cop

I had the dealer replace both my turbos (not the same symptoms as you had.)

Turns out my symptoms were that the PCV valve broke and shot oil everywhere. Turbos sucked up a bunch of oil yada yada yada. My tell was that the exhaust would SMOKE after a long idle. It would also smoke under other circumstances too.

Compression check was done and it was all just fine.

I bet you just need to drill the weep hole.

little_fellow

Good day cbass149. My truck makes this noise also. The dealer changed one turbo under warranty a couple of months ago. Not 3000 miles after the noise came back. The dealer changed both turbos under warranty again. About 1000 miles since and truck no longer under warranty it is making that same noise again. I will have to talk to the dealer but this is an expensive fix and something else must be causing the problem. I am starting to dislike these turbo engine and I am wondering if a person could bypass the turbos all together?