The cam phaser issues is the reason why I went with a dealer that provides a 10yr/100k mile drive train warranty.

 

I was looking into why some of the HDPP cooling features were removed in the latest model years. I read some threads where people were speculating that the changes to the 3.5L Eco may make the additional coolers unnecessary (not sure how that would affect the 5.0L HDPPs). Anyhow, I ran across this interview which has a lot of great info. This takes you right to the part where they talk about some of the upgrades that made the bump in HP possible.

 

They may have changed some parts, but literally changing the max torque settings in the tune on a 2020 achieves more than the rated horsepower of the 2031’s without any changing of any safety parameters.

Note the slightly higher rpm they run now, uncork a couple hundred more rpm and they make ~440hp at the crank with nothin more than changing the boost curve to not taper off.

 

The video I posted above seems to suggest that it's not all tuning. Not arguing that you couldn't hit the hp and torque numbers with just a tune of the older engine but as far as I can tell, Ford is saying that they borrowed components from the HO version of the engine. Am i misunderstanding what's said in the video?

 

That's what I gathered from it.

But i agree a simple tune massage is a lot less expensive for ford and there is a ton of untapped tunable power in these ecoboosts.
My tune only 2018 2.7l proved that to me. Thing was wicked strong with just a conservative 5* tune.

I think Ford just wanted to stay out ahead of the new Tundra 3.4l TT.

 

I’m not saying there’s no minor mechanical differences. They’re just not material to the power change.

The vague references are likely there to obscure the truth on the 3.5 powertrain being very similar, otherwise you would just retune to get the gains instead of buying new.

“Stainless manifolds” is a curious one for sure….

 

I see the engineer mentioned different pistons? I would like to know if the connecting rods are stronger ? Also if the cylinder heads are from the H.O. ? Any upgrade there? Maybe in time

 

can I swap in a 2021 3.5 ecoboost into a 2017 3.5 ecoboost? If not and I ask this because I’m told they’re not compatible? Why not? What’s this difference?

 

No, they are different. For one, the '21+ has EGR, different turbos, different heads, all kinds of little stuff.

Could it be done and tuned to work? Maybe, if the sensors all plugged in and used the same value ranges. But it's not a plug and play job.

 

2021+ 3.5L EcoBoost is A Gen 3 engine.