deadeye

I may be dating myself, but my 1968 GTO had a NYLON toothed cam timing gear that sheared the teeth off after warranty. Being an interference engine and the fact that I was turning about 5500 RPM at the time, nearly all of the 16 valves were bent and one piston had been deformed enough so you had to use quite a bit of force to move the con rod back and forth. I rebuilt the engine to Ram Air lV specs and put in a Cloyes True Roller cam timing set. Problem solved. Next up my 1999 SHO, if you're a Ford guy you must have heard about the V-8 SHO and their camshaft issues. The friggen cam sprockets were PRESS FIT to the camshafts, and around 80K miles they would start to slip. Being another interference engine they would damage valves, pistons, etc, and the repair bills for these out of warranty engines were astonomical. I had my cam sprockets welded to the camshafts at 72K to the tune of $700. Ford obviously knew about the problem, but never issued a recall to correct a blatant design difficiency. They'd sold less than 20K V-8 Sho's so I guess they figured the bad customer relations they created would'nt hurt them too much. Need I talk about the spark plugs in my 05 FX4? Yeah, Ford really helped me out on that one. A TSB, a Lisle spark plug tool , 6 hours of my labor, and $180 later I'm done. I'm still buying Fords, but they need to man up and accept responsibility for their design screw ups.

primalurges

Another unfortunate flaw with these engines is the engineers at Ford figured it was a good idea to bury the water pump inside the engine behind the front cover. Not only is the replacement a nightmare requiring removal of timing chain but when it goes it floods your crankcase with coolant. Now picture your turbos, cams, and crankshaft being lubricated with a mixture of oil and coolant. 500 miles after my water pump was replaced I spun a bearing and now need a new engine. Dealer blames it on the water and oil being mixed in the crank case. Unfortunately when this happened I feared something like this may happen but was optimistic it wouldn't. If you own an ECO I would consider changing water pump as preventative measure before reaching the 100k mark or getting rid of the truck. Mind you I had a completely trouble free experience for 108k miles but went something as simple as a water pump went out it took everything with it.

Slabo

Ok just so I am keeping track. I need to change my oil at 5K intervals, change plugs at 25K intervals and have the timing chain replaced at 75K along with the water pump. I am beginning to wonder where the ECO is in this engine?

primalurges

Only in the badging apparently.

05mustang_tt_charged

That is a lot of slack in the chain. Could you tell if the tensioner was plastic or metal? The 3V mustang had plastic tensioners that would occasionally fail and one of the big things was installing a 2V metal tensioner. The slack below the water pump pulley looks like the chain was really stretched. When the motor is running they slack spot should be passenger side outer chain and that is why they put the tensioner on that side. I am wondering if the tensioner is bleeding down and not locking in place causing all that slack. I would try and get the measurement from the used chain and compare it to a new chain to see how much it stretched. I can honestly say that scares me a little as I would have figured timing chain problems went away when they quit using the belts.

Jaythor74

I agree 100% just change plugs,drill a hole in the CAC, install catch cans,change timinng chains and water pump and all will be fine. As soon as my loan is not upside down mine is gone. I have run all my fords to 150-200k miles with no issues, then again all my other ones are proven motors. My 07 Taurus has a Vulcan 3.0 and my explorer has a 2v 4.6 v 8. This 3.5 has waaaay too many potential issues that usually end up being very expensive to fix.

iFord

I just read this whole thread. Nooooooooo!

Hep me, hep me, I'm doomed boys. I'm even scared to drive my old faithful 5.4 now! I feel like I just left a horror movie, and I don't even go to movies! Man, just when I was again thinking I wanted an Ecoboost, the new 2.7!! I'm going to live with the Amish.

Naw, I just figured it out: we're stuck boys. We might as well figure about $1,500 per month lifetime for our trucks for payments, gas, oil, maintenance, new, used, no matter. We're stuck. Addicted I tell ye. Cain't hep it. Gotta have it. Gotta do it. If we want to dance, we got to pay the fiddler. Hep me, hep me.

byeboty

[QUOTE=primalurges;3253465]Another unfortunate flaw with these engines is the engineers at Ford figured it was a good idea to bury the water pump inside the engine behind the front cover.


On the truck 3.5/3.7 engines, the water pump is on the outside of the engine...on the front cover. They do have a gasket that seperates the coolant from the engine oil inside the engine that can go bad and leak internally. The waterpump on the 3.5 eco in the Tauras is inside.

byeboty

Coolant Pump — 3.5L GTDI, 3.7L Printable View



MaterialItemSpecificationMotorcraft® Orange Antifreeze/Coolant Concentrated
VC-3-B (US); CVC-3-B2 (Canada) WSS-M97B44-D


ItemPart NumberDescription1 W503291Coolant pump pulley bolt - 25 Nm (18 lb-ft) (4 required) 2 8A528Coolant pump pulley 3 W503278Coolant pump bolt (7 required) 4 8501Coolant pump 5 8507Coolant pump gasket (part of 8501) 6 8565Coolant pump O-ring seal (part of 8501)

Removal

1. Remove the air cleaner outlet pipe. For additional information, refer to Section 303-12.

1. Loosen the 4 coolant pump pulley bolts.

1. Remove the accessory drive belt. For additional information, refer to Section 303-05.

1. NOTICE: Cover the A/C compressor belt to prevent coolant contamination of the belt.
   Completely cover the A/C compressor belt with waterproof plastic.

1. Remove the thermostat housing. For additional information, refer to Thermostat Housing — 3.5L GTDI or Thermostat Housing — 3.7L in this section.

1. Remove the 4 bolts and the coolant pump pulley.

1. Remove the 7 bolts and the coolant pump.
   • Remove and discard the gasket and the O-ring seal in the coolant pump.

Installation

1. Install a new O-ring seal in the coolant pump and lubricate it with clean engine coolant.

1. Position a new gasket, press the coolant pump over the channel cover plate snout protruding from the engine front cover and install the 7 bolts finger tight.

1. Tighten the coolant pump bolts in the sequence shown in 2 stages.
   • Stage 1: Tighten to 10 Nm (89 lb-in).
   • Stage 2: Tighten an additional 45 degrees.

1. Position the coolant pump pulley and install the 4 bolts finger tight.

1. Install the thermostat housing. For additional information, refer to Thermostat Housing — 3.5L GTDI or Thermostat Housing — 3.7L in this section.

1. Remove the plastic from the A/C compressor belt.

1. Install the accessory drive belt. For additional information, refer to Section 303-05.

1. Tighten the 4 coolant pump pulley bolts.
   • Tighten to 25 Nm (18 lb-ft).

1. Install the air cleaner outlet pipe. For additional information, refer to Section 303-12.

1. Fill and bleed the cooling system. For additional information, refer to Cooling System Draining, Filling and

modru2004

so much fearmongering about the ecoboost.


when it happened to the 5.0 mustang guys it got so bad that tuners started to offer their own limited warranty because it was hurting their business.