Drive one. I picked up my EC last week and it has gobs of power, I haven't even stood on it yet, working it through break-in. Yeah HP is low but when it is rated to tow 11,300 lbs. torque numbers are where it is at. I doubt an old Supra can tow my 5,000 lb boat.

 

I pretty sure it has been proven by a article I read that they gave the 5.0 a low rating they got 345 hp at the rear wheels. I wish I could remember where I read it.

 

hp numbers are a function of piston surface area, piston speed and compression. The Supra makes its horsepower at a higher piston speed where as Ford makes its power for the most part at a lower piston speed that is also at an rpm that is more useable to the end user. Remember the application is as a truck engine and not a car engine and truck engines generally operate at lower rpm than cars. The increased boost accommodates the desire for higher torque numbers at lower piston speeds by cranking up the compression.

As for tuning, Ford/Bosch has encrypted the ECU so that they know when somebody fiddled with it.

 

Hey All,
I feel the need to chime in here. I have been driving turbocharged cars for over 15 years. Why are we comparing apples to oranges? Why not compare a corvette to a 6.2 raptor? It would net the same agruements. Why doesn't the truck have the HP and fuel economy of a vette?

Why not compare the ecoboost F-150 to a BMW 3.0 turbo that gets 300/300 in the X5. That would be more of a real comparison. Why not mention the turbo lag of the supra compared to the truck? 365/420 out of a 3.5L running on regular unleaded is nothing to complain about. That is better than 100 hp/L. Fuel economy of 15/21 on a 4x4 isn't bad either. Turbocharging does not directly affect fuel economy significantly, changing the way you drive because of the turbochargrd engine does. Look at the Taurus fuel economy numbers.

I have yet to drive the Ecoboost, but plan on doing that soon. As of right now I see nothing wrong with the way ford has released this engine for the F-150.

 

see, thats not quite right...HP matters less than torque (well, it should but like I said, some people just look at hp numbers). torque gets you moving.

 

Is it even legal to give an engine a false HP rating? Seems like there would be some truth in advertising and ethics issues if an engine rated at 360hp actually puts out better numbers.

 

misleading chart btw, look at how big the gap is between the 380ft-lb and the 420 ft-lb (small), now look at the gap between 420ft-lb and 434 ft-lb (bigger). it would help the comparison if there was a scale up the left side but there isnt and that means they are not necessarily being accurately represented.

 

The only time its illegal to publish false ratings is if you're padding your numbers... see 2000-2001 Cobra. IIRC, it was rated to make 320hp and when people started to dyno them, they were making somewhere in the neighborhood of 290 after the drivetrain loss calculations. This either went full on class action suit or nearly ended up in one since Ford not only recalled ALL Cobras sold in that time frame and retuned the ECU, but IIRC they had to change all of their advertisements.

IDK, some of that numbers information could be slightly inaccurate since I'm going off memory of when my neighbor went thru it when he purchased one new. Bottom line is that they can under-rate their numbers all they want, over rate them and you have a problem.

 

420 ft lbs of torque, 90% of which is available right from 1500rpm...and 22+ mpg hwy? Whats not to love?

 

It's not the max HP numbers but rather 420 lbs of torque at only 2000 RPM. That engine is putting torque out low like a turbo diesel. If you have owned diesel P/U's you know that they tow awesome do to the low rpm torque curve. No it's not a sports car engine high Hp numbers, but a durable (hopefully) truck that tows well (11300 Lbs) and gets decent mileage.