2.0 Ecoboost Engine: Have the old problems been solved?

[Gpp]

I think i found your lost postI'm glad im not the only one thats lost a post

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[pa-outdoorsman]

I wrote a long winded response which somehow disappeared. I do it myself. I use a hand held gravity fed harbor freight media blaster which I altered by designing and 3d printing a nozzle that could hold a roughly 8" piece of 1/8" ID aluminum pipe to get down into the intake port. It works very well. If you found an independent shop to do it I'm assuming they'd charge you at minimum a few hundred dollars. The last I knew this is NOT a Ford authorized service procedure for some reason even though other manufacturers do have walnut shell blasting procedures in place to clean intake valves. Ford's brilliant solution is to remove the cylinder head, remove each valve and then clean them individually. More money in service department pockets maybe? Who knows......

I fear your technique may be beyond me. How does one blast walnut shells into the intake ports and get them back out again, without putting a bunch of junk into the engine?

Suffice it to say this may not be something I'd be comfortable tackling myself. On the other hand, I have taught myself to do a lot of things over the years, provided there are clear enough instructions or videos and I feel I can adequately perform the required tasks.

 

[NJBob]

This is my third 2.0 Ecoboost. Ford has made many improvements to the design over the years and I think the latest iteration should prove to be pretty reliable especially when it comes to head gasket issues. That being said, I've had good reliability out of both of my previous 2.0 ecoboost motors I think in part due to not paying attention to factory service intervals and instead using Used Oil Analyses to figure out an interval that worked best for my driving habits and the engine. The 2.0 does NOT have secondary port injection like other Ecoboost motors do so carbon buildup on the valves is going to be a thing. If not cleaned they will cause issues with the motor, ie possible compression issues or poor performance due to restricted air flow. I settled on cleaning the valves via walnut shell blasting every 30k miles and I was surprised how much gunk would build up on the valves in that relatively short amount of time. I also had a very high quality catch can on both previous motors and it did not seem to help with carbon build up on the valves so this time around I'm skipping the catch can to see if it's worse without. Lastly, these motors love fresh, clean, high quality synthetic oil and will not do well with extended oil changes. That's a point of argument here but I'll stick to what works for me.

Wow Walnut shell cleaning every 30K. Do you do it yourself? I understand it's pretty pricey.

 

[pa-outdoorsman]

Wow Walnut shell cleaning every 30K. Do you do it yourself? I understand it's pretty pricey.

Yes, he posted with an explanation how he does it himself.

 

[Z_ealot]

The problem with this train of thought and old school thinking is that port injection used to spray gasoline directly onto your intake valves. Now with direct injection, fuel is sprayed directly into the cylinder meaning the intake valves never get fuel on them which is what keeps them clean. Blow by gasses cause oil and other gunk to deposit on the valves and then burn into carbon. Eventually this can cause a misfire. No amount of fuel injection cleaner will ever help since that will be directly injected into the cylinders. Not even a good old regular Italian tune up is enough to burn the carbon build up off the valves unfortunately.

I’ve found on another engine I’ve worked on that berryman b-12 chemtool, if left to soak carbon long enough, will actually dissolve carbon buildup…. But that may be asking a bit much for the normal person to be able to know how to do that on intake valves and safely drain the crankcase before starting the engine again

 

[NoVaJimmy]

I’ve found on another engine I’ve worked on that berryman b-12 chemtool, if left to soak carbon long enough, will actually dissolve carbon buildup…. But that may be asking a bit much for the normal person to be able to know how to do that on intake valves and safely drain the crankcase before starting the engine again

I've tried it. Unfortunately it doesn't work. If that was the case nobody would have to resort to using walnut shells. It may be able to shed minimal traces of carbon as shown in a couple of YouTube videos but it won't clean the severely gunked up intake valves on an Ecoboost. You CAN use the stuff in conjunction with manually scrubbing the intake ports and valves with a brush but trust me when I say that walnut shell blasting is so much easier

If you watch this video the guy is working on a Mazda engine which is essentially the same cylinder head as the Ecoboost 2.0. He actually soaks the valves with berrymans and still has to scrub therm significantly with a brush. He also resorts to using some kind of dental pick which to me is a no no, walnut shells are softer and won't damage or scratch anything like a sharp, hard tool can. It's at about 9:15 in the video

 

[Brijar92]

I wrote a long winded response which somehow disappeared. I do it myself. I use a hand held gravity fed harbor freight media blaster which I altered by designing and 3d printing a nozzle that could hold a roughly 8" piece of 1/8" ID aluminum pipe to get down into the intake port. It works very well. If you found an independent shop to do it I'm assuming they'd charge you at minimum a few hundred dollars. The last I knew this is NOT a Ford authorized service procedure for some reason even though other manufacturers do have walnut shell blasting procedures in place to clean intake valves. Ford's brilliant solution is to remove the cylinder head, remove each valve and then clean them individually. More money in service department pockets maybe? Who knows......

Thanks for the picture. Am I correct that the 3-D printed part isn't in the picture?

 

[NoVaJimmy]

Thanks for the picture. Am I correct that the 3-D printed part isn't in the picture?

Just a stock photo I pulled off the HF site.

 

[Sleeper 7]

 

[pa-outdoorsman]

That was a very helpful video!

 

[NJBob]

Yes, he posted with an explanation how he does it himself.

 

[FWDMav]

I've had three company car Ford Edge with the 2.0 Ecoboost. 2016 Edge, 2018 Edge and now 2021 Edge. I have put 58k on the 2016, 98k on the 2018 and currently 43k on the 2021. No catch cans and oil changes every 10k per leasing company. I had no powertrain issues whatsoever.
The '16 and '18 are known for the coolant intrusion issues but I did not see it on mine.

I ordered a hybrid because I just want to experiment with that powertrain. My hybrid has been scheduled for production (no changes can be made); otherwise I would not hesitate to get a 2.0 Ecoboost to speed things up.

 

[Old Ranchero]

BMW and a couple other makers with similarly injected motors recommend using a good fuel injector cleaner dumped in your gas tank at regular intervals. I have been using Berryman's B-12 for decades with great results on intake tract & top end cleaning where we had gov't mandated smog checks every other year in California. I only have 200 miles on my ECO 2.0 so far, but I'm using only top tier premium gas and plan to add Chemtool every other oil change or so interval, with oil changes at 3k miles. YMMV

 

[thevol]

I've had three company car Ford Edge with the 2.0 Ecoboost. 2016 Edge, 2018 Edge and now 2021 Edge. I have put 58k on the 2016, 98k on the 2018 and currently 43k on the 2021. No catch cans and oil changes every 10k per leasing company. I had no powertrain issues whatsoever.
The '16 and '18 are known for the coolant intrusion issues but I did not see it on mine.

I ordered a hybrid because I just want to experiment with that powertrain. My hybrid has been scheduled for production (no changes can be made); otherwise I would not hesitate to get a 2.0 Ecoboost to speed things up.

This always makes me wonder if there is a big need to keep the valves clean of carbon? I have seen several ecoboosts in the 200k range that have never had any sort of cleaning or catch can, Im sure they might have some efficiency gains from a cleaning but at that point other components of the motor are prob worn beyond a high efficiency state.

 

[Sleeper 7]

That was a very helpful video!

He is very good with Fords. Has lots of videos on youtube

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