Talk me out of a 2.7 Ecoboost

J

joebob25

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Joined
Apr 22, 2022
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15
Hello all!

I am the proud new owner of a 2108 hawk that my wife and I just picked up last week. To say we are excited is an understatement! This is the culmination of 2 years of research/dreaming and six months of diligent searching for the right used FWC to meet our needs and budget. It is currently sitting on my 2005 F150 with 250,000 miles on it, and we will use that truck on some closer/shorter shake down trips while I look for a new truck. We want something more reliable and equipped to haul the camper from a payload stand point. The current truck is running well and has some light modifications to help with the camper, but is a little long in the tooth to be trusted in the Utah/Colorado wilderness.

First let me tell you how we plan to use the camper. It will live off the truck and probably be used on 4-5 short weekend type trips/year and 1-2 longer 7-10 day trips/year. We would love to full time it but it’s not in the cards at this point in our lives. Out side of that the truck will be a daily driver for me around town and to and from work. I know the conventional wisdom is to over truck when you’re carrying a camper, but with higher gas prices seeming to be guaranteed for the foreseeable future, maximizing gas mileage is high on my priority list. 2.7s with the HDPP exist and would easily meet my payload requirements (we’re light packers). I won’t be doing any extreme off-roading that would over stress the suspension, we’ll be sticking to pavement, gravel and the odd fire road to get to a camp site. I’m not an aggressive driver that cares about passing on the uphill in the mountains. The 2.7 makes more torque/HP than my current 17 year old 5.4 triton in my f150, and I’ve been happy with how that moves the weight. Am I crazy for thinking the 2.7 is enough truck for how I plan to use the camper? Thanks for your advise all!

Would also love to hear from anyone who has a FWC on a 2.7…
 
Welcome to the cult.I think there are some other members who have switched to the 2.7.
Not the same use but I had a 2013 Escape 4cyl turbo and it had so much power it was almost scary.

The turbo will give you the power when needed and I think good MPG.

Great find on your Hawk. When these campers are posted for sale they don't last long.
Frank
 
Just remember the greatest cost of owning a vehicle is not gas consumption, but maintenance!! My experience of turbos is the added pressure in the engine can lead to expensive failures like coolant leaks, etc and resulting in very expensive repairs, like in the $20K range. I feel much more comfortable with my 9 year old, normally aspirated Tundra which only gets 16 to 17 mpg unloaded and only 11 to 12mpg with my Hallmark Milner on it. But I have not had any major repairs and neither has my son who has a 4wheel Hawk on his 22 year old 5.7L Tundra.
The Tundra has the best maintenance record of any pickup and with the 5.7L V8 it handles Colorados passes easily.
 
Cottonww said:
Just remember the greatest cost of owning a vehicle is not gas consumption, but maintenance!! My experience of turbos is the added pressure in the engine can lead to expensive failures like coolant leaks, etc and resulting in very expensive repairs, like in the $20K range. I feel much more comfortable with my 9 year old, normally aspirated Tundra which only gets 16 to 17 mpg unloaded and only 11 to 12mpg with my Hallmark Milner on it. But I have not had any major repairs and neither has my son who has a 4wheel Hawk on his 22 year old 5.7L Tundra.
The Tundra has the best maintenance record of any pickup and with the 5.7L V8 it handles Colorados passes easily.
Click to expand...
Very good points.Thanks for that input.
I also have a 20 year old Tundra with my ATC Bobcat and is the best vehicle I think I have ever owned.
Frank
 
Cottonww said:
Just remember the greatest cost of owning a vehicle is not gas consumption, but maintenance!! My experience of turbos is the added pressure in the engine can lead to expensive failures like coolant leaks, etc and resulting in very expensive repairs, like in the $20K range. I feel much more comfortable with my 9 year old, normally aspirated Tundra which only gets 16 to 17 mpg unloaded and only 11 to 12mpg with my Hallmark Milner on it. But I have not had any major repairs and neither has my son who has a 4wheel Hawk on his 22 year old 5.7L Tundra.
The Tundra has the best maintenance record of any pickup and with the 5.7L V8 it handles Colorados passes easily.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the input! I really value all opinions on the matter. I agree that from a bombproof engine standpoint the Toyotas of the last decade win hands down. However looking at those MPG numbers for the Tundra they're only 1 MPG or so off a 3/4 ton F250. Right or wrong I think Toyota has overlooked improvements in fuel economy for longevity and reliability until recently (new twin turbo tundra Tundra). That being said I think turbos get a bad wrap for a number of reasons:

1) Early (late 80s early 90s) factory turbo engines were problematic to be sure.
2) People slapping turbos on NA engines that weren't intended for the added stress.
3) People not maintaining them properly (factory turbos are high performance engines that are less tolerant of missed maintenance and cheap oils/gas.)
4) People putting aftermarket tunes on turbo engines and pushing the boost/performance beyond what the factory intended for longevity.

I know turbo engines can still be problematic, but the 3.5 EB has been around for over a decade with Ford making improvements along the way. I feel like the 2.7 EB would share in that pedigree? Just doing some napkin math using average MPG numbers off fuelly.com and assuming 15000 miles/year and $4.00/gal gas, the 2.7 would save me around 1k/year in fuel costs. Assuming I avoided any major repairs over the next decade that's quite a savings...
 
I can't speak for the 2.7, but I have had 3 different trucks with the 5.0 and find it to be efficient and powerful. We have a F150 superb with 8 foot bed HDPP for our Grandby Shell (plus furnace and build out slightly, 1250 lbs). We only lose about 2 mpgs with the camper on and like you, camper is not on full time and need a truck for work.

I have heard that the eco boosts lose quite a bit of mpgs when hauling a load. I know a couple people that have the 3.5 and love it, but they typically get worse gas mileage than the 5.0 (pretty sure it has to do with how you drive them).

5.0 is also cheaper from the start...

Either way, good luck, love my Fords and have been very happy with them.
 
Here's a not so well known MPG trick for the 2nd gen Toyota Tundra. Turn off traction control. You will get about 1.5 mpg better. Read the manual to learn how to do it. There is connector under the steering column if you want it to stay off and not have to turn it off every time. I too was very interested in the 2.7 Ecoboost, but reliability reports are a bit mixed. My time and peace of mind are worth a couple of mpg's.
 
I looked into the Ford and, from as far as I can tell, you’ll be perfectly happy with this excellent vehicle. I wound up with a Tundra, and, as others have mentioned, while its gas mileage isn’t exciting, the engine is extraordinarily reliable and it doesn’t bat an eye at mountain passes with my Hawk in the bed.
If it’s true (and I don’t know!) that even expensive gas is cheaper than maintenance, I’ll be glad I went this way, but I haven’t done that math.
What math I did do, though, was resale value (you can practically make money on a used Tundra these days) and, at least when I got my 2019, it was actually less expensive for a truck with the safety features I wanted (adaptive cruise, blind spot monitoring, etc.) than the Ford. And I gotta tell you, long drives with your camper are MUCH better with adaptive cruise. Unexpected awesome for me. (My previous vehicle is a 2000…)
 
I have an ATC Cougar on a 2015 F150 with the 3.5 Ecoboost. Currently at about 90k miles. I've had to get the throttle body replaced once (just past warranty of course) as well as a couple of computer chips. Mostly minor but aggravating. Not as reliable as my old Tacoma. That said, the 3.5 has more than enough power to do anything with the camper on it, including several trips towing some fairly heavy trailers (with camper on). I have not made any modifications to suspension and it rides fine with the camper on. If I were to do it over, I would seriously consider the 2.7 for the fuel savings, although in reality the fuel savings would probably be fairly minimal in my opinion. I looked at the Toyota (have driven them for years) and decided the mileage wasn't reasonable (as of 2015) enough to keep my business. May be in part because of the aluminum body vs. the standard steel. Just some info to consider.
 
For us, reliability was the most important consideration, followed closely by capability to get us into the back of beyond country. Comfort had to be high, so I guess that rated 3rd on our list. Those long drives can be hard and fighting a vehicle's oddities can make them much harder. So it was not a hard decision to settle on a new Tundra. Just got back from a 3,000 plus mile nearly month long trip and have no complaints at all about the truck with the Hawk. Gas mileage was pretty good, considering. Pretty sure a couple miles to the gallon would not have been worth disappointments on the the first 3 priorities. We have been on 5 long trips and numerous short trips and at no time have we had to worry about the truck.

There are a lot of good trucks out there. I have had no experience with Fords since I sold my late 70's vintage F150 in the mid 1980s.

Good luck with your decision.
 
AWG_Pics said:
For us, reliability was the most important consideration, followed closely by capability to get us into the back of beyond country. Comfort had to be high, so I guess that rated 3rd on our list. Those long drives can be hard and fighting a vehicle's oddities can make them much harder. So it was not a hard decision to settle on a new Tundra. Just got back from a 3,000 plus mile nearly month long trip and have no complaints at all about the truck with the Hawk. Gas mileage was pretty good, considering. Pretty sure a couple miles to the gallon would not have been worth disappointments on the the first 3 priorities. We have been on 5 long trips and numerous short trips and at no time have we had to worry about the truck.

There are a lot of good trucks out there. I have had no experience with Fords since I sold my late 70's vintage F150 in the mid 1980s.

Good luck with your decision.
Click to expand...
Spot on in regards to comfort.. nice to be comfortable on long drives.. I once did a long trip in a tacoma and it was the most uncomfortable vehicle I have spent time in... (and I am not a big guy)..
 
Have a Tacoma for 12 years now. Wife took it. Work truck was a 7.3 f350 retired and Picked up a a 2021 2.7. It’s a beast of a motor. Take on any v8. And gets above 25 driving 70+ Tacoma was maybe close to 19 mpg on the highway. 2.7 is designed by same engineers of the Ford power stroke turbo Diesels. Yeah it’s not a Toyota. Have many mechanics relatives and friends. Toyotas are reliable because they stay to the old technology longer. You can order a new F150 from a few dealers that are 2% under invoice
Granger Ford in Iowa is one. And shop around. For dealers that will sell you a extended warranty bumper-to-bumper for less than $900
Buy the truck and then Ford gives you $400 in Ford bucks. Use this for the warranty. Ford has many incentives
hope that helps.
 
You will get better hauling mileage and better long term reliability with the time-proven 5.0L V8. I’ve had that engine in 3 different F150s and never had a bit of trouble with any of them. My former ‘15 F150 pulled a 30' trailer over mountain passes with no problem.
 
DarinH said:
You will get better hauling mileage and better long term reliability with the time-proven 5.0L V8. I’ve had that engine in 3 different F150s and never had a bit of trouble with any of them. My former ‘15 F150 pulled a 30' trailer over mountain passes with no problem.
Click to expand...
This is why I chose the 5.0... I really wanted the Ecoboost, but was concerned about the long term reliability.. 5.0 has been flawless..
 
DarinH said:
You will get better hauling mileage and better long term reliability with the time-proven 5.0L V8. I’ve had that engine in 3 different F150s and never had a bit of trouble with any of them. My former ‘15 F150 pulled a 30' trailer over mountain passes with no problem.
Click to expand...
I don’t doubt better hauling mileage and performance with the 5.0. But as a part-timer with my camper (maybe 3-4 weeks total during the year) who will be primarily be driving my truck as a daily driver with no load, I’m attracted to the better mileage of the 2.7. I know the 5.0 is very efficient for a naturally aspirated V8, but over the next decade of driving (I keep my vehicles for a long time) even a modest increase in fuel economy adds up. Reliability is a concern, but the ford ecoboosts have a pretty good reputation and even the 5.0 has some known issues around oil consumption that can surface. No engine is 100% reliable. I’m just thinking out loud here, the 2.7 is tough to find in a super crew long bed so it may not even be an option for me (I’m only looking at used trucks). I have found some 5.0s with the heavy duty payload package which are also attractive to me from a camper hauling standpoint. Thanks for your input!
 
Engines are very simple mechanical assemblies - set aside all inexpensive external components for the sake of this discussion. When it comes to engines an their reliability, would you prefer a small engine working at nearly full capacity or a larger engine operating at a reduced capacity? We all know what the correct answer is and that is a larger engine operating at a reduced capacity.

So why is a smaller engine more efficient when pulling the same load? It's because internal combustion engines experience peak efficiency during peak load. That being said, if you want the most reliable engine, select the one with the lower MPG for that platform. If you want the least reliable engine, select the one with the higher MPG for the same platform.

I choose to pay for a a little more gasoline over an extended period to enjoy maximum reliability since my plans include full time travel to remote locations. Other would rather save on gasoline now while accepting the risk of lower reliability. There's no right or wrong answer - it really depends upon what is best for our individual situations.
 
This past week I saw a thread, but I forget where, a guy with the 2.7L found that when he put his camper on the truck he lost nearly all of the mpg advantage over a 5.0L (with the camper). Sometimes mpg variances among engines have nuance, such as when towing or hauling vs unloaded. But, like you say, if 95% of the time you are driving the truck unloaded, then you have your answer, and Bob's your uncle.
 
Most posts here are on point. I had a 2019 2.7 SC short bed for a time. Drove better than many "sports cars" of yesteryear. I carried big loads, short distances and most often trailered a Carolina Skiff 14 every weekend. Loads of mulch in the bed and a more in a towed 4x8 were all fine locally. Much heavier loads and it was in boost much more than was acceptable for longer distance large load traveling. I think it would be fine for a lightly loaded shell, but with our tendency to start packing on the pounds that changes the scenario. If you are a minimalist and have better load discipline than my crew go for it. We are at our limits with the current set up of Raven slide in on 2018 F150 3.5EB XTR. E rated KO2s and RAS HD with no room to start getting fat. We are happy.
 
If MPG are a major concern, and given your projected driving surfaces, I will caution you against getting a too aggressive set of tires. While they should still be E-rated due to the load, a tire such as the KO2 would be more than you need. We had some Big O All Terrain tires (made by Cooper) and when they wore down put on KO2s only to discover that we hurt our mileage by about 1.5 MPG.
Just another part of the equation.
Dave
 
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