Home Forums Gear Hunting Trucks and Four-Wheel Drives 2009-14 Ford F150 Ecoboost

Google "weep hole" modification to intercooler. Mine was idling rough and surging when passing. This fixed the problem immediately. I have since talked to two friends with the same truck that have had this problem and fixed it as well. Takes less than five minutes to do but I do suggest changing the spark plugs as well.

Really surprised no one else has had this problem. Seems very common.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the F-150's first offered the EcoBoost engine starting in 2011 along with the new 5.0. Seeing those new engines coming down the line in 2011 is why I bought my 2010 with the proven 5.4 engine. The 5.0 has had a better track record than the EcoBoost, but my old 5.0 F-150 was such a dog that I wanted no part of that size engine in a truck again.

Yeah, I guarantee you it's not a problem with 2009 Eco-boost motors. lol

You were not comparing apples to apples with the two 5.0 motors. COMPLETELY different animals.

Other than displacement, there's nothing similar about the 2 and the '18+ don't even have that in common anymore ('18+ are 307 cu in vs 302).

I hang out at f150forum.com a bit and that is a common problem to come up over there.

The 5.4 has a poor reliability reputation. The 2011 and newer 5.0 is a MUCH better engine in every way. Mine is a 2014 and it has more power than any truck I've ever owned, and gets the best fuel mileage than anything but the Tacoma. And the Tacoma only beats it by about 1 mpg. It isn't close to the performance of the old 302.

I don't want to start a pissing contest over the 2 engines. The 3.5 EB engine certainly puts out a lot of power at low rpm's and I've seen nothing to indicate it won't last as long as the 5.0 V8. It is a high performance engine that costs more up front,and it needs more expensive maintenance, and more often than the V8. Plus needs premium fuel to attain the advertised torque and HP numbers and doesn't get any better fuel mileage.

For what I do, and the light loads I tow the 5.0 made more sense to me. If I towed more weight, especially at altitude then I'd have bought the 3.5 and just paid for the performance.

JMR40 - What is its tow capacity and fuel mileage (without tow) of your 5.0? Thanks

I'd challenge that assertion. I don't believe the 5.4 had any worse reliability than any of it's competitors of the same vintage save maybe the Toyota 5.7. Did it have some design flaws, sure - cylinder heads on the 2V versions and spark plugs on the 3V versions but there are a lot of 5.4 equipped trucks out there with 200k+ miles running around that never experienced any of those issues. Is the 5.0 better? Yeah, but again, it's a much more evolved design...it's not really a fair comparison.

More torque lower on the rpm scale is why I went with the 5.4 over the then new 5.0. Just like my old blue truck with the 5 speed and 5.0/302, that newer motor has more horsepower, but it gets it from higher rpm's just like my old one. I don't pull anything all that heavy and the torque converter with the automatic makes my 5.4 do everything that I need a truck for. Many a time I ended up grabbing that 4wd low range lever without locking in the hubs (and I miss those too) just for more power and less speed with that old 5.0. It was a great engine in my old Mustang, the F-150 truck not so much.

I had a 5.4 and got 360,000 trouble free miles out of the vehicle. All I did was change oil, filters and brakes. I only changed the spark plugs one time as well.

Once again, you are comparing apples to donuts with the old and new 5.0 motors. Like tzone and JMR already said, they are not even in the same league and yes, the 5.4 has had its share of problems. So much in fact that if given the choice between the 2 different engine types, I'd choose 5.0 and never look back, well unless I wanted to see you in my rear view mirror...

Yep. I've had both the 5.4 and 5.0. The 5.0 will blow the doors off a 5.4 100/100 times. It will do it with better fuel mileage, torque, and HP.

Yes, but look at it from my perspective back in 2010. The 5.4 engine had been in the Ford line up for 13 years and earned one of the ten best Wards Engines multiple times. The 5.0 and Ecoboost were brand new, unproven engines and in retrospect, both engines have had multiple upgrades since they were introduced for the 2011 model year. That 5.0 as recently as just last year again. I'd had multiple issues with a turbo charged Saab engine and that 302 / 5.0 in my old blue truck was so gutless that anything 5.0 for a truck engine was not going to get a second look. Sure, today I'd look at it again, but my truck isn't my daily driver and I get high teens on the highway with that 5.4 and that isn't all that different than the 5.0 going down the same road.

Everything that I've seen lately reviewed head to head for a half ton seems to favor the Ram with the 5.7.

You keep going back to the same argument. You're comparing apples to concrete blocks. Not even in the same ballpark. I had the same decision and since I did some research and knew they were nothing like each other except in displacement it was a no brainier. You can tell yourself whatever you want....you shorted yourself by making that decision. Compared to the new 5.0, the 5.4 is the gutless pig. I know. I've had them both and drive them both weekly.

I have the ecoboost now. I'll take the 5.0 over it any day. I just like it better.

But, it won't matter because I'm going back to the Ram. It's a nicer truck for less money.

Tom, maybe you had an earlier 5.4 and Ford did increase the hp quite a bit into the 2009 and 2010 model years. I was trucking with 'Ol Blue with 185 hp and 260 fp torque, so going to that 5.4 with better gas mileage, 320 hp and 390 fp torque at 3,500 rpm felt anything but "gutless". The 2011 5.0 did have 360 hp and 380 fp torque, but just like my old 5.0, it got that torque at a higher rpm at 4,250 rpm. The EcoBoost engine is the one towing lots of the big stuff with an F-150 because it has so much torque (470 fp) way lower in the rpm range (2,500 rpm) and low end torque is what I want in a truck engine, just not with a turbo. Sure now with 9 more years of model year development that 5.0 would be the one to look at in a Ford. It just wasn't when I bought the 2010 5.4.

The days of low rpm torque monster engines with 3 or 4 or 5 speed transmissions is over.

All of the newer V-8's are rpm loving, free spinning 6-10 speed transmission rowing monsters. Especially compared to anything from more than 10 years ago.

My 2011 5.0 liter Ford pulls just as well as the small block 400 Chevy/ 400T truck we used to tow my dad's old Slickcraft with.
Better in fact.

I think the newer transmissions have more to do with the low end pulling power than the engines. A kid back in school had a two speed push button transmission in his old Dodge I think it was. My neighbor pulled a 26" trailer with an automatic and that old 302 in his van and never thought a thing about it. He was not very mechanically minded and didn't have a tach in that van to know that little motor was probably reving at near red line in second or third gear.