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Originally Posted by RACarvalho
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Also, besides Ford efforts to move the customer to the ecoboost engine, more than 1/2 of customers don't want (me included) that engine.
So whatever was the reason to put the 5.0 in the F150 (stop gap? eco terrorists in marketing?, etc) that was not a wise decision.
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From a technology standpoint, I like EcoBoost engines in theory. However, from a cost perspective, I couldn’t agree more. This is even more the case with larger vehicles (trucks and motorhomes) where fuel economy differences between EcoBoost and a larger engine are insignificant. Under heavy loads an EB can even burn more gas. Regardless, it doesn’t take many repairs or added service to wipe out 1 MPG gain.
Regarding 5.0L in F-150, they’ve been used for a very long time. The first were 5.0L (302 cubic inch) small block V8s. Eventually that was replaced with 4.6L Triton V8 which was later increased to 5.0L. The present 5.0L Coyote is quite a bit more powerful than the original 4.6L Triton of that engine family.
Anyway, power is just power, and if a naturally aspirated engine lacks displacement to the point of having lower torque rating, then it has to make it up with RPMs. Not that there’s much wrong with that — it has pros and cons.
Drivers generally like lower RPM, and if a naturally aspirated engine is made larger, fuel economy suffers a bit at lower power requirements. However, with new 10-speed transmissions and cylinder deactivation, OEMs are able to increase displacement without taking a big MPG hit.
Ford will supposedly make cylinder deactivation available on new 5.0L F-150, and I expect the same may happen with 6.8L V8 to get decent fuel economy when lightly loaded. Personally, I prefer a simple drivetrain even if it has less power in order to preserve fuel economy.