Ecoboost Issues

Discussion in 'Chevy Silverado Forum (GMC Sierra)' started by paracutin, May 15, 2013.

  1. paracutin

    paracutin Rockstar 100 Posts

  2. McClintoc

    McClintoc ɹoʇɐɹǝpoɯ Staff Member 2 Years 1000 Posts Platinum Contributor

    But GM went with Active Fuel Management and lots of those egines have died...
  3. stchman

    stchman Active Member 1 Year 1000 Posts

    It is a matter of time that twin turbo engines start giving their owners problems.

    How many AFM engines have died of the ~4 million made since 2007? 300, 400, 1000? Can all those engine deaths be attributed to AFM killing it? If AFM on the 5.3L and 6.2L engine was such a bad thing, GM would have discontinued it.
  4. Conlan Rose

    Conlan Rose Rockstar 3 Years 1000 Posts

    AFM has only caused slight to major oil consumption issues not any other issues. Ford Twin turbos have had problems like setting fire to themselves and almost killing owners which is much worse than needing to check your oil more often and top it off.
  5. stchman

    stchman Active Member 1 Year 1000 Posts

    I good friend of mine owns a repair shop and has said that in his experience if an AFM engine owner uses synthetic oil, their oil consumption goes down dramatically. I imagine AFM oil consumption is one of the reasons GM mandates their customers to use dexOS approved oil.
  6. shibby2oo8

    shibby2oo8 Member 2 Years 100 Posts

    I still dont feel like turbo technology has come far enough to have reliable longevity to it. All those VW turbos only last to around 70-75k tops around here. Then ford says "we dont just have 1 but TWIN TURBOS!", i would hate to own one once the warranty stops cuz thats gonna be a second mortgage on the house to fix.
  7. paracutin

    paracutin Rockstar 100 Posts

    I have never owned a diesel truck but all modern diesel trucks are turbo charged. Any issues with the turbos?
  8. stchman

    stchman Active Member 1 Year 1000 Posts

    The Duramax diesel engine is turbo charges, and it has IIRC a two stage turbo charger.
  9. shibby2oo8

    shibby2oo8 Member 2 Years 100 Posts

    The new ones are vari-vane set ups that adjust boost by pitch of the vanes. They have more of a prob with the vanes getting carboned up and not moving anymore. The diesel turbos are biult better since a bad turbo can cause a runaway if oil get past the seals but they still need changed out often. My old boss had a 07 cummins that started making noise at 30k miles but i dont work there anymore.
  10. steved

    steved Former Member

    No problems on the standard old mechanical diesel turbo...but the newer variable geometry turbos and the electronically controlled variants have some problems time to time. I had 200k and 275k on my last two Cummins (respectively) and my father has 300k on his Cummins without issue...and I wasn't easy on the last truck.

    One thing to keep in mind regarding turbos...they take an oil specified for turbo engines. Pretty much every diesel on the road today is turbocharged, and the oil for a turbo diesel is a lot more stout than an oil for a gasoline engine, and not all gasoline engine oils are turbo-rated. If you get the wrong oil, it might not fail right then, but it takes time of the useful life of the turbo.

    Turbos on gasoline engines have been around a long time...look at the Grand National and GNX, they were turbo charged V6s and were probably the hottest car in their heyday. Some of the Subarus are turbo charged (my Forester is one), and they typically only have turbo problems if the owner neglects oil changes and the oil passages plug from oil coking. My Forester gets 20mpg in town and 26mpg+ on the highway...and is one nasty little sleeper (its light, the turbo spools quick, and all wheel drive).

    - - - Updated - - -

    FWIW: I have driven the Ford Escape with the 2.0L Ecoboost...very similar in size to my Forester. It netted me 35mpg+ on the highway and had plenty of zip. Ford's got a good idea with the turbo-charged cars, just bad implementations (hey, every manufacturer gets a bad run of parts or has issues in the first couple model years).

    The one that really gets me is the F150 with the EB3.5L, there is an application that screams fail to me every time I see one...that's working the engine pretty hard to maintain the power of a comparable V8.

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