Took the wife's Flex in for a CEL (evap system leak), a slight shudder at idle in gear, and an oil leak.  After first inspection, they said I had a bad PCV system which caused a vacuum leak and also caused the oil leak that developed around the valve cover and ran down the block.  They say the EVAP leak is what was causing misfire codes on #2 and 7, which caused the shudder.  New parts flown in from all over to replace the PCV and EVAP systems will make it go away...ok...

Test drive number 1, leak gone, shudder didn't go away.  Checked out again and the misfires didn't go away.  Said spark plugs needed to be replaced and mentioned something about a TSB regarding degrading spark plugs...ok...

Test drive number 2.  Car still has misfire on cylinder #2.  Diagnosis is coil pack is weak/bad, move coil to confirm...ok...

Test drive number 3.  Misfire stays on cylinder #2...sweet.

They finally did the compression test that I asked them to do when they first said the PVC system had such a large amount of oil.  I know these cars tend to dump a fair bit of oil in the CCV system, but this was excessive by the dealers standards.  My thought is that there had to be a reason for the excess crank case pressure pushing that much oil around.  Since my warranty was up, I wanted them to be VERY thorough.  Well, come to find out that cylinder #2 has very low compression.

They are tearing it down now.  Should be interesting to see what they find...my guess is that this goes along with the chatter (at every start up and sometimes under load) that I have been complaining about since the car had 30k on it, that they have never been able to diagnose.  I'll be they might find bad rings, and possibly a scored bore since I'm betting there was a little extra movement in the piston.

Car is just shy of 73k and other than being tuned for about 300 miles (wife didn't care for the extra power...weirdo), it is completely stock with synthetic oil every 4k miles (better oil, shorter intervals than recommended by dealer).

Extended warranty?

Yes, but the standard power train warranty will cover this too...Not sure who they will end up billing it to, and don't really care...

Wow, quite the tale.  Looks like you are headed for a new block?

We shall see.  They are hoping to have everything tore down by the end tomorrow and they will know where they are heading from that point.

Well, verdict is in! 

Got her all tore down and we have a cracked #2 piston! 

Don't go blowing up your EB's just yet folks.  Both short and long blocks are on national backorder (I find this somewhat disheartening).  They have complete crate engines, but my service manager isn't sure Ford will approve that based on the CPA (cost price analysis).  I have a heard time believing that Ford would rather me wait, paying for a rental car for the short/long blocks to come back in stock than just fix it and be done.

We shall see.

Excessive heat/knock cause it?  Where was it cracked?

What tune do you have?

You called it, FaSSt!  Hope they do right by you.

Quote from: FaSSt9602 on July 21, 2014, 10:21:21 PM
Well, verdict is in! 

Got her all tore down and we have a cracked #2 piston! 

Don't go blowing up your EB's just yet folks.  Both short and long blocks are on national backorder (I find this somewhat disheartening).  They have complete crate engines, but my service manager isn't sure Ford will approve that based on the CPA (cost price analysis).  I have a heard time believing that Ford would rather me wait, paying for a rental car for the short/long blocks to come back in stock than just fix it and be done.

We shall see.

Post your issue on Fordflex.net--There is Ford representatives over there and they seem to get stuff taken care of when the dealer trys to drag there feet.

Quote from: Josephm on July 21, 2014, 11:53:53 PM

Quote from: FaSSt9602 on July 21, 2014, 10:21:21 PM
Well, verdict is in! 

Got her all tore down and we have a cracked #2 piston! 

Don't go blowing up your EB's just yet folks.  Both short and long blocks are on national backorder (I find this somewhat disheartening).  They have complete crate engines, but my service manager isn't sure Ford will approve that based on the CPA (cost price analysis).  I have a heard time believing that Ford would rather me wait, paying for a rental car for the short/long blocks to come back in stock than just fix it and be done.

We shall see.

Post your issue on Fordflex.net--There is Ford representatives over there and they seem to get stuff taken care of when the dealer trys to drag there feet.

It actually isn't the dealer (I don't think) that is dragging their feet.  Just need to get approval on a complete engine assembly.  Dealer says it is in Fords hands to decide whether they will shell out the $9k for a complete crate engine.  They this whole situation with B/O parts on both short and long blocks is new to them.  They have never been in a situation like this. 

I have a good friend who is a Ford corporate customer care specialist.  He used to cover Arizona and Vegas, but recently moved to Texas.  If I don't feel things are going right, I will make sure to get him involved. 

Quote from: PokerMunkee on July 21, 2014, 10:24:10 PM
Excessive heat/knock cause it?  Where was it cracked?

What tune do you have?

Not sure what caused it.  My wife drives it and she doesn't work the car hard at all.  The car actually doesn't have a tune on it.  Tuned it for about 300 miles, about 35,000 miles ago.  Wife didn't care for the extra power (she's a weirdo like that) so I didn't bother keeping the tune loaded.

I am pretty sure the car had some detonation last year when we were heading up north.  Heading up a decent grade I could tell the car was getting a little knock retard, and I could have sworn I head a little detonation.  I still believe that this might have been an issue that I have been chasing since the car had about 30k miles on it.  Ever time you start the car you can hear an audible chatter/knock/rattle that would go away within about 1-3 seconds.  Sounds just like any diesel I have heard with a cracked piston.  Once the cylinder pressures push on the piston, it sorta re-seats itself, runs ok, just has a lot of blowby, ie my CCV system being inundated with so much oil that it was dripping down the side of the valve cover.

Aw damn. I have a similar chatter on start up. I hope I don't have the same issue.
Car runs very strong, no oil on plugs or through exhaust.
I thought it was related to my oil filter leaking oil back through the check valve since I changes filters. 


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Quote from: glock-coma on July 22, 2014, 02:00:00 PM

I thought it was related to my oil filter leaking oil back through the check valve since I changes filters. 


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That is what the dealer tried to tell me the one time I didn't have it changed by them.  Problem is it does it no matter what who does it, what filter is used, or what oil.  It may or may not have anything to do with it, but it didn't sound like any other chatter noises that are synonymous with EB's.

Okay, it's only been doing it since I've been using Motorcraft oil filters. I need to change the oil soon, I'm going to go back to Purolator Pure 1 filters and see if it still does it.

It only does it after the cars been sitting overnight. 


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That's odd.  Usually it is non-Motorcraft filters experiencing that rattle/clatter at startup, due to the different location of the anti-drainback valve!