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2011 Flex Ecoboost Low Oil Pressure

Started by RandR10, February 05, 2017, 03:55:33 PM

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SHOdded

So here's the latest update:
http://www.shoforum.com/index.php?threads/2010-to-2015-sho-engine-swap.131474/page-3#post-1470834

QuoteHey everybody, I know it's been a while but I wanted to bump the thread to give you all an update on how this went. My wife had the baby and after a week with him we realized he was going to be as easy to deal with as they come, and so we decided that I would do the engine swap myself. After three weeks of intermittent work the engine is in and it's running perfect. Pretty much everything shoblock said was true. The cam and crank sensors were 3 wire vs. my 2 wire sensors and they just bolted up. Not that I was supposed to get any of this with my purchase, but the turbos are a bolt on affair from the 2015 Explorer interceptor to my steel manifolds. The compressor housing from my spent turbo bolted right to the cracked turbo, so this got me the second turbo (instead of just the front one). As he said as well, the poly valve covers would not completely bolt to my old heads (I put them on because I want to salvage what I can of the take out motor, so I'm keeping it clean) due to a missing boss. The cast aluminum covers however just bolted up to the newer heads just fine.

During assembly I was thinking about saving some time and just using the cast exhaust manifolds because the steel ones don't look like they flow any better (and cast is usually quieter), but the rear one was cracked by the collision that cracked the turbo, so I had to use mine instead. One minor detail that's different between the two is that my turbos had brackets that held them in place, but they deleted this with the cast manifolds on the Explorer and there is no place to bolt the brackets on those turbos. There's a big old lever of exhaust tubing and turbo charger hanging from that steel manifold, so I'm planning to weld a bracket to each exhaust pipe and bolt each to a bell housing bolt to keep it from torquing on the manifolds during acceleration.

The oil cooler was a bolt on affair. I used the non-turbo tow package lower radiator hose and it worked fine. One issue was that the hose wasn't designed to clear the turbo-to-intercooler flex pipe, so it was squishing it a little. I fixed this by pulling it toward the cooling fans with a zip tie and it clears the flex pipe fine now. It's an extremely tight fit and very busy in that area now, you literally couldn't squeeze a hand through there anywhere, but it's working just fine so far.

Another few minor details that are different are as follows.
-The MAP sensor is held on with only one bolt instead of two, which I found interesting, considering that the same part number is cast into both intake manifolds and the MAP itself is the same part number and it plugs into my harness. Still bothers me for some reason though ;).
-The junkyard motor shipped with coil packs, and these were also a no-go. Just like the cam and crank sensors, they are three wires instead of two, so they don't interchange. I'm not sure when they went to these, but in 2015MY they're for sure different than the 2011MY.
-The Interceptor Utility motor I got had an extra heater hose port that protrudes from the front of the motor under the throttle body below where the upper radiator hose attaches. I don't know what it's for, but I'm guessing maybe a PTU cooler or something of that nature due to the HD designation of the interceptor application. In order to delete it completely, it looked like I would have to remove one of the heads to get the coolant tube out, so I just plugged it instead.
-The oil pan looks a bit deeper. I wasn't sure if I was just seeing things, but when I filled it with oil, it took another half quart than my old motor (a full 6 quarts instead of 5.5). I was worried that maybe the dip stick was wrong, so I looked up capacity on the 2015 Explorer and sure enough it's 6 quarts. This is a big plus IMO, and there are zero clearance issues in the Flex.

Now that it's in and running I wanted to say thank you, thank you , thank you for all the help, especially shoblock, and to SHOdded for putting me on to this forum.   
2007 Ford Edge SEL, Powerstop F/R Brake Kit, TXT LED 6000K Lo & Hi Beams, W16W LED Reverse Bulbs, 3BSpec 2.5w Map Lights, 5W Cree rear dome lights, 5W Cree cargo light, DTBL LED Taillights

If tuned:  Take note of the strategy code as you return to stock (including 3 bar MAP to 2 bar MAP) -> take car in & get it serviced -> check strategy code when you get car back -> have tuner update your tune if the strategy code has changed -> reload tune -> ENJOY!

RandR10

Quote from: SHOdded on February 14, 2017, 04:47:10 PM
Look at one of StealBlue's SCT logs, and attempt to duplicate in Forscan.  Probably the easiest way to go.
http://www.ecoboostperformanceforum.com/index.php/topic,7437.msg113188.html#msg113188

Thanks for the response on this SHOdded, I stopped getting notifications for this thread for some reason, so I didn't see that you had replied to that one.  I didn't have the miss pop up again, so I couldn't do a data log on it anyway.

After re-reading this thread, there's also something I forgot to include about my decision-making process to change the motor, which is that I had the oil analysis done and the results were not great.  Blackstone said I had more like 6k miles worth of aluminum and copper in the oil than the 600 miles that were on it.  I also saw a huge drop in mpg even after the oil change.  These things led me to suspect increased engine friction from wiped bearings and then lower oil pressure from the increased clearance.  I then decided to pull the trigger on the low mile 2015 Explorer Interceptor motor that's in the car now. 

My working theory until I get the old engine opened up for inspection is that the faulty PCV valve and oil separator caused oil consumption even before I put the catch can on and the PO ran it for a while with it low on oil.  It was a little low on oil when I bought it, which wasn't alarming to me at the time, but now I know in hindsight was probably a tell tale sign of why the original turbos failed in the first place.  I'm kicking myself for not having checked the PCV and oil separator earlier.  Might have ultimately saved the motor and even the set of turbos the PO had installed.
2011 Ford Flex Limited Ecoboost

SHOdded

Yeah, notifications IDK what the issue might be.  I only have a Daily Digest set up, and that has been working fine.  Something in the "ad hoc" timing as post-based notification would be is not quite right.  Will look into it again.

Yikes, the oil analysis sucked!  Glad you had it done, good insurance :thumb:  Can you post the results please?  There is a subforum for this, but you can post it in this thread, NP.
http://www.ecoboostperformanceforum.com/index.php/topic,4472.0.html

If the PCV valve/separator can cause a failure like this, that WOULD be worrisome.  Easy enough to change them out, maybe as regular maintenance items.
2007 Ford Edge SEL, Powerstop F/R Brake Kit, TXT LED 6000K Lo & Hi Beams, W16W LED Reverse Bulbs, 3BSpec 2.5w Map Lights, 5W Cree rear dome lights, 5W Cree cargo light, DTBL LED Taillights

If tuned:  Take note of the strategy code as you return to stock (including 3 bar MAP to 2 bar MAP) -> take car in & get it serviced -> check strategy code when you get car back -> have tuner update your tune if the strategy code has changed -> reload tune -> ENJOY!

RandR10

Once again didn't see the reply on this post for whatever reason.  Sorry about the delay but here's the oil analysis data in case anyone's interested, for posterity of course.  In the part that's cut off tech said iron and aluminum looked elevated for only 600 miles on the oil.  He said it looked more like 6000 miles.
2011 Ford Flex Limited Ecoboost