Ford to tear down F-150 EcoBoost engine

Ford will deliver a spectacle of a different kind to the audiece of the 2011 Detroit Auto Show with Ford engineers tearing down an engine that has gone a distance equal to six times around the earth and three quarters of the way to the moon.

The engineers and their audience will get to see what 160,000 miles and 10 years of use do to an engine’s parts and components. The F-150 EcoBoost engine has been put to the test since July with engineers exposing it to temperature and load extremes simulating nearly 10 years of use.
The engine was fitted into a regular production 2011 F-150 at Kansas City Assembly Plant and then tested to the extreme by hauling 55 tons of lumber, running at full throttle for 24 straight hours towing 11,300 pounds, competing against larger engines in an uphill towing competition and participating in a desert endurance race, the SCORE Tecate Baja 1000 in Mexico.
Finally, the engine was exposed to a “Torture Test” and had power levels and output checked at a speed range from 1,500 rpm to 5,000 rpm.

The public teardown at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit on Jan. 15, 2011 at 11 a.m., is the last stage of this “Torture Test”, documentation of the previous stages can be watched online here.