To be honest ... the Ford Ecoboost 3.5 vs ...

[Chuck FB]

8 minutes ago, Homer1959 said:

 

The Ecoboom  , as Chuck mentioned, had its fair share of problems, but how many millions are out on the road?

 

Gee, you wouldn't think there could be a million of them still parked at the side of the road with their hood up, do you 

[UWSkier]

Just did the tow through NM to eastern AZ in strong winds today, with an 8000 lb travel trailer and going the speed limit of 75MPH.  The tach barely got below 3000 RPM once today other than coasting downhill into ABQ.

 

I know it's built to rev like a mother, and I let it do so in the climbs.  My wife is always saying I'm abusing it, and I just tell her the engine is overbuilt to handle that sort of workload...  but I'd get a diesel if I was buying again tomorrow.  I had higher expectations of the gasser with the 10 speed.  I figured that transmission would be a great addition to the 6.6L gasser, but the thing just skips the in between gears most of the time anyways.  Like if a climb ahead of you looks steep and you kick it down from 7th to 6th ahead of the hill to get it into the powerband, it'll never stay in 6th.  It just drops to 5th and revs to the moon unless you are willing to scrub momentum.  It has plenty of grunt to pull the hill in 6th but it'll always choose to rev vs grunt.

 

I used to do this pull with a 2016 5.3L with the 8 speed and that would rev like crazy too, but TBH, it wasn't really any less capable of keeping the load moving.  The only place I really notice a difference between the 6.6L and my old 5.3L is getting the load moving at a red light.

 

This engine is begging for forced induction.

[CRApex]

1 hour ago, UWSkier said:

Just did the tow through NM to eastern AZ in strong winds today, with an 8000 lb travel trailer and going the speed limit of 75MPH.  The tach barely got below 3000 RPM once today other than coasting downhill into ABQ.

 

I know it's built to rev like a mother, and I let it do so in the climbs.  My wife is always saying I'm abusing it, and I just tell her the engine is overbuilt to handle that sort of workload...  but I'd get a diesel if I was buying again tomorrow.  I had higher expectations of the gasser with the 10 speed.  I figured that transmission would be a great addition to the 6.6L gasser, but the thing just skips the in between gears most of the time anyways.  Like if a climb ahead of you looks steep and you kick it down from 7th to 6th ahead of the hill to get it into the powerband, it'll never stay in 6th.  It just drops to 5th and revs to the moon unless you are willing to scrub momentum.  It has plenty of grunt to pull the hill in 6th but it'll always choose to rev vs grunt.

 

I used to do this pull with a 2016 5.3L with the 8 speed and that would rev like crazy too, but TBH, it wasn't really any less capable of keeping the load moving.  The only place I really notice a difference between the 6.6L and my old 5.3L is getting the load moving at a red light.

 

This engine is begging for forced induction.

I found the same thing...Had a 2024 with the 6.6 gas, great truck but underwhelming in the power department.  I switched from a diesel when they added the 10spd thinking it would bridge the gap.  Bottom line, I'm back in a diesel.  Not saying the gas is a bad truck, it gets the job done but man, it is slow.

[NaturallyAspirated]

Recently was towing 8000lbs myself, in my gasser. As always, it did fine. Seemed comfortable with it. 
 

The diesel is a completely different truck  IMHO. If I was big time RV’n guy, I’d have one. And some times I still miss it when my truck is loaded down.

But for me, dealing with DEF and all the system complexities is why I chose my simple 6 speed gas pickup. 

 

As far as Eco Boost… Incredible power. My friend blew up his. But to be honest, he ran it really hard. He swapped the motor and wasn’t mad. In fact can’t get him to bad mouth that motor. 

[Chuck FB]

On 9/2/2025 at 8:32 PM, UWSkier said:

Just did the tow through NM to eastern AZ in strong winds today, with an 8000 lb travel trailer and going the speed limit of 75MPH.  The tach barely got below 3000 RPM once today other than coasting downhill into ABQ.

 

I know it's built to rev like a mother, and I let it do so in the climbs.  My wife is always saying I'm abusing it, and I just tell her the engine is overbuilt to handle that sort of workload...  but I'd get a diesel if I was buying again tomorrow.  I had higher expectations of the gasser with the 10 speed.  I figured that transmission would be a great addition to the 6.6L gasser, but the thing just skips the in between gears most of the time anyways.  Like if a climb ahead of you looks steep and you kick it down from 7th to 6th ahead of the hill to get it into the powerband, it'll never stay in 6th.  It just drops to 5th and revs to the moon unless you are willing to scrub momentum.  It has plenty of grunt to pull the hill in 6th but it'll always choose to rev vs grunt.

 

I used to do this pull with a 2016 5.3L with the 8 speed and that would rev like crazy too, but TBH, it wasn't really any less capable of keeping the load moving.  The only place I really notice a difference between the 6.6L and my old 5.3L is getting the load moving at a red light.

 

This engine is begging for forced induction.

With your trailer on hills you mentioned as examples of it shifting down into 5th, what speed were you able to maintain ?

 

There's no getting away from the fact that the current diesel pickups blow the gas engines out of the water for power but unfortunately there are a lot of potential problems that come with the newer diesels due to the garbage that has been strapped onto them. When you get to your destination with the trailer, are you puttering around doing numerous short runs etc for quite a period of time ?. That becomes the issue with the diesel, its crap emissions system is definitely not in its happy place when doing much of that type of use although at least where you are at the moment never gets cold or should say cold like here in Canada during the winter as then things really suck for the emissions. 

[UWSkier]

1 minute ago, Chuck FB said:

With your trailer on hills you mentioned as examples of it shifting down into 5th, what speed were you able to maintain ?

 

There's no getting away from the fact that the current diesel pickups blow the gas engines out of the water for power but unfortunately there are a lot of potential problems that come with the newer diesels due to the garbage that has been strapped onto them. When you get to your destination with the trailer, are you puttering around doing numerous short runs etc for quite a period of time ?. That becomes the issue with the diesel, its crap emissions system is definitely not in its happy place when doing much of that type of use although at least where you are at the moment never gets cold or should say cold like here in Canada during the winter as then things really suck for the emissions. 

Gas is the right choice for me other than the 2 camping trips per year when I have to pull through mountains exceeding 6000 feet in elevation.  But yes, the truck is the camper puller, and once we get somewhere, it's the grocery getter, running errands vehicle.

And below 2000' elevation the gasser does OK, not great with the TT.  It 100% depends on the wind.  Crossing Kansas on the way East in July with tailwinds most of the way, it got 9MPG and loved running in 8th gear.  Crossing NM... was mostly in 6th and 7th.

[Chuck FB]

2 hours ago, UWSkier said:

Gas is the right choice for me other than the 2 camping trips per year when I have to pull through mountains exceeding 6000 feet in elevation.  But yes, the truck is the camper puller, and once we get somewhere, it's the grocery getter, running errands vehicle.

And below 2000' elevation the gasser does OK, not great with the TT.  It 100% depends on the wind.  Crossing Kansas on the way East in July with tailwinds most of the way, it got 9MPG and loved running in 8th gear.  Crossing NM... was mostly in 6th and 7th.

You know, perhaps all you need is a big bottle of that "booster juice" and when your climbing a tougher grade you give it a sniff LOL. If only the weight loss program was the theme right off the assembly line ( like the government issue trucks ), we really wouldn't be having this conversation as you would own a diesel and aside from being more careful with warm ups before asking much for power and cool downs with the turbo before shutting off, you would more than likely be reasonably pleased with a diesel. 

 

I was thinking back to years ago when my dad had a dually with a 454 and they were nothing all that great for power as they had low compression ratios and we were pulling a fifth wheel trailer over the Bear Tooth pass which is at 11000 feet of elevation and while he never said anything at the time he said years later that he wondered if it would even make it to the summit as it was just choking on fuel and had no power at all, being a carbed engine. But diesel engines without a turbo and being used at elevation are horrible as well, they pour out black smoke ( way before a DPF was invented ) and have no power either. The magic, yup its that turbo. 

 

Over the years I have hauled grain with gas trucks ( underpowered diesel as well ), for example and certainly very slowly down the road and grossing at 40000 lb with a 327 single barrel carb under the hood, or a big block gas in a tandem that would have had far less hp than the L8T grossing at 60000 lb grunting along on a soft gravel road. Experiences like that make the L8T pulling a trailer seem like a rocket on wheels, uh its all in the perspective 

Edited September 4, 2025 by Chuck FB

[Homer1959]

When I was debating between diesel and gas, I concluded that, in....MY... case, a diesel would be nice to have but not a necessity. 

 

First, it was hard to justify adding close to 12,000 CAD to the cost for only 6,000 miles per year hauling the travel trailer. Second, the maintenance costs, DEF, fuel prices, etc., were also factors. 

 

Once again, for ...ME..., nothing justified that amount of money. On top of that, most mechanics can work on a conventional V8, but I'm not sure about the Duramax. 

 

For 10 years, the F150 took us to our destinations, maxed out in every spec, but it still got the job done. My new truck, however, is like night and day with room to spare all around, and more than enough motor. So far, I wouldn't want anything else. All I want from this truck is seven good years of service—hopefully the same for my old me ! 

[KARNUT.20]

It’s not really apples, it’s apples and oranges. The Ford engine mentioned would be hammered by the addition weight. It’s all about application. Half tons can be configured up to 14K. But wouldn’t be as stable as a 3/4 ton. There’s a ride and fuel mileage trade off. It depends on usage. 

[Homer1959]

Spec remains spec no matter where the Hp and ftlbs pound of torque are assigned

[KARNUT.20]

9 minutes ago, Homer1959 said:

Spec remains spec no matter where the Hp and ftlbs pound of torque are assigned

There’s no 3.5 in a 3/4 ton or 6.6 in a 1/2 ton. As was mentioned earlier the 3.5 seems to pull about the same as the 6.6 in the 3/4 ton. The 6.6 has to overcome more and is tuned to do as much. The 3.5 would struggle in the 3/4 ton. Blown small engines need RPMs. A naturally aspirated larger engine is good at lower RPMs. That’s where the Apple and Orange comparison comes in.

[Another JR]

My neighbor’s 3.5 Eco Boost F150 had to have a new engine installed last Spring at just over 60k miles. It is his daily driver, but he towed a 24 foot travel trailer some of the time and a light four ATV trailer sometimes. He was not happy about it, but Ford eventually replaced it under warranty.  
 

 

[Chuck FB]

13 minutes ago, Another JR said:

My neighbor’s 3.5 Eco Boost F150 had to have a new engine installed last Spring at just over 60k miles. It is his daily driver, but he towed a 24 foot travel trailer some of the time and a light four ATV trailer sometimes. He was not happy about it, but Ford eventually replaced it under warranty.  
 

 

These days there seems to be a theme of blowing up engines which is very disturbing for how insanely expensive engines are now vs what they were some years back. Referring to a farm forum and farmers talking about their pickups, there were a couple of farmers talking about issues they had with the 3.5 at far less miles than your neighbours truck but because the truck had not put on the miles for its years it no longer had warranty and I believe it was the valve-train that was the issue with the engine and the cost to replace the timing chains and phasers etc was insane and I have heard this before from a mechanic that runs his own shop.  And then the turbo issues, some years back a farmer in this area was talking about his truck having the turbo fail ( not sure if it was one or both ) at a mileage that was still under warranty and did not have a good feeling about keeping the truck as now it was some ways past warranty and he sold it and got something else. One could say the same thing of various vehicles out there, sadly the 5.3 and more so the 6.2 GM engines fall into the same situation of not that great a track record of longevity. Take the Jeep Wrangler with the 4 cylinder turbo engine, a lady at the vehicle insurance agent I go to has now had the turbo fail twice and doesn't even have that many miles on it and both of those repairs were under warranty. Toyota ... there good, oops, no they had to fack that up too with the new engine. Ford 7.3 gas didn't get off to a great start either. So the choices in my head anyway narrowed and decided to go for the L8T as possibly something that might be a reasonable bet, pass on the duramax even though in some ways would have preferred that but was not looking forward to the emissions issues or future diesel repair bills. 

[Another JR]

My neighbor’s 3.5 F150 engine failure originated in the head/cam/valve system, but debris contaminated the block and the main bearings. It didn’t “blow up” on him or strand him - it started making valve train noise.  Luckily he was not on a long trip away from home at the time. 

 

 

[Chuck FB]

Unfortunately that wear metal has to go somewhere so it becomes a chain reaction of the valves drive train ultimately taking out the engine. The Ford 7.3 was doing the same idea due to the lifter rollers and cam de-laminating and sending metal down into the sump and then sucking that metal into the oil pump and it just went from bad to worse and started missing and loosing power. Definitely fortunate for your neighbour that they were not far away as it becomes a major expensive situation to deal with. My brother has been dealing with the holiday from hell this summer and is not home yet as his Ford 1 ton carrying a camper had engine issues as diesel was being forced into the cooling system and he is up in the Yukon. On a tow truck after days of trying to get a tow to the main city up there that even has any shop that can work on issues like that, lifting the cab and then trying to source parts and it was one thing after another. Finally got it back on the long holiday weekend and is trying it out to see if it will hang together and hopefully make the trip back under its own power. A very expensive holiday indeed !