3.5 ecoboost failure at 86,000 miles - 2016 expedition tuned

[Adam J]

**update: in the daylight it's still quite hard to see the problem area. I'd say the driver's side turbo has some sort of major malfunction. Although oil on ground, and clearly wet on frame under that turbo, there's still a good fill level on dipstick.
coolant level is good.
i did start it back up briefly - huge moke out exhaust immediately and shut it down. must be big oil leak inside turbo housing. dunno if housing is cracked. engine bay is noisy, but didn't sound like rod knock or anythign of the sort.
last night i would have bet on a perforated oil pan or block.
towed back to my house today and will disassemble this week to see what's up.
hopefully not internal.
then perhaps some turbo/manifold upgrades are in order.**

Anyone experience a turbo fail in tremendous/immediate fashion like that?




Hey crew, curious if you could educatedly guess as to my seeming engine failure based on the following.
I need to go back and get it towed - to dealer or independent or home - don't know yet.
Last night dipped into throttle hard from a steady 40mph cruise and immediate bad sounds, the largest steady deep vibration you could think of and a slowly flashing check engine light.
At first thought some sort of throttle body / boost hiccup and severe limp mode where it cuts a few cylinders. Rolled up to a light in traffic after shifting into neutral. Really high idle.
It was dark, but in my brake lights, i could see tons of smoke pouring out of the exhaust. billowing almost.
Thought white, but really couldn't tell if gray or blue or... Rolled off to side street and cut engine, rolled to a parking lot.
Vehicle is tuned, and has been for 5,000 miles/14 months on 93 octane. It was fully warmed up, trans too.
There is oil leaking to the ground where the vehicle is parked - about the middle of the engine area in a couple spots as it was coming off crossmember components, but centered not on either side.
scanned for codes and yes
P0304 cylinder 4 misfire detected
P2282 air leak between throttle body and intake valves
Coolant reservoir was at appropriate levels when i checked 10 minutes later. There is oil on dipstick still, even with the leak.
dunno. I thought broken crank or rod or???
any thoughts? just curious about the "air leak" code without metal parts making new holes.
top and sides of engine look fine in the dark.

blah, blah, blah - probably have to buy an entire engine, yeah?

the air leak to mean sound like new holes on the top side or dropped valves or?
the oil to me indicates new hole on bottom side..

yikes.

and then the paralysis or anaylysis on what to do next - improve the engine somehow over factory or direct replacement or
obviously, my mind screams coyote/godzilla swap!!, but beyond all the talk over the years I don't see this as realistic

thanks for your input - adam j

 

[Fastcar]

Your asking the folks here to offer opinions based on your description when you haven't really looked at it. Turbo may have gone south in a big way. Might have swallowed a valve. Could have a bad case of fuel dilution and it hand grenaded. Ya really ought to give more info.

 

[adamsdaddy]

Borrow a compression test gauge to check each cylinder. You can easily disconnect the turbo intake from underneath the engine to isolate the turbos.

 

[Adam J]

Borrow a compression test gauge to check each cylinder. You can easily disconnect the turbo intake from underneath the engine to isolate the turbos.

gotcha - yeah, going to pull the driver's side spark plugs later today and borescope to start. one of my codes was #4 misfire, but that's the first cyl on that bank so maybe afr was just bad when it got wonky. I still don't understand the loss of pressure between throttle body and intake valves.

 

[Adam J]

whelp, based on what cylinder #4 looks like inside, I'm going to need some of the best snake oil made if this thing is going to self heal...

I don't have to make any moves as this is a spare vehicle, but I also cannot justify the angles I envision.

this is a base xl/ssv trim so not worth more than 15 grand on it's best day, even accessorized.
a used engine is let's say $5,000 and the "while you're in there" stuff with turbos, exhaust manifolds and timing chains and etc is easily another $5,000 plus labor.

any ideas or thoughts other than it being a total loss and going to scrap yard?
I don't have the experience doing this, but I've always dreamed of the v8 swap. It seems transmission is only bell housing compatible with other ecoboost, not coyote or godzilla.

 

[adamsdaddy]

I can't quite make out what happened in cylinder 4. My opinion would depend on whether the other cylinders also have damage, where the broken pieces went, was the crank bent, valves damaged, cylinder walls have damage? Seems like dropping the oil pan to check for pieces parts would be a good idea. From this link it sounds doable but time intensive.
Good luck!