3.0 diesel and the PowerBoost

[Infotroll]

I am on my second 3.0 Powerstroke and zero problems. I wanted the new F-150 is the only reason I got rid of the previous 2019. I don't baby the engine and always keep up on maintenance and change the fuel filters every 15k or so.

So I have been away for abit some food for thought . This is non scientific So I took off the Tonneau cover for a 2 week time frame worst mpg was 20 best 23.5 . 16k 6 months later All hand calculated Big head winds with temps 30-50* F. 2 weeks later cover back on and same route speed etc 22-25. Many factor are to be included not just how hard you stomp on it. I expect the guy in a flat place with warm weather getting getting close to 30 all thing being equal . If I can average 25 for a thousand miles on a 80*f days being in hill country . Short trips 30 min or less not good for diesel owner but those long trips are good. I do expect to average 24-27 when I hit the summer .Being able to drive a gas equivalent I average 15-19 on 3.5

Sponsored

 

[Roush Auto Detailing]

I have put 12,XXX miles on my diesel right now and almost 1,000 of it is pulling a 6,800lb TT. Lifetime average is 23.8 mpg. The highest I got was driving from Asheville, NC to Nashville, TN and back in June to the race and got 35 mpg to TN and 33 on the return trip. Wanted to get back home haha. I get 25 around town going back and forth to work. 11 miles one way. A 20 minute drive at 4:30 am going to work and 30 minutes coming home at 4pm.

The PowerStoke lives for the highway. Cruising at 65-70 is the sweet spot sitting at 1400-1600 rpm barely touching the throttle and a only few pounds of boost. Pulling the camper, the lowest I've had was 13 mpg which was our first trip. I think I was a little uncomfortable with it being the first time pulling something that size and used too much throttle at some points. Ever since then I range from 14-16 mpg. Every trip we've gone on, we go up a steep grade coming back in to the Appalachians. Even pulling the camper, rarely does it downshift out of 10 if I'm in rolling hills. I lock out 9th and 10th in the mountains anyway. I think all F150 drivers should do that anyways. All they are for is extra overdrive gears and if you don't, the truck gets bogged down and takes a little too long to downshift which means you have to floor it to gain back the 5-7 mph you lost in those few seconds.

I used to have a '19 Ranger that I loved as well and ended up getting hit head on cresting a hill by a druggy who just stole a '99 Ranger... As unfortunate and upsetting as that was, my wife and I were already talking about a buying a TT and I am soon going to buy a mobile detailing trailer, I did some research and decided on the 3.0L. Unfortunately, the accident was on August 9th 2021 (a few weeks after Ford killed the motor... of course) I found a 'steal' on a '20 model XLT with 5K miles for $50K but was not a fan of the color nor the interior but loved the drivetrain. We got lucky and my wife found a 302A XLT up in DC that was the F150 version of my Ranger (silver, FX4, sport package) and we jumped on it. At that point there were only 11 new diesels within 500 miles! I paid to have the dealership deliver it to my house and the over 400 mile trip the truck averaged over 31 mpg brand new!!

Ford really should have advertised this motor more than they did. They put all the nails in the the 3.0L coffin themselves. I think this motor is the best option for the F150. You gotta love the knock at idle on cold mornings and the turbo spooling with the windows down! Hopefully they will come to their senses in the next few years and bring it back and just maybe I will upgrade to a Lariat or King Ranch/ F150 diesel.

I LOVE this motor. It is a true workhorse. I would not choose any other motor out there for the F150 right now. To each their own on what motor you like. I know I will always tell people that this motor is a great option for anyone. You don't have to tow with it to get the benefits.

 

[Ford 3.0 Diesel]

Roush Auto Detailing

I totaling agree with everything that you said and I wouldn't take any other engine over the 3.0 diesel. Ford
really mess up when they discontinue the 3.0 diesel and
should have never done this. The other two big auto producer still have small diesel in their line up and there is a reason why they have them. Hopefully Ford will bring the 3.0 diesel back in the near future.

 

[Pitago]

Hello! This doesn't sound like an experience we want you to have with your F-150. Could you please send us a PM with your VIN and the name and location of your Ford dealer? I'd be happy to see how I can assist you on my end.

Fortunately for my truck whatever seal that got wet dried up but unfortunately for some truck there must be a seal that builds up corrosion and electric driving is never the same.. Right now I'm having a wet foul smell inside my truck dealership can't find anything I do have the cooling seats. I have an appointment on Nov 6, 2023. At the only Ford dealership in eagle Pass TX. Any feedback would help service department. And I will send u the vin number. TY*

 

[Pitago]

Please send me an email where I can send VIN number.. [email protected]

 

[Samson16]

I have put 12,XXX miles on my diesel right now and almost 1,000 of it is pulling a 6,800lb TT. Lifetime average is 23.8 mpg. The highest I got was driving from Asheville, NC to Nashville, TN and back in June to the race and got 35 mpg to TN and 33 on the return trip. Wanted to get back home haha. I get 25 around town going back and forth to work. 11 miles one way. A 20 minute drive at 4:30 am going to work and 30 minutes coming home at 4pm.

The PowerStoke lives for the highway. Cruising at 65-70 is the sweet spot sitting at 1400-1600 rpm barely touching the throttle and a only few pounds of boost. Pulling the camper, the lowest I've had was 13 mpg which was our first trip. I think I was a little uncomfortable with it being the first time pulling something that size and used too much throttle at some points. Ever since then I range from 14-16 mpg. Every trip we've gone on, we go up a steep grade coming back in to the Appalachians. Even pulling the camper, rarely does it downshift out of 10 if I'm in rolling hills. I lock out 9th and 10th in the mountains anyway. I think all F150 drivers should do that anyways. All they are for is extra overdrive gears and if you don't, the truck gets bogged down and takes a little too long to downshift which means you have to floor it to gain back the 5-7 mph you lost in those few seconds.

I used to have a '19 Ranger that I loved as well and ended up getting hit head on cresting a hill by a druggy who just stole a '99 Ranger... As unfortunate and upsetting as that was, my wife and I were already talking about a buying a TT and I am soon going to buy a mobile detailing trailer, I did some research and decided on the 3.0L. Unfortunately, the accident was on August 9th 2021 (a few weeks after Ford killed the motor... of course) I found a 'steal' on a '20 model XLT with 5K miles for $50K but was not a fan of the color nor the interior but loved the drivetrain. We got lucky and my wife found a 302A XLT up in DC that was the F150 version of my Ranger (silver, FX4, sport package) and we jumped on it. At that point there were only 11 new diesels within 500 miles! I paid to have the dealership deliver it to my house and the over 400 mile trip the truck averaged over 31 mpg brand new!!

Ford really should have advertised this motor more than they did. They put all the nails in the the 3.0L coffin themselves. I think this motor is the best option for the F150. You gotta love the knock at idle on cold mornings and the turbo spooling with the windows down! Hopefully they will come to their senses in the next few years and bring it back and just maybe I will upgrade to a Lariat or King Ranch/ F150 diesel.

I LOVE this motor. It is a true workhorse. I would not choose any other motor out there for the F150 right now. To each their own on what motor you like. I know I will always tell people that this motor is a great option for anyone. You don't have to tow with it to get the benefits.

Great post and PB owners like me can learn from how you drive your PowerStroke. I think part of the high temp problem is we keep our foot in the gas long after we should have backed off and let the torque do its thing. We keep reaching for HP that won’t help much anyway.

*Correction. It helps too well resulting in a huge heat load.

 

[motivology]

How are y’all getting decent MPG on 3.0 PS? I am not exactly light foot on the gas but I don’t floor it either. I didn’t buy my truck solely for the MPG but it is one of the reasons as I travel often on the highway to work & home.

 

[Samson16]

One day the battery in the Powerboost will need to be replace and it's not cheap! If the ecoboost gas engine doesn't break first.

Nothing is cheap and those are hypothetical wishes on your part. What is all too true is that your little diesel can't get get good enough mpg to overcome the fuel/DEF price difference. The PowerBoost is far superior. Quiet. Powerful. Heck, it even idles better than a diesel and it can power your RV when you get there.

 

[Roush Auto Detailing]

How are y’all getting decent MPG on 3.0 PS? I am not exactly light foot on the gas but I don’t floor it either. I didn’t buy my truck solely for the MPG but it is one of the reasons as I travel often on the highway to work & home.

You have to stay out of boost as much as possible. This goes for any turbo motor. I honestly hardly use cruise control. It doesn’t apply the throttle quick enough. I often lose 3-4 mph until it finally kicks in and down shifts and sucks fuel. When I anticipate hills (up or down) I save so much fuel. Give that a try on your next road trip! It takes some practice and your ankle will get sore!

 

[Paul Neubauer]

You have to stay out of boost as much as possible. This goes for any turbo motor. I honestly hardly use cruise control. It doesn’t apply the throttle quick enough. I often lose 3-4 mph until it finally kicks in and down shifts and sucks fuel. When I anticipate hills (up or down) I save so much fuel. Give that a try on your next road trip! It takes some practice and your ankle will get sore!

Ford just replaced a defective DPF on mine and it went from 23 mpg to 27 mpg now and I am always hard on the throttle because driving conservatively is boring.

 

[amschind]

So to revive this, I was really torn between the PB and the PS when I bought my truck back in '21. I would've loved a PowerBoostStroke, though of course Ford would never permit such a thing. However, I plan to keep this truck for a long time, likely after the engine and transmission need rebuilds. When that day comes (I have 71k miles in ~3 years, so figure in 8 more years), I would love to stick a 3.0l PS into it rather than a rebuilt 3.5l EB. My understanding is that the mechanical interface between the 3.5 and the PowerBoost electric module sandwiched between the 10R80 and engine is the same (i.e. it just pushes the whole transmission backwards about 4"), so it would be oddly easy to bolt everything up. I assume but do not know that the engine mounts for F150 engines are common across frames, so that would likely also be a non-issue.

The big problem would be engine control for the 3.0 vs the 3.5. I understand that the 3.0 has a different control module than the rest of Ford's engines, which I assume is the fact that they didn't want to re-engineer the Lion 3.0 controller for the NA market's electronics so they just firewalled it off into its own garden. That has the potential to make the switch workable in a few potential ways. First, it could be possible to simply let the 3.0 PS controller continue living its happy life, unaware that it has been Frankensteined into a PB. This seems problematic for a few reasons, namely that the PB actively controls torque and translates commanded acceleration from the pedal into electrons to the electric motor AND the ICE in concert. The alternative is that the 3.0 PS get its controller lopped off and the PB controller gets tuned to view it as a very strange 3.5 Ecoboost. Fundamentally, the diesel needs signals to the fuel injectors and wastegate control, both of which the Ecoboost controller does. The EB controller expects there to be port injectors, a throttle body and spark plugs, which the tune will have to convince it to ignore the absence of. This may be an advantage, as "spark plug that stays on for 3 minutes" is, from the electrical perspective, not so different from a glowplug. The knowledge base actually exists, and oddly the tuners that are offered are for both 3.0 AND 6.7 PS engines, which leads me to believe that there is some commonality in controls (just obviously very different numbers...). The trick would be finding a tuner capable of twisting the 3.0 data into a 3.5 engine controller.

Either approach would set off the mother of all check engine lights, code X0000, "Please kill me, existence is pain", but this is the last year for vehicle inspections in Texas so I don't really care.

The PB, like all EBs, gets down into the 10-13 MPG range when towing anything of substance. I would love a powertrain with the low end grunt and efficiency under load of the electric motor coupled with the low end grunt and efficiency under load of a diesel. There is no world where it makes sense to do that swap early, and it would be best of all if Ford did it, but down the line on a truck that needs the engine replaced anyway, it could make sense.

 

[Samson16]

The PB, like all EBs, gets down into the 10-13 MPG range when towing anything of substance.

How does the 3.0 compare apples to apples when you factor in complete cost of operation? Does it drink DEF like a sailor on shore leave? How about required maintenance? Fuel cost?

If you tow heavy and often perhaps a SuperDuty?

 

[Kshort62]

Powerboost 3.5 - better MPG when driving in city
Powerstroke 3.0 - better MPG when driving on highway

The average MPG could be about the same, depending on where you drive. My Powerboost is reporting 23.2 MPG overall. For a typical 6 mile trip to the grocery store & back, I usually see 25 MPG.

Not necessarily true .. my Powerboost is averaging 18-19 in the city. Yes I drive it gingerly trying to improve … I know some get way better than I do ..

 

[Smokewagun]

I’ve had both.

The 3.0L is sweet. My lifetime on my 3.0L with mostly highway and interstate was 21.88mpg. Towing a 6,500# travel trailer to Door County was 16.26 all day long on several trips. Daily driving, 21.5 to 22.0 and as high as 25mpg. You WILL work to get those numbers. Won’t win ANY race. Can barely get out of its way getting on the on-ramp over any EcoBoost.

The PowerBoost just scoots. My lifetime on my PowerBoost with mostly highway and interstate was 19.89mpg. Never towed a 6,500# travel trailer, but with a 5,000# flatbed, interstate, it was was 16.0 on a good day. MAYBE hit 15.7. Daily driving, 19 to 21 and as high as 27mpg. To get 27, I’d drive suburban streets for an hour and an half trip with 45-55mph average. Start in electric every time. Again, You WILL work to get those numbers being easy starts and driving. Will win all races. Will hop over anything in its way while dragging the trailer… almost.

 

[HammaMan]

I would love to stick a 3.0l PS into it rather than a rebuilt 3.5l EB. My understanding is that the mechanical interface between the 3.5 and the PowerBoost electric module sandwiched between the 10R80 and engine is the same (i.e. it just pushes the whole transmission backwards about 4"), so it would be oddly easy to bolt everything up.

There's other differences like the BCMC being different as well. The PB's is configured for the DC/DC and the aux buffer batt. The diesel has glow plugs / PTC heaters. It appears that the diesels fans are different as well as the fan points are used for glow plugs. The PTC isn't populated at all.

With the way the PB operates, if powered by a diesel, the DPF would likely regen much more as it really likes to be hot. The casual start/stop of the PB doesn't bode well for keeping the DPF hot. You'd have to beat on a PB diesel to keep the emission system healthy and it just seems backwards if you're not towing. In hybrid generator mode it'd just be really bad fit. You'd need to do a full emissions delete to avoid costly repairs further down the line. Looks like you'd need both PCMs and a device sitting between them to fake the data to make it all happy. The PB's PCM would need to control the trans for the interconnect clutch to function, but shifting for the diesel has to occur at much shorter RPM intervals. That'd be a helluva project to undertake!

Sponsored