5.0 Engine blown up at just under 58k miles

[apMechorse]

Buy-back process has officially been started. Hoping to roll it into an "as close as current option selections will allow" rebuild of my '21 as a '24.

Hopefully they will keep me in a loaner until spring. This was just really bad timing all around.

Does anyone else who happens to read this thread have any experience with the buy-back process? What to expect, what to be wary of, etc?

Thanks in advance.

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[apMechorse]

Just got the call from Customer Service - Buy-back approved! Only 23 days (5 day decision process my ass) after starting the process. Now I just wait to hear back from the "Buy-back Specialist" to discuss the next steps.

 

[DT444T]

I know I'm late to this game but damn do I enjoy your responses to the oil-change-interval people.

 

[KingDavid]

Just got the call from Customer Service - Buy-back approved! Only 23 days (5 day decision process my ass) after starting the process. Now I just wait to hear back from the "Buy-back Specialist" to discuss the next steps.

Congrats on the buy back. That process to repair a blown block is crazy. If my engine has catastrophic failure, I wouldn't want that long block anymore.

Which fuel did you normally use? e85/93/91/89/87?

 

[apMechorse]

Congrats on the buy back. That process to repair a blown block is crazy. If my engine has catastrophic failure, I wouldn't want that long block anymore.

Which fuel did you normally use? e85/93/91/89/87?

That was my concern too. Without getting into finger pointing about specific bad experiences in the past with dealer mechanics, I will say that with them being overworked and understaffed the last thing they want to do is rebuild an engine. And if they don't want to be doing it then I don't want them doing it to my engine. I had an Escape engine replaced under warranty by a dealer several years ago and when I sold it I was still finding things that had been misrouted and starting to chafe. Based on that alone I don't want them messing with the insides of the engine.

Mostly I used regular 87/89 from Holiday stations (Top Tier fuels) but since I live up north the mandatory percentage of ethanol ranges from 10-15% depending on when and where you get it. I never ran e85 in it however since I was sure the mileage would just be horrendous.

 

[KingDavid]

That was my concern too. Without getting into finger pointing about specific bad experiences in the past with dealer mechanics, I will say that with them being overworked and understaffed the last thing they want to do is rebuild an engine. And if they don't want to be doing it then I don't want them doing it to my engine. I had an Escape engine replaced under warranty by a dealer several years ago and when I sold it I was still finding things that had been misrouted and starting to chafe. Based on that alone I don't want them messing with the insides of the engine.

Mostly I used regular 87/89 from Holiday stations (Top Tier fuels) but since I live up north the mandatory percentage of ethanol ranges from 10-15% depending on when and where you get it. I never ran e85 in it however since I was sure the mileage would just be horrendous.

I have an oil separator and the amount of fuel I catch in there is pretty surprising to say the least. I don't know if there's a correlation to your octane and your engine failing on you, but it's something that I tend to keep in mind. Some of the people I've asked about their blown coyotes tended use 87.

Welp, doesn't matter. I hope your next truck is bulletproof. ?

 

[apMechorse]

I'm just going to leave this here and hopefully cut this route short before it takes root like the oil change interval tangent did.

If the 5.0s can't handle 87/89 octane fuel, then they need to update the manuals. I was already using Top Tier rated fuel almost exclusively - of course it helps that that is what Holiday sells and my dealer included a $.10/gal Holiday discount card with the original purchase. Sadly the card lasted longer than the truck.

My next truck doesn't need to be bulletproof, I'd be happy if it just worked the way it was supposed to from day one. ?

 

[JJSnell]

Waiting for the one guy to jump in and:
"Well this is what you get when you buy the biggest crap on the planet, the Powerbo..... oh wait... uhhhhmmmm"

 

[UNIKRN150]

Just got the call from Customer Service - Buy-back approved! Only 23 days (5 day decision process my ass) after starting the process. Now I just wait to hear back from the "Buy-back Specialist" to discuss the next steps.

You mean...

DIDN'T TAKE CARE OF IT FOR YOU?

...shocking!

 

[apMechorse]

And now for what I hope will be my final story addition to this thread:

Friday January 12th, 2024, a mere 161 days after my truck decided to commit seppuku in order to get out of taking a trip to Washington state, my truck has finally been returned to me.

Once the parts were on hand it took all of 5 working days to complete the repairs. What supply chain issues?

Here's what I know:

Evidence of piston/valve contact was discovered on the #4 piston. This is the same piston that decided it preferred life on the outside better than being cooped up in the same cylinder all the time. Specifics regarding the cause of the contact were apparently not immediately obvious, and it sounds like Ford didn't request that they dig any further than that.

During this 161 days I was given 3 different 2023 F-150s as loaners. All were XLTs, 2 were EcoBoost ( I didn't pay attention to the size) and 1 was a PowerBoost. Fun & related fact: Dealers can "Demo out" a loaner provided that they remove it from service prior to 6k miles! I did not know that before. Anyway all 3 of those F-150s have now been retired from loaner service. Thanks for the free miles Ford!

<<Additional PSA note to anyone who accepts a loaner F-150: If it has built in navigation activated, apparently "Bread crumbs" is turned on by default. This feature also cannot be turned off without a FordPass account connected to it. Always remember to Factory Reset your rental before returning it to the dealer!>>

Anyway, after watching the literal grass (and later leaves and finally snow piles) grow around my immobile truck, they finally moved it into the shop at the end of the day on January 5th, exactly 5 months after it was delivered to them. The following Monday they had the cab off and the engine out:

I cannot stress enough the gut-wrenching feeling of dread that passed through me witnessing this. All I could imagine was finding small issues that were "not quite right" after getting it back, or some strange new noise because something wasn't fitted the exact same way it was from the factory. Oh the humanity!

Anyway, by Thursday night they had it finished and test drove it, Friday they wrapped up the paperwork and by noon that day I was reunited with my long-lost favorite vehicle.

Now some of you may remember that I had started the buy-back process since this was taking so long. The catch to the buy-back was that unless I wanted a check cut for the MSRP (minus mileage) the only allowance they could make for a "trade in" would be for a vehicle already on a lot somewhere. Since my truck was a special order, I was not able to find what I would be happy settling for that was already made and ready to be sold. I even ventured into the realm of SuperDutys venturing so far as to look at Lariat and higher F-250s and (shudder) F-350s. ? However after searching most of the US, 100 miles radius at a time, I could not find anything that had the options I wanted in the configurations that I was willing to accept.

Somehow, as if by magic, as soon as the buy-back was approved I was informed that all the parts would be on-site within the next few days. The buy-back also came with a third option that I ultimately decided to go with: A significant cash-and-keep settlement that maintained all my current warranties and ultimately changed nothing regarding covered potential failures in the future.

Ultimately because Ford insisted on rebuilding my engine instead of just swapping out the whole thing, it cost them: Parts, Labor, over $7k in rental fees that the dealer charged to corporate, the cost of having to retire the 3 loaners due to mileage, and a substantial cash-and-keep settlement in lieu of a buy-back. I'm no accountant but I guarantee it would have been a lot cheaper to just ship one of those 5.0s that was sitting in a warehouse waiting for the 2024 line to start up.

I've got a lot of OTA updates to catch up on, but other than so far my truck seems to be as good as it was before. I haven't uncovered any "maintenance induced maintenance" issues yet, so fingers crossed. For now we are planning on taking the settlement to buy a new car for my wife. Oddly enough she's thinking something other than a Ford...

The end.

Hopefully.

 

[pavementends]

Ugh, for an aircraft maintenance mechanic, arguably the most OCD (for obvious reasons) of all mechanics, to watch total strangers gut your $70k truck... gut-wrenching for sure! Hope it lasts 300k miles from here. Thanks for taking us with you and the PSA/tips.

 

[amschind]

I just want to reiterate that this wasn't your fault. While many of us do support shorter oil change intervals et c, often for reasons that are impossible to study, those benefits (if any) show up at >150k miles. This was some sort of manufacturing defect. I didn't see anything about a spun bearing, but the easiest way for this to happen is a rod bearing spins, the piston gains enough bore axis freedom of motion to contact the valves and then things rapidly deteriorate from there. The argument against is that course of events is the rapidity with which they occurred. I assume that you're not concealing a long period of valve rattle leading up to this event (a truck with a valve death rattle drove past me the other day in the Wally World parking lot.....it sounds like someone shaking a bag of wrenches from 20 yards away), so my idea may be way off.

I am really glad that you got a new truck.

 

[KTM753]

Thanks for posting a detailed ending. I hope your truck is trouble free from here on out.

 

[brfertig]

We need an update on your overall view of your new engine, break in time, and any other weird issues with haveing a truck with 60K miles and a new engine. How has the experience been since you got the truck back?

 

[apMechorse]

We need an update on your overall view of your new engine, break in time, and any other weird issues with haveing a truck with 60K miles and a new engine. How has the experience been since you got the truck back?

I've had my truck back for a little over a month, and in that time I've now racked up just under an additional 4k miles, and in that timeframe I've noticed nothing out of the ordinary.

I am shocked.

With the amount of issues I've had with this service department in the past, I am absolutely flabbergasted at the fact that I haven't found anything out of the ordinary, at least as compared to how it was before it went in. If I were to be extraordinarily nit-picky the one thing I've noticed is the steering wheel will make a very minor creaking sound when turned more than 270 degrees either direction that it didn't make before. Almost like a wire bundle in the steering column is rubbing against the cover. But that's it.

Considering they had the cab off the frame, the engine completely torn apart, and replaced everything except the head on the unaffected side (still don't know why they refused to replace the engine @ 100%) I'm in shock that that's the only thing I've noticed so far.

Planning on changing the oil next weekend, going back to Mobile 1 full synthetic with a K&N filter, so I'll see what the insides are looking like at that point now that the rings have had a chance to seat properly.

Overall I'm actually really impressed so far with what they did, and still really impressed with the truck. Depending on what the '25s bring to the table I might still be considering trading in at that point, but it doesn't feel as pressing now as it did 3 months ago.

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