EcoBoost’s twin turbos glowed orange-hot while enduring – and passing – extremely rigorous durability testing.
Because turbochargers operate at high speed – up to 170,000 rpm – and under intense temperatures of up to 950 degrees Celsius (1,740 degrees Fahrenheit), Ford’s advanced engine engineers specified the use of two Honeywell GT15 water-cooled turbos to combat this problem.
To validate their water-cooled design choice, the EcoBoost V-6 engine was put through intense testing, well beyond normal test protocols. In an engine dynamometer ‘torture chamber’, Ford engineers ran EcoBoost at maximum boost flat out for a 10-minute period. This meant the turbos went beyond red-hot, to the more extreme orange-hot.
Then the engine and all cooling were abruptly shut down and the turbo was left to “bake” after this high-speed operation. Test engineers repeated this cycle 1,500 times without an oil change. The turbos were cut open for detailed technical inspections and passed the severe tests with flying colors.
Then onto durability testing. Back in the dynamometer lab, the 3.5-liter EcoBoost V-6 went back up to full revs – and maximum turbo boost – for a real endurance test. This time the duration was a bit longer – 362 hours at full throttle. That’s the equivalent of running the 24 Hours of Daytona for more than 15 days straight.
EcoBoost makes its production debut in the 2010 Ford Flex, 2010 Lincoln MKT and MKS, and uses the same grade of 5W20 engine oil specified by Ford for gasoline engines. Oil changes are scheduled at the same 7,500-mile intervals, too.
Quotes
“We put the EcoBoost V-6 through the same extensive durability signoff testing as any Ford gasoline engines, and we went beyond it to validate the EcoBoost water-cooled turbocharger design and air-to-air intercooling strategy. The idea is to run the engine through a very difficult testing regimen at its maximum-rated operating performance. That’s when things get hot.”
- Michael Shelby, EcoBoost Engine Development Leader
“During normal turbo operation, the turbo receives most of its bearing cooling through oil. After shut down, the problems with turbos in the past were you would get coking in the center bearing. Oil would collect in the bearings, the heat soaks in and the oil would start to coke on the side and foul the bearing. Water cooling – used in the EcoBoost engine – eliminates that worry.”
- Keith Plagens, Turbo System Engineer
