Learn Me: Ford 1.6L EcoBoost Issues

So one of the musicians that provides the live music for The Dancer's non-profit's outreach sessions has a 2013 Ford Escape with the 1.6L inline-4 EcoBoost engine that is currently out of commission, meaning she can't get to the outreach session's she is scheduled for. She took it in to a local shop and they quoted her over $5k to replace the head gasket on it which she can't afford to do, so The Dancer asked me whether I would be able to help her out.

Replacing a head gasket isn't something that bothers me- but in doing some due diligence on what it would involve I came across a LOT about the issues with that particular engine (and particularly in the Escape) and am now trying to figure out whether I need to be more looking at just replacing the whole engine.

So, as usual, I'm asking the collective here for what they can tell me about their experiences with the 1.6 and (ultimately) whether I should be aiming to go into it planning to JUST replace the head gasket (and of course things like the head bolts, plugs, etc. that I'll have to touch anyway) and be looking and testing to make sure the head or block aren't warped/cracked or if I should not be bothering with that and trying to find a replacement engine for it.

It's most likely a cracked block.   They have relief channels in the block between the cylinders, and the top of the cylinder cracks out.

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

do these engines respond well to "head gasket in a bottle"?

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

Is that something that they fixed on later years, or is it a problem with all of the 1.6L Ecoboost engines? 

In reply to Ashyukun (Robert) :

I think the 1.5 has been remedied as I haven't heard of the blocks cracking there. Of course it shares little with the 1.6 externally.

OK, I managed to get the cylinder head pulled before it got too cold and snowy over the weekend.

The good news: after pulling the head I'm not seeing any obvious cracks in the block or cylinder head- but I also haven't cleaned up either enough to be really confident that there aren't any cracks yet. 

Some things I've encountered/questions regarding the engine though...

1. Is there not a block coolant drain? I followed the instructions for draining the coolant, but the block still clearly has a lot of coolant in it that I'd like to drain out before trying to look for cracks.

2. Is it not possible to remove & replace the timing belt without pulling the crankshaft pulley? I'm guessing that the answer is that you have to pull the pulley, but I was just hoping I might be able to get away with not having to do that as well.

3. This is more of a general engine question since it has been years since I've been this deep into one, but I want to confirm out of an abundance of caution: rotating the crankshaft with the heads off won't inherently damage anything in the engine, but it will need to be set back to TDC before putting the cylinder head and timing belt back on to ensure that it's not off time and doesn't crash a piston into a valve.  I need to be able to get the pistons low enough to look for cracks on all of the cylinders, and obviously with it at TDC I can't do that on Cylinder 1. I have the tools to be able to find TDC for the engine so that shouldn't be a problem, and I think of anything that rotating the crank would mess up at the moment, but I just want to be 100% certain since damaging a piston or anything else internal would suuuuuuck. 

Annoyingly, once of the exhaust studs broke when I tried removing them, and of course it broke inside the cylinder head. I'm torn on what I should do about it... I've not had the best of luck trying to extract broken bolts/studs in the past, but theoretically this should be easier than what I've dealt with before (which was usually steel fasteners in steel parts vs. this being a steel stud in an aluminum head). I should be able to drill a hole in the middle of the stud to get an extractor into it, soak the hole with the stud in penetrant, and heat up the aluminum head some and try removing it with the extractor- but I worry about damaging the head in the process. 

That series of engines EcoBoost engines (turbo'd, of course) with the coolant transfer slots milled between the cylinders have a (well deserved?) reputation of blowing head gaskets in those area.  Seems as though there is not enough support of the head gasket in that area, particularly in a boosted application.  Same problem applies to the Honda 1.5 liter Earth Dreams turbo, and to a lesser degree, their 2.0 liter turbo.  Ford changed the block design in later years to drill a pair of intersecting small diameter holes at a shallow angle to the head deck surface instead of machining that slot.  Seems to have cured the head gasket failure problem.  Unfortunately, Honda persists in using the milled slot design to this day.

In reply to einy (Forum Supporter) :

I was going to post that I just saw a video talking about this today.

Very bummed that this is a problem, as well as the problem that lead to possible engine fires requiring a recall.  All of this should have been found and fixed in development.  Just as the liner bursting.  But corporate politics ruled, as timing was more important than making sure the customer got the best possible product they could.

There's no problem in rotating the crank with the head removed.  Nothing for it to interfere with anymore.  There may be cracks that aren't very visible and obvious, though. 

I'm not aware of any motor that doesn't require the removal of the crank pulley to do the timing belt.  Not that they don't exist, but I've never seen one.  So that doesn't surprise me at all. 

For getting that bolt out, I have 100% success with welding a booger onto the bolt remains, putting a nut over the booger, welding that one, and then just turning the bolt out with a wrench.  Occasionally I'll not get a good weld on the nut and have to try a second time, but it's never failed me.

Trying to drill into a bolt and use an extractor has almost always resulted in the need for an insert for me.

In reply to wae :

Thanks- I was 99.9% certain about rotating the crank, but wanted to make it 100%. I know there may be cracks that aren't visible or obvious, but I also figure that if I can't find them the engine shouldn't be any worse off than it was before if I put it back together with things refreshed and some things that were wrong with it (like the exhaust manifold clearly not having been sealing properly) fixed.

I also figured I wasn't getting out of pulling the crank pulley if I want to replace the timing belt, and I probably really should replace the timing belt while I'm doing everything else. I was just hoping to not have to do even more things.

I'm not confident that I can get a good enough weld with the break being several threads into the block. The cylinder head shop said they'll extract it for $50 if that's the only thing being done but if I'm getting the heads tested and milled they said they usually don't bother with the extra charge for the extraction- I just need to hear back from the SUV's owner with what all she wants me to have done on the cylinder head. 

In reply to einy (Forum Supporter) :

Yeah, when I started researching the engine online to see what I needed to know before agreeing to try and fix it I immediately found lots about the ridiculous block cooling design. I'm hoping that I don't find that it's cracked, but know that it probably will eventually even if I don't find anything now. The owner knows this already, but just bought the SUV like 6 months ago and can't really afford to replace it so if I can keep it functional for another year or two it will help them out a good bit.

You need to remove the harmonic damper to do the timing belt, which means you need the special tools to put everything back together.  They're not difficult to use, but you need 'em.

I'm impressed that the block isn't cracked.  I'm sure you've seen photos if you've been researching it, but the area to pay close attention to is the tops of the bores where the cylinder wall thickness is thinnest.  The aluminum will crack away from the cylinder liner first.

Volvo used this design since the early 90s and they weren't the first to do it.  There are sound engineering reasons for it, although perhaps they don't outweigh the reasons to not cut the channels.  If the block isn't cracked, you can buy or make shims to reinforce the block to prevent cracking.

The high temp silicone glopped all over the head suggests to me that at least the turbo has been off before.  Possibly the head?  If you have Carfax, if the block was replaced under warranty, it will show up.

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

I picked up the timing tool kit for the Ecoboost engines from Amazon, so I'm hoping that has everything that I will need for putting it back together after pulling the damper.

I'm not 100% that the block isn't cracked- I've not gotten the chance to clean things up and really look closely, but at least it's not really cracked such that it was blatantly obvious as soon as I pulled the head & gasket off. I'll be checking it when I get the chance and it's not snowing/in the single digits out- but I also talked with the owner and they said that as long as it's not going to fail pretty much immediately that they want to go ahead and put everything back together and drive it for as long as they can. For their sake I'm hoping I don't find any cracks, but at the moment the head is off at the machine shop to be pressure tested and milled.

I've not seen or heard anything about the shims- I did a bit of searching and only came up with one company making them (Pumaspeed) and it costing twice the cost of the actual item to have them shipped to the US.  They're an interesting idea though. If this were my vehicle, I'd definitely be making a set for it... will have to think about whether I think it would be a good idea to try with this one of not.

Actually, from what I saw in watching video of others pulling the heads to get an idea of what all I would need to do it seems like the back cover above the cylinder head is always held on with silicone- there don't seem to be any fasteners that hold it on. I need to look at it more closely, but it looks like the only way to put it on and keep it there is with silicone...

EDIT: Actually I took a closer look at it when I let The Bat out a few minutes ago, and it looks like it may actually be supposed to be held on by two fasteners into either the block or head (my bet is on the head- can't check 100% because, well, the head is 20 minutes away at the machine shop). More interesting, there are 3 fasteners broken off flush with the top of it. I took a picture of the part number stamped on it and looked it up- now I need to check and see if the engine had the plate that goes over the top of it or not. One more thing I may end up needing to grab off the Escape in the junkyard (if it's ever warms up enough for me to be willing to go look at it).

I don't have the Carfax for the car- I think that the owner likely really wishes they'd gotten one before buying it. They were just as baffled as I was with regards to the missing driveshaft. The guy at the machine shop suggested that there might have been something wrong with the rear diff where it was causing issues so they just decided it was cheaper and easier to pull the driveshaft so the rear diff wouldn't be getting any power. I need to look and see if it still has the rear axles or not, though I'd guess it would since they're probably needed for the suspension.

The rear driveshaft is missing?  Wild.   Sounds like the clutches in the rear diff were getting barky.  That, or possibly the driveshaft can get the same issues that the first gen Escape can get with the center U joint binding.  That makes a HELLACIOUS shake and rumble at all speeds. (Does it even have a center U joint or did they go with a CV?  I honestly don't remember)  A replacement driveshaft was a lot of money.

When I had the head off of an S60R engine, I bought some of the correct thickness stainless steel to make my own shims.  A huge roll to make four half dollar sized pieces of metal   A lot of people buy cheap feeler gauge sets to make their own shims with, but the Volvo channels were too deep to do that.  (Saga starts here)

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

Looks like it's a U-joint? I don't know- when I get a chance I plan to grab one to reinstall it and we'll see what happens. The junkyard an hour away has like 2 AWD Escapes, but no clue if they still have the driveshafts so I'm not in a hurry to run up there to find out, especially with it as cold as it is.

Are the shims supposed to completely fill up the grooves, or still leave space at the bottom for coolant to flow (like the later versions, where they drilled connecting holes for coolant flow instead of the grooves)?

Complete fill.

Yes, it prevents coolant from removing heat from the tops of the bores between the cylinders.  But there are eleventy million OTHER open deck engines that have Siamesed bores all the way to the top that don't have bore distortion issues.  Or at least, no issues worse than the fretted head gaskets or cracked blocks that the channels can cause.

The trick, if you make them, is making them in such a way that they're not only a light press fit, but they are also shaped such that they can't walk out.  A shim loose in the water jacket can do bad things.

Before you buy a driveshaft, make sure the output on the transfer case/ PTU/ Angle drive is still connected to something. I'm not sure if it is a thing on that vintage, but he older ones were fragile as hell, so grab the output shaft and try to rotate it.  You should not be able to.

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

I'm leaning far more towards not worrying about it with this engine... as I said, were it mine I'd perhaps be more inclined to give it a shot but I'm not as willing to do something like that on someone else's.

In reply to Streetwiseguy :

I'll add checking that to making sure that it actually has rear axles as well. The 'good' thing is that they've been driving the thing for the last 6 months with no clue that the AWD wasn't actually working (or perhaps that it even was supposed to be AWD, I don't know how obvious the system to engage it is- or even if you do manually engage it or if it's just always technically in AWD...) so they'll be no worse off if I find that it's not worth trying to replace the driveshaft.

Dont know where you live but i have a good short block for a 1.6 Ecoboost Escape. Shortblock is located in Maryland and would give it to you if you want it. PM me if you are interested and i can send pictures and video of it. 

In reply to kevinatfms :

Thanks! Unfortunately I'm in Kentucky so it probably wouldn't be feasible to come get it from you. I'll keep that in mind though if I find anything that indicates that the block would be unsafe to continue to use.