Back in March 2022, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration received three petitions from owners of the 2.7-liter EcoBoost V6-engined 2021 Ford Bronco. Said owners requested the federal agency to investigate said twin-turbo sixer due to catastrophic engine failures. Come May 2022, the Office of Defects Investigation opened preliminary evaluation PE22-007 to investigate said reports.
The population of suspect vehicles? Make that 25,538 units. The Office of Defects Investigation granted PE22-007 in July 2022. No fewer than 26 owner-submitted complaints had been filed with the NHTSA through July 2022. According to Ford, the 2.7-liter EcoBoost might go kaput due to interference between the valves and pistons. The root cause comes in the form of valve keepers not holding the retainer in place, allowing the spring to detach from the valve, leading to engine lockup.
ODI requested further information from the Ford Motor Company. As it happens, the Dearborn-based automaker acknowledged 328 complaints, 487 warranty claims, and 809 engine exchanges. The ODI's in-depth analysis of the Ford Motor Company's response further revealed that said problem extends to the 3.0-liter EcoBoost V6. Both the 2.7er and 3.0er are members of the so-called Nano engine family.
According to the latest development published on the federal agency's website, a number of contributing factors might lead to the fracturing of the intake valves in the 2.7- and 3.0-liter engines. FoMoCo advised ODI that defective valves were manufactured out of an alloy that becomes excessively hard and brittle during the machining process in case of an over-temperature condition.
"Silchrome Lite" is what the alloy is called. Ford told the federal watchdog that the intake valve material for the 2.7- and 3.0-liter EcoBoost had been changed to "Silchrome 1" in October 2021. According to FoMoCo, the alloy in question is less susceptible to the over-temperature condition during machine grinding.
Photo: Ford
Given these circumstances, ODI has opened engineering analysis EA23002 to evaluate the scope and frequency of allegations. ODI coordinates with the NHTSA's Vehicle Research and Testing Center to evaluate field return parts, and ODI is further analyzing the effect of time-in-service on the failure rates for the suspect V6 powerplants.
Under engineering analysis EA23002, the Office of Defects Investigation is also gathering and reviewing additional information to evaluate the effectiveness of the revised intake valve alloy. If this engineering analysis ends in a safety recall, a whopping 708,837 vehicles will be called back.
As per the document attached below, the culprits are the 2021 to 2022 model year Bronco sport utility vehicle, Edge crossover, technically similar Lincoln Nautilus, Explorer crossover, technically similar Lincoln Aviator, and the F-150 pickup truck. At press time, ODI's failure report summary lists 861 incidents for both the 2.7- and 3.0-liter EcoBoost.
The tl;dr version is 2.7- and 3.0-liter EcoBoost twin-turbo V6 engines produced through October 2021 are susceptible to drop valves. In addition to the valve keepers falling out or breaking, this issue might also be caused by the valve stems breaking off. Both powerplants are covered by Ford for 60,000 miles (circa 100,000 kilometers) or five years.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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