If you’re reading this, you’re probably considering purchasing (or currently own) a Ford Motor Company vehicle with the third-generation 5.0-liter Coyote V8. If you want to learn more about its fatal design flaw causing excessive oil consumption and a host of other problems, keep reading. What is the Coyote V8 Engine? Belonging to Ford’s Modular engine family dating back to 1990, the 5.0L Coyote V8 shares some of its architecture with its phased-out siblings, the 4.6L and 5.4L Triton V8. The 5.0L was first introduced in the 2011 model year Ford F-150 and Mustang and is used in many Ford vehicles worldwide. There are several generations of the Coyote, but in this article, I’ll be discussing the third generation introduced in 2018 and its use in the F-150. What is the issue? The third-generation Coyote saw a few changes compared to the second-generation, including dual injection (direct and multi-port), an increased compression ratio (from 10.5 to 12.0), and a spray-on bore liner eliminating the need for conventional cast-iron cylinder bore liners. These changes are also shared with the Mustang. Previous Coyote generations use sleeved cylinder bores, and the rest of Ford’s vehicles use them. With this engine, Ford utilizes the manufacturing process called plasma transferred wire arc (PTWA) thermal spraying, which sprays a plasma coating onto the raw aluminum bore of the block. This manufacturing process is also used on the company’s high-performance 5.2L Voodoo engine blocks but is expensive and performed by a German company overseas. With the F-150 and Mustang 5.0L, Ford moved this process to a United States plant and did it themselves to reduce cost. This coating is incredibly thin and appears to wear off quickly. When the coating wears off, too large of a gap between the cylinder wall and the piston forms, yielding excessive oil consumption and bore and piston scoring, developing into piston slap. This then snowballs into other serious issues such as rod knock, resulting in eventual engine failure. Because Ford’s manufacturing process is cheaper than the German company’s, quality control of the coating is likely sub-par and inconsistent, with a large amount of variation between engines. Over time, this worn-off coating is the culprit for uneven and premature wear, increased blow-by, excessive oil consumption, and ultimate failure, even at low mileage. It’s essential to note that another contributor to this engine’s oil consumption is the deceleration fuel shut-off system, which deactivates the fuel injectors when taking the foot off the gas. Combined with a very high compression ratio, a vacuum effect is created and pulls oil into the combustion chamber through positive crankcase ventilation (PCV) system and valve guides. What should I do if I own or want to buy a vehicle that has this engine? Unfortunately, with this problem, engine failure is imminent, either short or long term, depending on how lucky you are. The PTWA utilization is a critical design oversight to engineers. If enough scoring occurs to the cylinder wall after the coating has worn off, the engine block will need replacement. Ford will replace the engine for owners who’ve experienced complete engine failure, but only with another third-gen Coyote with the same spray-on bore liner. In other words, the replacement engine is the same as the engine replaced, so there is no gain at all to the owner and the same issues will occur again. Unless Ford redesigns the coating or reverts back to sleeved cylinder walls like the rest of their vehicles, the problem will never be fixed, and the replacement of engines will be perpetual. Should I buy a vehicle with this engine? When it comes to engines experiencing issues, sometimes owners can take proactive measures to mitigate or entirely prevent the problems. With this engine, that is not the case, and it is not a question of if it will fail, but when. As far as I’m aware, there is nothing owners can do to prevent or fix this problem, as it is purely a fatal design flaw. Until Ford goes back to using traditional bore sleeves, I strongly urge consumers to stay away from this engine. Since its release, all generations of the Coyote have had their fair share of issues with knocking, pinging, rattling, and beyond, which is why I personally will avoid it altogether. This is an engine not built to last, and I deem it a lemon, especially the third-generation. It’s also worth mentioning that Ford has released the fourth-gen 5.0L Coyote designed around the third-gen, but the new generation still utilizes the PTWA technology. In addition, cylinder deactivation technology has been introduced, which will only create a host of other issues on top of the problems it already has. Cylinder deactivation also causes excessive oil consumption. Currently, a Canadian lawsuit has been filed over the third generation’s excessive oil consumption in 2018-2020 F-150s. Ford has released several TSBs in an attempt to address the numerous problems by replacing the oil level indicator sensor, reprogramming the vehicle’s PCM, and replacing the oil dipstick with a longer one. These TSBs do not address the core problem and fail at masking it. Opinion Before I bought my 2018 F-150, I considered purchasing one with the 5.0L. The first complaint I read about was its notorious excessive oil consumption occurring as little as 500 miles or less on the odometer. When I researched this further, I learned Ford did away with the traditional cylinder bore sleeves with the plasma coating. One of the deciding factors of why I went with the 3.5L EcoBoost V6 is that this plasma coating is not used, thus significantly eliminating the propensity to consume oil, experience piston slap, rod knock, and more. I’m not stating the EcoBoost is flawless, but Ford used more common sense in its design. I’m grateful I did my research. The 5.0L Coyote V8 has the potential to be reasonably reliable. I know someone who has a 75,000 mile 2015 F-150 equipped with the second-generation 5.0L without the plasma bore coating, and he claims the engine has been reliable. He does, however, burn one quart of oil every 5,000 miles, whereas my F-150 exhibits no oil consumption. In his case, piston or oil control rings or valve stem gaskets may be causing the consumption. With the changes Ford engineers made to the third-generation Coyote, they have proved to be fatal. The company’s reasoning for utilizing PTWA is that it would shed a few pounds of the engine’s weight, which would result in a fuel economy increase of probably one-twentieth of a mile per gallon better. This is an example of Ford’s willingness to sacrifice the reliability of an engine for a mediocre gain in fuel economy and anger hundreds of thousands of its owners. The redesigned F-150 for the 2021 model year still utilizes the PTWA bore coating in the 5.0L, which means Ford is still using this defective engine and probably has no intention in fixing it. If there’s one thing I’ll give Ford credit for with this engine, it’s that they’ve done a good job at hiding its problems from the general public, which is why I created this blog to expose it. Additional resources William Kennedy, v. Ford Motor Company, et al. | 5.0L Coyote V8 Excessive Oil Consumption Lawsuit Now you know the truth behind Ford’s troublesome third-generation Coyote V8. I hope you have found this information informative and helpful. Still have questions or comments about this issue? I'd love to help. Feel free to leave them in the comments section below.
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