You sir, are one respectable man. I love the fact that you are providing customers with VALID information. Props to you.

I forgot to thank you for all your free advice and all your hard work. You are truly dedicated to your profession. Love your informative videos...

I have learned a lot watching your videos, and I want to say thanks for the information you provide.

Brian, I have been a master Audi/Vw tech for 20 yrs, this issue is old news for us. I have gound that using plain water in the BG induction tool works fantastic in cleaning the tsi and tsfi direct injection intake valves. Run it up to operating temp, turn on the water and idle up to 2000 rpm, let water mist until empty. Shut engine off for 15 mins. Restart, and test drive vehicle for approximately 20 mins with some short bursts of wot. Until smoke disappears from the exhaust. I personally do this to my cars every 20k miles before carbon gets to misfiring point. The cause i am told is the high carbon content fuel in the states, europe does not have this problem. I hope this helps you out!

Thanks for the lead about BG44, I just ordered several to have on hand for my 4.6L. I am still using Hot Shots Stiction Eliminator for the back side cleaning and will start using BG44 for the front side cleaning.

Thanks a lot EPA haha

Man, I love your videos, very informative and right to the point. You gained another subscriber. *Nelson*

Good stuff. I like watching videos when people actually provide solid educational content. I love watching all your ecoboost vids. New owner of a 2013 3.5 f150. Thanks for the content.

Thank you for caring. keep up the Excellent work.

What would be grrrreat is to do a video on a high mileage ecoboost engine with your findings on the carbon.Thanks for all of the great videos.I dont think you have one on the ecoboost engine that I havent watched at least twice.Keep up the fabulous work and I will be waiting on the next ones that you make.Thanks again for all you do for the average comsumer such as myself.☆☆☆☆☆

Appreciate the research you did into this

Thank you so much for the info. Great summary of the problem.

I dont know if there is any difference in production between usa and eu, but its my 4th year with my 1.0 eco focus which I hammer every day in bad conditions, sometimes even run past the 20.000km/1 year service. Driven about 80.000km now Never a single sign of any problem, very reliable and far more advanced than most other new cars on the market right now. I love my ecoboost :)

If the catch can solves the whole problem. Throw one on and get on with your life! Ford should put one on the cars and trucks that have that motor. And cleaning it can be part of a service. Not rocket science.

Love your vids man, great info .

This is great info and confirms why the aftermarket world runs oil separators to catch such vapors on Ford boosted vehicles. I ran one on my supercharged F150 where the PCV hose was routed into the air intake system. My concern then was having the vapors drop my octane levels and also coat the inside of the SC with oil. After 3k miles, the separator would have not quite 1/2 ounce collected. Same is true for the diesel world.

Very informative. This is one of the reasons why I chose the old "tried and true" 2.5 liter, normally aspirated engine in my 2014 Ford Escape. I was and am still a little nervous about the Ecoboost engines. Sure the 1.6 and 2.0 are snappier than my 2.5, but performance on my 2.5 is very adequate. 2.5 is "old school", but it is very reliable.

Volkswagon had the same problem with their 2.0 turbo. One solution was an oil vapor collection canister.

The new VW GTI 2.0T motor has two injectors, one in the intake for low RPM and the second in the cylinder for high RPM use. Having the one injector spray on the back side of the intake valve is a good traditional way to prevent carbon buildup.

This was a problem with BMW engines 25 years ago (not direct injection) and walnut shell blasting the intake valves was common back then. BMW intake valves used to look 5x worse than these.

? what about adding small amounts of water to clean like steam cleaning.i know it was done back in the day on carburatores not sure if that can be applied to newer cars just a thought.also what about adding marvel lmystery oil to gas this also may help this also just a thought..

Good find...hopefully ford will give you a good "thatta boy" for your findings...I got the "FIRTFT" (fix it right the first time) back in 1998 for the entire east coast and all I got was a lousy jacket! Good job!

Great help ... thanks for sharing!

VW/Audi have had the same problem for years, as soon as they went to direct injection. They have changed the PCV system several times to try to help.

Toyota's D4-S injection system on the BRZ and 86 twins combines Direct Injection (low load) with Port Injection (high load). They have a special cycle which runs the Port injectors when there hasn't been enough high load events to keep the valves clean. I can see this also being a solution to turbo cars if there are no other issues with the air fuel ratio.

My Sister-in-lsw had the 2.0 eco boost and it developed issues at 23,000 miles. It started at around 15,000 miles but they seemed to correct it temporarily. At 23,000 miles the dealer told her she needed a fuel system cleaning treatment to correct the issue This was allegedly routine maintenance and not covered under warranty. I think it cost around $100. Wasn't a day and the car wasn't drive able. AAA towed it back to the garage. It was the eco boost system and Ford was not covering it. At first the dealer was blaming it on a Fram oil filter ? Then gasoline. It ended up costing her $500 which was supposed to be cost. She has also had steering rack issues constantly all covered under warranty. Since the car would be out of warranty soon and Ford wouldn't pay they traded it on a Toyota. 30,000 miles and it's never been back to the dealer except for filters, oil and state inspections.

I have a 1962 ford econoline pickup , That has blow buy . they had a video u tube of using a mason jar , between the pcv valve and the carburator. The one line goes to the bottom of the jar , the other line at the top of the jar that goes to the carb , the blow buy stay at the bottom of the jar ! I unscrew the jar a empty the oil , it works great , no fouling of plugs , no build up on the valves .

You can try a Nitrogen based cleaner service through the brake booster hose into the intake. It cleans a little but doesn’t fix the design issue by Ford. It’s amazing how the Engineers who designed T-GDI engines didn’t realize how the pressure/blow by would cause carbon/oil buildup on the Intake valves. I think most Ecoboost’s 2018 and newer have both GDI injectors and Port Fuel Injectors to fix this flaw.

well done, thanks

These are awesome motors...my buddy's have well over 100k miles with no issues

Would there be any way to incorporate a screen filter for the pcv as they had on the older 5 liter engines? Maybe that would lessen the effects over time.

been seeing this for years now my fix has been removing the intake doing a direct clean on the valves , remove the plugs to get the excess out,,, sell a direct intake valve cleaning , maintenance tune up ,oil change, , throttle body cleaning and a relearn and on some of them a flash update... Have had great success and no turbo failures this away. good old sea foam with a direct soak works well...

Well done Brian. Thanks for your work on this. I have a RX dual valve catch can on order for my F150. I'd like to see a writeup on cleaning the valves on a 3.5L. Seems like the best solution until there is an approved fix from Ford for the flawed PCV system. No way I could go back to a V8 after owning an Eco.

BG says the evaporation of the oil is part of the problem, some oils are worse than others. I'm running a really good oil with low evaporation, recommending top tier fuel and 44k every 5k. So far none of my customers that are following this plan are building carbon. Keeping mileage up and power up. We see it in the Chevy traverses the worst.

Thanks for the info

Common problem... part of the reason I blocked my PCV on my B head Cobra... also very common on MazdaSpeed 3 turbo 4 cylinder engines. Use cleaning process like the Speed 3 engines.

have a 2012 f150 3.5 eco with 170000 miles on and still runs great not one problem with it

I put an oil catch can on my 3.5 Ecoboost explorer and within weeks it was already collecting some goobly looking stuff. My car does have 130k miles so I expected it. Definitely worth it especially for higher mileage cars.

Hey Brian, Great channel, great vids. It's good to see you carving out your own path. Quick question, which brand of oil filter for the 3.5l EB do you recommend? I have already added the additives and full synthetic links you added to my Amazon wishlist. I am just wondering what brand you favor for the oil filter. Thank you. P.S. when you are back in town and taking on more customers, be sure to put that out. You are in range of me and I would consider it worth it to drive out your way. Thanks for the how much you have helped and what you do Sir.

I use PM3 to clean the valves running it through the evap vacuum port on the intake and it NEVER ruined the turbo.

I think people are getting too obsessed with it. There are a lot of owners on the F-150 EcoBoost forums getting 200,000 and even some over 300,000 miles on their 1st gen 3.5 EcoBoost engines and still going strong -- WITHOUT a catch can or any other modifications. The new 2nd gen EcoBoost does have both port and DI. Port will help wash the intake valves and help with the cold starts, but like I said, there are plenty of people (at least with the 3.5 Ecoboost) with a lot of miles and no problems. I think the top tier fuels probably burn cleaner (Chevron fuel especially) which will leave less carbon deposits. Also, a good oil couldn't hurt. Maybe not all EcoBoost engines have this problem?

For a 1.5 Eco boost in the 2017 Ford Escape, would occasional hard acceleration mitigate the problem?

Would a JLT catch can help prevent this issue? I've seem them on GT350's and even ford racing now has units. What are your thoughts? Thanks for your videos! Keep up the great work!

with the Ford brand riding on ecoboost, should i feel confident buying a 2016 Fusion with the 2.0?

Good work! That is how we get better products... I think you need to get out of the dealership and into engineering... Then again you have eyes on to issues needed to be passed on to Ford... Ford should promote techs like you to field support techs with a greater salary. Ace in my book....

Brian, it's time for an update. This is pretty old information. I realize that Ford probably continues to claim that the head replacement is the only option, but soaking the back of the valves with the BG cleaner in a closed valve situation and evacuating the area of all debris before allowing the valve to open will completely clean the valves of all carbon. As long as you blow out everything before opening the valve there will be no impact on the turbos. It's not an easy job and requires removal of the intake but it does clean extremely well.

Great info Thank you

Great info!!What type of brushes did you use drill powered flexible cable brushes? also did you remove the dark build up on the side walls or just on the backs of the valves and stems? I have a 2012 f150 3.5L ecoboost I guess it will require removing the intake to access the valves for cleaning. Have you done this on a 3.5L yet? If so which cylinders get the worse build up on the 3.5L?Thanks in advance

I agree they should stick to their V-8 engines which are far more reliable and less complicated. I feel sorry for all the people who paid their hard-earned money and are now having problems

What really bums me out about all of this, is that other manufacturers have done the same type of direct injection, turbo, pcv systems in the past with the exact same results and issues that these engines are having. How detached are the engineers over there? They had a chance to at least look like they did their research and homework and had a grip on what issues other manufacturers had. To at least try to implement some type of preventative issue during design. My significant other owns the mustang Eco boost in which I do the maintenance and upkeep. Even some model BMW's with direct injection have to undergo a walnut blast to clean the deposits. It can be disheartening when there are thousands that know the basics of what the result will be from paying attention to what is out there and a high profile company can't even digest the foreseeable issues. Don't mean to complain but it just puzzles me to no end. Over half the community know this over the design engineers and that is unbelievable. Either way thank you for the videos and shared information as I know you went out of your way. Thank you to those with the experience and history on these types of setups to recommend the catch cans and AOS's. Thank you to those who help design and manufacture them, as obviously these car manufacturers cant even design something so simple to implement an aid in preventing such issues.

Thanks for this video. A number of funeral vehicles, in the UK, are fitted with Ford EcoBoost engines. Best to buy Jaguar XJ, Vauxhall Insignia and Volvo S80 based vehicles.

Would fitting an oil catch can help to prevent this issue?

everyone hates on the ecoboost here. I have a 2012 F150 ecoboost with 148k, completely stock and have none of these issues. runs fine hot or cold.....who knows maybe im just one of the lucky ones.

This is nothing new, its a common problem with all Direct injected gasoline engines where the fuel, which keeps the valves clean, is been bypassed from the port to into the combustion chamber. An very effective way to clean is is to use a crushed walnut shells into a sandblaster nozzle with a vacuum cleaner hose in conjunction with to remove the shells while the intake valves are close or piston at TDC.

Like the info. Also how do you know if one of your turbos are blown

Hey man, Thank you for the way you are servicing all of us. This is very useful information. This was 3 years ago, Any update since? I just bought a 2014 with 50,000 miles and I think it is running rich because my cab starts to smell like propane when the ac is on. Im sure you've had experience with that.

I don't understand why OEMs don't put freaking oil catch cans on their turbo engines. The need for catch cans has been well known in the tuning world for a long time now. It would not be hard to train techs to empty cans while completing oil-changes.

From what I understand the ethanol they are adding to gasoline now isn't helping.

So would it help to change the valves or add a coating to them??

i never had that problem because i install a oil catch can in my mustang ecoboost 2.3

WOW, I just took a 2015 Ford Escape 2.0 EcoBoost for a test drive yesterday. The engine was impressive for such a small 4 cyl. but after seeing this I am so happy I didn't make the purchase on the spot. If Ford's answer is to replace a cylinder head then my answer is not to buy one. The problem is what do you do once the vehicle is out of warranty?

honestly all Direct Injection engines have carbon build up the causes problems around 65k-75k miles. unless it's a DiG with secondary port F.I's. and i think only Nissan does that as far as i know.

hello.... what I have done to clean the upper value train is to remove the pcv and put a small funnel on hose that is drawing in the air and them slowly...very slowly pour in sea foam into the funnel... yes it will smoke but it runs excellent after that...Robert

Starting to see this more oftern now with most direct injection engines.As there is no wash from the injector to clean the back of the inlet valves they get cloged up and cause misfires

Ford designed these engines and then tested them for thousands of hours. they knew this would be a problem but built them anyway.

cam phazer failed at 7500 miles made it sound like an old diesel. horrible

Do you have a board or page for new eco boost owners to find all faq, answers, preventive maintenance and best solutions for repairs & diy, or what forums are you on?

Will a dual valve catch can resolve this issue or is there another thing needed to prevent those oil gases from reaching the valve heads

Can't we just let the PCV vent to atmosphere. Wouldn't this solve the problem of carbon build up the valves?

Makes zero sense. A misfire is a problem with either air, fuel or spark IN the CYLINDER. Condition of the upstream surface of the intake valve will have very little influence on a misfire unless it blocks airflow.

Thanks for these vids. I just purchased a 2011 F150 Lariat 6V 3.5L w/100k miles on it. I heard about the canister mod to separate the oil from the air. I am sure my engine has major gunk build up from all these years. What is the most recent news on this issue? Is adding the oil separater still recommended? Is there an approved method to clean the valves? What would you recommend as the best/economical maintenance I could perform to get the valves cleaned and operating at peak efficiency? Thank you!

Just curious, and your input is appreciated. I have an 03 Focus ZX-5, ZETEC that has 268 000 km on it, that has a missfire issue, possibly similar to what you describe. It has been giving a 304/316 combo code. We have replace the computer, the injector, the coil pack and the wires. We have not replaced the crank position or the cam position sensors. But what's the likelihood it could be the same problem you describe here? I had the same problem with a 97 Mystique Zetec. Great, informative video, thanks for making them!

Wow, glad my new car (Fiat Abarth) is one of the few left that are NOT Direct Injection. This carbon buildup on direct injection issues is a widespread problem, goes beyond just Ford.

just install oil catch can !!

Mercury marine has used dfi two stroke engines for years. As u know there is no valves( reed valves) but sooting is very common in mid section and exhaust ports. Quickleen is what they recommend for sooting issue, its is very good at almost eliminating these issues. Maybe this would help. Dfi engine as i have seen been a merc tech soot very badly and can cause spark plugs electrodes to clog with carbon causing misfire.

I wonder if a secondary injector inside the manifold sprayed at like 1000mile intervals would help solve the issue

Delete PCV valve, install Road draft tube. Problem solved.

Bottom line = No EcoBoost engine as of now and for several years.

so if you added a good cleaner to your engine oil think the vapors pulled from the cleaner would help to clean the intake valves ? also we used to have carbon problems with the northstar engines when i worked at gm we used to use a carbon buster from gm looked like shaving cream you spayed it in running and then let them set for 2hr and then restart and idel at 1500rpm and the carbon knock would go away .also a race car type oil serator mite be a good idea

Oh ya, also Lucas makes oil additive that works good too. I add 1/2 qt. Sometimes to top off 3L escape that holds an extra .5 qt in filter or 5.5 qts. Total. They have base or synthetic which is a bit $ but if your talking prevention maintenance its probably worth it , it adheres well to engine parts & can be mixed w any oil.

Ford is getting too wrapped up in this whole EcoBoost thing. For example the F150 designed to compete with an old school V8 like the Hemi simply won't last as long the Hemi. There is a trade off for getting the little bit of extra mileage and in my eyes it's simply not worth it.

Sure, Ford will go with a new cleaning method---it's the cheapest option for them.

Have a 2011 f150 eco boost 3.5. Has 210k miles on it and it runs really well. Very few problems. Keep up the maintenance and alls well.

All the aftermarket boosted cars I've seen usually run an air-oil separator that looks like what they need, I see no problem with having the catch can dump into the exhaust after the cat or having the mechanic drain it oil through a hose near the oil drain plug

The ecoboost V6 engine is a lemmon. With all the youtube information about this engine only a fool would buy a F150 with one. The ecoboost spark plugs porcelain cracking and firing through the boot and the engine stalling at highway speeds are just a few serious problems with this lemmon.

more evenly? So you will have to clean all intake valves? What a mess !! Due to Government regs, Ford is doing all this smaller more efficient crap... It will not matter soon as Electrics will take over.

Is this a problem if the truck has had no issues for 80,000+ miles?

This is why I'm seeing so many F150 ecoboost models at the dealerships and online that just sit. I was considering a 2014 yesterday, and its now 2017, but am now thinking against it though I love that year's style. I'll look for a V8 used if I can find one. I don't need the repair bills on someone's used nightmare in waiting.

EcoBust ! Ford does some stupid things, like discontinuing the Crown Vic..

Why an eco-bust? If you need to tow, get a diesel. But not a Ford Power Stroke diesel.

So, do not get the fuel induction service? Are you saying that they don’t clean the excessive carbon on the back side of the valves during the fuel induction service?

How many miles were on this engine when this video of the valves were taken? I currently have 4500 miles on my Ecoboost and was curious how dirty my valves would possibly be by now.

Have u realized all fords a junk

I think this is exactly what i suspected happening back when i had my 01' firehawk (LS1), I was getting spark knock (pebbles in a can sound) at WOT. I figured it was from all the oil being shot through the PCV and into the intake and into the combustion chamber and mixing with the fuel causing fuel degradation, and carbon build up which heats up too to possibly pre-ignition.

I feel that direct injection is the death of a motor bc I’ve heard the fuel pressure is around 1000 psi. To me that’s a lot of pressure going into a combustion chamber and then on top of that has more compression added from a turbo. Couldn’t this start blowing out oil rings? Allowing oil to burn on the valves and starting a chain affect of problems?

Catch can! It's a must. I'm getting a 3.5 F-150 and it will have a catch can within the first 500 miles.

Let me know if there's a good way to solve the issues with the carbon build up.. I keep hearing that there are addatives to use for this specific problem. Better turbo's butter heat exchange???

Brian, Are you seeing any valve seating issues? Also, where did you get those cool sunglasses? Gotta get a pair of those. Thanks for the video.

Will a single catch can off the pvc valve be enough to fix it?

I was a service consultant for Isuzu and they started Direct Injection in 2004 on the Rodeo and we had terrible carbon problems right out of the gate. We were doing induction cleanings every 10,000 miles on those DI engines. Seems like Ford could come up with a better system to fight carbon build up on the valves.