2.7L blown engine failure list . . 68 so far [Updated: December 13, 2022]

[Tslater1989]

Well, unfortunately, this is something that will happen. First model year, long hours worked by supplier employee's, new job training etc etc. Couple all that with pandemic problems (logistics, employee retention, lock downs causing production shifting and delays).

Story time.
Years ago, my dad purchased a early build 1997 f150. Surprisingly had very few quirks. But it had one big issue. The Windsor plant had a batch of 4.6l v8s go through, that still had some of the sand casting material in the heads. From what we were told, there were 30-50 known engines that had this issue. This was because of a lack of due diligence by a worker to inspect thoroughly. Anyway, this defect destroyed the cooling system over the course of 50k miles. Which put the engine into a overheat scenario, and warped the heads. Causing the head gaskets to leak. We knew it was coming over a few weeks as it had put it into limp mode. My dad being a former mechanic, didn't want to have a head gasket and mill job done. Talked to the service writer at the dealer. He told us he won't put anything down on record, and looked the other way as he said to ignore it and let it blow... So we just waited for it to let go. While headed up north with the camper in tow, summer 2000. It sputtered a couple times and then felt like the horsepower doubled... For those that don't know, an engine that spins bearings, and self clearances, will have much less parasitic drag on the internals..... He pinned it to the floor and let her rip. Lasted about 10 seconds and then poof.... no drama, just a suddenly dead engine. The dealer brought a loaner superduty and a flatbed. New motor, few weeks of waiting. Truck has 212k miles on it now. Sits right now, in my ownership, waiting for restoration. One day, it will belong to one of my children. Love that truck, quirks and all.

So don't be discouraged, as long as there is a warranty, drive it. Kinks will get ironed out, ford has to maintain success with the bronco in order to remain competitive with jeep. Without that, it's just another suv.

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[Bmadda]

Well, unfortunately, this is something that will happen. First model year, long hours worked by supplier employee's, new job training etc etc. Couple all that with pandemic problems (logistics, employee retention, lock downs causing production shifting and delays).

Story time.
Years ago, my dad purchased a early build 1997 f150. Surprisingly had very few quirks. But it had one big issue. The Windsor plant had a batch of 4.6l v8s go through, that still had some of the sand casting material in the heads. From what we were told, there were 30-50 known engines that had this issue. This was because of a lack of due diligence by a worker to inspect thoroughly. Anyway, this defect destroyed the cooling system over the course of 50k miles. Which put the engine into a overheat scenario, and warped the heads. Causing the head gaskets to leak.

That's a great story, but the explanation they gave you is completely untrue. Windsor built 4.6L and 5.4L engines had that issue for many model years. Romeoville engines did not. The heads were not warped...replacing heads, or milling them, would only fix the problem temporarily. After years of going round and round w/these it turned out that the milling machine at Windsor was putting a slight taper in the block's deck surface. The 2.7 Bronco failures DO kinda remind me of this, because of course 1997 was the 1st year for modular engines in trucks, and it was Windsor's 1st year producing them (Windsor was converted from 302/351 production which ended). Which is why I say it is completely possible that increasing 2.7L production to offer it in Bronco could have caused a bad batch to be produced...either through lack of QC, or increased demand forcing Ford to buy parts from less reliable sources etc. Either way, wouldn't be the 1st time. For those of you waiting for Ford to acknowledge a problem, and explain it...don't hold your breath...they won't do that, why should they? What good would that do? They will fix it though, hopefully they already have for current production, and are just trying to figure out how many bad ones got out, and fix those.

 

[aFordOwner]

It’s 18-19 posted on a small forum of a small sample size. That would make it MORE significant, not less. No one knows how many may or may not be blown in the general public. If it was 18 out of every 2.7 bronco produced, THAT would be very insignificant.

I’m not saying this is some major issue, but using the argument of there’s 18 on this forum, therefore it’s a small sample is not accurate. 18 out of however many 2.7’s owned and driven of bronco6g users only could actually be somewhat significant.

For once, Im glad I wasn’t a “Lucky” early recipient of my Bronco. Honestly, I’m not sure it’s been worth the wait but I’ve been trying to stay excited by reading all the forums and yikes!!!!

 

[Lucchese]

Out of curiosity what is the benefit in calling Ford? Is this to keep dealers in check? I’m planning to call them, but just curious on the reasoning behind it. In the past when I’ve called they didn’t seem to be useful…

in OP checkout the repair threads**,
- it seems any rental usually covered by Ford Cust Svc
- & they can elevate priority & expedite your repair - some dealer service people were telling owners things like "we're busy . . we'll get to it next week" . . until Cust Svc got involved, then suddenly things got moving today
- and good to send your VIN & full name to @Ford Motor Company via DM, w brief summary
- if not familiar w direct message maybe one of the @Administrator people can help
- basically every way possible, you wanna raise the visibility of your repair w Ford

Sure it could. It's obviously a bad production batch...that whole batch could have gone to MAP for Bronco production...or the majority at least. Have not heard of a similar failure on F150 or any of the Lincoln products...but if anyone knows of one let us know?

- yes, in another thread @mpeugeot confirmed the F-150 2.7 has different part# than Bronco 2.7 -
- and over in BN, I asked one of our Ford rep frequent posters why the different engine Part#'s for F-150 vs Bronco - 2.7L Eco (Nano 2nd Gen)
His response:
". . Ford has been known to use different heads / valves / turbos / manifolds combined with different tuning to achieve different results (Think Mustang 5.0L has 460hp, F-150 has only 400hp, same block, different heads/tuning)"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So the valves (& other parts) used in the F-150 2.7L engine could be different than Bronco -

 

[Bob Blaylock]

- yes, in another thread @mpeugeot confirmed the F-150 2.7 has different part# than Bronco 2.7 -
- and over in BN, I asked one of our Ford rep frequent posters why the different engine Part#'s for F-150 vs Bronco - 2.7L Eco (Nano 2nd Gen)
His response:
". . Ford has been known to use different heads / valves / turbos / manifolds combined with different tuning to achieve different results (Think Mustang 5.0L has 460hp, F-150 has only 400hp, same block, different heads/tuning)"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So the valves (& other parts) used in the F-150 2.7L engine could be different than Bronco -

The valve-dropping issue would almost certainly be related to the heads rather than the block, so this would very well explain why the Bronco version of this engine could be prone to this problem, and the F150 version not.

 

[mountainbronco]

Quick reminder: the annual service cost on any modern mass produced Ferrari is about $10,000. Add another $7,000 for the bi-annual engine service.

I didn't do any digging, but I believe your cheapest Ferrari is still more expensive than $60,000.

Point being: your transaction price for Bronco is 100% irrelevant to a discussion regarding component failure rates.

Should any modern mass-produced engine here in 2022 (Happy New Year!) Have catastrophic failures at under 5,000 miles?

Yes, but only an exceedingly small percentage of them.

Well Rick, what a pile of horse shit this is! I am not going to spend my time educating you on automobile production economics, but I will say two things. Comparing a Ford Bronco with a Ferrari is off the charts. But if it makes you feel better, go right ahead. The average american citizen that purchases a Bronco has worked his ass off for that much money. And yes, we can and should expect six sigma, ISO 9000 and 9001 quality, because that is what they are certified as. Do you know what a 20 in 20000 failure rate is? zero point 1 !! Off the charts!!

But as already experienced over several decades, it will take a bit until they wake up to the fact that fixing something in hindsight always (repeat; always) costs more, and, it is better to sacrifice some of the margin to buy better quality components (as in yes, it does matter how much you pay for a vehicle, because it means more margin and more flexibility for the manufacturer)

I just love it!

 

[Rick Astley]

BTW, separate your post out of the quote.

Hey, you're the person taking a $32K vehicle and choosing to tart it up to $60K, so you can complain about the MSRP.

Get a base + 2.7. That's your starting point for the argument. Unless a fully tasted out Bronco has a different engine than that? (Feel free to correct, I don't see it on the MY22 B&P just yet)

OEM's have proven many, many times that there's an economic determination to be made when resolving a product error or not.

GM's decade long ignition issue that literally killed 124 people is a glaring example. Even after court order and hundreds of millions of dollars in liability, they shoved it on "old-GM" through bankruptcy and people got nothing.

Ford will likely need roof v3.0 and replace a ton of units under warranty, and if there's a systemic issue with the 2.7 (that has served the warranty period very well for the hundreds of thousands of F150's) then they solve the issue first and determine the cost of recall or warranty replacement for the few failed units.

 

[Bmadda]

- yes, in another thread @mpeugeot confirmed the F-150 2.7 has different part# than Bronco 2.7 -
- and over in BN, I asked one of our Ford rep frequent posters why the different engine Part#'s for F-150 vs Bronco - 2.7L Eco (Nano 2nd Gen)
His response:
". . Ford has been known to use different heads / valves / turbos / manifolds combined with different tuning to achieve different results (Think Mustang 5.0L has 460hp, F-150 has only 400hp, same block, different heads/tuning)"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So the valves (& other parts) used in the F-150 2.7L engine could be different than Bronco -

If somebody has the last 8 digits of the VIN for a newer 2.7L F150, And the last 8 for a 2.7L Bronco we could check on this!

 

[wisc]

hey, this sounds promising !
- someone will have VIN's for F-150's
- right, 2018 or later

we have a couple for 2.7L Broncos - here's a recent VIN for one of the failed engines - 1FMEE5DP3MLA85962

? is it possible to lookup the original engine ser# for this VIN ?
- this would be huge help in our engine build-date tracking

2019 F150 w/2.7
kFA35942 last 8 of vin if this helps.

 

[Bmadda]

So I did a little research when I got some time today. Here's some of what I cyphered:

Complete cyl head assy: ML3Z-6049-K LH, ML3Z-6049-J RH. no need to compare w/F150, you can see from the prefix those are Bronco only

Ex valve: JT4Z-6505-A
Valve spring: FT4Z-6513-A
Keeper: FT4Z-6518-A
Lock: FT4Z-6514-A
Rocker: FT4Z-6564-C
Lifter: BR3Z-6500-A

Got all those #s from repair link, thats when it got interesting...no intake valve listed! So I called my local parts dept that I buy from regularly. The guy I got i know I've talked to before, and is knowledgeable. Gave him the last 8 and asked for intake valve part #. 1st he asked me "this isn't one of those 2.7s that blew up is it?" Which I asked him "have u guys seen any of these?" He said "WE haven't, but I've heard about it" anyhow, his system didn't show a part # for an intake valve either...just an engineering #. The engineering # doesn't lead anywhere, but if he crosses it manually it comes back as FT4Z-6507-A.

The only PN I had him cross over to F150 was the exhaust valve, and they are the same, so the $64k question? Are the failed 2.7 valves all intakes? Don't know we will ever get a clear answer to that, but it sounds like they used a different intake valve and there was a manufacturing issue...heat treat etc. The service PN may be on hold till they decide how to address the issue...revert to previous parts, or trust the new intake valve manufacturer to fix the issue.

 

[Hailey Jo]

1) @mmcq - thread** - fail~July 21, 1146 mi
2) Jose Hernandez - posted - fail~Dec 2 ?
3) @jeremy.wilson237 - 1st post, further - fail Dec 10, 2012 mi
4) @ToddGinGA - 1st post - fail Dec 5, 1358 mi
5) @Bubbabow - 1st post, further - fail Nov 21, 4000 mi
6) @Nikole - 1st post - fail~Nov 1 ?, 2900 mi
7) @Hailey Jo - 1st post - fail Dec 4, 3581 mi
8) @Lance103222 - 1st post, update - fail Dec 23, 2024 mi
9) father of @Shinoko - 1st post, further - fail Nov 21
10) @estone28 - thread** - fail Oct 21, < 1000 mi
11) Steve Seale - posted - fail Oct 22, 0003 mi
12) @Broncoshrimp - thread** - fail Sept 10, 2400 mi, new 2.7L
13) fbf of @bytheway - 1st post - fail Oct ?
14) @yogi_stvl - 1st post, further - fail Sept ?
15) charr124 @BN - posted - fail Oct ?, 1524 mi
16) @roofone - posted - fail Sept ?
17) @69 Mach I - thread** - fail Nov 14, 2744 mi, new 2.7L**
18) @Broncitis - posted, further - fail~Nov 5, 2200 mi
19) @Broncitis - replacement also failed - Dec ?
20) @International_George - 1st post, thread - fail Dec 24, 1795 mi

** threads covering their repair experiences - (lines 17, 10, 12, & 1)

- so far the engine build-dates run 21160 - 21216 - see how to read Engine Ser#
- ? corrections ? other posts overlooked ?

- the frequency of failures seems less than last month
- in October a Ford employee (@Jay3630, deleted soon after) made five posts re 'bad batch of brittle valves' - 'April batch' - see posts #1, #2, #3, #4, #5
- if the failures are caused by 'bad valves', maybe that 'April batch' has been working its way thru the system - then the problems could subside

If Your Engine Fails - dealer service of course, also :
- good to call Ford Customer Svc
- good to send VIN & full name to @Ford Motor Company here in B6g
- and the engine ser# would be very helpful in B6g build-date tracking efforts

example Engine Ser# Labels -

View attachment 233158

Called the dealer and got my Ser#. I hope this helps!

 

[Yodi]

I picked mine up my two door Black Diamond today and my date code on the engine is 21166 with 50 miles. wish me luck

 

[graavy1999]

BTW, separate your post out of the quote.

Hey, you're the person taking a $32K vehicle and choosing to tart it up to $60K, so you can complain about the MSRP.

Get a base + 2.7. That's your starting point for the argument. Unless a fully tasted out Bronco has a different engine than that? (Feel free to correct, I don't see it on the MY22 B&P just yet)

OEM's have proven many, many times that there's an economic determination to be made when resolving a product error or not.

GM's decade long ignition issue that literally killed 124 people is a glaring example. Even after court order and hundreds of millions of dollars in liability, they shoved it on "old-GM" through bankruptcy and people got nothing.

Ford will likely need roof v3.0 and replace a ton of units under warranty, and if there's a systemic issue with the 2.7 (that has served the warranty period very well for the hundreds of thousands of F150's) then they solve the issue first and determine the cost of recall or warranty replacement for the few failed units.

I was one of those gm people thing nearly killed me thrice. The bs the dealership gave me was neck and neck with other victims. Part of the lawsuit too, ultimately I got a voucher for $500 towards another gm purchase

 

[Bronck]

I picked mine up my tow door Black Diamond today and my date code on the engine is 21166 with 50 miles. wish me luck

Well, you got the tow door, so you know you are cursed

 

[Contact]

just curious as to how many of the reported engine failures were Broncos held on dirt mountain? I'm just wondering if this issue was addressed. Mine was there and besides the ht problem they fixed the reported hose problem of rubbing on the pully.

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