Ford Piles on the Tech, Squeezes More Mileage From the 2017 F-150

Steph Willems
by Steph Willems

It’s not a revolution in fuel efficiency, but an evolution.

Ford added a healthy dose of new technology to the 2017 F-150’s 3.5-liter Ecoboost V6 powertrain, but the significance of the newfound efficiency depends on who you ask. To the folks at the Blue Oval, it’s a mileage boost worthy of celebration. To would-be buyers, it’s a minor perk, but tell me more about the torque.

We’ve already detailed the improvements made to the next-generation 3.5-liter Ecoboost. Producing 375 horsepower and 470 foot-pounds of torque, the revised mill makes many V8s envious. The added power comes by way of a dual direct and port fuel-injection system that sends fuel to both the intake port and cylinder, turbochargers with lighter turbine wheels and electrically activated wastegates.

Adding to the efficiency, Ford paired the engine with its new 10-speed automatic transmission, a unit co-developed by the automaker and General Motors.

What’s the payoff? A solitary mile per gallon. Ford rates rear-wheel-drive F-150 models equipped with the engine at 18 mpg in the city and 25 mpg on the highway, or 21 mpg combined. That’s an increase of 1 mpg in all three categories.

Four-wheel-drive models return 17 city/23 hwy/20 combined, or an overall gain of 2 mpg.

Compared to the base V6 engines of its domestic competition, the rear-drive Ecoboost-powered F-150 matches the highway mileage of the 3.6-liter Ram 1500 (4×2 model), but beats its city mileage by 1 mpg. Ford matches the 4.3-liter Chevrolet Silverado 1500 4×2’s mileage in the city, but beats its highway figure by 1 mpg.

Modest gains if you’re only looking at displacement, not output. That Ford could wring any mileage improvement out of the engine while delivering a significant power boost is admirable.

Within its own stable, the new powertrain’s combined mileage beats the naturally aspirated 3.5-liter F-150 by 1 mpg, and falls 1 mpg short of the 2.7-liter Ecoboost’s combined figure.

[Image: Ford Motor Company]

Steph Willems
Steph Willems

More by Steph Willems

Comments
Join the conversation
5 of 35 comments
  • Art Vandelay Art Vandelay on Oct 05, 2016

    UN-BAN BIGTRUCKS@YOUTUBE!!!!

  • EBFlex EBFlex on Oct 06, 2016

    Yet another well intentioned yet completely failed effort by Ford. All the tech, all the beer cans, all the unnecessary complication and these trucks really have no significant improvement over their competition. Once again all hype and no results. And that 2.7 is a hateful engine. It's garbage. It makes a noise reminiscent of a 3.0L Ford Windstar and really delivers no real world advantage over the proper 5.0L. Ford really needs to recruit some decent engineers to figure this stuff out. Then they would have actual results and wouldn't need such a big marketing department.

    • See 2 previous
    • EBFlex EBFlex on Oct 06, 2016

      @Drzhivago138 "Do you ever have anything constructive to add?" Yep. Every single post.

  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
  • FormerFF We bought three new and one used car last year, so we won't be visiting any showrooms this year unless a meteor hits one of them. Sorry to hear that Mini has terminated the manual transmission, a Mini could be a fun car to drive with a stick.It appears that 2025 is going to see a significant decrease in the number of models that can be had with a stick. The used car we bought is a Mk 7 GTI with a six speed manual, and my younger daughter and I are enjoying it quite a lot. We'll be hanging on to it for many years.
  • Oberkanone Where is the value here? Magna is assembling the vehicles. The IP is not novel. Just buy the IP at bankruptcy stage for next to nothing.
  • Jalop1991 what, no Turbo trim?
Next