Ford EcoBoost vs Naturally Aspirated

Ford has been offering an EcoBoost engine in some of their vehicles since 2009. The EcoBoost engine is a turbocharged, direct injection engine that Ford has been marketing as a replacement to bigger, naturally aspirated engines.The F-150 is one of the top three most popular EcoBoost vehicles sold by Ford. As of November 2015, 64% of F-150 sales were EcoBoosts. Clearly EcoBoosts are popular with consumers, but are they better than their naturally aspirated counterparts?
The 3.5L EcoBoost V6 is comparable to the 5.0L naturally aspirated V8 as the most powerful F-150 engine. The EcoBoost has 365 horsepower, 20 less than the V8. What it lacks in horsepower, the Ecoboost makes up for in torque. The EcoBoost has 420 lb.-ft. of torque at 2500 RPM as opposed to the V8 that has 387 lb.-ft. of torque at 3850 RPM. This 33 lb.-ft. increase in torque is important. Horsepower is a factor in truck engines but torque is more important. This means the EcoBoost engine can tow more than its hulking V8 competitor.
Fuel efficiency is a big selling point for the EcoBoost. Surprisingly, the EcoBoost V6 only has a 5.9% fuel efficiency increase as compared to the V8. The EcoBoost V6 gets 17mpg combined as opposed to the V8’s 18mpg combined. These figures are from the 4x4 F-150 as opposed to the 2x4 which has a 2 mpg increase when comparing the combined fuel economy’s of the EcoBoost against the V8.
So should you get an EcoBoost? If you want more torque, yes. If fuel economy is what you’re searching for, keep looking. Neither of the trucks have stellar fuel economy and while the EcoBoost does have a better combined mpg than the V8, one mpg more is hardly a difference.

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