Ford’s 5.0 V8 And 2.7 V6 Ecoboost Fuel Economy Compared

This is a rough comparison of sorts, but since I lease a 2.7 Ecoboost and the other company I work for just bought a 5.0 V8 I thought I would compare.

Both trucks are XLT models with 36 gallon fuel tanks which were full when starting the journey, have the 10-speed automatic transmission, are crew cabs, are 4X4s, have Ford's engine auto start/stop when at stoplights, and have 5.5' beds with tonneau covers. The glaring differences are that the 2.7 Ecoboost is a 2018 with 28,xxx miles on it, so it's arguably more broken in, while the 5.0 is a 2019 with just a couple thousand miles on it.  It should also be noted that the 2.7 has 325HP and 400lb-ft torque and the 5.0 has 395HP and 400lb-ft torque.  The 5.0 has a couple thousand more pounds towing capacity thought this wasn't a towing comparison, just mileage.

I took as identical as I could to the same route with both trucks.  I left the Holiday on 40th Avenue West with a full tank and headed up the North Shore to Taconite Harbor.  My return is included and involved leaving Taconite Harbor, a top on the 4th floor of the Holiday Center Downtown, and a final end near 40th and Grand Avenue.  I drove 5 MPH over and used cruise whenever possible, and traffic was similar and minimal on both days so I did very little passing.  The road conditions both days were also dry and the wind was much stronger on my return trip on each run.

Generally I don't care too much about mileage in a truck unless it's glaringly bad like in a Toyota Tundra.  I was more curious to see what each would do as my lease is up in December and I will not be keeping the truck I currently have.  I will say, the 5.0 requires a lot less digging into the pedal to pass than the 2.7.  Don't get me wrong, the 2.7 pulls just fine, but you can definitely tells it's a turbo V6 and not a V8.

I let the computer do the calculating in both trucks and on the 2.7, total trip time was 3 hours and 6 minutes, going 159.7 miles, averaging 23.4MPG.  For the 5.0, total trip time was 3 hours and 12 minutes, going 163.1 miles, and averaging 21.1MPG.  On this test, that gives us a 2.3MPG difference in mileage.  It's an extra $1,000 when building an F150 and getting the 2.7 and about $2,000 to get the 5.0, so a $1,000 difference.  If you don't need the extra towing the Ecoboost may be the way to go, but for a grand, not that much difference in MPG and more power, the 5.0 V8 might be the better route.