Anyone have to decarbon the 2.0 yet?

[SmokeShowJoe]

Since all 2.0 Badlands only have direct injection No port, anyone have to decarbon the head yet? At what mileage ?

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[Quashish]

I doubt anyone here has done it yet. In the focus world, walnut blasting is a thing. The easy way if carbon build up isn't too bad some CRC intake valve spray and some medium bristle brushes will do the trick.

Damond Motorsports catch cans help in preventative build up.

As far as milage, I couldn't provide a clear cut answer. Also depends on driving style and habits

 

[Mark S.]

Since all 2.0 Badlands only have direct injection No port, anyone have to decarbon the head yet? At what mileage ?

The wife's last car was an Escape with a 2.0L; she drove it nearly 150K before we traded it. Drivability, fuel economy, and idle quality--all indicators of intake valve contamination--were the same as the day we bought it.

 

[bozer]

I use Redline fuel system cleaner, hopefully it will help minimize carbon build up.

 

[Meanderthal]

I use Redline fuel system cleaner, hopefully it will help minimize carbon build up.

Because the fuel is injected directly into the combustion chamber, the intake valve bodies never see fuel or that fuel system cleaner. The PCV system feeds oil vapors into the intake tract which condense on the valve bodies and intake manifold. That eventually leads to a buildup of very ugly black gunk which begins to restrict/disturb the flow of air.

 

[Mark S.]

That eventually leads to a buildup of very ugly black gunk which begins to restrict/disturb the flow of air.

The question is how much? Based on our experience with the wife's previous Escape, my EcoBoost Mustang, and now the Badlands, I don't think it's as much of an issue as it's made out to be. Ford EcoBoost engines have been in operation for nearly 15 years now, and I've yet to read about any widespread issues with valve contamination affecting driveability.

 

[bozer]

Because the fuel is injected directly into the combustion chamber, the intake valve bodies never see fuel or that fuel system cleaner. The PCV system feeds oil vapors into the intake tract which condense on the valve bodies and intake manifold. That eventually leads to a buildup of very ugly black gunk which begins to restrict/disturb the flow of air.

Isn't the 2.0 Ecoboost port injection and direct injection?
The 2.0 Ford EcoBoost engine features both port injection and direct injection. This dual injection system enhances fuel efficiency and power output by spraying fuel into the intake ports and directly into the combustion chamber. The direct injection helps to cool the air, while the port injection ensures a more uniform fuel distribution in the intake manifold.
My bad, they introduced the port/direct injection in 2025 on the 2.0.

 

[llinthicum2]

The 2.0 ecoboost in the 2025 Bronco Sport is a new engine that uses both direct and port injection. The 2.0 ecoboost in prior Bronco Sport models had direct injection only.

 

[Meanderthal]

The question is how much? Based on our experience with the wife's previous Escape, my EcoBoost Mustang, and now the Badlands, I don't think it's as much of an issue as it's made out to be. Ford EcoBoost engines have been in operation for nearly 15 years now, and I've yet to read about any widespread issues with valve contamination affecting driveability.

I was not saying that it is something that needs to be done, or when. What I was trying to explain is what it is, how it happens, and why fuel system cleaner has no effect on it.

 

[Ksnau]

On my 2014 escape 2.0.0 I did mine. Mine I want to say 80,000 or 90, 000 miles and it had built up a decent bid but as far as I could tell didn't seem to affect driving quality and afterwards I didn't really notice much of a difference.

One thing I tried to do a couple months ago, I have a borescope and I tried to shove it down the intake to see where mine were at but it kept getting caught on something now on my 2022 broncos sport badlands I did take the intake off at like 10,000 mi or something and had a teeny teeny tiny bit. But I would say I wouldn't worry about it until probably 100K and then you might want to pop the manifold off and just take a look, but you can totally clean it yourself. That's what I did on my escape You don't need to pay someone $1,000 to Walnut blast it. That's more like if you let it get so bad that it's just super crazy, terrible and even then.

I had a '07 pontia Grand Prix that had a bunch of buildup more from just the PCV. It wasn't direct injection and it was freaking terrible and I just cleaned it up myself and it was fine but I know they do it a lot on the older BMWs.

 

[Ksnau]

Here's a picture of how mine looked whenever I did it I was able to go back and find the picture. Sorry it's the only one that I could find though. Also, I was looking at the date on the picture and I think I actually did this pretty soon after I bought the car. I bought it with 55,000, mi so I don't think this was at 80 or 90. I'm pretty sure this was at about 55 to 60,000 mi and I think I did it again later on. Probably like 80 or 90 or something I really couldn't say so I would say this is a good estimate of what it might look like at about 50,000 mi. It didn't look like it was getting down to where it was messing with the valve seat which is the most important part and it was just you know at the very start of the valve stem so it probably was an impeding air flow a whole lot but hopefully that'll give you guys a better picture of what you can expect now. Again this was a 2014 escape 2.0 and I know they did slightly change the motor for our generation but I don't know how much it impacts this

 

[Ksnau]

For some reason it won't let me edit my old post but I did realize I got my year wrong. So this probably was at about 80 or 90,000. It looks like it was whenever I had to replace my turbo. Also, now the turbo wasn't bad. What what used to happen at least on the old ones. I believe they fixed. This was the wastegate linkage on the turbo was made of too soft of metal or at least for the bushings and so the bushings would expand and it would give slop and the linkage and it would let the linkage hang open allowing air to bypass the turbo turbine wheel and you would start making less power cuz you're making less boost and eventually you'd get a low boost code and if it got bad enough the thing would just hang wide open and you wouldn't be able to make any boost and there was no way to fix this. Or let's say the cost to fix it was less than the cost of a new turbo. So I ended up just replacing my turbo and also did a few other mods at the same time cleaning the intake valves was one of them so again this was probably was at about 80 or 90,000 MI

 

[SgtT11B]

The way the ECU is programmed and the cycling of the EGR valve has mitigated a lot of these issues.

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