05/22/2026
This 2018 Ford Escape was plagued by a recognized issue involving coolant infiltration into multiple cylinders, resulting in coolant loss, engine misfires, and white smoke. Unfortunately, this issue is well-documented in Ford's 1.5 EcoBoost engines. What could be the potential source of this problem - potentially a bad head gasket or maybe even a cracked cylinder head? Unfortunately, the fix for this issue requires replacing the engine block due to a flawed mating surface design between the cylinder head and engine block. According to Ford, preventing future occurrences of this nature requires replacing the entire engine assembly (everything from the oil pan to the valve cover, essentially a complete engine ready to start) or swapping the engine short block (consisting of the engine block, pistons, and crankshaft, requiring lots of assembly). In the case of our client, we opted to replace the short block, refurbish the cylinder head, reassemble the engine, and reinstall it in the vehicle for thousands less than replacing the entire engine assembly.
