I still have a hard time accepting that boosted engines are more reliable than normally aspirated;
They aren't. Once every 3-4 weeks or so someone chimes in about a hose popping off on the Fusion Sport board. Many have had the intake hose
that connects to the throttle body pop off, and they never touched it. Most don't road race a FI car for many of the reasons you quote, heat soak
being a huge issue that is much easier to control on NA engines. A/F and especially timing is more critical on FI engines.
Doesn't mean I don't love turbos. Put a Cartech kit on my Capri in 94ish timeframe, when most of the world was running Vortech's.
(only reason I'm not twins on my 14, is being a lib controlled state, I figured @ any time they might go back to visual inspection which
the Roush should pass). I'm also on my 4th ECO and currently own 2. The 2.7 is an awesome engine, but it's silly to
think all that stuff going on is going to be as long term reliable as a stock coyote. Especially since many tune turbo motors
to put out much more power than stock, whereas a coyote tune gets you 15ish HP (if that).
Ford also now advertises no loss in torque for 87 gas for ECO's (except 3.5 HO). Good article here on ECO's, but the price you pay
for 87 is listed in the last sentence here (whereas there is almost no difference on 87 with a coyote, especially pre-18).
"Figure 41 shows the ignition timing for both fuels for the UDDS, the Highway and the US06 cycles.
At higher absolute engine loads the spark timing for the 93 AKI fuel is more advanced enabling the
engine to operate closer to the maximum brake torque combustion conditions. For the
lower octane fuel the spark ignition timing is retarded at these higher loads to prevent engine
knocking from occurring. The vertical axis in these figures is absolute engine load as reported by
the powertrain controller that is different than mechanical torque output from the engine. Overall
the lower octane fuel resulted in higher engine speeds and higher boost levels to compensate for
the lower mechanical torque."
https://www.nhtsa.gov/sites/nhtsa.dot.gov/files/documents/812520.pdf
Pg 56
As for the original topic, I've been looking for an 11-17 V6 vert. The prices on the 15+ have come down enough that I have started to narrow
my search on them instead. Mostly for the IRS and upgraded interior. I specifically don't want an EB as the V6 is plenty
for the woman, and then I won't be tempted to tune it.