The 2009 Lincoln MKS a new fuel-efficient 3.7-liter V-6 engine. (Photo courtesy of Ford)
Posted on 01/09/2008 9:50:29 AM PST by Incorrigible
The 2009 Lincoln MKS a new fuel-efficient 3.7-liter V-6 engine. (Photo courtesy of Ford) |
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Derrick Kuzak's vision of the future could scare some gearheads.
Big pickups would use four-cylinder engines, luxury sedans would come with V-6s instead of V-8s. The venerable V-8 engine would be found only on big commercial trucks.
Ford Motor Co.'s vice president of global product design sees engine downsizing as the clearest way to meet new federal fuel economy standards. The trick will be doing it without slashing power.
"We know our customers want better fuel economy," Kuzak said. "We know how to deliver that near-term."
Starting with the launch of the 2009 Lincoln MKS sedan later this year, Ford will begin a multiyear push to cut the size of its engines.
The MKS will replace the Lincoln Town Car as the flagship of Ford's luxury lineup. Unlike the V8-powered Town Car, the MKS will use a six-cylinder engine.
To make up for its size, the new engine swipes two technologies from the hot-rod world — turbo-charging and direct fuel injection.
The result is a V-6 that provides 13 percent more horsepower than the Town Car's V-8 and increases fuel economy.
Work on the MKS' engine has already begun at Ford's plant in Lima, Ohio. The MKS uses a modified version of the 3.5-liter V-6 built there. Later this year, 3.5-liter work will start up at Ford's Brook Park, Ohio, campus.
Despite big power numbers, convincing buyers that a six-cylinder engine can do the work of a V-8 will be a tough sell.
"After decades of selling power, and power being defined as having more cylinders or bigger displacement, you have to completely redefine" engine marketing, said Brett Smith, assistant director of the manufacturing, engineering and technology group at the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich.
Car buyers may say they want more fuel-efficient vehicles, but Smith said brawny consistently outsells thrifty.
That's why whenever an automaker releases a redesigned car or truck, it tends to be more powerful than the one it replaces.
The 2007 Toyota Camry? Even the 158-horsepower four-cylinder model is 26.4 percent beefier than it was in 1996. The V-6 gained 42.6 percent on its climb to 268 horses.
In 2004, General Motors released the Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon small trucks, powered by either a four-cylinder or a five-cylinder engine.
Smith said Ford dealers responded by telling potential buyers that the Colorado was a cylinder short, even though its power numbers were higher than the V- 6 available on Ford's Ranger.
It's a marketing strategy that can't survive new federal mandates of 35 mile-per-gallon fuel efficiency by 2020.
"Everyone's in this together. One company isn't going to be able to sell a bunch of V-8s in a segment where others are selling V-6s. It just won't be possible with these new rules," Smith said.
He added that Ford's chosen technologies, turbo-charging and direct injection, could make small engines powerful enough to allow the company to cut sizes.
Turbo-charging is the practice of forcing more air into an engine cylinder, boosting the power briefly when needed.
Direct injection means injecting fuel directly into those engine cylinders instead of in a port or manifold. The fuel used burns more completely, creating more power with lower emissions. But it's a complex system that requires lots of computer controls.
Combined, the technologies can add thousands to the price of an engine, a cost that Ford's Kuzak said can be reclaimed in less than three years from lower gasoline bills.
There are a handful of cars on the road today that use both technologies, but they tend to be specialty, hot-rod models.
Mazda uses the system in its Speed6. It gets 270 horsepower, 27 percent more than the V-6 Mazda 6 sedan and it costs nearly $7,000 more.
General Motors uses turbo-direct-injection in hot-rod versions of the Saturn Sky and Pontiac Solstice two-door roadsters.
The Saturn Sky Redline uses a 2-liter, four-cylinder engine that gets 50 percent more power than the standard version of the car with a 2.4-liter engine. And it gets 28 miles per gallon on the highway, up from 25 miles on the base Sky.
"These technologies are still marketed as performance add-ons," Smith said. "It's not looked on as a fuel-economy enhancement."
He added that all major automakers are looking at turbo-direct-injection to aid fuel economy, but none has yet mastered it.
Even Ford, the biggest proponent of the technology, plans only 500,000 units by 2012 or about 100,000 engines per year — about 5 percent of its vehicle output.
Kuzak said after 2012, nearly all of Ford's new vehicles will use either that technology or diesel engines.
"I cannot say that we have all of our plans (to get to 35 miles per gallon) buttoned up to 2020. We have our plans through 2012," Kuzak said.
(Robert Schoenberger is a reporter for The Plain Dealer of Cleveland. He can be contacted at rschoenb(at)plaind.com.)
Not for commercial use. For educational and discussion purposes only.
That Camry might run 10 sec quarter miles once or twice if the drivetrain could hold, though.
I bought a 2001 Chevy Camaro V-6 thinking I would save on gas due to my long daily commute. I did spring for the Y87 performance package, but after looking more closely at the mileage and performance specs after buying, I found myself smacking myself in the forehead and saying “Wow! I coulda had a V-8!”
:)
Um... ever heard of the 4.6 and the rest of Ford’s Modular V8 lineup? They replaced the old V8s in the late 90s.
The old Ford V8s are long, long gone. The modulars are actually pretty good engines that sound awesome - and I am NOT a Ford fan.
Actually, I can see no reason why a 4-cyl turbodiesel couldn’t provide more than adequate performance in a light duty truck. Even many full-size heavy duty trucks only have a 6-cyl of 5 litres or so displacement.
How many miles do you have on that sporty 4-cylinder? And how much does it cost to keep it running?
Not exactly an every day driver, huh.
Oh, and by the way, you need to look at: The 03-04 Mustang Cobra, Ford Lightning pickup, the 05-up Mustang Shelby 500s - those are all blower V8s.
You never see the liberals suggest that the speed limit should be reduced to 55 mph for fuel economy and safety. While many of them think it, they don’t dare say it.
Timing belts are nice smooth feel to them no doubt.. but when you combine them with an interference engine design, your entire engines lifespan is tied to that thing failing.
That literally is the weakest point in the engine.. seems insane that any manufacturer would combine a timing belt with an interference design, but its made a come back in recent years to improve fuel economy and decrease engine size... At the very least use a chain when developing an inteference engine ... sigh.
Many of the truck makers are scrambling to make diesels for their 1500-class trucks now. GM has a 4.5L TD that should be out soon.
We *should* be seeing more diesels on the road shortly.
Those are superchargers (also called blowers and I think they've been around longer than turbo chargers.
My friend has that same car, and we’ve been busily modifying it. A bit of advice - put a Magnaflow exhaust on it, it will sound a LOT better. And I mean the entire manifold-back system, cats, X-pipe, and all.
You can pick up 20-50HP with that and a good tune.
4.5L? That’s still larger than *should* be necessary for adequate performance in a light-duty pickup. I’ve seen 20-ton straight trucks that were hauled around by an engine no bigger than that.
Yep! I loved that 300 in line 6. Great engine in a F-150 and you could actually work on it!
The 2009 Ford F-150 will likely offer one or maybe both of Ford’s new 5.8-liter and 6.2-liter BOSS V8 engines and perhaps Ford’s new 4.4-liter “Lion” V8 diesel.
The 4.4 Turbo Diesel V8 is based on the Lion V6 Diesel and has an estimated power output of 330 hp and 515 foot-pounds of torque. It will have a compacted graphite iron block due to its high power output.
The new pickup should hit the showroom floor at the January Detroit Auto Show and at dealerships come Spring of 2008.
Amen to that! I turned in my company-owned 1996 LS400 when I resigned that company a year ago. It had 240,000 miles on the odometer, did’t leak a drop of anything and got 23+ MPG on the highway.
And it was still f-a-s-t!
Nissan’s been shipping their V6s like that for years. They tell you to replace the belt every 60 or 105K (depending on generation) and they *never* break prematurely. The belt is usually actually good for 120-140K.
They did recently change to chain drive because of their variable valve timing and clearance issues.
Um, that’s what I said to the original guy that said that, if you’d read the entire post.
Amen, Brotehr.
I clearly remember the exact moment the timing belt on my Acura Integra snapped. There was a single moment (about 1/50th of a second, actually) where there was a universal ‘snapping’ sound of the valve stems being sheared off, then complete silence.
The beauty part was that the failure occurred within a mile of my destination after a 35 mile commute and directly in front of a full-service automotive repair shop.
In retrospect, that car was the best $9,000 and 200,000 miles I ever spent.
The Europeans and Japanese have smaller turbodiesels, but the 4.5 V8 is that size for low end torque and refinement - they’re thinking about putting the same engine in cars while they’re at it and they want to make sure diesel doesn’t have a performance penalty for their products (like it does over in Europe).
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