The same factory that produced the legendary 351 Cleveland that powered Ford's "Boss" Mustang is now building the new fuel efficient engines that will help the automaker meet strict new fuel economy regulations.
The first EcoBoost engines are rolling off the line at the Cleveland Engine Plant No. 1, which Ford spent $55 million retooling. It says the engines will deliver a 20 percent increase in fuel economy and a 15 percent reduction in emissions without sacrificing power.
Ford fired up the factory on the same day President Obama announced his plan to increase the average fuel economy of new cars and trucks to 35.5 mpg within seven years. The timing was coincidental.
"Years ago, way before President Obama's plan, we put together a sustainable blueprint that will help us increase the fuel economy in all our vehicles and meet the new standards with a stretch," Dan Kapp, Ford's director of powertrain and advanced engineering, told Wired.com. "Not only that, the EcoBoost will solve the problems we face here and now."
EcoBoost is the centerpiece of Ford's "do more with less" ethos to increase fuel efficiency and cut emissions. (The plan also includes cutting the weight of its vehicles by as much as 750 pounds.) The new engines use turbocharging and direct injection, a combination Ford says works so well that an EcoBoost V6 performs like a conventional V8. And the new four-banger performs like a V6.
"Simply put, what we've done is picked up on the technology currently being applied to diesel engines to increase fuel economy and applied it to our gasoline engines," Kapp said.
Ford plans to deliver 750,000 EcoBoost-equipped vehicles annually by 2013, at which point the engines will power 90 percent of the vehicles it builds.
The Taurus SHO and Flex and the Lincoln MKS and MKT are the first to get the new engines - in this case, twin-turbo V6s. The V6s feature Honeywell GT15 turbochargers that feed the engine with incoming air at 170,000 rpm and raise output to 355 horsepower and 350 pounds-feet of torque.
A cam-driven high-pressure fuel pump feeds the fuel injectors at 200 to 2,175 PSI. Fuel is fired directly into the combustion chamber in precise amounts, resulting in a cooler, denser charge that improves fuel economy and performance. Ford says it also eliminates the knock and lag often associated with turbochargers.
To show its performance potential, Ford took an EcoBoosted MKS to the drag strip last week and peeled off a 13.9-second run at 104 mph for our friends at Jalopnik. A similarly equiped Flex - which isn't terribly aerodynamic - managed a quarter-mile run in 14.5 seconds at 98 mph.
Despite the impressive performance Ford can get from an EcoBoost V6, it has no plans to ditch V8s. It also doesn't plan to EcoBoost them or use the technology in gas-electric drivetrains like the Ford Fusion Hybrid anytime soon, Kapp said.
"We are not going to walk away from the V8, but our hope is that, if not now, those customers will eventually put more of a premium on fuel economy," he said. "Also the increase in fuel economy as a result of EcoBoosting the hybrid drivetrain wouldn't be as significant because of the synergy of electric drive. It would be like two plus two equaling three. But that doesn't mean the technology won't be compatible with hybrids in the future."
Cleveland Engine Plant No. 1 opened in 1951 and built 35 million engines before being closed in 2007. The retooled plant will employ 250 people. EcoBoost plants also are slated to open in Chicago and outside Toronto.
Photos: Ford
