Ford to Produce Three-Cylinder Engines

Automaniac submitted on 07/28/2008 Official AutoSpies Timestamp: 12:39 AM
from: www.pressportal.com.au

Tags: Ford Three 3 Cylinder Engines

Ford Three 3 Cylinder Engines

Ford to Produce Three-Cylinder Engines

With Ford America reporting a net loss of USD$8.7 billion for the second quarter of 2008, it’s safe to say that dramatic changes are necessary to flip this trend.

Ford of Europe’s union boss Dieter Hinkelmann has announced that workers at the Ford engine plant in Cologne, Germany, may have to seek work elsewhere unless production for a new economical three-cylinder engine is promptly underway. At present, the majority of the engines produced at the plants are V6’s along with V8’s and V12’s, with a maximum production of approximately 800,000 engines annually. Ford says the V6 engine takes 3.6hours to build with around 2000 units produced a day.

It will be interesting to see what production levels could be expected if Ford move across to mass produced three cylinder engines at the Cologne plant, Germany.

If this new three-cylinder engine is manufactured, expect it to be fitted into the upcoming all new Ford Ka, which will go head to head against other three-cylinder models such as:

Daihatsu Sirion
Mitsubishi i-Car
Citroen C1 / Peugeot 107 / Toyota Aygo
Skoda Fabia
Smart for-two
Toyota Yaris
Volkwagon Fox
Volkswagon Polo Read Article

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GreenPlease - 7/28/2008 9:00:31 AM

+3 Boost

I really struggle with announcements like this. Ford feels that they need to sell more economical cars, so they turn to smaller engines. But why an I3? And why I'm at it, why do they offer an I5 in some of their models? Both engines are inherently harder to balance than an I4.

Aforementioned I3 has the benefit of reduced pumping losses and lower heat losses over an I4 but its not much. Building an I3 you save money by needing one less piston, one less con rod, and four fewer valves but that cost is partially offset by the fact that you need a counter-rotating balance shaft. Even with said balance shaft the power delivery will still be rough. If they are really trying to be economical and don't care about ride quality, why not go to an I2?

I would think that Ford would be better off with a global I4 design. Have an over engineered aluminum block, and change out the cylinder liners to vary the bore and therefore the capacity of the engine. One block, one cylinder head, one pair of cams, same con rods, the only thing that gets changed are the pistons and the cylinder liners.

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t_bone - 7/28/2008 9:23:45 AM

+2 Boost

Actually this wouldn't be a bad powerplant for future, more electric-centric hybrids. But I agree the I3 is an awkward design.

truckmen - 7/29/2008 4:47:58 AM

+1 Boost

Lets see if it works? Maybe this will save Ford? They will still be behind other manufacturers in economy and performance.

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