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Ford working four-cylinders into every car and crossover in its range

 
3 1,617 views Feb 16, 2009
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So smaller engines get better fuel economy - big surprise, right? Ford has recently been making a lot of noises about a transition to smaller engines based around their EcoBoost twin-turbo technology, but today the company is saying they'll be going four-pot in every car and crossover they offer by 2013.

Turning big power out of a little engine courtesy of turbochargers is nothing new, but doing it in cars that have traditionally had V6s or V8s under the hood is, for American carmakers anyway. Plans for the four-cylinder EcoBoost Fusion were just released late last year. Ford is jumping in with both feet, however, planning sales of 750,000 EcoBoost engines by 2013. Some of the new four-cylinders will not be turbos, however.

"We're all about the smaller displacement as a way to drive significant fuel economy without sacrificing performance," said Derrick Kuzak, Ford's global group VP of product development, reports Automotive News.

Once all those four-cylinders are in the wild, V8s will only have homes in pickups, larger SUVs and the Mustang, according to Kuzak, though V8s are expected to fade even in those applications as the weight of government regulation presses down harder.

Most fans would like to see EcoBoost V6s dropped into the sportier versions of the Mustang, and many would probably find them - or their four-cylinder brethren - a welcome sight in the Ranger, or even the F-150.
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Comments (3)

  1. ma_NoNameDenton avatar NoNameDenton Posted: 2/16/2009 3:16pm PST

    Seems like a turbo 4 is too small for the engine bay of the F-150, how about some diesels for the light duty trucks.
     
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  2. ma_Mike avatar Mike Posted: 2/16/2009 4:25pm PST

    So does this mean no more Mustang, or a revisit to a MustangII? As long as the 'Stang is a near 2ton vehicle, I don't think a 4 pot, even boosted, would suffice. At that weight, a modern, efficient V8 would actually be more economical and produce less emmissions. It's simple, a small engine has to work much harder at higher RPMs to get a large vehicle going than a larger displacement engine at low RPMs does in an equivalent vehicle. More work=more stress=less efficiency=higher emmissions. Yes, it has been proven modern, boosted 4s can produce similar power to V8s, but this is at higher RPM and I have yet to see any 4 cylinder equal a large V8 on torque. Therefore, if FoMoCo is serious about this claim, I predict a much smaller, lighter Mustang on a new platform(maybe a Euro awd chassis like a Mondeo converted to rwd?). As far as the F-series trucks, I don't think a 4 would work, and they can't downsize those because the commercial/construction industry(the mainstay of the F-series market) will always need big, powerful trucks to haul stuff.
     
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  3. ma_NoNameDenton avatar NoNameDenton Posted: 2/16/2009 5:32pm PST

    Why not work on making the V8's more fuel efficient that way they can stay around longer, use DI and such maybe some turbos.......
     
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