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Ford EcoBoost 3.5 Litre V6 Unveiled

Hot on the heels of the announcement of the 2010 Taurus, Ford has unveiled its long-awaited EcoBoost V6 engine. The 3.5 litre V6 is tasked with providing the blue oval with an engine capable of both performance and economy.
With outputs of  264kW (3


Hot on the heels of the announcement of the 2010 Taurus, Ford has unveiled its long-awaited EcoBoost V6 engine. The 3.5 litre V6 is tasked with providing the blue oval with an engine capable of both performance and economy.

With outputs of  264kW (355 hp) at 5700rpm and 474Nm (350 ft-lbs) of torque at 3500rpm, the performance side of the equation seems to be well accounted for.

Due to debut in the 2010 Ford Flex later this year and followed by the Lincoln MKS and MKT, Ford claims the new V6 competes with the 4.6 litre V8s found in rivals such as the Cadillac DTS and Hyundai Genesis. Indeed the outputs from the EcoBoost engine shadow the Cadillac’s 217Kw and 390 Nm as well as the Hyundai’s 250Kw and 437Nm. Even Ford's own 4.6 litre V8, as found in the Explorer, can only muster 317Kw and 406 Nm.

The engine itself is a derivative of Ford’s existing Duratec V6 with upgrades to the cylinder block, crankshaft, connecting rods, pistons and exhaust valves to handle the extra stresses placed on it by turbocharging.

Ford claims the new engine will be capable of a 10 to 15 percent fuel economy gains when compared to similar class vehicles. You can expect Ford to make much of the engine's outstanding performance and economy in its marketing.

"The beauty of EcoBoost is that it enables us to downsize for fuel efficiency, yet boost for power," Ford product development VP Derrick Kuzak said.

"We're able to decrease the size of the available engine - such as installing a V6 versus a V8, yet boost the power using turbocharging to deliver similar power and torque of that larger engine."

The boost side of things is taken care of by two Honeywell GT15 turbochargers operating at speeds up to 170,000 RPM and producing 12 psi. Keith Plagens, a turbo engineer for Ford, said, "We've tested the turbochargers at a much-higher duty cycle than a customer would ever experience... Our whole goal from the beginning was to make the operation of the turbochargers seamless, so the customer wouldn't even know they were there."

The turbochargers have an expected trouble-free operating life of 10 years or 150,000 miles (over 241,000 kilometres).

Also included in the engine's list of features is DFI or Direct Fuel Injection, which helps to improve fuel economy even further as well as cutting C02 emissions, even from cold starts.

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