Ford Market News

[Red Horse]

12 hours ago, kscarbel2 said:

Bob, remember when the oil filter on the V6 Explorers was vertically mounted and so easily accessible from underneath?

Kevin have had two V-6's-nice  and two 4.6's. the current with a 3V is a bit of  PITA to get out.

[Dirtymilkman]

Can someone please tell me what was so special about those old broncos. I don't get it. Is it like the "ugly dog" thing?  

[kscarbel2]

27 minutes ago, Dirtymilkman said:

Can someone please tell me what was so special about those old broncos. I don't get it. Is it like the "ugly dog" thing?  

There's just something indescribably special about them Mark to a great many people. I've always wanted to own one.

[41chevy]

The first ones were as capable as the CJ, roomier, a large list of options, were capable of highway travel and a bit harder to roll. With a Ford or L/M dealers in most areas service and drive train parts common the the cars and F series it was selling point. Plus Jeep and International Scouts at that time were iffy on corperate survival.

[Maxidyne]

The Bronco had superior off road performance to the Jeep and had options Jeep didn't even offer like a V8 engine.

[RoadwayR]

3 hours ago, Maxidyne said:

The Bronco had superior off road performance to the Jeep and had options Jeep didn't even offer like a V8 engine.

Jeep did offer the AMC 304 in the CJ-5 Renegade in the early 70's, and the 304 continued as an option in both the CJ-5 and CJ-7 until 1979 or so.  They had a lot of power for their weight, and since all later AMC V-8's were the same dimensionally, it was easy to swap in a 360 or 401 in a CJ.  L.A.P.D. bought 100's of 401 Matadors, and when they started showing up in wrecking yards the Jeep guys were all over them!  The Bronco did have the 289 and 302, but swapping in even a 351 Windsor was tough because the deeper oil pan interfered with the front crossmember and the 351 was taller.  Someone eventually made a special oil pan and pickup as I remember.  Nonetheless, I think the first gen. Bronco had the CJ's and Scouts beat.  The K/5 Blazer was a different animal entirely, and I was sad to see Ford drop the original Bronco and replace it with a somewhat lame copy of the K/5.     

[Dirtymilkman]

7 hours ago, kscarbel2 said:

There's just something indescribably special about them Mark to a great many people. I've always wanted to own one.

I guess I love my '67 El Camino and people wonder why. Lol

[kscarbel2]

2 hours ago, Dirtymilkman said:

I guess I love my '67 El Camino and people wonder why. Lol

The passions of America's wealthy have always puzzled me. Enjoy Jamaica.

[Dirtymilkman]

2 hours ago, kscarbel2 said:

The passions of America's wealthy have always puzzled me. Enjoy Jamaica.

Haha. Very good. 

[1965]

6 hours ago, Dirtymilkman said:

I guess I love my '67 El Camino and people wonder why. Lol

Like to see a picture 

[Dirtymilkman]

54 minutes ago, 1965 said:

Like to see a picture 

Not mine but an identical twin down to the wheels. Mines bundled up in the back corner of the shop

[1965]

33 minutes ago, Dirtymilkman said:

Not mine but an identical twin down to the wheels. Mines bundled up in the back corner of the shop

Very nice, 4speed?

[41chevy]

1 hour ago, Dirtymilkman said:

Not mine but an identical twin down to the wheels. Mines bundled up in the back corner of the shop

Would never sell mine (or the Eldo). 454, 4 speed, 2.94 posi.

[Dirtymilkman]

Mines got a 302 with a turbo 400. She likes to rev

[41chevy]

19 minutes ago, Dirtymilkman said:

Mines got a 302 with a turbo 400. She likes to rev

Mine is piggy around town but interstate will cruise all day a 75 easy and 19+ highway. originally had 3.55

[kscarbel2]

Ford F-150s use tech stolen from MIT professors

Christopher Yasiejko, Bloomberg  /  February 3, 2019

WILMINGTON, Delaware -- The most-popular vehicle in the U.S. -- the F-series truck -- is among the many Ford Motor Co. products using stolen technologies to run its newest fuel-efficient engines, according to three Massachusetts Institute of Technology professors who say they invented the enhancements.

With Ford selling two trucks every minute and generating about $42 billion in revenue last year from the F-series alone, the MIT inventors are demanding an unspecified share of the proceeds. In a lawsuit filed Jan. 30, they say their patented dual port- and direct-injection technology were added to the company’s EcoBoost engines in recent years without permission.

The dispute marks a split in the long collaboration between MIT and Ford, which created a joint energy-research program in 2007 to focus on powertrain, fuel and energy technologies. A separate MIT Energy Initiative paired Ford personnel with university researchers.

Chairman Bill Ford, great-grandson of the automaker’s founder Henry Ford, received a masters degree from the MIT Sloan School of Management in 1984.

But by 2015, Ford suggested the professors were “greedy inventors” and refused offers to negotiate exclusive rights to license the patents, the lawsuit alleges.

Ford sells “a lot of vehicles, most with EcoBoost,” said Kevin Tynan, senior automotive analyst for Bloomberg Intelligence in Princeton, N.J., who estimates the company has sold about 8 million light trucks alone since 2015. It’s too soon to know how costly any royalties would be for the company, he said. “At $1 per vehicle, no big deal. At $1,000, $8 billion hurts a little.”

EcoBoost engines have been a key part of Ford’s strategy to develop cars and trucks with better fuel efficiency and power with fewer emissions, and they’ve been installed in millions of new vehicles over much of the past decade.

'Revolutionary throughout the industry'

MIT professors Leslie Bromberg, Daniel R. Cohn and John B. Heywood, who have been working for decades on improvements to internal-combustion engines, say they invented dual-injection technologies that allow for better fuel-and-air mixing and combustion stability than direct injection, with less engine knock.

“Revolutionary throughout the industry,” is how MIT describes the technologies, which have been cited by more than 115 other patents, including dozens by Ford, according to the lawsuit filed in federal court in Wilmington, Del.

The professors transferred ownership of their creations to MIT, one of the premier U.S. research universities, which then granted exclusive patent-licensing rights to a small company the three men founded, Ethanol Boosting Systems LLC. EBS offered to license patents on the enhancements to Ford in 2014, but the company declined.

Since then, the technologies have become integrated into new EcoBoost engines Ford is promoting in recent models, including F-150 trucks, Lincoln Navigator SUVs and Ford Mustang sports cars, according to the plaintiffs.

Licensing questions

Heywood, who was director of the Sloan Automotive Laboratory at MIT and wrote the 1988 textbook “Internal Combustion Engine Fundamentals,” emailed two Ford executives in October 2014 to discuss licensing the dual-injection technology, according to the complaint. Heywood cited MIT’s history with Ford and wrote that EBS “would like to give Ford the first opportunity” to license a portfolio of five patents, one of which is named in the lawsuit.

After a volley of emails, Bill Coughlin, then Ford’s chief intellectual-property officer, agreed to meet at MIT in April 2015. According to the complaint, Coughlin proposed that “in exchange for EBS agreeing not to assert the patents against Ford,” the auto giant “would work with EBS to market other MIT/EBS technology.” At one point in the conversation, Coughlin asked the three professors “whether they were ‘greedy inventors,’” the complaint says.

EBS invited Ford to analyze the patents and identify any that weren’t applicable to its products, but that never happened, the plaintiffs allege. After more rounds of emails and phone calls, including with Greg Brown, then the counsel for global engine intellectual property at Ford Global Technologies LLC, the carmaker told EBS in November 2015 that it wasn’t interested in licensing the patents.

Asked whether Ford might be interested in the technology for future vehicles, Brown, according to the complaint, “indicated that Ford had no plans that he knew of to use that technology in its vehicles.”

'Imminent plans'

But Ford “did have imminent plans” to use the technology, and “already was incorporating that technology into its engines and fuel-management systems,” MIT and EBS said in the lawsuit. The complaint cites a June 2017 press release in which Ford said it was using dual port- and direct-injection technology in its 3.5-liter EcoBoost engines and other engines that are available in the F-150, Expedition and other models.

The majority of Ford trucks, and 60 percent of F-150s, have EcoBoost engines, Hau Thai-Tang, Ford’s executive vice president of product development and purchasing, said Jan. 15 at the Wolfe Research Global Auto Industry Conference.

“We sold 1 million F-series last year,” Thai-Tang said. “Our PR team did the math. We sell one every 29 seconds.”

The F-series in 2018 “outsold the nearest competitor by the widest margin ever,” CEO Jim Hackett said Jan. 23 in an earnings call.

[kscarbel2]

This is big Bob. It says something about how Ford does business......ethics. They call inventors greedy and then steal their technology. And Ford isn't a Chinese company.....hmm.

[Maxidyne]

It's notable that after several years of making Ethisphere's list of most ethical companies, Ford didn't make the list in 2018.

[Red Horse]

15 hours ago, kscarbel2 said:

This is big Bob. It says something about how Ford does business......ethics. They call inventors greedy and then steal their technology. And Ford isn't a Chinese company.....hmm.

I can't see how they can take the position they are taking-assuming the patents are in place.  Or is the technology that broad that it is a generally accepted alternative to positioning of an injector.?

[kscarbel2]

Ford Super Duty packs new engine, more power for 2020

Michael Martinez, Automotive News  /  February 5, 2019

DETROIT -- Ford Motor Co. is adding a second V-8 engine option and upping the power on its Super Duty pickups to maintain its segment dominance halfway through the vehicles' life cycle.

The 2020 F-250, F-350 and F-450 pickups, scheduled to go on sale this fall, will offer an optional 7.3-liter V-8 engine in addition to an updated third-generation 6.7-liter Power Stroke diesel and the standard 6.2-liter V-8. They will be paired with a new 10-speed automatic transmission.

Although executives refused to offer specific figures, they said the new powertrains will improve power, payload and towing capability, critical stats for the construction workers and fleet operators who most use the vehicles.

Ford has adopted the "We Own Work" slogan for the Super Duty, which leads in sales and market share but faces increased competition from new offerings by Ram and Chevrolet.

Ford last redesigned the Super Duty for the 2017 model year, when it shed as much as 350 pounds by switching to an aluminum body.

The midcycle freshening comes as Ford shifts 90 percent of its capital allocation to producing pickups, vans and utilities. By 2020, roughly 75 percent of its lineup will be updated or new.

"Fundamentally, we're playing to our strengths," Kumar Galhotra, Ford's president of North America, said at a media briefing.

Most powerful V-8

The 2020 Super Duty's new 7.3-liter engine is expected to be the most powerful gasoline V-8 in its class, Ford says.

Its overhead valve architecture has a cast iron block and forged steel crankshaft. Ford will offer a compressed natural-gas conversion option.

The third-generation Power Stroke diesel will be Ford's most powerful. It has a stronger cylinder head, block, connecting rods and bearings to handle higher cylinder pressure and increased output. It includes a new 36,000-pounds per square inch fuel injection system with new injectors that Ford says precisely meter and spray up to eight times per stroke to control noise levels and optimize combustion.

The 10-speed transmission, which replaces a six-speed, is better for towing, Ford said. It said the Super Duty will be the only vehicle in the segment to offer live-drive power takeoff, which allows the operator to engage industrial equipment and accessories such as snowplows while the vehicle is in motion.

Exterior, tech improvements

Aside from the powertrain improvements, the 2020 Super Duty gets exterior updates that include a revised grille, as well as interior and technological enhancements.

The vehicle will come with an optional pro-trailer backup assist feature that is used on its smaller F-150 sibling. The feature lets drivers steer the trailer with a reverse camera that can handle all trailer styles, including fifth wheels and goosenecks.

It also includes lane-keep assist, emergency braking with pedestrian detection and blind spot monitoring technology. The features are standard on XLT and higher trims.

Ford also added new drive modes, including Eco, Slippery and Sand/Mud. It also comes with an embedded 4G LTE modem and Wi-Fi.

In addition to the grille, which improves cooling, the truck has a new tailgate design and updated headlights, taillights and bumpers.

Ford did not disclose fuel-economy figures or pricing.

Related reading - http://www.campaign.ford.com/content/fordmedia/fna/us/en/news/2019/02/05/new-ford-f-series-super-duty-pickup-raises-bar-again.html

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[kscarbel2]

No mention of the F-550.

No mention of the 7.3 completely replacing the V-10, and the latter simultaneously being phased out.

[kscarbel2]

Informative video, and the Ford engineer mentions 7.3L medium duty application.

I'd rather it was a 4-valve. No 2-valve argument will win me over.

.

 

[Red Horse]

Kevin,  I've watched the video a couple of times and keep picking up bits and pieces.

They keep emphasizing- "its a truck engine-for high GVW/GCW.  Low end torque to get loads moving.  Lot of discussion on exhaust manifold design/construction-look at the length of the pipes!  I think the KISS theory is very evident here.  Oil cooled pistons etc etc.

Also have to be a lot of economies associated with building this vs the ^.8 V-10 with 10 holes, balance shaft etc etc.

[Maxidyne]

So how many hundred million $$$ did Ford spend to develop and tool up this fossil?

[66dc75]

Press release mentions "pro trailer back up assist", shouldn't that be amateur trailer back up assist??