Ford to make straight six

[cymtriks]

I read this snippet in the Autocar. Apparently ford are making a straight six engine for big Fords and Volvos.

The question is why?

Everyone else is making V6 engines to keep the length down and make packaging easier.

A straight six is smoother but as Ford are going down the front wheel drive route it seems that the packaging issues will be paramount.

Thoughts everyone?

[stevieturbo]

Havent Ford been using a straight 6 in Oz for years ? Might be the same lump.

[wheeljack888]

Its the Volvo inline 6, which has been designed to be as short at possible for transverse mounting. It's all to do with Volvo's safety ethos of having narrow engines mounted sideways so theres lots of air between the engine and bulkhead for crash. This is why the 4.4 V8 they have is a 60 degree bank angle (rather than the usual 90deg)

Phil

[Pigeon]

It is, it has to be said, excitingly short... here it is longitudinally mounted in a 960:

[love machine]

I suppose you save on heads, cams and the casting/machining costs. I reckon that a 4 bearing engine has less friction than a 7. Hmm, thrust washers will last longer though.......

[Marquis_Rex]

love machine said:

I suppose you save on heads, cams and the casting/machining costs. I reckon that a 4 bearing engine has less friction than a 7. Hmm, thrust washers will last longer though.......

That's not as clear cut as it may seem, underdeveloped british crap like the Rover SD1 straight six had only 4 bearings (but was EXTRA long in the bargain) - needed to have bigger diameter main and con rod bearings to compensate. Other straight six engines known to be quite fragile were the 250 Mercs with only 4 mains- again unlike bigger 280s which were far more robust.
Bottom end friction is directly proportional to the square of the bearings diameters in your bottom end.
Bottom end friction tends to dominate at higher engine speeds while top end valve train friction dominates at low engine speeds.
Jag ,BMW and the Volvo above did/do it properly however

[jimmyfish]

did i see a thred about a rwd mondaeo some were