Originally Posted By: HangFire
The fact is the writing was on the wall in the early 70's, but for another decade the US makers messed around with: lousy import 4 cylinders, large slow heavy iron block domestic 4 cylinders, TBi's on 60's era all-iron V8 engines and other dead-ends instead of getting their R&D act together. Even after that into the 90's, it was more OHV, more iron/aluminum engines, more 2VPC, all the stuff that couldn't (and wouldn't) last in the marketplace. The US Big Three have had a shocking lack of investment in their engine technology. Finally in the 2000's they were forced to do something, for example Ford hired a German company to engineer their latest twin turbo V6, probably because they couldn't do it themselves.
At least if Ford engineers couldn't design a turbo V6 properly, they got someone else to.
It isn't the first time Ford looked elsewhere in order to get a good engine. Remember the Mercury Villager?
Ford also looked for outside help when it created the first Taurus SHO.
A properly made aluminum head iron block engine isn't an outdated way of doing things. Look at the different engines VW makes right now.
The fact is the writing was on the wall in the early 70's, but for another decade the US makers messed around with: lousy import 4 cylinders, large slow heavy iron block domestic 4 cylinders, TBi's on 60's era all-iron V8 engines and other dead-ends instead of getting their R&D act together. Even after that into the 90's, it was more OHV, more iron/aluminum engines, more 2VPC, all the stuff that couldn't (and wouldn't) last in the marketplace. The US Big Three have had a shocking lack of investment in their engine technology. Finally in the 2000's they were forced to do something, for example Ford hired a German company to engineer their latest twin turbo V6, probably because they couldn't do it themselves.
At least if Ford engineers couldn't design a turbo V6 properly, they got someone else to.
It isn't the first time Ford looked elsewhere in order to get a good engine. Remember the Mercury Villager?
Ford also looked for outside help when it created the first Taurus SHO.
A properly made aluminum head iron block engine isn't an outdated way of doing things. Look at the different engines VW makes right now.
