Ford F150 - Ford's Romeo Engine Plant to Build New 4.6L 3-Valve V8

FORD'S ROMEO ENGINE PLANT TO BUILD NEW 4.6-LITER 3-VALVE V-8 ENGINE
Source: Ford Motor Company Press Release

Ford's New 3-Valve Cylinder Head

Flexible manufacturing system to be installed for machining 3-valve cylinder heads

Investment of $192 million at Romeo plant in tooling and equipment

Production capacity of 200,000 4.6-liter 3-valve engines per year

ROMEO, Mich., May 15, 2003 – Ford Motor Company today announced an investment of $192 million in its Romeo Engine Plant as part of its plan to introduce more powerful, yet cleaner and more fuel-efficient versions, of its award-winning Modular V-8 engines.

With this investment, Ford continues its move to a new global flexible manufacturing system to build engines and transmissions. At the Romeo plant, Ford will install a new cylinder-head line and convert an existing engine assembly line to produce a new 4.6-liter 3-valve per cylinder V-8 engine.

“We are building a network of flexible powertrain plants that can respond quickly to changing market needs, while improving quality and manufacturing efficiency,” said Roman Krygier, group vice president, Global Manufacturing and Quality, Ford Motor Company. “The launch of this new 4.6-liter 3-valve V-8 will continue our push into flexible manufacturing and gives the Romeo Engine Plant a strong future.”

The new 4.6-liter, 3-valve V-8 engine will power a variety of future Ford, Lincoln and Mercury vehicles, including sport-utility vehicles (SUVs) and passenger cars. Production will begin at Romeo by the end of 2005.

Ford’s new 4.6-liter V-8 engine will have two intake valves and one exhaust valve per cylinder –for 24-valves in total – to provide more efficient combustion. This results in reduced emissions, improved fuel economy and better performance.

As a part of the investment at Romeo, Ford is converting its current high-volume 2-valve 4.6-liter engine assembly line to a “flex line” to build the 4.6-liter in both 2-valve and 3-valve variants.

In addition to the flex line, Ford is installing a new 400,000 capacity cylinder-head machining line with new flexible computer-numerically controlled (CNC) machines. The line uses the same type of flexible machining equipment installed at Ford’s Windsor Engine Plant early last year. The Romeo 3-valve cylinder head will be the same design as the one built in Windsor.

“The new 3-valve 4.6-liter engine ensures a strong future for the Romeo plant and the future of our workforce,” said Dale Paruch, plant manager of Romeo Engine. “We have a world-class workforce, dedicated to producing award-winning overhead-cam engines. Last year alone, we built more than 680,000 engines, or an average of 3,000 engines per day, and later this year we will build our 7-millionth V-8 engine.”

David Weston, chairman, UAW Local 400, added: “This is a big day for Romeo, UAW Local 400 and all of our employees. I was here when we started producing the first Modular V-8 in the early ’90s, and this program is not only important to Ford Motor Company, but it is important to the families of all of our workers. Engines are our product and Ford assembly plants are our customer, and we look forward to a bright future of providing them with this great new V-8.”

The first Ford vehicle in North America to offer 3-valves per cylinder will be the new 2004 Ford F-150 with its 5.4-liter Triton V-8 engine, which is built at Ford’s Windsor and Essex engine plants in Windsor, Ontario.

The Windsor plants were reconfigured last year to build 3-valve V-8 engines. As part of that investment, the Windsor plants also will build 4.6-liter 3-valve V-8 engines for a transitional period of time with production beginning by the end of 2004. The new 3-valve cylinder head to be built at Romeo is the same compact design as the cylinder head built at Windsor Engine, giving Ford’s engine plants the ability to cross-ship cylinder heads and other components between plants, maximizing flexibility and the ability to react to changing market demand.

New Ford V-8s

The new 3-valve V-8 engines are “second-generation” designs of Ford’s Modular V-8 family of engines, which consist of 4.6-liter and 5.4-liter V-8 engines and a 6.8-liter V-10.

With one basic engine architecture to suit a variety of vehicle needs, the Modular V-8 family of engines powers a diverse number of Ford products from SUVs to pickup trucks to sports cars and luxury cars.

In 2002, one-third of all Ford Motor Company vehicles sold in North America, or 1.3 million vehicles, were powered by Modular V-8 engines.

Beginning with the new 2004 F-150, Ford’s Modular V-8 family of engines will be available in 2, 3 and 4 valvetrain configurations, per cylinder, equaling 16, 24 and 32 valve engine designs. The 2-valve configuration will be offered in value applications; 3-valve for higher feature content powertrains – when customers want additional performance; and 4-valve designs for high-performance vehicles.

“This new 3-valve architecture, now being introduced in the 2004 F-150, will be the basis for many future products for which Romeo will build engines,” said Dave Szczupak, vice president, Powertrain Operations, Ford Motor Company. “The new multi-valve arrangement enhances the engine’s ability to ‘breathe’ – that is, to move large volumes of air in and out of the cylinders – squeezing all of the energy out of each combustion event, improving power and delivering fuel efficiency.

Variable cam timing

“In addition, we will be adding variable-valve timing to a significant number of all our engines, including nearly all of our V-8 engines,” Szczupak said. “This feature, combined with the combustion efficiency of our 3-valve design, significantly improves the efficiency of our engines for both fuel economy and emissions, while at the same time improving overall performance.”

With the new 3-valve design, Ford engineers discovered they were able to get many of the benefits of a 4-valve design – such as a central spark plug and symmetrical combustion chamber – using two intake valves and a single exhaust valve – with reduced weight and complexity compared with 4-valve designs. The two intake valves allow peak airflow of approximately 350 cubic feet per minute, compared with about 250 cubic feet per minute in the 5.4-liter Triton V-8, which uses a single intake valve per cylinder. This represents a 40-percent improvement.

As an example of the engine team’s holistic approach, this improvement in peak flow also is due to a completely redesigned intake port, which provides a much straighter path to the cylinder – very similar to the approach taken in racing engines.

3-Valve Assembly

With an all-aluminum head, a single camshaft, magnesium cam covers and a clean-sheet design approach, Ford’s engineers have been able to develop a three-valve head that has virtually no weight penalty over the 2-valve V-8 engines. The 3-valve head is actually dimensionally smaller and somewhat lighter than the 2-valve design for the 5.4-liter engine, while offering more rigidity and strength. It also is easier to manufacture, with simpler drilling angles and straight-machined surfaces

“Our innovative new 3-valve architecture delivers the benefits of multiple valves in a much smaller, more economical package than most competitive designs,” said Pete Dowding, manager for Ford’s lineup of Modular V-8 and V-10 engines. “The new 3-valve head is even smaller and lighter than our 2-valve cylinder head.

Ford introduced the industry’s first mass-produced V-8 engine – its famous Flathead V-8 – on March 9, 1932. On April 29, 2003, Ford Motor Company produced its 100-millionth V-8 engine – a 5.4-liter, 3-valve Triton V-8, manufactured at Ford’s Essex Engine Plant.

Romeo Plant Background

The Romeo Engine Plant, which employs more than 1,600 people, produces more than 20 variations of Ford’s 4.6-liter and 5.4-liter single and dual-overhead-cam V-8 engines. Products powered by Romeo V-8 engines include: Ford Mustang, Crown Victoria, F-150, Econoline and Mercury Grand Marquis.

In 2002, the Romeo plant launched new or redesigned engines for five new 2003 products: Lincoln Aviator, Lincoln Navigator, Mercury Marauder, SVT Mustang Cobra and Ford Expedition. Next year, the plant will begin producing V-8 engines for the all-new 2005 Ford GT, on its “niche line” where 390-hp engines are hand-built for the SVT Mustang Cobra.

The plant, which today measures 2.2 million square feet, was originally built in 1966, as the Ford-Romeo Equipment Plant. At that time the plant assembled Ford tractor components. By 1983, the plant produced 300 tractors per day.

In 1987, the plant was converted to building Ford’s new family of modern modular overhead-cam engines. In 1990, the first 4.6-liter Modular V-8 engine was produced.

In 2002, the Romeo plant was awarded the prestigious Shingo Prize for Excellence in Manufacturing based on its outstanding achievements in lean manufacturing.

Variable cam timing. Give those ricers something to worry about.

Wish it was the Windsor plant doing it! I knew about the 5.4 but I figured it would eventually work its way to the other modulars!!! Cool!!! Good info!

oh i want one i want one

Cool beans I just wish I could magicly slip one of those 3 valve 4.6's into my truck.