Raising the Bar
Ford to introduce F-150 with diesel engine by 2009


By RICHARD TRUETT | AUTOMOTIVE NEWS

AutoWeek | Published 10/11/06, 9:04 am et
DETROIT - Ford Motor Co. will launch its F-150 pickup with a diesel engine in 2008 or 2009, a former top executive confirmed.



If it arrives on time, the F-150 probably will be the first light-duty pickup with a diesel in North America.

Dave Szczupak, who retired last week as Ford's vice president of manufacturing for the Americas, said the F-150 will get a version of the 3.6-liter V-8 diesel used in the Land Rover Range Rover SUV sold in Europe.

Ford will be the first with the product unless Toyota or Nissan pulls off a surprise.

Gary Convis, Toyota's executive vice president of engineering and manufacturing for North America, said last month that Toyota had not yet sourced a diesel engine for the Toyota Tundra and might even buy one from a supplier. Nissan is negotiating with International Truck & Engine Corp. for a V-8 diesel for the Nissan Titan, but neither company has announced a deal.

GM eyes diesel engine

General Motors has announced plans for a small V-8 diesel truck engine after 2010. Dodge is expected to get new V-6 and V-8 diesels from longtime supplier Cummins in 2010.

Ford, GM and Dodge currently offer diesels only in their heavy-duty pickups.

The Range Rover's new diesel engine, developed with PSA/Peugeot-Citroen SA, was launched this year in Europe and looks like an ideal engine for a light-duty truck. The 267-hp V-8 develops 472 pounds-feet of torque - plenty of pulling power for consumers who might use a diesel F-150 to haul small trailers. The British market Range Rover gets 25 mpg.

Szczupak said a version of that engine would be used in the F-150. But engineers have to rework the engine to get it to conform to U.S. federal emissions standards.

"We haven't specified a Job 1 date, but we'll be pretty close by the end of 2008," Szczupak said of the 3.6-liter diesel.

Two major tasks

He said to get the engine U.S.-certified, Ford's diesel team has two tasks: First, it has to redesign some of the components to make the engine produce lower emissions in the cylinder. Then, team members have to choose a robust, reliable and affordable emissions system.

"There's a huge challenge for diesels in the under-8,500 (pounds gross vehicle weight) pickups in terms of meeting emission standards," Szczupak said.

Ford's diesel team has not made a final decision about the diesel F-150's emissions system, he said. Ford could go with urea injection to clean up harmful oxides of nitrogen, or NOx. The other option is a lean NOx trap. Both would be used with a diesel particulate filter.

"We will need a significantly more complex emission treatment and aftertreatment," Szczupak said. "We are looking at every option, whether it is a (urea) additive system or nonadditive."

Ford is determined to maintain sales leadership in full-sized trucks. The company has flirted with a light-duty diesel in the past but dropped plans when costs and reliability issues couldn't be reconciled.




They want to maintain sales but they toss some puny hand-me-down euro diesel into the F150? Yep that's gonna sit well with most of America...

 

. . or maybe they don't want to kill sales of the F-250s and up.

 

...Or maybe Ford would like to stick to their current offering of the lowest horsepower engines all around?

 

Exactly. Besides HP does not benefit a truck for pulling/hauling, but the >470 TQ numbers will get you moving.

 

im not surprised at this and thumper is correct they want to help the f150 sales without hurting the superduty. but the cummins is the better diesel anyway..

 

I think those numbers are fairly impressive. 472 lb/ft of torque would roast some tires for sure. It's small size would also help keep weight down some. Plus if they maintain the mileage that's a plus. My ideal truck would be an f150 superduty, I never haul anything in the bed....so I hated the heavy spirings, but I haul my boat all over creation, so a big tranny/axles/brakes is desirable.

 

i dont know what your complaining about. land rover makes the best SUV's around. you go anywhere int he world and you will find a Defender if not 100 of them besides the US cause they dont make them here anymore due to requirements of airbags.

you go to europe, its common to see probably 1 out of every 15 if not less a land rover product. and the defenders are military used basically everywhere.

i dont care about the US and the humvees, i love them but, defenders kick a**. my brother has one and it rules off road.

and if it gets a land rover engine diesal.....its probably going to produce a little more then what they are telling us, cause the TDi engines are insane over in europe, the ones they currently use here in the US or use to use are CRAP compared to the ones overseas. but thats cause US strickt emissions.

and if that is the TDi spec, which it actually probably is (i know im screwing with my statement above^^) then you swap for a better larger turbo and you'll get some superior numbers.

 

I would love to have a new Range Rover.

 

Gotta love the US liberal govt enforcing rediculous emission restrictions.

That alone will raise costs significantly, and for what? Europe doesn't have such strict emission restrictions, why should we?? Its just a way for them to screw you out of more money, thats all.

By the time the engine is dumbed down for US standards, it will be overpriced and underpowered. *Cartman voice* "Damn tree hugging hippies"

 

Hmmm, kinda hard to say since this engine, nor the Cummins that will (may) go into the Ram is even out yet.

 

true, cummins is nice, but idk, ive riden in both while hauling mastercraft boats to go wakeboarding (a turbodiesal and a cummins) and the ford pulled much more efficiently and better....


and i like my little rant, i put time into that haha

 

When I was at Ford a couple months ago, I saw them testing this exact engine in one of their test cells. I told one of the engineers working on the engine, that I had been hearing a lot about a small diesel for the F150. He then let out a chuckle and said nothing; I guess I know why now. If you search wikipedia, you can find out more information about this engine. mmm.... Twin turbos

 

The 6.0 has the lowest HP/TQ ratings of any diesel that I know of (in the 3/4 ton+ trucks) and it still outpulls the Dodge and Chevy. What's up with that? Maybe fancy numbers are the last thing Ford cares about, and what they really care about is capability...

 

maybe not but cummins has been making diesel engines for years and is the best diesel out there, so no its not really hard to say but thanks for your input or lack there of

 

Cummins does make a hell of a diesel check out the ISX DOHC 600hp