Anyone really know why they stopped making the straight 6?

 

Because it was a good engine.

 

 

Ford's intentions were to create something new and more powerful with the new lineup of trucks coming out in 1997. However, looking back it seems that the 300 is by far the most reliable and long lasting engine pretty much ever. The 300 was also an expensive engine to make compared to the newer 4.2L v6.

 

Ford was supposed to do a modular V6, basically a 4.6 V8 minus 2 cylinders. They got cheap and pumped up the old 3.8 V6 to 4.2 liters and used that instead. It's a shame, that 4.9 I6 was simply bulletproof and had loads of torque.

 

Poor fuel economy. Ford has to maintain a government required corporate average fuel economy (CAFE), which increases every few years. The old tech Inline 6 was designed before fuel economy requirements, and it is also a big heavy lunk to haul around.

 

Fuel economy (NOT real world, but EPA numbers) and emissions regulations. The older a design an engine is, the more difficult it is to clean it up to ever-tightening standards and retain any semblance of economy, performance, and driveability.

 

Yup, who knows what higher power came down to Ford in the '60s and gave the engineers the mighty 300. After a 30 year successful run, emissions, mileage, size, shape, and basicly bulletproof lack of warrenty work did it in.

Moment of silence for the big six...

Adrianspeeder

 

urban legend says the 300's never had warranty due to their extreme reliability and brute bulletproofness

 

Forgot about the shape - it would probably take a shoehorn to get one of them under the hood of a 97+ body style.