Where is Ford's LS7 engine?

[Simon]

Or in fact any of the LS series chevy engines? From what I've heard they are powerful, smooth, and best of all fairly economical! (something we all need to think about nowadays)
According to most people, the Ford modular unit isn't in the same league, so are Ford planning anything else or is the rising cost of fuel moving development away from large capacity V8's?

Simon

[Brett James-McCall]

Ford have announced EcoBoost, which is designed to provide smaller capacity engines and fuel economy with larger power. That is is why the last Explorer concept was shown with a V6 instead of a V8 and a 4 pot instead of a V6.

Brett

[Bill Hara]

Here's Ford Australia's answer to that question: FPV F6

416 HP from a straight 6 (310KW)
416ft/lbs of torque (565Nm)

Pretty Awesome car! - I think Ron would like one of these!

[Steve]

nowhere.........thats why the Ls engine is getting fitted into ford recreations everywhere.

just dropped a stock ls7 block, forged rods and pistons, stock l92 heads, stock l76 inlet, tiny mild emmissions compliant can into my cobra replica, made 540 UK hp, 560 hp torque

cost of the engine with injectors, loom, ecu was under £4k

£ per hp cannot be beaten IMHO

still dont think i could bring myself to use one in a 40 though......

[Troy]

What about one of these, from a different kind of "40"...

[Ron Earp]

It is a shame that Ford decided to put all the eggs in one basket with the Modular motors. GM and Chrysler continued development of the pushrod V8s and it has paid off, especially for the LS series.

Folks are always talking about DOHC engines, technology, and so on pointing at the LS motors (and kin) saying "I want better technology than this old motor". But they ignore the technology right in front of them with the LS motors. I don't think there is another production engine that "does more with less".

Hp per liter? Sure, that is a fine metric. But how about hp per cubic foot? The LS motors are small, light, simple, compact, and make great power with good fuel economy. I'd rather have 500hp from an LS7 than 500hp from a 3L DOHC turbo wonder motor - I know which one I won't have to worry about at the race track.

Too bad Ford quit on the push rod motors but at least GM is making some great ones.

[Howard Jones]

Well... one can be built from various parts. Alum Dart Block, AFR Alum heads, Etc. Nowhere near as cheap as a LS6 with a cam in it though.

The real bargin is a old school iron 4 bolt SBC with a solid cam and good alum heads. 500hp for a lot less than $4000. Now thats a deal.

Strange to be talking up SBC's on GT40s.com...hun?

[Bill Hara]

Ron did you check out that link I provided?
I know we are talking V8's as opposed to Fords Oz built turbo 6 cylinders but hey what an engine! Pity it is being killed off in 2 years time. The Falcon GT version that has just come out is putting out 315KW and 550 Nm out of a naturally aspirated modular 5.4l, but everyone agrees it is approaching its upper limit.
What ever happened to the 5.0l Cammer engine? Wasn't it a bored out 4.6 with the same stroke, revving much harder with that cam than the 5.4 ever could? Haven't heard anyone putting one of those 5.0l units in a 40...

[Ron Earp]

Hey Bill,

yep, I checked that one out and it is a cool motor. I think I heard about it on this site from you or Ross, one of you guys.

The 5.4 mod motor has a poor rod ratio, not much can be done about that. The 5L cammer sounded promising, but it was still going to get the dogsh%& kicked out of it by the LS7/LS6 motors. The Ford mod motors are just too blasted big and too complex for what they do.

I like my mod motor truck, makes great power and is fun. But seriously, who needs a 5.4L SOHC motor in a truck? It is huge, larger than a 460. It doesn't rev as well as the Windsor small blocks, so why have overhead cams? Seems like a mismatched package of parts.

So that inline 6 is dead in two years? How long did it last? As far as I'm aware it never appears in any Ford North America product, a pity.

Ron

[Bill Hara]

Unfortunately for you guys, Ford USA has never allowed the Oz built Falcon to be built in LHD for export, prefering to export it's cars to the Middle East and Europe. Needless to say they haven't exactly set the world on fire.
The in line 6 the Ford Oz uses is related to the early 60's straight sixes that were in the Mustangs and Falcons and when production ceased in 69 on the Falcons, tooling was sent to Australia for local use. Funding as always been an issue for the Australian car industry for both GM and Ford, so the engineers here have specialised in squeezing something out of nothing. Both GM and Ford rely on the States for their V8 engines but the sixes have been continually developed here to the level that you currently see. Ford have done a better job of the 6 than GM Holden but this engine has been officially killed off and will be replaced by the new V6 jobbie coming from the US in 2010. They are expecting a twin turbo version of the 3.6l V6 to replace this engine, however it is doubtful it will have the torque and BMW-like character of the current engine.
There is a batch of 50 F6's being sent to England via a private distribution agreement with a company here called Nizpro (see vid) which is an attempt to counter the influx of the Vauxhall VXR8 (Pontiac G8) which is the locally made Holden Special Vehicles product R8 Clubsport. GMH produces the car in LHD and RHD and as a result is making great profits, but Ford US doesn't want to support a LHD Falcon model so we are left with a great car that only travels to NZ and I think South Africa as the only designated export locations.

[The New Roaring Forties]

They are great engines. My own Nizpro modded Falcon turbo (injectors, intercooler, flash tuner and exhaust) has 314rwkw (guess 500hp) and close to 700 Nm of torque. All ADR compliant for emissions, starts and drives like normal until the boost comes on, although they aren't "laggy" anyway as they are 4.0 liter engines to start with.

They are a bit long and wouldn't sound right in the 40 though !!

The 5.4 mods in our RF40's have 400hp and around 400 ft lb of torque, at less than 2645 lb (1200kg) they go extremely well out of the box.

It will be interesting to see what happens after 2010 in Aus, traditionally we have held engines long after they have been dropped in the US, Windsor for example only finished here in '02. Our inside Ford sources say the new one will be a ripper and well suited to our application.

[fostereast]

I do not know much about Modular motors, but I recently picked up SHMs book on the modular motors and it seems like there is a good bit of potential and that the cost are not astronimical to build a 4.6 or 5.4 HP mod motor. Their is virtually any HP aftermarket piece you may need to build a screamer.

It does take up a lot of space though, it's bigger than the Ford 427 SOHC in every dimension.

I'm not necessarily a fan of this engine, it just seems there is a lot of potential to get horspower out of them at a more reasonable price than some engines. Also, with the kinsler injection units on top, it looks pretty nice. If I was trying to build a modern looking engine I might try one if I could get it to fit without too much trouble. If I wanted an old school, I would probably use a 289 with Webers.

It is surprising how even after all these years the "old" american style pushrod V8 is still very tough to beat, when most top road race engines went to DOHC in the sixties.

[Bobski]

IMHO Fords 4.6L Mod motor is better than the LS7 in every way other than physical size. I have a 2001 Cobra motor and with a change of rods and pistons we achieved almost 1000hp @ 19psi with standard heads, cams,valves etc. Cost of the motor came to $12,500. I have owned a LS2 and the cost to achieve that hp would be at least double. In the States it would be much easier and cheaper to build these motors as they are readily available. The Mod motor starts first go, idles perfectly, drives as smooth as any engine and provides a nice torque curve. What more do you whant?
I understand that some people may find it hard to get thair head around the quad cam technology, but with the emmission rules getting tighter, it's only time that GM will go to emmission friendly quad cam tecnnology.

[Jac Mac]

Unlikely with the current mindset that you will see Ford go back to pushrods, but you dont need to worry, from what Ive read the guys at Man O War have taken all the specs of the LS7 heads etc and applied them to the ford castings they make. All those features like raised cam tunnels for longer strokes/less valvetrain mass, larger cooling jackets for more volume, raised ports for better flow etc etc are all out there. So now all you have to do is buy the 'right' combo of parts and you can build your own bigger & better ''FORD LS7''.