The wait is almost over: Ford's long-awaited and much-anticipated EcoBoost engine is nigh. In a press release Sunday, Ford announced the details of its 3.5-liter twin-turbocharged, direct-injected V-6, along with the vehicles that will get the new powertrain. The EcoBoost will be available in the 2010 Ford Taurus, 2010 Ford Flex, 2010 Lincoln MKS and Lincoln 2010 MKT.
The Duratec V-6 EcoBoost engine makes 355 horsepower at 5,700 rpm and 350 ft.-lb of torque at 3,500 rpm. Compared to a normally aspirated 4.6-liter V-8, the EcoBoost gets a 10-15 percent increase in fuel economy. Ford is estimating the EcoBoost engine will achieve 25 mpg on the highway in its application on the Lincoln MKS, and 24 mpg on the highway in the Ford Flex.
"The beauty of EcoBoost is that it enables us to downsize for fuel efficiency, yet boost for power," said Derrick Kuzak, Ford's group vice president of Global Product Development. "We're able to decrease the size of the available engine-such as installing a V-6 versus a V-8-yet boost the power using turbocharging to deliver similar power and torque of that larger engine."
Ford also announced that by 2013, it expects to have 90 percent of its lineup available with EcoBoost technology. EcoBoost Mustang, anyone?