Previously, I told you about how General Motors was soon to debut a new heavy-duty, diesel engine designed to burn B20 biodiesel (see my post from Aug. 11, 2009). Well it looks like Ford is going to give GM a run for its money in the green, heavy-hauling pickup engine race.
This story from green.autoblog.com says Ford’s V8 diesel… code-named Scorpion… designed for the company’s Super Duty pickups will come out in 2011 to rival GM’s so-called LML Duramax engine:
Officially the Scorpion retains the Power Stroke badge, but that and eight cylinders in a V-configuration are all that are carried over. The Scorpion engine picks up a variety of technologies that have been appearing on other recent engines both gas and diesel fueled, as well as adding a few new tricks, particularly the turbocharger. The biggest change for the architecture is the move to an inside-out layout. Since the early days of the V-engine configuration, most examples have had the intake system mounted in the valley between the banks with the exhaust on the outside. Like BMW’s new turbocharged gas V8 and GM’s currently-on-the-shelf Duramax 4500, the Scorpion switches this around.
A turbocharger uses the engine’s exhaust gases to spin up a turbine which in turn drives a compressor that pushes more air into the engine thus making more power. The beauty of the system is that it consumes very little energy under light load conditions and allows smaller engine displacements for improved efficiency most of the time. When extra power is needed, the turbo helps expand the engine’s operating range on-demand…
Like the 2010 version of GM’s 6.6-liter Duramax, the 6.7-liter Power Stroke will be fully compatible with B20 biodiesel blends, addressing one of the issues some current Power Stroke operators have had. Because the current engine injects some fuel into the exhaust stream for particulate filter regeneration, the use of B20 has caused damage to some engines. This will no longer be true for the new engine.
I’m no motorhead, so I won’t even try to determine which motor is better. But it’s nice to see the big automakers are competing to see who can make the biggest and baddest, green engine possible.
More information on Ford’s engine is available here.