Bobcat: an engine template for the future?

AutomotiveWorld.com
By: John Mortimer, 19/05/2009, AutomotiveWorld.com

With gasoline and diesel prices in North America around US$2.12 to $2.35 a gallon – half the levels of a year ago – urgency to develop high-performance diesel engines has softened, especially as OEMs face an almost unprecedented financial plight. Ford’s product plans, for example, see its 4.4-litre V8 diesel for the F-150 delayed until 2013.

As many OEMs lack diesel engines for light-duty trucks and sports utility vehicles, pressure will grow for high performance gasoline engines with the power and torque, fuel economy and clean emissions of a diesel, especially with demands to raise CAFE standards. This raises the question of whether compacted graphite iron (CGI) will find use for cylinder blocks of North American V8 gasoline engines.

Under a shroud of secrecy, Ford, AVL and Ethanol Boosting Systems (EBS) of Cambridge, Massachusetts, working with the US Department of Energy, are testing an engine called Bobcat. Five new ‘ethanol boost’, twin-fuel turbocharged engines have been built and each variably blends gasoline and ethanol to produce diesel-like performance.

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