Ford’s Dagenham Diesel Centre in England has built its first twin-turbo 3.6-litre V8.
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Vehicle applications for the new engine will be announced later this year but likely candidates would include the Land and Range Rover ranges and Jaguar.
Around GBP12.2m has been invested in the development and manufacture of the V8, bringing the total spent at Dagenham to £644.2 million since it became Ford’s diesel centre after car assembly ended there.
The V8 is built on the same production line as 2.7-litre V6 engines for Jaguar, Land Rover and PSA Peugeot Citroën. Both V6 and V8 engine blocks are loaded onto cradles prior to assembly, which enable operators and the line itself to switch between the different units seamlessly.
The new V8 has a power output of over 270PS and develops up to 640Nm of torque.
The plant is gearing up to production volumes of up to 25,000 units a year. The cylinder heads for the V8 will be machined in Dagenham’s adjacent original engine plant, where V6 machining already takes place. Both engines are made from lightweight compacted graphite iron.
The diesel engine centre was opened in 2003 and employs 2,350 engineers and production operators making 700,000 engines will be produced this year. Further new business for Dagenham assembling 1.4 and 1.6 diesel engines will take the site beyond a million units annual output from early next year.
Dagenham is the source for half of Ford’s diesel engine requirements globally.
