Ford on Thursday announced an investment of $US192 million in its US Romeo engine plant as part of its plan to introduce more powerful, yet cleaner and more fuel-efficient versions, of its award-winning modular V-8 engines.

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With this investment, Ford continues its move to a new global flexible manufacturing system to build engines and transmissions. At the Romeo plant, it will install a new cylinder-head line and convert an existing engine assembly line to produce a new 4.6-litre three-valve per cylinder V-8 engine.

The new engine will power a variety of future Ford, Lincoln and Mercury vehicles and production will begin at Romeo by the end of 2005.

As a part of the investment at Romeo, Ford is converting its current high-volume 2-valve 4.6-litre engine assembly line to a “flex line” to build the motor in both two-valve and three-valve variants.

In addition to the flex line, Ford is installing a new 400,000 capacity cylinder-head machining line with new flexible computer-numerically controlled (CNC) machines. The line uses the same type of flexible machining equipment installed at the Windsor engine plant early last year. The Romeo three-valve cylinder head will be the same design as the one built in Windsor.

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Ford’s Windsor engine plants were reconfigured last year to build three-valve V8s. As part of that investment, the Windsor plants also will build 4.6-liter three-valve V8s for a transitional period of time with production beginning by the end of 2004. The new three-valve cylinder head to be built at Romeo is the same compact design as the cylinder head built at Windsor Engine, giving Ford’s engine plants the ability to cross-ship cylinder heads and other components between plants, maximising flexibility and the ability to react to changing market demand.

The Romeo plant, which employs more than 1,600 people, produces more than 20 variations of Ford’s 4.6- and 5.4-litre single and dual-overhead-cam V8s.

The plant, which today measures 2.2 million square feet, was originally built in 1966, as the Ford-Romeo equipment plant and assembled Ford tractor components. By 1983, the plant produced 300 tractors per day.

In 1987, the plant was converted to building engines.