Anyone know anything about this motor? I'm just interested in learning about it some. Just the fact that they made a 2.3 litre 4 cylinder motor that weighed 152lbs in full trim amazes me. :o

There's not much on the net in searches, a couple tidbits but not much. There WAS a popular science article on it, but I can't seem to find it.

 

This is all I have on it from an article.

The engine used metal cylinder sleeves, metal combustion chamber tops, metal piston crowns, bearings, valves & seats, and a stock 2.3L Pinto crankshaft. Darn near everything else in the engine, including the block, conrods, piston skirts, etc was fiber-reinforced plastic. The exact type of plastic escapes me at the moment. Very little metal was used outside of the crankshaft; just small/thin metal parts to shield against direct contact with combustion, and on mechanical wear surfaces.

This experimental engine was reportedly a great success, several were built and used very successfully in racing. HP & RPMs were dramatically higher than in the metal original, and it was quite smooth-running and durable and something like 1/3 the weight. This was one of my prime inspirations to build a polymer-intensive steam car engine.

The achilles heel was the cost. The engines were practically hand-built and would have been very pricey in production compared to mass-produced metal production engines. They tried but just couldn't scope out a way to mass-produce the plastic parts competitively, so Ford canned further research. When the few racing engines finally burned out, that was the end of it.

However the developers noted that in limited production, the tooling and fabrication methods actually made it easier and cheaper to build than a limited-production metal engine (with small-batch custom castings, forgings, and machine jobs) -- that is, for those with the unusual skills and knowledge needed. But virtually no engine shop would be able to handle such an exotic project, which is probably why it was never duplicated to my knowledge.

Weird stuff like fiber orientation for load transfer, resin/fiber ratios, resin wetting, layup, mold closing, bubble exclusion, mold-integrated component positioning jigs, etc are as incomprehensible as quantum physics or UFO engineering to most 20th/early21st century engine builders, trained, experienced, and focused as they are on metalworking. Some engine shops might know a surfboard builder, EAA guy, or body wizard who can whip up custom carbon/epoxy valve covers or oil pans for them, but that is about all, high-load polymer working parts get pretty freaky, and the idea is so obscure that it just never pops up in the first place. If they want exotic structural or loaded stuff, they'll go with CNC'ed alloy billet and feel pretty daring about it. The plastic engine was (and still is) just way too far ahead of its time. Pretty amazing that it was built in the mid-1980s.

It was also noted that the crankshaft could have been made of fiber-reinforced polymer with thin metal journal inserts, which would have upped rpms/hp even more and saved a bunch more weight, but they stuck with the stock metal crank because of budget & time limitations. They were really pushing the technological envelope as it was.

 

all 2.3 were around the same weight? Even the turbo motor?

 

Not this motor, it was made of a plastic composite, even the block. They used it in a few racecars but the cost of producing it was much higher than what the public would want to pay. However it was cheaper than the cost of a special edition metal motor to produce. Like the 03 Cobra motor etc., because plastics are cheaper in that aspect.

I'm not sure if they made a turbo version of the motor because there is too little information on it.

 

so you are saying my motor is all plastic?

 

No read silly I was saying that the 03 Cobra motor is a special edition motor, and the plastic special edition motors were cheaper to produce than the metal ones LIKE your 03 Cobra motor .

 

That would be sweet if it were made out of a Rubbermaid type material....

Introducing Ford's new plastic motor:

Blew a rod? No problem. With the new Rubbermaid block the cylinder walls pop back to their original shape.

Lego cylinder head with Ziploc yellow/blue make green seal valve cover sold seperately.

 

Think about a car like mine, which weighs in at a measly 2378, now shave 200lbs off that or so and still be in full trim.

Hmm a 2200LB 4-door family sedan in full trim. That would definately get'er dun with even the 110HP SPI motor, but then again because of the plastic design it was more efficient and produced more horsepower so who needs a whole new performance motor when you can make one out of composites

I'm guessing I just enlightened alot of people on this motor in my search for more knowledge of it .

 

You didn't read very carefully either. It was cheaper to produce in low quantity production runs (due to the cost of molds and such). The 03 cobra motor is made in fairly high quantities. The block casting isn't and different than the rest of the blocks. The crank is the forged piece they've been using since 96 and is made in decent quantities. The rods/pistons are off the shelf components. Nothing about it is really unique or low production. Really. We're not talking 100 unit runs here.

As far as the polymer the components are made of goes, it sounds like the plastic intake on the 2v 4.6L engines.

 

im special with a special motor!!

really I have a v6 man, I just bought a wrecked tenth and used the body pieces and got some tenth aniv. wheels