JLR is UK’s largest automaker – again

JaguarLandRover (JLR) has once again been named the largest automotive manufacturer in Britain, accounting for more than 30 per cent of all domestic car production last year.

Ford fits 3-litre diesel to F-150 pick-up truck

Ford, the US’s leading truck leader, now offers an all-new 3-litre Power Stroke V6 turbo diesel and the “next generation” 2.7-litre EcoBoost engine in  the new 2018 Ford F-150. Ford now has a truck to more than match the Fiat Chrysler Automotive Ram 1500 with its VM Motori V6 turbo diesel and which, like the 'new' 3-litre V6 from Ford has a CGI vee cylinder block. Ford's move raises one simple question: How will GM, the sleeping giant, respond? Will the 'new' 4.5-litre Duramax appear sooner rather than later? Another vee CGI diesel? The US rumour mill says the CGI Duramax will bow in summer 2018.

Boost for Dagenham-made CGI engines

Output of 3-litre V6 diesel engines at Ford’s Dagenham Engine Plant, UK topped 100,000 in 2015

Ford F-150 powertrain looks set to blossom

One thing is for sure, 2016 could be an interesting year in the life of Ford’s F-150 pick-up truck that this year saw the automaker launch aluminium into the sector as well as a new family of EcoBoost turbocharged gasoline engines.

Jaguar F-PACE: More business for vendors

Jaguar’s F-PACE performance crossover for with its lightweight aluminium architecture provides further business for suppliers of major technology and component suppliers.

Jaguar boosts power/torque of XJ diesels

Eight out of 13 of the models of the revamped Jaguar XJ luxury saloon are powered by a more powerful 3-litre diesel engine.

CGI engine blocks top one million/year

In March, the number of cylinder blocks produced using compacted graphite iron (CGI) with the SinterCast process totalled over 75,000.

JLR stays faithful to Ford V6 diesel

Ford’s 3-litre V6 twin-turbo diesel remains at the heart of the new Jaguar XF, alongside Ingenium powertrains and the 3-litre V6 gasoline engine.

Ford’s Lion set to roar in the US

Production of Ford’s Dagenham-built 3-litre V6 diesel, the Lion, could be boosted with the arrival in the US market this year of the 2016 Ranger Rover Diesel and the Ranger Rover Sport Diesel.

Ford: No plans for two-cylinder engines

Ford Motor Company has no plans ‘right now’ for two-cylinder engines, according to Barb Samardzich, chief operations officer of Ford of Europe.

UK firm plays key role in Ford’s 2.7-litre EcoBoost

UK prototype development CGI castings foundry Grainger & Worrall (G&W) of Bridgnorth, Shropshire, played a vital role in bringing Ford’s 2.7-litre EcoBoost gasoline engine to market.

“Flawless” standards for JLR’s Ingenium engines

As readers know, JaguarLandRover’s (JLR) Engine Manufacturing Centre (EMC) will be home to the ‘Ingenium’ engine family, which will power a new generation of JLR products designed, engineered and manufactured in the UK. The company says flawless standards will be adopted in the plant that is "future proof".

Production begins with the 2-litre diesel engine in the Jaguar XE. JLR is transforming its business and brands through a programme of sustainable, strategic investments, it claims.

New diesels from Dagenham in 2015

Ford’s Dagenham Engine Plant, UK, which supplies half of the company’s global diesel demand, seems to be assured of its future thanks to an additional £190 million to produce the new Panther advanced technology 2-litre diesel engine for cars and commercial vehicles. 

This investment includes £8.9 million from UK Government's Regional Growth Fund. Ford is creating 318 new jobs connected with this investment.

Ford's three-millionth UK-built small diesel

Ford's three-millionth UK-built small-capacity diesel engine has rolled off the line at the company’s manufacturing centre at Dagenham, Essex.  

Low-carbon diesel engines have been built at the Dagenham Diesel Centre plant for a variety of models across Ford's range, and for other manufacturers, since production started in May 2007

All change at Ford UK engine plants

Dave Parker, who has been preparing for production of the next generation, low-CO2 2-litre diesel engine to be produced at Ford’s Dagenham Engine Plant and designed and engineered at Ford's Technical Centre in Dunton, Essex, has retired as plant manager.

 Parker retires after almost 36 years with Ford Motor Company. He joined Ford in 1977 and has worked at Ford’s Dagenham Engine Plant for almost a decade and has overseen a number of changes.

Cummins feels the Scorpion’s sting

Executives at Cummins Inc. must have known it would happen. Now it has. Ford has dumped Cummins in its medium-duty trucks in favour of its own diesel, as revealed this week at the Work Truck Show in Indianapolis, Indiana.

The new F-650/F-750 trucks are the latest Ford commercial trucks to have a revamp. And they will have the second-generation 6.7-litre Power Stroke V8 diesel engine built at the company’s Chihuahua Engine Plant, Mexico, and which during development carried the code name Scorpion.

Hotfire Job 1 set for January 2015

The first Hotfire engine from JaguarLandRover’s (JLR’s) state-of-the-art engine manufacturing plant at the i54 technology park near Wolverhampton is to roll off the line in January 2015.

Thus begins a new chapter in engine manufacture in the company. JLR has not produced an engine since manufactured stopped at Brown’s Lane Coventry and Solihull in the West Midlands over a decade ago.

The Lion roars again

Blog readers with a good memory will recall the arrival of the Lion diesel engine from Ford’s Dagenham Engine Plant – the first Ford production engine to use compacted graphite iron (CGI) for the cylinder block material.

Now Ford has repeated history with the arrival of the first gasoline engine with a CGI block. Ford, ever resourceful and expansive in its choice of words, uses the word first liberally. The new 2.7-litre gasoline engine is not the first gasoline engine with a CGI block, but it might just be the first ‘production’ gasoline engine with CGI.

New materials key to Ford’s 2015 F-150

Exactly one month ago today, on 13 December, we asked: “Will Ford respond before Ram wins 3 times?”

Now we have the answer. For while the tabloid media concentrate on the Ford F-150 pick-up truck’s LED lighting, something much more important is happening underneath this ground-breaking vehicle.

For Ford has responded to our question with an engine to knock out any power unit Chrysler has on its stocks; namely the new EcoBoost 2.7-litre gasoline engine with a string of new technology additions.

Hotfire gets a boost from Ricardo

Ricardo’s Syner-D programme gives a pointer to how JaguarLandRover’s next-generation Hotfire engine could progress towards meeting Euro 6 emissions requirements and CO2 reductions of over 30 per cent.

The Syner-D project, partly funded by the Technology Strategy Board, the UK’s innovation agency, had as its main aim: to deliver a premium vehicle demonstration vehicle offering a CO2 reduction of 30 per cent, Euro 6 tailpipe emissions and suffering no compromise in transient variability and overall performance.

The three-year programme included input from JLR, Valeo, SKF, Shell and Lontra.