Is Ford Going the Pushrod Route With Its New V8?
Ford’s upcoming heavy duty gasoline truck engine, codenamed “7X,” was believed to be a 7.0-liter V8 built with the express purpose of replacing the 6.8-liter Triton V10 and perhaps the 6.2-liter Boss V8.
While the program will indeed bear fruit at Ford’s Windsor Engine Plant next year, there’s a new report claiming the mill’s layout should stir memories of famous engines of yore. We’re talking a large displacement (7.3 liters), iron block, and pushrod valve actuation.
An administrator at the SVTPerformance.com forum, citing internal sources, claims the upcoming V8 is an overhead valve design displacing 7.3 liters. The mill is just one of a series of engines expected to be spawned from a large dumping of OEM ( and government) cash.
Ford’s Windsor engine plant, once home to the famous and beloved 255 Windsor (har, har), was in dire need of new product before the funding announcement. The old SOHC 6.8-liter, unceremoniously relegated to the E-Series cutaway, larger commercial trucks, and motorhomes, was on its last legs.
We’ve heard rumblings about a new 7.3-liter before. Earlier this year, a 2020 model year oil requirement document made the rounds on Ford forums, revealing a 7.3-liter gas engine and a disappeared 6.2-liter.
Scrapping overhead cams in favor of pushrods would create an engine with a smaller footprint, potentially widening the list of applications. Ford could save weight by utilizing a compacted graphite iron block, like that seen on the 6.7-liter Power Stroke diesel V8. There’s cash savings to be had by going the standard iron route.
We don’t have any specs for the alleged 7.3-liter, but power figures would obviously need to surpass the output of both the 6.2-liter and 6.8-liter. The largest gas V8 in the Ford stable makes a maximum of 385 hp and 430 lb-ft, while the V10 tops out at 320 hp and 460 lb-ft. Again, there could be a range of displacements coming from Windsor. While a 7.0-liter is the go-to speculation, there’s also wind of a project dubbed “ Godzilla.” Maybe they’re one and the same.
Time will tell what Ford brings us. Parts are expected to begin flowing into a retooled Windsor Engine in November.
[Image: Ford Motor Company]
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If true, this seems like a gamble that future administrations will retain the no-enforcement, see-no-evil approach to fuel-economy standards of the current administration. That strikes me as a risky gamble. An updated 7.3 pushrod would make nice power-to-weight but would have absolutely terrible, horrible, no-good fuel economy. Think 10 mpg unladen and 5 mpg when towing.
When a 6.2 pushrod V8 has the same over all characteristics of a DOHC 5.0, and in a smaller over all package, what's there to think about?