Well I guess if you are a FORDifile you already know this. Cleveland casting is slated to be mothballed. TUPY the company that casts the blocks for a number of diesel engines and all NASCAR engine blocks including Toyota will cast the CGI block for the Boss V8. The company decided against spending the money for a full CGI line in Cleveland. This decision was made a few months back as a way to lighten up the block for the 6.2 V8 and get better strength. A Nascar GM block cast in CGI weighs about 85lbs less with equal or better strength compared to normal grades of cast iron used in GM's previous engine blocks.
So this looks like it unless the volume of 4.4 diesel blocks gets up high enough too make casting them in Cleveland profitable.There are rumors of offers for the casting plant as 2 new topline melting furnaces have already been installed.
Tupy is the largest foundry group in the world as of today. The Cleveland engine plants will keep going with a new version 3.0 duratec and a new 3.5 and a 3.7 variation to come on line probably within the next year when the Flex and the new Explorer hit the streets. It is hard to compete with Tupy, but maybe the 4.4l diesel will be a big seller and some of that volume will make it profitable to cast it at the Cleveland Casting plant.
Thanks for that info. Do you know where the 6.2 is going to be assembled. I am wondering for what model year and if it is just going to be a f150 motor or if it is going to go into the superduty line up as well.
I thought it would be Windsor or Essex engine but does not look like it now. With the change to CGI for the engine blocks that took Cleveland out of the picture for casting the cylinder blocks. Romeo was to build the engines for Mustangs and for the new rear drive large car to replace the Crown Vic. Maybe Romeo will build all of the engines now. Some tooling is at Windsor for making cylinder heads as that is to be handled by NEMAK a company which holds about an 85% share in Windsor casting. But I doubt that NEMAK would have room for full production at Windsor as that plant casts an aluminum V6 block for GM.
Everybody is pretty quiet about the Boss or what ever they decide to call it.
The most I have heard is it is built for off-road and marine use in mind. The bore spacing will allow for a new 429 if that is what it takes to be competitive.
I would alsmost bet that we will not see the 6.2 in the 09 with fuel prices being what they are I am guessing all we will see is the diesel for now until fuel comes down if ever???
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