Does Ford Patent Confirm 'Scorpion' Diesel Design?

A patent application filed by Ford for a "Push Rod Engine With Inboard Exhaust" has been published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The legal eagles at the law firm Stamoulis & Weinblatt LLC found the publication during a recent intellectual capital search. Its contents likely cover the upcoming in-house-designed 6.7-liter V-8 diesel engine, code-named "Scorpion." The all-new engine is expected to replace the Navistar-sourced 6.4-liter V-8 Power Stroke diesel engine in Ford's heavy-duty pickups by 2011. Our spies recently caught the Scorpion while it was undergoing testing in public.

According to our sources — as we first reported in July 2008 — the Scorpion is said to share several key traits with GM's indefinitely postponed 4.5-liter Duramax V-8 diesel engine. Intake and exhaust flow through the cylinder heads is reversed relative to conventional diesel engine design, with the exhaust exiting directly into dual sequential turbos sitting in the engine's valley. Unlike the Duramax, the Scorpion diesel is said to use an overhead valve (pushrod) engine design rather than overhead cam.

The patent application describes a four-valve gas or diesel engine with that same architecture, and it includes a diagram that shows one or more turbochargers mounted between V-style cylinder banks.

The innovative reverse-flow design is said to provide several operating advantages and efficiencies over a standard diesel engine. The arrangement shortens the distance between the exhaust and turbos, improving turbo response while protecting peripheral powertrain components, like the fuel pump and alternator, from excess heat. Higher turbo outlet temperatures also provide extra heat to downstream emissions devices to improve pollution-scrubbing performance sooner when emission catalysts (used to break down harmful pollutants) are warming up.

Does this patent describe the Scorpion diesel? Our sources say it does. There's no official word from Ford yet.

[Source: Stamoulis & Weinblatt LLC via Autoblog]

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