Calling the 3.5-liter EcoBoost V6 that's destined for the new Ford GT and second-generation Raptor pickup a high-output version is a bit disingenuous. Ford basically wiped the slate clean to make it, retaining only the displacement measurement—and, you know, the fact it has six cylinders in a vee configuration fed by turbochargers and direct injection.
It starts with a new block, heads, pistons, and intake, plus bigger turbos. Ford adds a dual-injection system, a combination of port and direct fuel injection, like Subaru uses on the BRZ/FR-S motor. That makes the H.O. 3.5 the first and only EcoBoost engine to use port injection. Ford calls this a second-generation EcoBoost, so maybe that dual-injection scheme will spread to other engines.
And then there's the anti-lag system. It's not a fuel-dumping system like on fire-spitting nutso rally cars, but we're told a lot of work went into the control systems to make sure manifold pressures stay up to keep the turbos spooled. They're not messing around here. The turbos aren't in the valley—a so-called "hot vee" setup like many of the German companies have moved to lately—but the resulting engine is still much more compact than the V8 it replaces.The high-output 3.5 is pegged to make more than 600 hp in the limited-run GT supercar and at least 414 hp and 434 lb-ft of torque in the next Raptor (the promise is that it will beat the outgoing 6.2-liter's numbers,which those are). Ford likes to wait as long as it can to announce concrete power numbers, so it will be months until the final specs are in, but we're expecting at least 450 hp for the crazy off-road truck.
Jamal Hameedi, Ford's global performance vehicle chief, says the new Raptor is significantly faster than the first-generation truck. This most welcome news—big fast things need to go faster—is helped by the 500-pound weight reduction compared to the original Raptor, as well as the new 10-speed automatic transmission that will debut in the 2016 truck. (The new transmission's wider ratio spread also helps improve efficiency, if you were curious.)
Hameedi seems proud of the fact that the new Raptor gets paddle shifters to augment the awkward rocker switch on the console shifter. It sounds like this new super-truck is going to need them.
