V8 Why Not Further Develpment

[Funmart6]

It just occurred to me after watching a review of the Ford Gt that is powered by a V6. Why didn’t Ford use the V8, that they used in our cars, for anything else or continue developing the engine for other applications other than our SHO cars?
I know the V8 in our cars, by today’s standards is pretty weak at 235hp, but it could’ve been developed into a monster and I am wondering and wanting to know why they, “Ford”, would not have wanted to develop this engine further. Anyone got any ideas as to why our V8 was snubbed????

I misspelled the heading, should say “development”. Can’t seem to change it. Admin help!!!

 

[luigisho]

It was a Yamaha/Ford hybrid. They were developing their own larger volume modular v8 and spent alot of time and money developing more power out of the 4.6 (now the 5.0 coyote)by the time the v8 SHO's were in production. Limited run, outsourced, cam failing specialty item. The answer to this and most things is probably...money

 

[SM105K]

Money and technology. Pretty sure Ford didn't want to be strapped to Yamaha for the foreseeable future on a niche motor.

 

[stephen newberg]

I think both of the above responses cover it.

pax, smn

 

[E1]

I think the V8 SHO was an experiment and they learned a lot from it - some good, some bad - but they never intended to make a long term run out of it.

That just adds to the unique appeal to me. Never before, never again.

 

[NoSlo]

Rather, the V8 was Ford trying to re-create the magic of the Yamaha V6 in-house -- and failing.

 

[gamefanatic]

Not only was the engine unique, but so were the Gen3 ECU's.. Not used in any other vehicle, not even the mustang built by the same group used a different ecu. Some of the other components were similar such as the ACM, ICU, and Shift selector. Mustangs had similar radio setups.

 

[GEN 3 SHO FAN]

I think the V8 SHO was an experiment and they learned a lot from it - some good, some bad - but they never intended to make a long term run out of it.

That just adds to the unique appeal to me. Never before, never again.

I have the impression the cam problem put some distortion between the 2 companies which were working together for at least 7 seven years (if not more). It wasn't a one shot deal.

When we study the first year of production, we can see Ford trying to lunch the car in october/november 95 (with some ECU codes) but decided to stop the production entirely between end of november 95 until february 96. The other thing was the critics, complaints were made about the first pre-production cars about their poor horsepower of 225 hp. These 2 things forced Ford (probably) to re-sent their engines to Yamaha. An article of that time spoke about this... (maybe I have it somewhere). Additionally, Ford (probably) asked earlier to Yamaha to change the intake already patented...

In february 96, early production started and the ECU codes were different with an output of 235 hp.

This engine even if it had cam failure, was at least 10 years in advance on many engines. Stronger than a 4.6L in 1996... Even in 2010, it has more hp than the basic Mustang with a 3.8L. By the way, I was asking myself in the last weeks, how many japanese V8 were made in history ? It's truly in hybrid in some aspects : a japanese and german Mustang.

If the companies were not in good terms anymore, the use of the patented engine, parts and concepts, became very complicated. Another fact is that Ford put this engine in a "evoluated rolling saucer style" car. Sales were not there and motor cannot gain a great popularity then (rare cars and not so like by the market).

 

[stephen newberg]

I doubt the style of the body really had much to do with the low sales volume. Non-SHO Taurus models sold like hotcakes with the same body. It was mainly a pricing and marketing failure. There really was almost no marketing on the model, and as a result, the very high price for the time (mine new in the spring of 1998 listed at a bit over $45,000, Canadian) left people in the show room not interested in putting out that kind of money for what seemed just to be a high end Taurus.

pax, smn