the Ford team had to design the tdv8 to cope with 45 degree gradients and traverse 35 degree side slopes as well as wade through water 500mm deep.....
(Apply your indignant sarcasm font here)
Out comes the calculator... oh goodie now a landrover with a new blue oval tdv8 can do 50/38.8% slopes as compared to the normal 60/40% and the engineering problems youve got to face when redesigning a sump to handle being suspended about 5-6 cms above the water are sure phenomenal. Not to mention that this is a brand new problem that no-one has ever faced before..... ever... no one has ever operated an ICE with it rocked off axis by more than a couple of degrees
Bloody landrover drivers want these things to be able to move and do it at funny angles with water about next they'll be wanting some kind of dust filtration cause they want to take the things onto dirt roads..Cant wait to charge em a fortune for inventing that.
And you need to redesign a lubricating system to deal with lubircating the turbos on angles just incase they wind up below the level of the sump... ummmmmmmm hang on most lube systems run at 40 psi, sure if you put the turbo far enough below the sump the oil wont be pushed back up into the sump because of gravity acting on the fluid... Assuming engine oil is a dense as sea water (it isnt) this means your turbo has to be at least 20m lower than the sump before lube flow even contemplates thinking about becoming an issue.
Perhaps they mean that they redesigned the pick up lines to prevent cavitation during angled operation. Call me pedantic but some easy to get to cheap to replace turbo bearings are pretty much last on the list of crap i want lubircated properly... theres a couple of little things Id like to see lubricated first, nothing really critical to engine operations, little innocuous things like say big end bearings, crank mains, the cylinder walls, gudgeon pins, cam bearings and lobes, timing gears/chains.
With new sound proofing its quieter than the old engine... hey Ive got a dumb idea what happens If you apply the new sound proofing to the old engine.... tell you what you make me an engine that runs quieter without new sound insulation technology and I might be impressed, but only if you can do it at the 60/40 % slopes im used to with water being flung everywhere with the engine revving its nipples off till then I'll keep my old clanker 2.25 diesel.
(end your indignant sarcasm font here)
Sorry gentlemen IMHO this fits into the catagory of cheque book journalism.... Theres nothing new in what they are doing and they want credit for it. Punch it up along side a set of specs for other engines and well apart from lots of torque and ponies it doesnt have a whole lot going for it.
