If you don’t like big trucks loaded with torque, you should just stop reading now.
But if you’re like me, you love you some torque and towing capacity. The 2011 Ford Super Duty truck has best in class towing capacity and payload hauling, as well as two new engines; a 6.2 liter gas engine good for 405 horsepower and 385 ft-lbs of torque, and a new Powerstroke diesel that makes 390 horsepower and a mammoth 735 ft-lbs of torque. Even more impressive? It is the cleanest diesel Ford has ever put into a truck. How awesome is that?
The 6.7 liter diesel engine, codenamed “Scorpion” during its development, uses a number of new and proven technologies to both bump fuel economy and reduce emissions. Though the EPA doesn’t rate the gas mileage of vehicles as big as the Super Duty, some testers have claimed fuel economy figures nearing 30 mpg. Ford claims the trucks are between 18% and 25% more efficient than the 2010 diesel, which Consumer Reports recently listed at the bottom of its fuel economy chart when fitted to the F-250 Lariat. The 2011 Super Duty has a towing capacity of 26,400 pounds, and a payload of 6,520 pounds. I can’t even think of something that heavy I would ever need to move!
The diesel engine is also capable of using B20, which is a 20% biodiesel blend. The engine has been mated to a lightened six-speed transmission with a smarter torque converter that helps conserve fuel by locking in at lower RPMs. This is just one of many improvements to the torque converter. The transmission also includes a double-overdrive gear and a deeper first gear that, when combined with one of four rear-end gear ratios, offers optimized fuel efficiency.
Other improvements include a Diesel Exhaust Fluid injection that cleans up NOx emissions as well as Selective Catalytic Reduction. To be honest, most of the details escape me… there is a lot of technical stuff I am still trying to digest in the press release. If you think you can handle it, turn the page for the full press release.
Long story short though; the new Ford Powerstroke diesel makes more power while using less fuel and makes fewer emissions than ever before. Sounds good to me!
Source: Ford
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About Christopher DeMorro
I’m a contractor. It drives me crazy, all these monster diesels. I seldom, as in rarely, need the extra large capacity of the present diesels. I wish Detroit, or anyone, would make a SMALL diesel. I drive an F-150 with the smallest 6 cylinder and smallest transmission. It works wonderfully for 99% of all my needs and I just get around that other 1%. I get 24.9 mpg on the highway at 60mph. I would love to drive a little diesel that would likely get a lot better mileage than even that, plus I would probably run it on my homemade bio, as my neighbor does with her VW Passat.
I’m a contractor. It drives me crazy, all these monster diesels. I seldom, as in rarely, need the extra large capacity of the present diesels. I wish Detroit, or anyone, would make a SMALL diesel. I drive an F-150 with the smallest 6 cylinder and smallest transmission. It works wonderfully for 99% of all my needs and I just get around that other 1%. I get 24.9 mpg on the highway at 60mph. I would love to drive a little diesel that would likely get a lot better mileage than even that, plus I would probably run it on my homemade bio, as my neighbor does with her VW Passat.