2011 Ford F-150 EcoBoost

More power, coupled with more fuel economy. That's the simple premise behind Ford's EcoBoost engines. Few can argue with the concept, as it pretty much pleases everyone. Except those who yearn for the sound of a V-8, in this case.

Real truck owners need the towing power and the practicality of a truck. Not everyone can drive a small and economical car. Not to mention that small cars bring high insurance premiums with them, that all but relegate fuel costs when gas prices are as low as they are right now.

The obvious solution has been for automakers to put diesel engines in their trucks, but with diesel prices being roughly a dollar a gallon more than regular gas, the thinking has changed for now. Instead, Ford has been developing a direct injected, turbocharged V-6, targeted to be more powerful than a V-8 but return better gas mileage.

Such engines are cheaper to develop than diesels, and less than a $1000 more than the cost of a comparable V-8. That thousand bucks buys you more power, expected to top the targets of 340 horsepower and 340 pound-feet of torque from the 3.5-liter turbo V-6, compared with the 320 and 390 for today's 5.4-liter Triton V-8.

It will also return 15-20 percent better mileage, Ford engineers predict. That extrapolates to 16 mpg city/23 highway for the EcoBoost engine, compared with 13 and 18 for the V-8 today.

Towing and other hard work won't tax the EcoBoost engine, even though conventional wisdom would suggest that a smaller-displacement engine would have to work harder and that a turbocharged engine could be stressed by heavy loads. The direct injection of gasoline has the effect of cooling the combustion chamber, as the fuel absorbs heat when it evaporates. According to an engineer who is developing the EcoBoost F-150, "cooling has not been an issue."

One challenge will be the sound characteristics of a turbo six-cylinder, which will be different from the familiar mellow rumble of a V-8. The company is looking at solutions, including a simplified active sound-cancellation system that will mold the sound waves that emerge from the exhaust pipe, but without a complex closed-loop system using microphones to monitor and adapt to the sounds being produced. The system would instead use a simple data map to know what it should do under different circumstances.

EcoBoost-powered F-150s will arrive in showrooms in 2010 for the 2011 model year.