Ford HSC engine
The Ford HSC engine is an automobile gasoline engine from Ford Motor Company sold from 1984 until 1994. HSC stands for High Swirl Combustion. It was made in two displacements: 2.3 L and 2.5 L, and used in only two model lines: the Ford Tempo/Mercury Topaz and the Ford Taurus/Mercury Sable. Development In the late 1970s Ford began planning a new smaller front wheel drive (FWD) compact car that became the Ford Tempo. The Tempo was designed to use a four-cylinder engine, but all production of Ford's 2.3 L Lima OHC four was committed to other product lines. At the same time, the 1983 end of life of Ford's 200 cubic inch Thriftpower Six inline six left unused capacity at the Lima Engine plant. Ford developed a four-cylinder engine that shared some features of the Thriftpower six, topped with a new cylinder head and using other new technologies, while repurposing as much tooling as possible at the Lima plant. To maximize use of existing tooling the new engine shared spindle spacing where possible with the Thriftpower six, resulting in similar cylinder, crankshaft, and tappet bores, as well as crankshaft journal diameters. Reliability and durability were key design goals for the engine. It was designed for use with an automatic transmission, and was optimized to deliver most of its power at low engine speeds. Extensive efforts were made to reduce losses due to valvetrain friction. To accelerate development of the combustion chamber shape, a test engine was created using an engine block from a 1980 model year Thriftpower six that was cut, shortened, and brazed together again, resulting in a four-cylinder engine displacing . Since the Tempo's front chassis member spacing was the same as the first generation North American Ford Escort, the engine's transverse package length had to be minimized, which was done by reducing the deck length between the end cylinder bores and ends of the block. Camshafts, crankshafts, and connecting rods for the engine were produced at Ford's Cleveland Engine Plant #2. Engine assembly took place at Ford's Lima plant, suitably upgraded. A new state-of-the-art engine assembly line was built at Ford's Chihuahua Engine facility in Chihuahua, Mexico. When the Tempo was released, a turbocharged version of its new engine was said to be in development, but this configuration never became available. Features The HSC engine has a cast iron block and head, with a single cam-in-block and two overhead valves (OHV) per cylinder with pushrods and rocker arms. The cylinder head is a reverse flow design that puts the intake and exhaust ports on the same side of the head. For heat control, the exhaust was mounted on the firewall side of the engine, along with the intake. This left the spark plugs, distributor, fuel pump, oil filter and starter on the front side of the engine, for ease of servicing. The engine's name derives from it being the first "fastburn" engine offered by Ford. The definition of fastburn in the HSC is that 90% of the