Ford spreading the EcoBoost love to the Mustang

Once upon a time the old 302cu.in. V-8 was almost ubiquitous within Ford being available in some form in just about every vehicle that Dearborn built except the lowly Pinto. It looks like the next engine to achieve that status will be the new 3.5L EcoBoost V-6. The turbocharged direct injected V-6 has already been announced for the Flex, Explorer, F-150, MKS, MKT and will likely appear elsewhere including the 2010 Mustang. Turbocharged engines have not appeared in the Mustangs since the SVO model of the mid-eighties. When the old Fox-bodied Mustangs debuted in 1979 just in time for the second oil embargo they featured a 2.3L turbo four-cylinder with 132hp as the most powerful engine. Thanks to modern engine electronics and direct fuel injection, modern turbo engines are far more robust than those earlier units that had a nasty tendency toward premature death by cooked bearings. The V-6 will likely be rated at a minimum of 340hp to start and be lighter in weight than the current 4.6L V-8 leading to better handling and considerably better fuel economy. At some point the 2.0L four-cylinder EcoBoost will probably become the standard engine in the base Mustang as well.
[Source: MotorTrend via Autoblog]