The best Transit Engine in history

Ford Transit has been produced continuously since 1965. For more than 50 years, 8 generations of Ford Transit and thousands of available versions and body types have appeared on the market. A large revolution has also occurred in the engine unit. Ford Transit from its creation was available in different versions with more than 30 different engines. Which Ford Transit engine was the best?

Ford Transit engines history

The first ever Ford Transit van had a 1.3L Taunus V4 engine, borrowed from the German Ford Taunus Transit. It was also available in 1.5l and 1.7l versions. Ford engineers in the United Kingdom decided to increase their capacity, offering V4 Essex engines with 1.7l, 2.0l and V6 3.0 for Transit MK1. Alternative choice was Perkins diesel engine or York.

How do we rate these engines now? Many of them work so far! It's worth noting that Transit MK1 was used for 95% of bank robberies in that period. The police stressed that Transit is able to reach the speed of a passenger car with a significantly increased load area. It created an explosive mixture! Ford Transit engines were reliable, efficient and ahead of their time. In August 1977, the Ford Transit 1978 1/2 version, commonly known as Transit MK2, appeared. This widened the range of engines with petrol engines Pinto 1.6 / 2.0 and Cologne V6 2.8 or Essex V6 3.0 units. Among the diesels, the 2.4-liter York unit still dominated. For comparison - for the Australian market at the same time hit the engine V6 4.1l. New variants of the engine also appeared with the introduction of new models. The 2.3L Duratec and Duratorq TDCi engines in variants 2.2l, 2.4l and 3.2l were the most popular in Europe. The European market was mainly delivered by vans with TDCI engines, which offered high durability, relatively low level of combustion and failure-free operation.

Transit engines in the current offer

Ford's policy focuses on supporting new technologies and protecting the environment. In just a few years we can expect that all Ford cars (and vans) -will have electric motors. The present is slightly different. New EcoBlue 2.0-liter engines were introduced to the European market.

Each variant is from a few to a dozen HP more powerful than its predecessor 2.2 TDCi. The torque is also higher. The injectors during one combustion cycle (lasts a fraction of a second) make 6 fuel injections into the compressed air engine in the cylinder. EcoBlue engines offer 15% lower fuel consumption than the previously used unit, however, they require priming the AdBlue tank in accordance with Euro 6 regulations.

The most powerful Ford Transit engine

There were a few exceptional copies of Ford Transit with non-standard engines, usually borrowed from other cars. In 1971, SuperVan debuted with a V8 engine, generating power at around 400 hp.

Its successor, the SuperVan II, received a Cosworth DFL engine with a top speed of 178 miles per hour. In 1994, Ford presented the last SuperVan with the Cosworth HB unit. Over time, the engine was changed to the more practical Ford-Cosworth Pro Sports 3000 V6 with 295 hp.

In 2011, Ford presented the Transit SuperSportVan model with a turbocharged Duratorq 3.2 engine, generating power at 198 hp. In the same year, our Drift Bus debuted with a BMW M5 V8 engine with approx. 440 HP!