Plastic automotive engine
Version one was based on Ford's 2.3-liter Pinto engine and weighed (vs. for its cast iron counterpart). It was designed to produce at 9200 rpm. It was composed of metal cylinder sleeves, metal combustion chamber tops, metal piston crowns, bearings, valves and seats, and a stock 2.3L Pinto crankshaft. Nearly everything else in the engine, including the block, rods and piston skirts, were made of glass reinforced Polyamide-imide thermoplastic resins manufactured at the time by Amoco Chemicals Co. The engine was never installed in a vehicle.
Lincoln Continental Mark VI
In order to remain in compliance with increasingly stringent federal fuel economy standards (under CAFE, Ford Motor Company was required to average 20.0 MPG for all of its vehicles for 1980), significant changes were made to the powertrain for the Continental Mark VI. The 460 and 400 cubic-inch V8s seen in the Mark V (and the Mercury Grand Marquis and Lincoln Continental) were replaced in favor of much smaller V8 engines. The standard engine for the Mark VI was a 129-hp 302 cubic-inch V8. Essentially the Windsor V8 shared with the Versailles, the Ford LTD/Mercury Marquis, and the Ford full-size trucks, the engine was the first V8 sold by Ford with fuel injection; to denote the engine, it was marketed by its 5.0L metric displacement (slightly rounded up from the correct 4.9L figure). As an option, a 140-hp 351 Windsor (5.8L) V8 was available; it was sold with an electronically-controlled variable-venturi 2-barrel carburetor. After 1980, the 351 was discontinued on the Mark VI, due to poor sales and the lack of a distinct power advantage over the 5.0L V8.