Ford Pinto engine


The Ford Pinto engine was the unofficial name for a four-cylinder internal combustion engine built by Ford Europe. In Ford sales literature, it was referred to as the EAO or OHC engine. Because it was designed to the metric system, it was sometimes called the "metric engine". The internal Ford codename for the unit was the T88-series engine. European Ford service literature refers to it as the Taunus In-Line engine. In North America it was known as the Lima In-Line, or simply the Lima engine due to its being manufactured at Lima Engine in Lima, Ohio.
It was used in many European Ford cars and was exported to the United States to be used in the Ford Pinto, a successful subcompact car of the 1970s, hence the name which is used most often for the unit. In Britain, it is commonly used in many kit cars and hot rods, especially in the 2-litre size.

Pinto OHC (TL)

In Europe, the Pinto OHC was introduced in 1970 to replace the Essex V4 used in the Corsair as that range was subsumed into the Mk3 Cortina and Taunus V4 for the German Fords range. It was the first Ford engine to feature a belt-driven overhead camshaft. Early Pinto engines suffered from excessive cam and follower wear, this was later addressed by nitriding the cam lobes and followers, and the fitment of a spray bar, which sprayed oil directly at the camshaft. All standard production Pinto engines had a cast iron cylinder block and a cast iron, crossflow, single overhead camshaft cylinder head with two valves per cylinder operated by finger followers.
Applications:
The Pinto engine was available in five displacements:, earlier, later, and the. Later. Due to emission requirements, it was phased out towards the end of the 1980s to be replaced by the CVH engine and DOHC engine, the latter being a completely new design and not a twin-cam development of the Pinto unit. The only DOHC direct derivative of Pinto engine is the Cosworth YB 16-valve engine, powering Ford Sierra and Ford Escort RS Cosworth variants and featuring a cast aluminium alloy cylinder head developed specially by Cosworth fitted to a modified Pinto cast iron block.
The final Pinto engines used in Ford of Europe production vehicles were the litre versions used in the Sierra until 1992, and the last units were used in the Transit until 1994.

1.3 (TL13)

The smallest member of the family was the which had a bore and stroke.
It was produced in two compression ratio versions:
  • TL13L – the low compression variant, which developed / depending on carburetor model, had a compression ratio of 8.0:1 and the engine codes started with 'JA'
  • TL13H — the high compression variant, which developed / depending on carburetor model had a compression ratio of 9.0:1 and the engine codes started with 'JC'
The fuel was supplied by the Motorcraft single-barrel carburetor in the early models, and Motorcraft VV carburetor for the vehicles built after April 1979.
Applications:
  • 1970–1982 Ford Taunus
  • 1972–1974 Ford Capri
  • 1982–1984 Ford Sierra

    1.6 (TL16)

Early low compression variant (TL16L)

Initially, the had a bore of and shared the crankshaft with the 1.3 L model with a stroke of giving the displacement of.
The TL16L had a compression ratio of 8.2:1 and developed of power and of torque depending on the carburetor and application. As the 1.3 L model, it used the Motorcraft 1V and, later, the Motorcraft VV carburetors. The engine code of the low compression variant started with 'LA'.
Applications:
  • 1970–1982 Ford Taunus / Ford Cortina
  • 1979–1986 Ford Transit
  • 1975–1985 Ford Capri

    Early high compression variant (TL16H)

The HC version of the early had the same bore and stroke as the LC version, but the compression ratio was higher, allowing it to produce of power and of torque. It used the same carburetor models as the low compression version.
Applications:
  • 1970–1982 Ford Taunus / Ford Cortina
  • 1982–1992 Ford Sierra
  • 1975–1985 Ford Capri
  • 1981–1985 Ford Granada
  • 1983–1984 Anadol A8-16 SL

    Increased performance (GT) variant (TL16G)

From the beginning of the production run, the had a special, 'sporty' version which featured:
With such an improvement package, the engine produced of power and of torque.
Applications:
  • 1970–1973 Ford Taunus GT
  • 1970–1976 Ford Taunus GXL
  • 1970-1976 Ford Cortina GT
  • 1970–1976 Ford Cortina GXL
  • 1976–1982 Ford Taunus / Ford Cortina S / GLS / Ghia S
  • 1975–1978 Ford Escort Mexico
  • 1972–1976 Ford Capri GT

    Late variant (TL16E)

At the beginning of 1984, Ford Pinto engine displacement range switched from 1.3/1.6/2.0 to 1.6/1.8/2.0. The newly introduced 1.8 L engine used the 2.0 L crankshaft, so to uniform engine parts for the whole range after dropping the 1.3 L — the 1.6 L was redesigned to also take the 2.0 L crankshaft which had a stroke. This of course led to bringing the bore down to to keep the displacement within range — it was now. The TL16E became now the only available 1.6 L engine of the Pinto range. Although the compression ratio was raised to 9.5:1, the power figures did not differ much from the earlier TL16H version — the engine developed of power and of torque.
This engine is sometimes referred to as 1.6 E-Max engine.
Applications:
  • 1984–1989 Ford Sierra

    1.8 (TL18H)

The Pinto engine was introduced in 1984 as a replacement for the "old" 1.6 L. The engine had an bore and stroke giving the displacement of. Output was of power and. Fuel was supplied by the Pierburg 2E3 28/32 carburetor.
Applications:
The was used in many Ford vehicles from the early 1970s. Due to its robustness and high tuning potential, it was often used as an aftermarket engine upgrade or base for building race and rally engines — not exclusively in Ford cars. The engine has bore of and stroke giving the displacement of.
It was manufactured in several variants:

Low compression variant (TL20L)

Three completely different LC variants of the 2.0 L were produced.
One was used on the 1970–1982 Ford Taunus export version to Sweden — fitted with the Weber DGAV 32/32 carburetor and compression ratio lowered to 8.2:1 to meet the rigorous emission specifications; it delivered of power and of torque.
The second one was used on 1978–1991 Ford Transits and P100 models. With modified induction and Motorcraft 1V carburetor, it produced of power and of torque available at only 2800 rpm. The compression ratio in this case was also 8.2:1. The Transits also used the third variant called the "Economy" engine. The power figure of this one was even lower — it developed only.
Applications:
  • 1970–1982 Ford Taunus Sweden export version
  • 1978–1994 Ford Transit
  • 1988–1993 Ford P100
  • 1977–1986 Ford Transit "Economy" version

    Standard (high compression) variant (TL20H)

Although Ford marked its standard 2.0 L engine as HC, it actually uses engine codes meant for the 'increased performance variant' engines, these have a compression ratio of to 9.2:1.
This engine used different carburetor models across the years:
  • Weber DGAV 32/36 - on all cars up to 1987
  • Weber DFTH 30/34 - from 1987 until the end of production run
  • Weber DFAV 32/36 - on engines exported to USA
The engine produced of power and of torque, though a few models with a higher output were produced.
Applications:
  • 1973–1980 Ford Escort RS2000
  • 1974–1982 Ford Taunus / Ford Cortina
  • 1975–1985 Ford Capri
  • 1973–1984 Ford Granada
  • 1983–1989 Ford Sierra
  • 1985–1989 Ford Granada and Ford Scorpio
  • 1971–1974 Ford Pinto

    Injection variant (TL20EFI)

The injected 2.0 L used the Ford EEC-IV engine control system which brought the output up to of power and of torque, although much of this increased performance can be attributed to the improved design of the EFI variants cylinder head. As the EEC-IV installation on most of those engines contains some Bosch parts that are easily visible in the engine compartment, it is often - but falsely believed that they are fitted with the Bosch L-Jetronic injection system.
Some of the TL20EFI engines have closed-loop lambda control, while others are lacking that feature.
Applications:
  • 1985–1992 Ford Sierra
  • 1985–1992 Ford Granada and Ford Scorpio
  • 1991–1994 Ford Transit

    Single point injection variant (TL20CFI)

This variant was used in Ford Transit exclusively. The power output was.
Applications:
  • 1985–1992 Ford Transit

    Cosworth YB (CH20EFI)

In the beginning of the 1980s, Cosworth developed a 16-valve performance head conversion for the Pinto engine. This was seen by a Ford executive who asked Cosworth to develop it with a turbo for use in the new Ford Sierra RS Cosworth.
The engine is therefore based on a modified Pinto block topped with the Cosworth-developed alloy head and Garrett turbo.

Lima OHC (LL)

The "Lima" versions of the engine debuted in form in the Ford Pinto, but although they share their basic architecture with the European version, they actually have few interchangeable parts. The European version did find its way into North America however in the Mercury Capri, which was a captive import from Ford of Europe's factories in Germany.

2.0

The 2.0 litre version was a narrower-bore version of the original 2.3 liter "Lima" four. Bore and stroke are, respectively, for an overall displacement of. This engine was installed in the 1983–1988 Ford Rangers and in some Argentinian Ford Taunus.
;Applications: