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Original Message
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RE: How long were you at Ford? Any stories? :-) [n/m] |
By Bill Conley - 03/19/2002 4:55:35 PM; IP 4.41.12.8 |
I was a Ford engine engineer from 1988 thru 1993 (my first job out of school).
Lots of stories! For instance- I did a stint in the dyno building when they were shaking the bugs out of the supercharged 3.8L T-Bird engine. The original design called for a cast crank. During one test at sustained max HP, the crank let go and the flywheel got loose. The flywheel went up the wall and half way across the ceilng of the test cell. Looked like a chainsaw massacre! The dyno operator needed a new pair of shorts. From that point on nobody was allowed in the test cell.
Around the same time they let Bill Ford Jr. test drive a prototype S/C bird on one of the tracks (I think Arizona Proving Ground). Well he "drove over the crankshaft" at 140 + mph. Needless to say it hit the fan at Engine Engineering!!
They eventually gave up on the cast crank and sourced a forged unit from Japan.
I could also spend days writing about my stint on the assembly line at Cleveland Engine Plant ... or how two engineers crashed the company's Ferrari Testarossa on the way back from a strip club. The Ferrari was purchased for "competitive evaluation" - translation: executive toy.
Oh- I also participated in the unintentional demolition of a $250,000.00 test vehicle.
So are you sorry you asked? -Bill |
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