I've gone loony but rocking a crying baby for hours will do that to you... ;)
I started looking over the Ford 3.4L 60deg V8 found in the 96-99 Taurus SHO, this was largely prompted by me looking at Volvo XC90's as a family hauler. I've always wanted a V12 and this was an interesting way of doing it.
The Ford Duratec family of V6's produced the 3.4L V8 though they won't admit it. The rods are the same and the bore, bore spacing, and what looks like the headbolt pattern are all the same. Since the V8 uses a lower bearing plate instead of individual main caps it looks like you could cut two blocks down to V6's (one loosing the back and the other the front) strategically to form an interlocking pattern and then weld them together then use a welded lower plate to help tie it all together. Similarly you could take two Duratec V6 cranks and weld them together (the V8 crank has split pins so it's out). Heads could be V6 units with the cam drive section cut off of the fronts or V8 units cut down. The cams would the hardest part I'd think. I was thinking you could cut down the V8 cams and then either weld or spline them together. Using V6 cams would be a challenge since the rear of the front cam doesn't leave much to play with.
I've seen the documentation online of the Chevy I6 running a pair of SB2 heads welded together so I don't doubt this would work with enough skill as a welder.
I started looking over the Ford 3.4L 60deg V8 found in the 96-99 Taurus SHO, this was largely prompted by me looking at Volvo XC90's as a family hauler. I've always wanted a V12 and this was an interesting way of doing it.
The Ford Duratec family of V6's produced the 3.4L V8 though they won't admit it. The rods are the same and the bore, bore spacing, and what looks like the headbolt pattern are all the same. Since the V8 uses a lower bearing plate instead of individual main caps it looks like you could cut two blocks down to V6's (one loosing the back and the other the front) strategically to form an interlocking pattern and then weld them together then use a welded lower plate to help tie it all together. Similarly you could take two Duratec V6 cranks and weld them together (the V8 crank has split pins so it's out). Heads could be V6 units with the cam drive section cut off of the fronts or V8 units cut down. The cams would the hardest part I'd think. I was thinking you could cut down the V8 cams and then either weld or spline them together. Using V6 cams would be a challenge since the rear of the front cam doesn't leave much to play with.
I've seen the documentation online of the Chevy I6 running a pair of SB2 heads welded together so I don't doubt this would work with enough skill as a welder.
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