2019 ford ecosport trend 1.5l (dragon engine)

**Mar54** · December 13th, 2018 08:18 PM

GREETINGS !

Technical Data on Ford's new Dragon Engine

The most significant change to the EcoSport is the heart, with the introduction of a new petrol engine. Ford earlier had 2 petrol motors, a 1.5L, 4-cylinder Ti-VCT and the 1.0L, 3-cylinder EcoBoost. Both these engines were rather different in the way they performed. While the 1.0L was only good at higher revvs (suffered from lag at lower revvs), the 1.5L was a mediocre engine overall. The 1.5L also didn't benefit from excise savings as it was above the 1,200 cc limit. Though the 1.0L engine could benefit from the excise savings, it was a complex engine with a turbocharger and thus expensive.

Ford is consolidating the petrol line-up and the result is this new 1.5L, 3-cylinder naturally aspirated mill codenamed "Dragon". The displacement is 1.5L, but with only 3 cylinders. It also loses the forced induction and doesn't get the excise benefits either. The 2017 EcoSport facelift becomes the first car to get an engine from the Dragon design. In the future, we will probably see the dragon engine makes its way into other Ford vehicles like the Figo & Aspire.

Salient Features of the 1.5L Dragon:
• Ford’s second 3-cylinder petrol engine in ASIA.
• The Dragon series engines have been developed with insights from the ASIAN engineering team. They were part of all stages - design, development and production.
• 80% of the parts for this new engine are sourced from ASIAN suppliers.
• ASIA receives the 121 BHP and 150 Nm tune - the same as international markets such as Australia.
• The new 3-cylinder engine with an aluminium block is lighter, reduces friction and is 10% smaller in size.
• The engine is claimed to achieve a 7% decrease in Brake Specific Fuel Consumption (BSFC) & CO2 emissions.
• Twin independent Variable Camshaft Timing (Ti-VCT) is claimed to deliver faster throttle response and enhanced fuel economy.
• The Ti-VCT system allows each intake and exhaust cam to function independently of each other as the engine operating conditions change.
• Engine is paired to a 5-speed manual transmission or a 6-speed automatic.
• 3-cylinder engines are inherently imbalanced. The end result is a rocking motion as there is no opposing cylinder moving in the opposite direction (much like an unbalanced see-saw). Manufacturers usually cancel out this imbalance via a balancer shaft that has an uneven mass. It basically works like a counter weight or a mass damper to reduce vibrations & rocking motions by spinning in the opposite direction.
• Balancer shaft is supported by hydrodynamic bearings.
• Engine’s timing belt moves through oil to reduce friction and NVH levels when it is running. This also improves the life of the belt.
• Acoustic isolation system in place to prevent harsh engine sounds from entering the cabin.

The Dragon series petrol engine for the new EcoSport is a 1.5 L, 3-cylinder naturally aspirated petrol which produces 121 BHP and 150 Nm of torque:

The cover is integrated with engine brackets in order to reduce the weight:

The crankshaft is offset from the vertical axis of the piston and cylinder. Generally, the offset crankshaft is placed such that during the power stroke, the crankshaft is almost perpendicular to the vertical axis and the connecting rod is co-linear with the vertical axis of the piston cylinder:

A balancer shaft helps in eliminating the first order vibrations which are commonly seen in inline 3-cylinder engines (related discussion):

Exhaust manifold is integrated with the cylinder head. Internationally, many automakers are moving to an integrated exhaust manifold (related link):

The valve actuation system is responsible for the closing & opening action of the valves. This particular system is claimed to self-regulate valve lash (the gap between the rocker arms and valve tappet):

Belt in oil has been implemented to reduce friction and noise:

Each cylinder gets a separate ignition coil. Benefit? Easier cold start and better combustion control. The spark plugs are placed at the center of the combustion chamber:

A summary of all the technologies used:

The power (kW) and torque (Nm) vs engine speed (rpm) graphs showing the comparison between the 2 engines - 1.5L 3-cylinder vs 1.5L 4-cylinder:

The aluminium block:

The balancer shaft on top:

The timing belt. You can notice the roller rocker and hydraulic touch, which was shown in the presentation deck. This makes the system compatible with alternate fuels like LPG and CNG. It helps reduce friction and needs no maintenance. Also seen here are the twin variable camshafts (Ford's Ti-VCT tech):

**Mar54** · December 13th, 2018 08:33 PM

Driving the 3-Cylinder 1.5L Petrol MT

c, 3-cylinder naturally-aspirated motor under the hood. It produces a very healthy 121 BHP * 6,500 rpm and 150 Nm * 4,500 rpm. The horsepower rating puts the Ford ahead of all other compact SUVs. When compared to the earlier turbocharged 1.0L motor, it falls just 2 BHP short (torque difference is more though * 20 Nm). The old 1.5L, 4-cylinder unit with 110 BHP & 140 Nm on tap has been comfortably overshadowed.

With a hefty kerb weight of 1,220 kilos, the EcoSport . It has a power-to-weight ratio of 99 BHP / ton and torque-to-weight ratio of 123 Nm / ton. While the former puts the EcoSport ahead of all its main rivals, the latter is a little short of the Nexon’s 137 Nm / ton.

To start the engine, you need to press the clutch and then hit the engine start / stop button. While the clutch pedal is light, we found its travel range to be longer than required. On startup (or when the engine is turned off), there is perceptible body shake. At idle, while the engine is silent, you can feel the imbalance of the cylinders. There are mild vibrations on the pedals and in the cabin. It is clearly not close to the refinement offered by a Hyundai 4-cylinder unit. What's more, while waiting in traffic, you will find irregularities and mild vibrations / shake whenever the air-con compressor kicks in & out (it's slightly higher when the compressor starts). Some people will find this annoying , while others will get used to it.

The bad news in terms of NVH ends there. In a nutshell, it's only at startup & when idling that owners will complain. In all other areas, this is among the most refined 3-cylinder engines we've come across. Things smoothen out once you start driving. Heck, other than enthusiasts, normal folk won't even know that it's a 3-cylinder engine on the move. It's just brilliant. Just to clarify - things are excellent by 3-cylinder standards, but the refinement cannot be compared to the silky 4-cylinders of the segment.

Throttle response is crisp & the EcoSport moves off from a standstill effortlessly. The engine has a healthy bottom-end which makes it more practical in the city than the two petrols that it replaces. Power delivery is linear while driveability is excellent; the car can even set off in 2nd gear without much of a problem. Around town, one can move at 40 km/h in 3rd gear with the engine ticking over at 1,750 rpm sans any lugging. In fact, even if the revvs fall as low as 1,200 rpm, the EcoSport can pull through (provided the road is flat). Speaking of revs, shift hard from 1st to 2nd and you'll enjoy a healthy amount of wheelspin . The engine feels peppy even at half throttle and downshifting requirements aren't frequent. The compact size, light controls, good frontal visibility and sorted ergonomics make the EcoSport an ideal city crossover. It's only the unrefined idle & long travel clutch pedal that get irritating in stop & go traffic conditions.

On the open road, you'll enjoy the revv-happiness of this new triple cylinder. Beyond 2,500 rpm, the engine starts coming into its stride and past 3,000 rpm, it's really singing. There is enough performance available to keep most drivers happy. Although the motor has that classic 3-cylinder thrum which we're familiar with since the Maruti 800 days, it actually sounds nice near the redline - enthusiasts will like it (regular folk won't)! The petrol revs happily to 6,900 rpm, and there was no hesitation experienced at all. Even when you hit the rev limiter, the fuel supply doesn't cut off abruptly. Highway performance is overall satisfactory. In terms of 5th gear cruisability, the EcoSport sees 100 km/h at 2,750 rpm, while 120 km/h is seen at 3,250 rpm (a bit higher than expected). While cruising on the highway, the engine is silent enough.

As mentioned earlier, the clutch is light, but has a long travel range. The 5-speed manual transmission is light and reasonably smooth to operate (far from the benchmark in terms of slickness though).

In terms of fuel economy, the EcoSport carries an ARAI rating of 17 km/l. This figure is just 0.5 km/l lower than the WR-V's (17.5 km/l).

1.5L naturally-aspirated engine uses Ford's Twin independent Variable Camshaft Timing (Ti-VCT) tech and makes 121 BHP + 150 Nm:

Plumbing for the air intake has changed. Intake is now located right at the front (all the better for sucking in cool air):
Even petrol variant gets an insulation sheet underneath:
Fair amount of cladding on the firewall:

ECU is well concealed:

Just like before, the petrol gets no underbody protection (note = diesel does):
Gas / lubricant sticker shows the various engine and gearbox combinations. From left to right - the 1.5L Dragon petrol + manual & 1.5L diesel + manual, 1.5L Dragon petrol + automatic & 2.0L GDI (gasoline direct injection) + automatic, 1.0L Fox (EcoBoost) + automatic and 1.0L Fox (EcoBoost) + dual-clutch automatic. Only the 1.5L Dragon petrol and 1.5L diesel are relevant to India:

MID has a gearshift indicator that tells you to shift up or down to obtain the best fuel economy. It even shows which gear you should shift to, and that's not necessarily the next in line! As an example, if you are in 2nd and revving hard, it will tell you to shift straight to 4th. Even the AT gets one. But my God, look at those outdated dot matrix fonts!!!

Driving the 1.5L Petrol AT

Like the AT that came with the old 1.5L Ti-VCT engine, this gearbox has 6 speeds, but it is not the same unit. While the outgoing transmission was a DCT (dual-clutch), the new one is a simpler old-school torque converter AT. It's not as fast shifting a transmission as a dual-clutch unit, but it is not slow either. We are frankly pleased with the move because the old DCT had poor long-term reliability

How's the new AT? In a nutshell, it does the job and that's it - doesn't overtly impress nor disappoint. Along with the 1.5L engine, the slushbox makes the EcoSport an effortless car to drive from point A -> B. Besides, one must remember that the EcoSport is the only sub-4 meter compact SUV to offer a petrol. What's more, Ford has also provided a 'Sport' mode.

With your foot on the brake pedal, press the engine start / stop button and the EcoSport petrol AT comes to life. Like the MT, upon startup, there is some body shake felt. While idling, there are the typical 3-cylinder vibrations creeping into the cabin, which are a turnoff. Otherwise, it's a quiet motor and NVH levels on the move are excellent for a 3-cylinder unit. A disappointing trait is that, whenever the gear shifter is moved from P to D or R, there is some transmission noise ('khatak') and a noticeable shake that can be felt in the cabin. At a standstill, you can revv the engine to a max of 4,500 rpm.

The EcoSport AT moves off the line almost immediately upon releasing the brakes and crawls at ~6 km/h without accelerator input (useful in bumper-to-bumper traffic). When the car is driven in a sedate manner, gearshifts are smooth and you won't feel any jerk when they are being executed. With a light foot, upshifts are seen <2,000 rpm, while at medium throttle inputs, the transmission upshifts anywhere between 2,000 and 4,000 rpm. You will not even notice the gearshifts, except for a change in engine sound. The automatic gearbox, along with the small size of the car & light controls, makes the EcoSport an easy toy to drive in the city.

As mentioned earlier, the transmission is not as quick-shifting as a dual-clutch unit, yet it is not slow either. There is a slight delay before a downshift is executed, but it's not so bad as to cause annoyance. On your daily drive through rush hour traffic, you'll only need to give the engine light accelerator inputs. Not too many downshifts are required either as the motor has a healthy bottom end.

On the open road, the EcoSport has a good ability to cruise. Power delivery is linear & the gearbox does its work well. The AT cruises calmer than the MT due to the 6th gear - 100 km/h and 120 km/h are at 2,350 rpm and 2,800 rpm respectively. At these rpms, the engine is calm and composed. If one gets aggressive with the A-pedal, the transmission eagerly downshifts. Floor it and the box will take the engine to 6,500 rpm before shifting up. However, one will notice that this exercise results in more noise than an actual increase in speed initially. Coming to the shift quality, one will never find it getting jerky. The transmission is quiet in its operation too.

You can use the manual shifting arrangement by pulling the paddle shifters (left to downshift & right to upshift). Most of the time though, it's best to use the regular D mode. Manual mode can come in handy when you need engine braking (e.g. going downhill) or when you want to bring the engine into its powerband before an overtaking move. Response times in manual mode are fair (not too fast nor too slow). Also, if you hit the revv limit of 6,500 rpm, it will shift up on its own (note: MT revs to 6,900 rpm).

The EcoSport's slushbox also comes with an S mode which makes it more aggressive. The gearbox holds the engine revvs higher as well so that it's in the meat of the powerband (as a result, throttle feels sharper). Comparatively, in D mode, the engine revvs fall quickly. Like D, in "S" mode too, the engine shifts up at 6,500 rpm tops. While the EcoSport becomes more fun to drive in S mode (particularly on the open road), this mode is not desirable in urban conditions.

The AT's ARAI-certified FE is 14.8 km/l.

6-speed AT gear lever comes with silver inserts and has a linear shift pattern:

**Mar54** · December 13th, 2018 08:46 PM

The Ecosport Trend 1.5L Is not bad at all then.

**Mar54** · December 14th, 2018 10:15 AM

Manual Trans / Ecosport 1.5L

Engine:
After a long time, here is a petrol engine that has impressed me.
The Dragon engine has good low end torque coupled with sharp throttle response. Even up the rev range, the engine pulls nicely. Flat out acceleration is also good.

The gearing is spot on, neither too short nor too tall. Most of the new cars tend to have tall gearing (for fuel efficiency gains), which means constant gear changes & slow acceleration. The Dragon engine hits the 100 kmph mark * 2700-2800 RPM in 5th gear. This car passed the 2nd gear speed-breaker test with flying colors.
For a 3 cylinder motor the NVH are good, on the move one can't simply tell about the missing cylinder. The engine noise doesn't filter inside the cabin, at least in low revs. While idling, small vibrations are felt on the steering wheel & pedals, especially with the AC on. Then on the move there is a slight lugging/knocking kind of sound below 1400 RPM along with a slight vibration. These are minor faults which I found only because I was looking for them, a non petrol-head won't notice these faults. Still something like the Elite i20 petrol is in a different league when it comes to refinement.
I get to regularly drive the old Fiesta (my cousin owns one) with the legendary 1.6L Duratec petrol engine. The new Dragon engine might be good, but still isn't a match for the Fiesta engine. The old 1.6L feels faster, has better NVH (4 cylinder), sounds better. Though with regards to fuel efficiency, the new Dragon engine should be better.

Changes in the facelift:
First of all the facelift feels like a proper facelift. Almost all the switches & knobs are different, the dashboard is all new etc. It simply feels like a new car.
The new touchscreen based HU simply rocks, the resolution is brilliant, the interface is lag free, and is loaded with features. Somehow the speakers didn't sound as good as our car, maybe the equalizer needs some tweaking.
The new steering wheel is awesome to hold, is fully leather wrapped unlike the older steering which was only leather wrapped at places. Even the leather felt premium to touch, it is more soft unlike the hard to touch steering from the older model. The controls for the MID has moved from the headlight stalk to the steering wheel.
The new car gains auto folding ORVM, a feature I sorely miss in our car.
The key-less entry & go system has been modified, you no longer get a decided button to press, instead there is a sensor. The other improvement which I liked is that the car goes to accessory mode after you switch off the engine, until the driver's door is open, after which it shuts down everything. See, in a normal key equipped car, one can can switch off the engine, & move the key only one step back to the accessory mode, which means things like the ICE isn't interrupted. Now in the old Ecosport once you press the engine start/stop button, everything shuts down along with the engine. This means the HU stops every time you shut down the engine, you have to manually restart the HU, this thing gets worse if you were listening from the Bluetooth, as it needs to be paired once again (takes around 5 second). It is nice to see Ford improving these smaller things .

The rear seat gains a armrest which is good. On the flip side, the seat reclining feature has been removed.
What were they thinking when they removed the brilliant front armrest which was fixed to the seat & hence used to suit even the shorter folks. It is replaced by a stupid fixed armrest which simply isn't useful to most of us. I really missed the armrest during the drive, I extensively use this feature in our car. The adjustable lumbar support is also missing from the new Ecosport.
The new projector based headlights look brilliant. The twin barrel setup is also very good in lighting the road. My friend commented that he would have liked a blue colored light from the headlight like the Hyundais & Marutis, the blue light looks cool according to him.
Rest of the things like the ride quality & handling are same as the old model. Hence, the ride is still a bit a stiff, especially at low speeds.
Most of the Fords have a handbrake that requires some strength to operate. In the new Ecosport they have changed the handbrake, made it a bit shorter & thinner. The result of this change has made the handbrake very awkward to operate, after driving 200 km in the hills my left arm started to hurt a bit. The older one never had this problem, the handbrake on the older Ecosport was longer & meatier.
Final Verdict

The Ecosport is no doubt a good product, with the improvements the new Ecosport moves the game forward. I would say among the sub 4m SUVs, the Ecosport is still the best. As for the choice of engine, the new 1.5L dragon is really good.