Remanufactured Ford 3.3L L6 Engine - Fairmont, Granada, LTD, Mustang, Thunderbird; Mercury Capri, Cougar, Marquis, Zephyr

Ford's Thriftpower six began life in 1960 as a lightweight, cheap-to-build engine for the compact Falcon, and it grew into one of the company's longest-serving powerplants. It started at 144 cubic inches and worked its way up through 170, 200 and finally 250 cubic inches — the 3.3 and 4.1-litre versions that account for most surviving examples. The design was deliberately conservative: an iron block and head with the intake manifold cast integrally into the head on most versions, seven main bearings on the larger displacements, and a valvetrain built for durability rather than revs. That integrated intake is the engine's most distinctive feature and also its biggest limitation, since it made carburetor and intake upgrades awkward. The 200 was the base engine in the early Mustang, and the 250 served in the Maverick, Granada, and F-100 pickups through the 1970s. Production for North American vehicles wound down by 1983, though Ford of Australia continued developing the basic architecture for decades longer.