Flipper, not sure where to post this, so for now I'm going to place it here as it has some technical details, but its also a good read about who designed what.
Duratec/MZR family history ? Mazda MPS Owners Club
A short excerpt from the post....
It was agreed many years ago, that Mazda would drop their (class leading) K-series V6, hand over the engineering to Ford and Ford would continue to develop 60 degree aluminum V6's as their Duratec V6, which Mazda would have later access to to cast, build and modify to their liking. In exchange, Mazda would be responsible for the entire development of the "new four cylinder engines". This is the deal according to Ford. Mazda would be developing a new 4 cylinder engine, regardless. Selling the K-engine out, made and saved them some money. The company has always had some of the best engineering in Japan, but sadly most of it falls short of production (including V8 and V12 engines). Ford always knew this, which is why they hooked up with the company since the 70s.
"MZR" is just a brand name, just like 'Duratec' (and EcoBoost for that matter). It means nothing. The Mazda L-engine is the engine family in question, and is all 100% Mazda engineering. The L-engine, is part of the MZR series (which is a brand name for a generation of engines, including the smaller Z-engines as well). The L-engines range in size from 1.8L to 2.5L.
Duratec/MZR family history ? Mazda MPS Owners Club
A short excerpt from the post....
It was agreed many years ago, that Mazda would drop their (class leading) K-series V6, hand over the engineering to Ford and Ford would continue to develop 60 degree aluminum V6's as their Duratec V6, which Mazda would have later access to to cast, build and modify to their liking. In exchange, Mazda would be responsible for the entire development of the "new four cylinder engines". This is the deal according to Ford. Mazda would be developing a new 4 cylinder engine, regardless. Selling the K-engine out, made and saved them some money. The company has always had some of the best engineering in Japan, but sadly most of it falls short of production (including V8 and V12 engines). Ford always knew this, which is why they hooked up with the company since the 70s.
"MZR" is just a brand name, just like 'Duratec' (and EcoBoost for that matter). It means nothing. The Mazda L-engine is the engine family in question, and is all 100% Mazda engineering. The L-engine, is part of the MZR series (which is a brand name for a generation of engines, including the smaller Z-engines as well). The L-engines range in size from 1.8L to 2.5L.
