The Ford Essex V6 engine is a 60° V6 engine built between 1966 and 1988 by the Ford Motor Company in the United Kingdom and until 2000 in South Africa although mostly in the Ford engine plant of Dagenham, Essex, which gave the engine its name. It is closely related to the Ford Essex V4 engine produced in displacements of 1.7 L and 2.0 L. Both engines share many parts since the Essex V6 was directly derived from the Essex V4; the 2.0 L Essex V4 and the 3.0 L Essex V6 in fact have exactly the same bore and stroke and share various components. History The Essex V4 and V6 were mainly designed to replace the outdated and ageing inline-four and six-cylinder Ford Zephyr engines. It was produced in four capacities: , , , , with the 3.0-litre version being the most common and widely used. These engines were fitted to a wide range of vehicles, from Ford Transit vans to sedans, coupés like the Ford Capri and sports cars like TVRs and Marcos. The earlier versions of engine were rated at and of torque, around October 1971 the engine was revised by modifying the camshaft and cylinder heads which improved the power and torque to produce SAE or DIN at 5000 rpm and SAE or DIN of torque at 3000 rpm. At the same time, the oil dipstick was moved from the front of the engine to the side, the inlet manifold was improved from earlier models, and the compression ratio was raised slightly from 8.9:1 to 9.0:1 due to a change of the piston design. The shape of the inlet ports was also changed from an O-port design to a D-port design which improved the flow characteristics of the heads, the old 40 DFAV Weber carburetor that was prone to over-fueling and resulting bore wash was replaced by the 38 DGAS Weber carburetor, the air filter housing was also changed and later around 1976 a hot air intake was added consisting of a metal pipe running from the top of a plate welded on the exhaust manifold or header to an opening in the air intake to prevent the carburetor from icing and making the engine warm up more quickly. The carburetor was also modified again, a return-style fuel system was adopted and a vacuum-operated choke in the air filter housing were also added. This, and a