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The Duratec is being built in four countries on three continents. It's manufactured to the closest tolerances possible and precisely assembled by robot.
It's Ford and Mazda's new 'world' engine and will see service in many models in 1.8, 2.0 and some 2.3 displacements.
It has a predicted service life (under the care of the average person; poor fluid change maintenance) of 150,000 miles. As far as servicing this engine at the dealer, it's a plug-and-play. They'll just replace the entire engine while under whatever warranty one might have, if any problems are encountered. But I haven't heard of any yet.
It is a well-designed piece, very light and quite reliable to 220 horsepower with the stock crank, rods and pistons, adccording to Mountune U.K. who builds motorsports versions for customers.
Walter Marcy of Marcy Motorsports is a big advocate of this engine as well. A conversation with him will delight a performance enthusiast.
As far as '05 model year availability, as far as I know, the 2.3 wil only be offered in the top level Focus ST Sedan.
All other '05 models ahould be equipped with the 2.0 version Dutratec, which has a slighlty shorter deck height than the 2.3.
Cyl heads are interchangeable, and all performance parts available for the 2.3 should work on the 2.0.
I have an April '03 build 2.3 ZX3 with 26,000 on the clock and it has been virtually perfect, except for a noisy serpentine belt tensioner pully which was replaced under warranty at no charge at 6000 miles.
The engine has incredible torque for a SULEV four cylinder; I'm quite pleased with it's day-to-day performance and I come from a 347 inch 302 V8 that had 420 lb/ft of torque.
