History of Cleveland Manufacturing Plant

Nov 5, 2004 By: Ford Motor Company

Ford Motor Company's Cleveland Manufacturing Site, consists of three plants: the Cleveland Engine Plant No. 1 (opened in 1951); the Cleveland Casting Plant (1952) and Cleveland Engine Plant No. 2 (1955).

* The three plants employ nearly 5,000 people, including:
- Cleveland Engine Plant No. 1-800 employees;
- Cleveland Engine Plant No. 2-1,900 employees;
- Cleveland Casting Plant-2,100 employees.

* The entire complex sits on 365 acres. The plants occupy a combined 5 million square feet.

* Since the opening of the site, the two engine plants have produced 47 million engines. In 2003, CEP#2 built more than 575,000 engines.

* Since it opened in 1952, the casting plant has produced nearly 17 million tons of iron castings.

* With the installation of the new Duratec 30 line, CEP#1 will have the production capacity to build more than 1,200 engines per day. CEP#2 builds nearly 3,000 engines each day.

* CEP#1 will supply the Duratec 30 V-6 to the Chicago Assembly Plant, where the all-new 2005 Ford Five Hundred, Freestyle and Mercury Montego will be built beginning late summer 2004.

* CEP#2 supplies Ford plants in Atlanta; Kansas City, Mo.; Wixom, Mich.; and Flat Rock, Mich. It also ships engines to Ford assembly plants in Cuautitlan, Mexico; Genk, Belgium; Castle Bromwich and Browns Lane, United Kingdom and Ujina, Japan.

* The hourly employees of the Cleveland Manufacturing Site are members of UAW Local 1250.

Shortly after World War II, under the leadership of Henry Ford II, the reorganized Ford Motor Company made three strategic decisions that would greatly impact the city of Cleveland. They decided:

1.) To produce a competitive line of cars with more powerful overhead-valve engines,
2.) To greatly increase their manufacturing capacity, and
3.) To build new plants outside of the Detroit area.

The strategy would require that a new engine plant and foundry be built away from Detroit. When the company's intentions became known in the late 1940s, five states and hundreds of communities attempted to attract the project.

A 204-acre site in the Village of Brook Park, Ohio, was chosen. The site is along the lakefront main line of the New York Central railroad, about one-half mile east of the Cleveland airport. It was an attractive site, but the clinching argument was because nearby Cleveland was a port city on the Great Lakes.

The company broke ground for Engine Plant No. 1 in May 1950 and a month later broke ground for the engine foundry to be built next door. Ford opened the plant in 1951, followed by the foundry in 1952 and a second engine plant in 1955. By this time, Cleveland was Ford's second largest manufacturing facility, second only to the famous Rouge complex in Dearborn, Mich.

Of the more than 34 million engines it has built since 1951, Engine Plant No. 1 produced more than 24.3 million engines in the famous 302 and 5.0-liter V-8 family, which was introduced in 1961 with 221 cubic inches of displacement. The last V-8 rolled off the line on Dec. 15, 2000.

For the past three years, Cleveland Engine Plant No. 1 has been undergoing a massive $350 million facility redesign and modernization effort with the complete tear out of the 5.0L line and the installation of an all-new assembly line as well as block, crankshaft and cylinder head machining lines.

Significant products for the two engine plants include:

Cleveland Engine Plant No. 1
1951 - First overhead valve six-cylinder, 215 cubic inches
1957 - 352/361 Edsel V-8
1961 - 221 V-8, followed by 260, 289, Boss 302 and Ford Mustang's famous 5.0-liter V-8
1964 - 240 and 300 I-6
2000 - The last 5.0-liter V-8 rolls off the line for Ford Explorer
2004 - Duratec 30 V-6 for all-new 2005 Ford Five Hundred, Freestyle and Mercury Montego

Cleveland Engine Plant No. 2
1955 - 292 and 312 V-8
1958 - Super Duty truck V-8 engines
1961 - 262 truck V-8
1969 - Cleveland 351 V-8 (also known as the Boss 351)
1994 - 2.5-liter and 3.0-liter Duratec V-6

sponsors

Mustang Blog - Latest Mustang News and Reviews

Car Videos, Racing Videos, Musclecar Videos