Released on Monday, June 25, 2007

International Truck and Engine Corp., Warrenville, Ill., a Navistar company, announced that its subsidiary MWM International Motores and Tupy, both of Sao Paulo, Brazil, will provide compacted-graphite iron cylinder blocks for the new MaxxForce 11 and 13 big bore diesel engines.

Tupy will cast the CGI cylinder blocks and MWM will machine them at its Santo Amaro plant. The machined blocks will be shipped from South America to International's new engine plant in Huntsville, Ala., where the big bore engines will be assembled.

In late 2006, Huntsville was selected as the site for the assembly of the new engines. To accommodate the work, a new plant is being built near International's current manufacturing facility in Huntsville. Production in Huntsville will begin in spring 2008. Initial engines will be partially assembled in Germany and finished and trimmed in Huntsville.

The MaxxForce 11 and 13 will be offered in International ProStar line-haul tractors, TranStar regional-haul tractors and WorkStar severe service vehicles in the U.S. and Canada beginning later this year.

"The MaxxForce 11 and 13 will be the first heavy duty diesel engines in North America to offer an engine block cast from CGI," said Jacob Thomas, vice president of MaxxForce’s big bore business unit. "The use of this material allows us to provide a high-strength block without added weight."