The Latest Fuel-Sipping Engines
The Fuel-Efficient Motors
There are engines that are cleaner, more fuel-efficient, and possibly more trustworthy than older models. The bulk of heavy-duty diesel engine manufacturers in North America produced considerably modified engines last year to comply with the GHG17 emissions requirements issued by the US Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA's extensive CO2 reduction plan for diesel engines reached its first phase's conclusion with these restrictions. Now that more time has passed, the next, stricter round of fuel efficiency improvements, which apply to engines built for the model year 2021, can find a solution.
According to DieselNet, an independent online information service covering technical and commercial information on diesel engines, heavy-duty diesels with model-year 2017 have CO2 emissions restrictions of 460 grams/bhp-hr, or 4.52 gallons/100 bhp-hr. Although most of us won't give that much thought, it forces truck manufacturers to upgrade their goods by 7–20% compared to vehicles from 2010, with engines accounting for the majority of the savings. In response to public demand, engine manufacturers were also compelled to raise their degree of reliability.
To achieve their objectives, engine makers combined more advanced electronic controls with mechanical changes to their engines. Injection systems, piston designs, variable speed accessory drives, low-friction parts, lighter lubricants, greater compression ratios, and after treatment systems were typically included in these upgrades.
Lighter engines, more torque at lower rpm, less horsepower at higher rpm, enhanced maneuverability, and naturally, less fuel consumption are further benefits for truck owners.
Although it may be too soon to draw any judgments regarding reliability, every representative from an engine manufacturer we spoke with emphasized how dependable this generation of engines is. We'll know for sure in the future.
Cummins is providing this in order to meet fuel economy goals.
X15 Cummins
Cummins X15 engine was released in two GHG17-compliant versions, one focused on performance and the other on fuel economy. Although the efficiency version benefits from all the most recent hardware and software developments focused at increasing fuel efficiency, both versions of the engine are fundamentally equivalent. However, the performance version has a few extra hardware components to enhance its ratings.
Jim Nebergall, director of Cummins' X15 program, claims that the current initiative's primary goal is uptime.
"Uptime was our primary priority," he claimed. Our customers informed us that if the engine didn't meet our requirements, it wouldn't be in our fleet. The basic engine was altered significantly as a result, including the use of stronger components during engine development. We changed the wire harness to reduce the likelihood of water infiltration. After closely examining some of the late-life, out-of-warranty issues that are often identified by the second owner after 750,000 miles, we came to the conclusion that we needed to take action to help the secondary market regain some of its value.
The exhaust gas recirculation cooler and a stronger variable geometry turbocharger actuator are two of the many components that Cummins has improved.
The aftercare system is possibly the largest development. Under the previous strategy, OEMs might have packaged them differently, resulting in performance variations that needed to be fixed with sensors and software updates. Now it looks like a straight pipe and is uniform on all trucks.
The X15 no longer includes the "7th injector," an external hydrocarbon injector that was used to refuel the diesel particulate filter. Nebergall asserts that Cummins currently uses a post-combustion injection of gasoline that streams out of the cylinder and into the aftertreatment device to heat the substrate to the necessary temperatures.
According to Nebergall, customers won't see many obvious changes in the 2017 engine, but the benefits will manifest themselves in longer maintenance windows, higher performance, improved maneuverability, and a reduction in unscheduled downtime.
