High Power Density Diesel Engine

Overview
Current diesel engines for small automotive and traction applications, including sub1 ton
luggage vehicles, and small tractors, are derived from industrial engines. As such, important
characteristics of traction engines are lacking in the engines. These include;
i.
ii.
iii.
iv.

Power density
Accelerator response
NVH characteristics
Packaging

It is proposed that a small, high power density diesel engine be developed, for small
automotive and traction applications, which overcomes the drawbacks of these industrial
derived engines.
Applications
The engine to be developed will find many applications including, but not limited to;
i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
v.
vi.

Diesel motorcycles
0.3 T to 2.0 T cargo vehicles
Small tractors
Multi Tillers / Cultivators
small cars
Military off-road vehicles

The engine so developed, because of its superior power density and thermal efficiency, can
with derating be applied to portable, constant speed applications, where such attributes
command a premium, including;
i. Generators
ii. Pumps
iii. Construction machinery
Design Philosophy
The philosophy for the programme is to adapt state-of-the-art automotive diesel engine
technology to provide a suitable power output from a naturally-aspirated engine unit suitable
for small automotive and traction applications.
The usual route to achieving good power in small automotive diesel engines is turbocharging.
However, this was not considered a viable option, on grounds of technical complexity and the
difficulty in turbo-charging single cylinder engines. A multi-cylinder engine was rejected as
unnecessary, in view of the increased weight and because diesel engines work less efficiently
in small cylinder sizes. A naturally aspirated, single cylinder engine was therefore selected.
To achieve good power requires maximum volumetric efficiency and good air utilisation in
order to obtain a high brake mean effective pressure (BMEP), and the ability to maintain
BMEP at the highest possible rotational speeds. This is achieved by employing a four valve
cylinder head, with a Mercedes type indirect injection combustion chamber. Indirect injection

allows the inlet port and valve geometry to be optimised for good volumetric efficiency
because no intake swirl is required. The ports can therefore be designed solely to achieve
maximum air flow. The necessary turbulence for good combustion and air utilisation at high
speed is achieved via the indirect combustion chamber.
Indirect injection involves a small fuel consumption penalty (circa. 10%) compared to direct
injection, but enables greater BMEP, higher engine speeds, lower peak cylinder pressures
and reduced combustion noise. This increased fuel consumption gap can be further reduced
by the use of ceramic coatings inside the precombustion chamber.
Technology
In order to have robust and durable operation in the face of designed use and some
abuse,the engine is of purely mechanical construction, eschewing the use of electricals and
electronics where not absolutely essential.
Because many of these applications are carried out in tough terrains and rural areas, many
without access to advance repair facilities, the engine is designed to be repairable with
minimal infrastructure.
There have been significant improvement in the last few decades in the understanding and
computer aided simulation of thermodynamic and fluid dynamic processes ocurring in the
engine. These learnings are to be applied to the engine from the conception stage
There have been vast improvements in the last few year in metallurgy and coatings, leading
to improvements in thermal efficiency and durability of the engine. This new technology is to
be applied to the engine

Specifications
The table below captures the important specifications;
Bore
stroke
Swept vol
Cycle
Compression ratio
Max Power @ rpm
Max Torque @ rpm
Weight
Combustion chamber
Pre-chamber
Peak Pre-chamber pressure
Peak Combustion chamber pressure
Induction
Valves
Valve train
Valve actuation

Piston
Connecting rod
Crankshaft
Lubrication

Diesel Injection pump

Diesel injector

Cylinder Block

Cylinder head
Intake Valve Dia
Exhaust Valve Dia

Cooling
Starting
Air filter
Alternator
Battery

90 mm
90 mm
572.56 cc
Indirect injection Diesel
21:1
20 kW @ 5300
40 Nm @ 4200
45kg
pent roof with axial located pre-chamber
Pre-combustion chamber
8.3MPa
7Mpa
Naturally Aspirated
2 x Intake
2 x Exhaust
DOHC Chain driven with Nylon chain guides and hydraulic tensioner
/ DOHC Timer pulley
Directly actuated Shimmed bucket
/ Hydraulic tappet
Machined Forging
Machined Valve relief
Machined pre-chamber relief
Fully floating wrist pin
2 Chromium plated compression rings
One spring loaded segmented oil ring
Machined steel forging
Needle bearings on small end and big end
3 piece build up construction
Fully counterweighted
Integral Flywheel inertia: 0.07kgm^2
Wet sump
Full pressure oil through high pressure trochoidal pump
Jerk Pump
Centrifugal governor
Centrifugal timing advance
Manual timing advance
Manual fuel shut off
Cold Start
Pintle type nozzle
Cast Aluminum
Press fitted cast iron Liner
Full water jacket
/ Finned air cooled
Cast aluminum
Cast in water jacket
/ Finned air cooled
Cast iron valve guide
Shrink fit valve seat
2x30 mm
2x28 mm
Water cooling
Centrifugal Water pump
/ Finned air cooled
Electric start
3 Stage
Oiled foam
Reusable
14 Amps
14 Volt
AC 3 phase
12 Volt
625 CCA
Maintenance free

Design Details
Cycle pressures
The engine has a compression ratio of 21:1, which is typical of the range for indirect injection
diesels of 20 - 25:1. Peak combustion pressure, within the indirect combustion chamber, is
estimated to be in the order of 8.3 MPa (1200 lbf/in 2 ). The peak cylinder pressure will be
somewhat lower than this, say 7 Mpa, due to throttling of the partly combusted fuel/air
mixture on efflux from the combustion chamber into the cylinder.
Crankcase
High strength, heat treated aluminum alloy castings are used for the crankcase. Ribs and
Steel inserts are provided at strategic locations to withstand the forces of combustion.
Cylinder head
The cylinder head is designed to provide the best possible breathing and support for the
valve gear,combined with robustness against thermal and gas loading.
It has a pent-roof main combustion chamber, similar in general form to that of a four valve
petrol engine. The indirect combustion chamber is centrally located, in a similar position to
the spark plug in a petrol engine. A standard 12 volt glow-plug is used for cold starting.
A bifurcated inlet port with steep down-draught and large inlet valves assure good volumetric
efficiency.
Standard automotive materials are used for the valves and shrunk-in valve seats. The
cylinder head casting is in a standard heat-treatable aluminium alloy.
Water jackets are provided for the a liquid cooled version and fins are suitable placed in the
air cooled version.
Valve Train
The valve timing has been chosen to provide good cylinder filling and volumetric efficiency.
The four valves (2 intake and 2 exhaust) have been optimized for airflow in and out of the
combustion chamber.
The valves are directly actuated through two overhead cam shafts. The camshafts are driven
from the crankshaft by a guided and hydraulically tensioned chain. In applications where
NVH is an important characteristic, the chain and sprockets are replaced by a timer belt and
timer pulleys.
Either a shimmed bucket or a hydraulic tappet is used to convey valve lift from the camshafts.
The entire valve train is splash and pressure lubricated via high pressure ducting from the oil
pump.
Piston
The piston is an aluminium alloy forging, which enables lighter weight and increased strength
compared to a cast piston. Light weight is important in a single cylinder engine to minimise
vibration.

The piston is a semi-slipper design and the crown is CNC machined to achieve the close
clearances with the cylinder head necessary in a diesel engine. The ring pack is conventional
state-of-the-art, with two chromium-plated steel compression rings and a spring-assisted
segmental oil control ring, with chromium-plated rails for long life.
Cylinder
The cylinder is heat treated aluminum alloy casting with water passages for cooling. The air
cooled cylinder has a plurality of optimally disposed fins.
The pressed in cast iron liner is centrifugally cast and CNC machined to achieve maximum
durability and performance.
Connecting Rod
The connecting rod is machined from a standard alloy steel and has a steel-backed lead
bronze small end bush.
The gudgeon pin (wrist pin) diameter of 25 mm was chosen to provide bearing pressures
typical of small automotive diesel engines. The big end employs a standard plain automotivetype shell bearing of 48 mm nominal diameter, lined with overlaid lead bronze.
The peak bearing pressure corresponding to maximum cylinder pressure is around 35 MPa,
and was selected to conform to normal automotive practice for this type of material.
The big end bearing and valve train are high pressure lubricated with a standard highdetergent automotive diesel multigrade engine oil, via a trochoidal oil pump driven from the
crankshaft.
Crankshaft
The crankshaft is of built-up construction, employing two internal flywheels with integral
mainshafts, fully balanced counter-weights and a separate pressed-in crankpin.
The flywheels and crankpin are of standard alloy steels, suitably heat treated. The hollow
crankpin also acts as a centrifugal oil filter. The stresses in the pin and mainshafts, due to
both gas and inertia loads are acceptable in relation to the fatigue strength of the materials.
The crankshaft assembly is mounted in conventional ball and needle roller main bearings in
the crankcase.
The flywheels have a rotational inertia of approximately 0.07 kgm 2 . This is sufficient to
provide good idling and reasonable low speed smoothness, coupled with satisfactory engine
responsiveness and accelerative performance.
Fuel Injection Equipment
Custom fuel injection equipment developed by Bosch is used.
The system is purely mechanical to facilitate repair and maintenance and improve reliability
in harsh environments.
The pump is of a standard jerk type, with a hardened and fine ground plunger closely fitted to
the barrel. A custom helix ground into the plunger will vary injection quantity and end-ofinjection timing.

The pump is driven by a gear mated to the final drive of the gearbox for automotive
applications and through a timer pulley and belt driven directly off the crankshaft for nonautomotive applications.
The pump unit contains a governor for low idle, high idle and load-proportional governing.
A Centrifugal advance mechanism varies the start of injection timing to achieve optimal
combustion through out the entire rpm range.
Starting
In view of effort required in manually starting an engine with this level of compression, an
electric starter is provided as standard. However, rope starting and push starting are always
possible, and can be used in the event of battery or starter motor failure.
A centrifugally operated decompression device holds the exhast valves open until sufficient
rpm has been achieved during cranking to start the engine.
NVH
In applications where the level of Noise, Vibration and Harshness are important
characteristics, several strategies are applied to minimize them;
Liquid cooling, using water jackets, in addition to being effective for applications requiring the
engine to operate at high power levels for sustained periods, also serves to absorb diesel
knock.
A timer belt and timer pulleys are used to drive the camshaft, reducing noise associated with
chain drives.
Hydraulic valve actuators maintain zero clearance between the cam and valve stem face to
eliminate the clicking noise valve clearance gaps cause.
Gear trains where applicable, incorporate helical gears with gear ratios optimized for
pleasant acoustics.
Absorbent rubber mountings are used to dampen vibrations and noise
In applications where extreme deadening of engine vibrations is required, balancer shafts are
used to compensate for the out of balance component of the crankshaft flyweights.
Cooling
The engine is manufactured in both air cooled and water cooled configurations.
For applications where the engine is expected to run at high power levels for sustained
periods, liquid cooling is the preferred choice. Liquid cooling is also preferable for
applications where low NVH is required, since the water jacket serves to absorb vibration
and noise.

A centrifugal water pump circulates coolant between the water jackets and the radiator. A
thermal expansion valve regulates the amount of coolant flowing through the system.
In applications where NVH is not a major factor or where liquid cooling is not feasible due to
cost or packaging criteria, an air cooled cylinder block and cylinder head are used.
Depending on the availability of ambient airflow, air cooling is either passive or forced by a
flywheel mounted centrifugal blower through a cowl.
Emissions
For on road applications, the engine will meet Bharat Stage IV for light duty diesel vehicles.
For construction equipment it will meet the Bharat (CEV ) Stage III norms for construction
machinery between 19 and 37 kW.
For agricultural traction equipment including tractors and cultivators, the Bharat (Trem)
Stage IIIA norms will be adhered to.
The emission standards are met through a number of strategies including;
i.

Optimization of fuel injection timing and quantity to control both unburnt hydrocarbons
and NOx
ii. Diesel particulate filters to remove unburnt hydrocarbons
iii. Catalytic convertor to remove NOx and Carbon monoxide
iv. Exhaust gas recirculation to control NOx formation

Fuel Consumption
Brake specific fuel consumption is optimized for the application. For applications where
BSFC is the overriding criterion, such as power generators and pump sets, the engine is
derated to work at the most efficient range.
Alternator
The engine is fitted with a crankshaft mounted 3 Phase AC alternator. The power generated
is used charge the battery, for starting and heating the glow plug. Where called for the power
from the alternator can be drawn to lights, horns or other accessories.

Performance
The engine produces a peak power of 20kW at 5300rpm. This represents a BMEP of 7.91
bar, a realistic but challenging figure to achieve. The power rises smoothly from 2kW at low
idle to the peak. At the max speed of 7000 rpm, the engine still delivers about 8kW of power.
The engine has a fairly flat torque curve between 2500 and 5500 rpm peaking at 40Nm,
which means that the engine will not stall under load even at lower range rpms
As an example a motorcycle fitted with this type of engine, coupled to a suitable gearbox will
be capable of the following performance specifications;
Min constant Speed:
Max Speed:
Acceleration:
Gradeability:

4.5 kmph
132 kmph
(0-50 kmph): 3.5 sec
(0-100kmph): 10.2 sec
60%