Towing with a 3.0 L Touareg TDI diesel
What are your thoughts on pulling 7000 pounds plus of travel trailer with 2014 VW Touareg TDI from Ohio to FLorida and back and getting 9.5 MPG's to 12 MPGs the whole trip, and what does that kind or...
Forum Discussion
rjstractor wrote:NinerBikes wrote:
Think about the load bearing surfaces for making that torque and HP from a 444 Ci 7.3 L diesel, how much piston surface, block bore surface, bearing surface, the size of the wrist pins and connecting rods, etc, to get the same horsepower... that's a mere 181 cubic inch, 3.0 liter motor. Ask a mechanical engineer to do the stress loads on all the parts for the amount of work done. You have to run 2.5x the amount of fuel and air or more, due to VW using the turbochargers boost to air cool the motor also, volume wise to a 3.0L to a 7.3 motor.
The little motor, is working much, much harder, with much less material, for the same amount of work being done. Guess which motor will wear out quicker and fail sooner?
Good points, but playing devil's advocate, look at the history of automotive engines. Displacement continues to shrink while output continues to rise, yet engine longevity also continues to rise. 40 years ago most engines wouldn't make it 100,000 miles without a rebuild. The excellent TDI motor in your Passat when compared with VW's first car diesel has over twice the power output, better fuel efficiency, and will last probably twice as long, all while moving a much heavier car.
I am not an engineer, but I don't think that the argument holds water either. HP is HP. It doesn't care wether it comes from a 360 cubic inch engine, or a 180 cubic inch engine. The output measurement is the same.
Look at one of the more popular engnies - the 3.5 EcoBoost. That has competitive power to the old 6.8 V10, and is likely (I haven't looked at the numbers) rated to tow as much or more than the V10 was in trucks 10 years ago.
I hear complaints about the EB, but not very many regarding it's towing abilities, and I have not seen anything about regular failures of the engine caused by those duties. If the weakness of the engine was it's size, I don't think Ford would have shrunk it and come out with an even smaller engine to use in the same segment.
My guess is the 3.0 is the same way. If VW didn't think it could do the job, they likely wouldn't rate it to tow that amount of weight. Warranty costs would just be too high.
