Will the Diesel be Dead?

wilber1 wrote:

Learjet wrote:
yep...lets see how long that last...my Diesel has variable compression already...its called a turbo charger :)

No it doesn't, it has a variable atmosphere, the compression ratio doesn't change.

This engine can use high boost, low compression for performance and low boost high compression for economy, whichever is required. The double digit improvement in fuel economy is what puts in diesel territory for economy plus it has turbo gas horsepower if needed.

The world market for small diesels is huge and not just for cars. The Chev Colorado diesel is a 2.5L four cylinder.

It wasn't so long ago that we thought multiple camshafts, valves, variable valve timing, direct injection etc were pretty exotic but now they are the norm.

I was watching Autoline on PBS this morning with a Ford powerplant engineer. They were talking about all this new stuff and he said it was an exiting time to be a propulsion engineer. He was predicting big changes in IC engine design, of which this is just one. He said the biggest change has been in software which has made a lot of things possible which weren't before.

Mazda's Sky active engines get great economy by using very high compression ratios but this prevents them from using turbos. The variable compression ratio engine can do both.