Toyota’s New Engine is Hyper-Efficient Thanks to….Simple Tune Up
There’s a huge amount of new innovation going on in traditional internal-combustion engines. Mazda’s Skyactiv-X uses diesel-style compression-ignition; Infiniti has a variable-compression design. Automakers are realizing that, while electric and hybrid cars may be a tempting option, there’s plenty of advancement left in the gasoline-burning piston engine.
Now we can add Toyota to the list, with its new Dynamic Force four-cylinder engine. Set to make its market debut in the new 2019 Corolla, this engine is chock-full of innovations to help it achieve 40-percent thermal efficiency, a number unheard of in production car engines.
How does this 2.0-liter four-cylinder achieve such major efficiency? As Jason Fenske of Engineering Explained tells us, a lot of it comes down to simple engine design and tuning tricks. Toyota put a ton of attention into refining the airflow characteristics of the port- and direct-injected engine, optimizing the tumbling flow of the intake charge for efficient burning. The 13:1 compression ratio helps get even more power out of each revolution.
There are plenty of other tricks and tweaks hidden inside this new engine. The results speak for themselves: A production four-cylinder engine with thermal efficiency better than almost any piston engine the world has ever seen.
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Nicholas Schroeder, BSME, PE
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Port and polish, nothing but what race car drivers have been doing for decades.
Direct injection and intake turbulence. Handwavium.
13:1 compression ratio? EEYYOOWW!!! That accounts for almost all of the difference. The NOx must be out of sight. Urea feed to the exhaust?
The major losses are in the heat lost out the water jacket and exhaust. Making a difference there really makes a difference.
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Joseph Olson
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External combustion (turbine, piston steam systems) and internal combustion have been the greatest step forward in civilization since the invention of fire. Direct mechanical conversion of fuel to work has the greatest efficiency of any known system. Interesting that Toyota is rejecting decades of high bore/stroke, over square, high RPM in favor of long stroke, high torque of the past. Hydrocarbons are Abiogenic, and Earth has millions of years supply, if only we could use this resource wisely.
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