Uprating turbo-diesel engine power 7

[Paulista]

I DIY marinised a pair of 4-cylinder, 4.2 litre MWM Series 10 turbo-diesel truck engines, rated each at 145 HP/2600 rpm and installed them in my boat. These engines are manufactured in Brazil and MWM (Deutz group)is probably the oldest name in the manufacture of diesel engines.

I was wondering if there would be a sure-fire method to uprate their power to say 200HP/3000 rpm. It is known that opening-up the fuel delivery on the fuel-injection pump can increase power, as it can also spend fuel, make for exhaust smoke and not generate useful work output.

As usual, the manufacturer is unhelpful, which is understandable, as he does not wish to entertain warranty claims of any kind. A great deal of after-market shops will uprate the power of your petrol engine, but very few or none for diesel.

You may wish to look up the site

http://www.mwm.com.br

- they even have a page in English.

 

[Paulista]

Hello rdd48856,
Your car-diesel experience sounds promising.

Tell me, have you worked out HOW a charge-cooler effectively puts a greater charge (mass) of air into your cylinders ?

I suppose if the pressure drops downstream of the turbo as a result of the charge cooling effect, then the turbo should flow more air (mass), all things being equal. Is this the explanation ?

As you have surmised, the charge coolers on my engines are blessed by the ocean temp of 25°C !

As for upping power in diesels, there is a low-cost (US$300,00) kit available from an ex-CUMMINS engineer that with some proven modifications to the fuel-plate in the injection pump, plus trick-plumbing to the turbo-pressure connection point on the same, ups the power on the Dodge Ram 170 HP 6BTA Cummins engine to 240 HP ! Takes less than an hour to install and fuel economy as well as EGT improve considerably.

Have you tested your repowering efforts on a dynamometer ? Did you do any rule-of-thumb calculations or just went about increasing injector sizes, turning up the injection pump etc. ?

You know, there is a tremendous business potential in what you are doing, because although there are umpteen petrol-engine performance enhancers on virtually every street corner, diesel-engine equivalents are virtually non-existent !

 

[rdd48856]

In fact increasing power in turbo-diesel engines is much more easy to achieve than on gasoline(aspirated). First turbo and diesel engine were made to each other. You can boost pressure without having to remap injection (there’s no problem with detonation). Furthermore injection systems are over dimensioned so you may increase power by 20 to 30% without changing injectors just by pump adjustment (go to a Diesel garage and ask to increase the flow on the diaphragm that adjusts flow to boost pressure by 10%and increase the advance a little, if they’re good they know what I mean) Regarding intercooler when you increase air intake pressure you heat it too by compression and because compressor is physically attached to the exhaust. So you lost in one hand(temperature rise) what you gained on the other(pressure rise). By means of intercooling you can lower again temperature. But you are cooling air with air and air is not an efficient heat receiver With a charge cooler you are cooling air with water which is a superb heat receiver. So you can even get more power just by increasing efficiency without delivering more fuel(only a few cv). I tried this(changing fuel supply too) on a Fiat 71cv turbo-diesel non-intercooled prechambered engine(same engine was mounted in Brazil on Palios to Argentian market) achieving 85cv(dyno test)and on a Citroen 90cv turbo-diesel HDI (High pressure common-rail direct injection) non-intercooled engine achieving 120cv(I decreased to 112cv latter due to transmission problems, dyno too).

 

[rdd48856]

P.S.On the HDI I had to use an aditional box to piggy back injector signal but you don´t have to worry about that because your engine uses a mechanical pump...

 

[hydrae]

Paulista
Multiply MPH by 0.8684 to get knots which is nautical miles per hour
Sounds like your hull is has got the strength required,
Have fun..
When you own a boat, it is a hole in the water surounded by wood into which one pours money.
Hydrae

 

[Paulista]

rdd48856: Interesting work that you have done.

Just curious, but how did you come across the Fiat diesel that is exported to Argentina in the Palio ?

Diesel-engined Brazilian-made passenger cars only for EXPORT. However, imported or locally manufactured SUV-type vehicles and/or imported diesel-engined passenger cars are not rare. Talking about the latter, MB has come out with a 250 HP, 4.2 litre V-8 diesel for its passenger-car line that is extraordinary.

Need to put a modern, low-weight, 4-cylinder turbo-diesel in my 1963 101" wheelbase Willys CJ 6 Jeep, as the original F-head 6-cylinder petrol-engine is absurdly heavy on fuel. The proposed modification will meet the requirements of the local authority as the Jeep is considered a utility-vehicle, a down-to-earth, cheap-jack SUV from old times !

Hydrae - You are correct in your assessment of boating costs, but it is fun and keeps you out of trouble !

 

[rdd48856]

I travel to Brazil sometimes...so I know that Diesel cars are forbidden(you don't know what you are missing), that Palio is being produced on Brazil and exported to Argentina(and to here). In fact this same engine equipped Palios sold here...on car Diesel engines leaders are BMW and VW. See:

http://www.auto123.com/enhtt/info/news/previews,view,Volkswagen.spy?artid=15797&pg=9

A good engine for you would be the new Fiat 1.9JTD - Multijet with 140cv...

 

[rdd48856]

I followed your link to mwm and found out that your engine already uses an intercooler. So YOU MUST install a charge cooler in its place otherwise you are going to lost power, heat the engine, increase fuel consuption and make smoke...see this

http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/encyclopedia/i/in/intercooler.htm