New generation engines - Part III

Published in Western Canada Highway News:
Mack Trucks also used a combination of cooled-EGR technology and a diesel particulate filter to cut emissions from its MP engine series down to 2007 standards. Early reviews from customers were rather positive. The GM of a Pennsylvania industry supplier, for instance, said in late 2006 that his company tested the new Macks and “had absolutely no issues. I would not hesitate to buy more of these trucks.”
“We’re very happy with the product,” Murray Marshall, general manager of Mack Sales and Service in Winnipeg, said early this year. “Our customers are very happy as well.”
His shop has sold well over 100 of the new engines, so they’ve got a good idea of how well the engineering panned out. And it was all aces, he said, with the engines being “great right out of the box. … The guys did a great job engineering these parts into the engine. … It went off really well.
Feedback from customers was extremely positive, Marshall said. “The most common comment that we received back was how quiet and powerful these new engines were.”
Volvo Trucks North America president Peter Karlsten said in 2006 that its new D11, 13 and D16 engines “will make our air cleaner and help our customers be more productive and efficient.” The new engines were to use high-efficiency cooled EGR and a diesel particulate filter to tackle the emission challenges.
So, now that the new products are out and in use, what’s the prognosis? “Other than the expense, they were very well received,” Winnipeg Beaver Truck Centre fleet manager John Oades said. Extra cost and weight were issues, he added, and Volvo made very minor tweaks to enhance their products after after they hit the market.
Detroit Diesel’s heavy-duty Series 60, perhaps the most popular on-highway diesel engine in North America, came equipped in 2007 with an aftertreatment system for removing PM from the exhaust, and a top-drawer EGR system to meet the NOx emission targets. The company took other measures as well to improve the performance and cleanliness of the engine.
Detroit Diesel spokesperson Dave Siler said the company’s ’07-compliant engines – which also included the revamped MBE 4000 – got a “lukewarm” reception on the market at first, largely due to typical caution toward new products. In the end, however, the engines were embraced as the sort of top-quality products truckers have come to expect from the Michigan-based company.
Detroit Diesel has seen “better-than-expected particulate regeneration” in the new engines, he added.
The next challenge for heavy-duty engine manufacturers is to meet even more stringent NOx emission limits by 2010. Cummins announced last September it will rise to the challenge with engines that include the company’s own “next-generation cooled EGR,” without adversely affecting fuel economy, power and torque. It has already met 2010 NOx standards with the engines for certain Dodge pickup trucks.