Automotive

Honda's new 1.6 liter diesel engine is lightest in its class

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The 1.6-liter i-DTEC engine
The 1.6-liter i-DTEC engine EGR system
The 1.6-liter i-DTEC engine high swirl head port inlet
The new i-DETEC engne is a product of Earth Dreams technology
The 1.6-liter i-DTEC engine
The 1.6-liter i-DTEC engine
The 1.6-liter i-DTEC engine turbocharger
The 1.6-liter i-DTEC engine fuel injection system
Honda Civic with the 1.6 i-DTEC engine
The 1.6-liter i-DTEC engine
The 1.6-liter i-DTEC engine showing a piston
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Honda apparently wants to show that good things come in small packages, so it's announced that it will be installing its 1.6-liter i-DTEC diesel engine in the 2013 Civic manufactured at the company’s facility in Swindon, U.K. Specifically designed for the European market, the 1.6-liter i-DTEC is the lightest in its class, yet puts out 120 PS (118 bhp) and 300 Nm (221 ft-lb) of torque.

The 1.6-liter i-DTEC is the product of Honda’s Earth Dreams Technology program and was developed using a ground-up approach based on improving a broad front of small details. The engine is intended to not only put a respectable amount of power from a small package, but also to be environmentally friendly with a fuel economy of 78.5 mpg (3 l/100 km) and carbon dioxide emissions of 94 g/km.

Each individual component was redesigned and manufactured with an eye on reducing weight and size until the 1.6-liter i-DTEC was 47 kg (103.6 lb) lighter than Honda’s 2.2-liter i-DTEC. It has an aluminum cylinder head joined to an open deck aluminum block, with the distance between the cylinders having been reduced. The cylinders are only 8 mm thick and the engine uses lighter pistons and connecting rods than the 2.2 liter version.

Another factor was reducing friction by various redesigns, such as a shorter and thinner piston skirt. This means that at 1500 rpm, the 1.6-liter i-DTEC produces about 40 per cent less friction than the 2.2-liter i-DTEC.

The 1.6-liter i-DTEC engine showing a piston

“This not only reduces emissions and improves fuel efficiency; it also improves the engine’s response, both on and off the throttle, making the car more fun to drive,” said Tetsuya Miyake, Project Leader for the 1.6-liter i-DTEC engine. “We have reduced the mechanical friction of the engine to the level equivalent of an existing petrol engine, which is an outstanding achievement.”

The 1.6-liter i-DTEC also boasts a fourth generation Garrett turbocharger with variable-nozzle design and electronics to make it respond faster to throttle changes. According to Honda, this provides an “optimal combination of low- to mid-range pull and high-speed performance.”

Another feature of the engine is a Bosch solenoid injection system with 1800 bar of pressure so that the fuel is injected faster with finer atomization for cleaner, more efficient combustion. This is augmented by a high intake flow and a high swirl head port to reduce hot spots. There is also an exhaust gas recirculation system that operates at high and low pressure to reduce mono-nitrogen oxide emissions.

Honda of the UK Manufacturing (HUM) at Swindon has been retooled for the 1.6-liter i-DTEC and is capable of producing up to 500 engines a day – that’s one every 138 seconds. The new line will produce both the new 1.6-liter i-DTEC and the existing 2.2-liter i-DTEC engines. The 1.6 liter version will also be used in the CR-V later next year and eventually the technology will be adopted by all of Honda’s power trains. In the meantime, it will be interesting to see how well the Civic performs with its new diesel powerplant.

Honda's 1.6-liter i-DTEC engine is explained in the video below.

Source: Honda

View gallery - 16 images
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33 comments
VoiceofReason
As usual, not meant for the United States. WAKE UP PEOPLE. This engine is clean and gets nearly 80 mpg?
Sean Moore
great, Now put it in a motorcycle chassis! the long way round, down, across or up would be great on a diesel. And with this sector of the motorcycle market growing the time is right. DO IT!
Travis Tarr
The U.S. always has its priorities in line. Thank you EPA and other regulatory bodies from keeping fine motors out of our market.
Australian
Sean Brendan Phelim Moore. A diesel on a motorbike? There a good reasons why people don't put diesels in motorbikes. They are heavy - which affects manuverability. No one is going to ride a motorbike that wants to resist change in direction because of an overly heavy engine. That is dangerous. Emissions controls are more complex and involved on diesel engines. Are you going to use a catalytic converted to reduce particulate emmisions? Urea injection for NOx emissions? Any solution will add more weight, cost and complexity to your motorbike. The increase in weight means you need to upgrade the brakes and suspension systems. This adds further weight and cost. They are low revving compared to petrol car engines and incredibly low revving when compared to your average motorcycle engine. You would need an extremely complex gearbox to make use of the torque. Torque that is overkill for a bike weighing anything near or under 300Kg. This is only adding further weight, complexity and cost. The turbo lag would be so appreciable on a motorcycle compared to a petrol engine that it would be potentially dangerous and frustrating to ride. The manufacturing costs relative to a comparable petrol motorbike would be unjustifiable. What would the selling point be? The only advantage would be fuel consumption. If fuel efficiency was your main concern then there are already motorcycles built to be fuel efficient on petrol - not surprisingly, honda sells them. If I've missed some advantage you are thinking of - please let me know.
I will be very disappointed if Honda only provides this engine to Europe. Australia could certainly benefit from it and it would do the Honda brand here a great deal of good. There is a proven precedent. Hyundai sells their I30 with a 1.6 Turbo diesel and it has gained a lot of popularity and wide acclaim. Not surprisingly it is a fuel miser. If honda sold the Civic with this engine and a dual clutch gearbox or a finely tuned CVT, they would be on a winner.
Siegfried Gust
Interesting article, but I have a suggestion for the author. In an article about the lightest engine in it's class, it might be a good idea to give it's actual weight, not just a comparison to another engine's weight.
Guy Macher
The headline speaks of lightest ever, so too, the first sentence but not till the second paragraph does weight actually get mentioned. And I still don't know how heavy this engine is!
jerryd
This looks like an excellent advance. I bet it won't be long before this is used in aircraft too.
One should note MPG is in metric so more like 65mpg with US gals as ours are smaller.
I'd bet it weighs about what a MC engine of similar power does. They are not light. I built an E MC using 240lbs of lead batteries from a Kaw 750 and it weighs less than stock!!
Slowburn
re; Australian
Heavy bikes have advantages to they are more stable in windy conditions and if you have the right ratio of weight to tire/road contact area they are plenty nimble.
Also having different gear ratios does not make the transmission more complex.
I will take the heaviest bike I can lift back onto it wheels by myself.
ZekeG
We ALL need to petition Obama and the government agencies to abandon their stance against diesels which obviously bring many more miles per gallon than what we have to offer. I believe they are measuring them by the minute instead of overall per mileage and so get it wrong and apply foolish sanctions against these engines. We need them NOW congress-EPA whoever the genius's are who are holding them back-why? There must be some lobby that stops them in favor of buying more fuel is all I can think!
William Volk
I guess there's no market in the USA for a car that gets 78.5 mpg. :-)