Design of Plastic Cylinder Head Cover in Place of Aluminum Cylinder Head Cover for Light Duty Diesel Engines for Weight Reduction Purpose 2020-28-0468
Currently automotive design is facing multi facet challenges such as reduction in greenhouse gases, better thermal management, and low cost solution to market, vehicle weight management etc. Considering these challenges, efforts had been taken to improve weight management of engine while optimizing the cost of it.
Good ‘engine breathing’ is usually associated with efficient intake system e.g. high flow air filter, a well-designed manifold, cylinder block, cylinder head and cylinder head cover etc. However, efficient ‘crankcase breathing’ is an equally important function of any engine. Even in a new engine, the combustion pressure will inevitably pass the piston rings into the crankcase. If an engine’s breathing system should become blocked or restricted, the crankcase will pressurize causing lots of problems to the engine.
Prior to 1963 most vehicle engines vented their vapors and oil deposits to atmosphere and the road surface. With increasing environmental pressures positive crankshaft ventilation was introduced whereby the crankcase vapors were drawn up into the inlet manifold and, along with the air/fuel mixture, burned up in the combustion chambers. To enable this system to work safely and efficiently the ventilation from the crankcase is controlled via a PCV valve which can be integrated with the engine cylinder head cover.
A cylinder head cover, particularly for covering a cylinder head of an internal combustion engine, having a plurality of functional elements such as an oil filling connection and at least one oil separation device mounted thereon. There are different materials can be used for cylinder head cover, but we have selected plastic material for engine weight reduction.
This design change was successfully introduced on light duty diesel engine with newly featured three leap cylinder head cover gasket to ensure positive sealing of engine gases and engine lubricant.
Citation: Deshpande, S., Bhargava, A., Dhalait, S., and Musani, A., "Design of Plastic Cylinder Head Cover in Place of Aluminum Cylinder Head Cover for Light Duty Diesel Engines for Weight Reduction Purpose," SAE Technical Paper 2020-28-0468, 2020, https://doi.org/10.4271/2020-28-0468. Download Citation
