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Engine oil with viscosity lower than 0W-16 has been needed for improving fuel efficiency in the Japanese market. However, lower viscosity oil generally has negative aspects with regard to oil consumption and anti-wear performance. The technical challenges are to reduce viscosity while keeping anti-wear performance and volatility level the same as 0W-20 oil. They have been solved in developing a new engine oil by focusing on the molybdenum dithiocarbamate friction modifier and base oil properties. This paper describes the new oil that supports good fuel efficiency while reliably maintaining other necessary performance attributes.

This work examines the effect of valve timing during cold crank-start and cold fast-idle (1200 rpm, 2 bar NIMEP) on the emissions of hydrocarbons (HC) and particulate mass and number (PM/PN). Four different cam-phaser configurations are studied in detail: 1. Baseline stock valve timing. 2. Late intake opening/closing. 3. Early exhaust opening/closing. 4. Late intake phasing combined with early exhaust phasing. Delaying the intake valve opening improves the mixture formation process and results in more than 25% reduction of the HC and of the PM/PN emissions during cold crank-start. Early exhaust valve phasing results in a deterioration of the HC and PM/PN emissions performance during cold crank-start. Nevertheless, early exhaust valve phasing slightly improves the HC emissions and substantially reduces the particulate emissions at cold fast-idle.

A block-on-ring friction and wear testing machine (LFW-1) was used as a test method for making fundamental evaluations of the effect of the Belt-Drive Continuously Variable Transmission(B-CVT) fluid on the friction coefficient between the belt and pulleys. The results confirmed that this method can simulate the friction phenomena between the belt and pulleys of an actual transmission. The mechanism whereby ZDDP and some Ca detergents improve the torque capacity of a B-CVT was also investigated along with the effect of the deterioration of these additives on the friction coefficient. It was found that these additives form a film, 80-90 nm in thickness, on the sliding surface, which is effective in increasing the friction coefficient. The friction coefficient declined with increasing additive deterioration. The results of a 31P-NMR analysis indicated that the decline closely correlated with the amount of ZDDP in the B-CVT fluid.

Many studies have been reported concerning fundamental tribological research aimed at reducing the severe valve train wear that occurs in internal combustion engines. In this paper, cam follower wear was theoretically and experimentally analyzed at the material development stage. Statistical methods have been applied to practical use in determining the material properties quantitatively. Based on the results, a method for predicting cam follower wear has been derived which has made it possible to develop new valve train systems more efficiently. Further, a guideline for developing new wear resistant materials was also clarified. Finally, the precision high chrominum cast iron rocker arm is described, along with its application to a new NISSAN high-performance 4-cylinder DOHC engine, as an example of the use of this method to develop new wear-resistant materials.

The life of automotive transmission gears today is often governed by pitting fatigue life. Being able to predict pitting fatigue life accurately is a crucial issue. Pitting fatigue life is substantially influenced by surface hardness and tooth surface geometry. For that reason, this study examined a new method of predicting pitting fatigue life that takes into account changes in these factors over time. This method makes it possible to predict the pitting fatigue life of automotive transmission gears under a wide range of evaluation conditions with markedly better accuracy than conventional methods used previously.

This paper presents tribological modeling, experimental work, and validation of tribology parameters of a single cylinder turbocharged diesel engine run at various loads, speeds, intake boost pressures, and cylinder liner temperatures. Analysis were made on piston rings and liner materials, rings mechanical and thermal loads, contact pressure between rings and liner, and lubricant conditions. The engine tribology parameters were measured, and used to validate the engine tribology models. These tribology parameters are: oil film thickness, coefficient of friction between rings and liner, friction force, friction power, friction torque, shear rate, shear stress and wear of the sliding surfaces. In order to measure the oil film thickness between rings and liner, a single cylinder AVL turbocharged diesel engine was instrumented to accept the difference in voltage drop method between rings, oil film, and liner.

The life of an automotive engine is often limited by the ability of its components to resist wear. Zinc dialkyldithiophosphate (ZDDP) is an engine oil additive that reduces wear in an engine by forming solid antiwear films at points of moving contact. The effects of this additive are fairly well understood, but there is little theory behind the kinetics of antiwear film formation and removal. This lack of dynamic modeling makes it difficult to predict the effects of wear at the design stage for an engine component or a lubricant formulation. The purpose of this discussion is to develop a framework for modeling the formation and evolution of ZDDP antiwear films based on the relevant chemical pathways and physical mechanisms at work.

Research is under way on an engine system [1] that achieves a variable compression ratio using a multiple-link mechanism between the crankshaft and pistons for the dual purpose of improving fuel economy and power output. At present, there is no database that allows direct judgment of the feasibility of the specific sliding parts in this mechanism. In this paper, the feasibility was examined by making a comparison with the sliding characteristics and material properties of conventional engine parts, for which databases exist, and using evaluation parameters based on mixed elasto-hydrodynamic (EHD) lubrication calculations. In addition, the innovations made to the mixed EHD calculation method used in this study to facilitate calculations under various lubrication conditions are also explained, including the treatment of surface roughness, wear progress and stiffness around the bearings.

It was found that pitting resistance of gears is strongly influenced by resistance to temper softening of carburized steel. The investigation about the influence of chemical compositions on hardness after tempering revealed that silicon, chromium and molybdenum are effective elements to improve resistance to temper softening and pitting resistance. Considering the production of gears, molybdenum is unfavorable because it increases hardness of normalized or annealed condition. Developed new steel contains about 0.5 mass% of silicon and 2.7 mass% chromium. The new steel has excellent pitting resistance and wear resistance. Fatigue and impact strength are equivalent to conventional carburized steels. Cold-formability and machinability of the new steel are adequate for manufacturing gears because of its ordinary hardness before carburizing. The new steel has already been put to practical use in automatic transmission gears. Application test results are also reported.

High strength transmission gears have been developed for use in the final gear set of front-wheel-drive vehicles. The steel used as the gear material has a higher molybdenum content, allowing more austenite to be retained following carburizing than is possible with chromium steel. As a result, the steel can be subjected to higher intensity shot peening by using harder peening particles which are projected by an air-nozzle peening system. With this procedure, the fatigue strength of the gears can be increased 1.6 times over that of conventional gears.

As the quietness of vehicles has been continually improved in recent years, there have been stronger requirements to reduce transmission gear noise and thereby improve transmission quality. So far efforts to achieve quieter gears have generally focused on ways of reducing the excitation forces of individual gears. In addition to these traditional methods, there is a greater need today to adopt a new approach to gear noise reduction in which improvements are made to the gear train itself as the transmitter of vibration in the transmission. This paper describes the systematic approach taken to reduce the overall gear noise of the new RE4F04A four-speed automatic transaxle.The cross-sectional view is shown in Fig. 1. The vibration characteristics of this automatic transaxle were first identified by finite element analysis, and an investigation was made of a gear train structure that would be effective in reducing gear noise.

An analysis was made of wear factors by investigating the effect of engine operating conditions on valve train wear. It was found that cam nose wear increased as larger amounts of combustion products, including nitrogen oxides and unburned gasoline, became intermixed with the engine oil. Based on these results, a valve train wear test procedure has been developed for evaluating cam nose and rocker arm wear under engine firing conditions. It has been confirmed that this test procedure correlates will with ASTM Sequence VE test and CCMC TU-3 test.

The application of both high strength gear steels and shot peening technology has succeeded in strengthening automotive transmission gears. This technology, though, improves mainly the fatigue strength at the tooth root, but not the pitting property at the tooth face. Therefore, demand has moved to the development of new gear steels with good pitting resistance. In order to improve pitting resistance, the authors studied super carburizing which is characterized by carbide dispersion in the case, especially processed with a plasma carburizing furnace. Firstly, the influence of the carburizing temperature and carburizing period on the carbide morphology was investigated and the optimum carburizing conditions were determined. Secondly, the fatigue strength and pitting resistance was evaluated using carbide dispersed specimens.

A new high-performance and lightweight TiA1 intermetallic compound exhaust valve has been developed. The TiA1 valve can improve power output and fuel economy by contributing higher engine speeds and a reduction in valvetrain friction. It was achieved by developing a Ti-33.5A1-0.5Si-1Nb-0.5Cr (mass%) intermetallic compound, a precision casting method for TiA1 that provides a low-cost, high-quality process, and a plasma carburizing technique for assuring good wear resistance on the valve stem end, stem and face.

The wear patterns of the rings and grooves of a diesel engine were analyzed by using a ring dynamics/gas flow model and a ring-pack oil film thickness model. The analysis focused primarily on the contact pressure distribution on the ring sides and grooves as well as on the contact location on the ring running surfaces. Analysis was performed for both new and worn ring/groove profiles. Calculated results are consistent with the measured wear patterns. The effects of groove tilt and static twist on the development of wear patterns on the ring sides, grooves, and ring running surfaces were studied. Ring flutter was observed from the calculation and its effect on oil transport was discussed. Up-scraping of the top ring was studied by considering ring dynamic twist and piston tilt. This work shows that the models used have potential for providing practical guidance to optimizing the ring pack and ring grooves to control wear and reduce oil consumption.

The adoption of turbine engines for automotive power plants has been hampered by the high cost, high leakage and high wear rate of present designs of ceramic-matrix regenerators. Proposals are made and analyzed here for design directions to achieve substantial improvements in all three areas. These include lower-cost extruded and pressed matrices; and clamping seals coupled with incremental movement of the rotary-regenerator matrix.

Various heat resistant alloys are being introduced for use in automobile emission equipment, such as thermal reactors and catalytic converters. For the past several years Japan has been developing alloys which emphasize oxidation resistance. Therefore, oxidation phenomena have been thoroughly researched and clarified. On the other hand, embrittlement, which is a marked deterioration similar to oxide deterioration, has not been studied sufficiently. The major subjects of investigation were the two forms of embrittlement in austenitic heat resistant alloys, caused by the precipitation of σ phase and the absorption of Nitrogen. Useful information was obtained from these results.

Basic vehicle performance, such as Safety, Comfort and Economy, are by dependent on tire performance, and it is the air pressure in the tire which assures this performance. However, tire air has a tendency to leak naturally, making it necessary to check them periodically. Since a deterioration in vehicle performance resulting from a drop on tire air pressure can not be directly felt by the driver, the number of people maintaining their tires sufficiently is relatively few. There have been many tire pressure warning devices developed which advise the driver when the pressure drops below a prescribed level. Differing from conventional devices, the TWD-III features a 7-step digital display (at a pitch of 0.1 kgf/cm2) which shows the pressure of each tire within an optional range, and it also has a flat tire warning function. The employment of echo effect from clystal vibrator resonance precludes the need to attach a power source on the tire.

Maintaining reliability of the connecting rod bearing is a very important subject, and the following is a problem that needs to be overcome. Predicting reliability has generally depended on minimum oil film thickness (M.O.F.T), but recently, the engines of passenger cars which have greater power and speed potential than conventional ones are sometimes run beyond their M.O.F.T. limit (a degree of roughness around the crank shaft's axis.) In such a case, it is so difficult to predict reliability according to M.O.F.T., that we need a new index which directly shows seizure and wear. For this purpose, we found that the crank shaft pin temperature can be a key cause of seizure and wear according to an analysis of the relationship between its temperature and the seizure and wear caused intentionally. Using this method, we confirmed that the combination of bearing and crank shaft materials is very important for preventing seizure and wear.

THIS PAPER presents an advanced heads-up display which has been newly developed for use in 88 Nissan Silvia model. The HUD consists of a projector with a newly developed high brightness VFD and light-selective film used as a combiner which is coated on the windshield. This combination provides good display legibility even under bright sunlight. The display shows the vehicle speed in a three-digit reading at distance of more than one meter from the driver's eyes. The windshield-coated combiner conforms to U.S. safety standards concerning light transmittance, abrasion and other performance requirements. Experimental data are also presented which substantiate the HUD's high legibility and confirm its effect in enhancing the driver's attention toward the road ahead