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The authors have developed a measurement technique using a new digital telemeter which measures the piston secondary motion as ensuring high accuracy while under the operation. We applied this new digital telemeter to several measurements and analysis on the piston secondary motion that can cause piston noises, and here are some of the results from our measurement. We have confirmed that these piston motions vary by only several tenths of millimeter changes of the piston specifications such as the piston-pin offset and the center of gravity of the piston. As in other cases, we have found that a mere change of pressure in the crankcase or the amount of lubricating oil supplied on the cylinder bore varies the piston motion that may give effect on the piston noises.

It is well understood that using lower viscosity engine oils can greatly improve fuel economy [1, 2, 3, 4]. However, it has been impossible to evaluate ultra-low viscosity engine oils (SAE 0W-12 and below) utilizing existing fuel economy test methods. As such, there is no specification for ultra-low viscosity gasoline engine oils [5]. We therefore developed firing and motored fuel economy test methods for ultra-low viscosity oils using engines from Japanese automakers [6, 7, 8]. This was done under the auspices of the JASO Next Generation Engine Oil Task Force (“TF” below), which consists mainly of Japanese automakers and entities working in the petroleum industry. Moreover, the TF used these test methods to develop the JASO GLV-1 specification for next-generation ultra-low viscosity automotive gasoline engine oils such as SAE 0W-8 and 0W-12. In developing the JASO GLV-1 specification, Japanese fuel economy tests and the ILSAC engine tests for evaluating engine reliability were used.

This research developed a new measurement technology for thermal analysis of the heat radiation from a hybrid transaxle case surface to the air and improved the heat radiation performance. This heat flux measurement technology provides the method to measure heat flux without wiring of sensors. The method does not have effects of wiring on the temperature field and the flow field unlike the conventional methods. Therefore, multipoint measurement of heat flux on the case surface was enabled, and the distribution of heat flux was quantified. To measure heat flux, thermal resistances made of plastic plates were attached to the case surface and the infrared thermography was used for the temperature measurement. The preliminary examination was performed to confirm the accuracy of the thermal evaluation through heat flux measurement. The oil in the transaxle was heated and the amount of heat radiation from the case surface was measured.

Vehicles equipped with in-wheel motors are being studied and developed as a type of electric vehicle. Since these motors are attached to the suspension, a large vertical suspension reaction force is generated during driving. Based on this mechanism, this paper describes the development of a method for independently controlling roll and pitch as well as yaw using driving force distribution control at each wheel. It also details the theoretical calculation of a method for decoupling the dynamic motions. Finally, it describes the application of these 3D dynamic motion control methods to a test vehicle and the confirmation of the performance improvement.

Hybrid vehicles (HVs) are becoming more widely used. Since HVs supplement engine drive with motor power, the lubricant oil temperature remains at a lower level than in a conventional gasoline vehicle. This study analyzed the effect of cylinder bore temperature and lubricant oil temperature on engine friction. The results showed that, although the lubricant oil temperature was not relevant, the bore temperature had significant effect on piston friction. It was found that raising the temperature of the middle section of the cylinder bore was the most effective way of reducing piston friction.

This paper presents the effects of a lubricant oil droplet on the start of combustion of a fuel-air mixture. Lubricant oil is thought to be a major source of low-speed pre-ignition in highly boosted spark ignition engines. However, the phenomenon has not yet been fully understood because its unpredictability and the complexity of the mixture in the engine cylinder make analysis difficult. In this study, a single oil droplet in a combustion cylinder was considered as a means of simplifying the phenomenon. The conditions under which a single oil droplet ignites earlier than the fuel-air mixture were investigated. Tests were conducted by using a rapid compression expansion machine. A single oil droplet was introduced into the cylinder through an injector developed for this study. The ignition and the flame propagation were observed through an optical window, using a high-speed video camera.

Detergent additives in automotive gasoline fuel are mainly designed to reduce deposit formation on intake valves and fuel injectors, but it has been reported that some additives may contribute to CCD formation. Therefore, a standardized bench engine test method for CCDs needs to be developed in response to industry demands. Cooperative research between the Petroleum Association of Japan (PAJ) and the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association, Inc. (JAMA), has led to the development of a 2.2L Honda engine dynamometer-based CCD test procedure to evaluate CCDs from fuel additives. Ten automobile manufacturers, nine petroleum companies and the Petroleum Energy Center joined the project, which underwent PAJ-JAMA round robin testing. This paper describes the CCD test development activities, which include the selection of an engine and the determination of the optimum test conditions and other test criteria.

A study of diesel fuel as a lubricant for diesel engines was conducted with the aim of dramatically reducing engine friction and eliminating the need to change the lubricating oil. A prototype single-cylinder engine modified for diesel fuel lubrication was made, and it was confirmed that firing operation is possible. Piston friction during the firing operation was reduced by modifying the shape of the cylinder liner surface to improve the retention of the lubricating oil. The study produced valid findings concerning engine lubrication, not only with diesel fuel, but also with ultra-low viscosity oil.

The structure of HCCI (homogeneous charge compression ignition) combustion flames was quantitatively analyzed by measuring the two-dimensional gas temperature distribution using phosphor thermometry. It was found from the relation between a turbulent Reynolds number and Karlovitz number that, when compared with the flame propagation in an S.I. engine, HCCI combustion has a wider flame structure with respect to the turbulence scale. As a result of our experimentation for the influence of low temperature reaction (LTR) using two types of fuel, it was also confirmed that different types of fuel produce different histories of flame kernel structure.

The purpose of this study is to analyze con-rod bearing lubrication under reduced oil supply rate conditions. An engine was modified to measure the oil supply rate to a con-rod big-end bearing. Then the effects of the oil supply rate on bearing temperatures and the contact between a journal and a bearing were investigated in order to analyze lubrication characteristics. The bearing temperatures increased in accordance with reduced oil supply rate. On the other hand, the contact frequency hardly changed under almost all conditions, but steeply increased near one-third of the standard oil supply rate at the highest speed of 5000 rpm in the experiments. The results show that the reduced oil supply rate decreases the cooling effect but the hydrodynamic lubrication was sufficiently achieved except the above-mentioned severe condition.

We urgently need to develop the next generation of automotive technology to support energy conservation and the global environment. For this we need an advancement of the Laboratory Automation System (LAS). However, restructuring the hardware and software of the LAS requires enormous amounts of time and costs. To solve the problems of the LAS development, we formed a user-vendor working group, which then established the common rules of LAS and IMACS (Integrated Measurement And Control System). IMACS are software-centered rules, characterized by the stratification of LAS and the interface called software parts. So far, we have integrated IMACS into five engineering fields. A total of 11 testing machine vendors participated in the development. We manufactured about 350 software parts and made their specifications openly available. As the next step, we are collecting software parts by deleting redundant functions.

A new method to measure in-cylinder flame propagation and mixture distribution has been developed. The distribution is derived from analyzing the temporal history of flame spectra of CH* and C2*, which are detected by a spark plug type sensor with multi-optical fibers. The validity of this method was confirmed by verifying that the measurement results corresponded with the results of high speed flame visualization and laser induced fluorescence (LIF) measurement. This method was also applied to analysis of cyclic combustion fluctuation on start-up in a direct injection spark ignition (DISI) engine, and its applicability was confirmed.

Requirements to reduce emissions and improve vehicle fuel economy continue to increase, spurred on by agreements such as the Kyoto Protocol. Lubricants can play a role in improving fuel economy, as evidenced by the rise in the number of engine oil specifications worldwide that require fuel economy improvements. A novel friction modifier technology has been developed to further improve vehicle fuel economy. The development of this novel friction modifier technology which contains only N,O,C,H was previously published along with the initial demonstration of performance in motorized Toyota engines. In order to validate this performance in fired engine tests, oil was evaluated in a Toyota Corolla Fielder with a 1500 cc gasoline engine. Testing was conducted in the Japanese 10-15 and JC08 modes, as well as the European EC mode, and the US FTP mode.

This paper describes lubricant technology which helps to prevent intake valve deposit (IVD) formation for use with conventional gasolines without detergents, as well as the IVD evaluation method used in testing. The FED 3462 method was modified to establish a new panel coking test method, with excellent correlation with the engine stand IVD test, for the quantitative evaluation of IVD. Tests have shown that IVD increases when the volatility of base oils becomes higher due to condensation and polymerization of engine oil additives. Furthermore, viscosity index improvers, metallic detergents and ashless dispersants have considerable effect on IVD formation. Based on various experiments, the authors have established a formulation technology for engine oils to lower IVD, which they incorporated in two newly formulated SG oils with lower IVD than conventional 5W-30 SG oil.

Fuel economy is one of the most important performance features for modern engine oils. For some time now, fuel efficient engine oils (called Energy Conserving II or EC-II) have been available in the marketplace. However, the performance of EC-II oils is only 2.7% Equivalent Fuel Economy Improvement (EFEI) as measured by the ASTM Sequence VI Engine Test. To meet future industry needs, more fuel efficient engine oils are desirable. In order to achieve this, a study of highly fuel efficient engine oils was initiated. An initial target of 3.9% EFEI was selected and several candidate oils were evaluated, some of which exceeded this target. The oils were evaluated using a chassis dynamometer using the U. S. EPA mode. The test results may be summarized: 5W-30 Prototype Oil containing MoDTC showed between 1.6 and 2.6% better fuel economy than conventional 5W-30 and 10W-30 EC-II oils. There was an optimum viscosity for maximum fuel economy using the EPA testing mode.

A bench engine test for evaluating the fuel efficiency of automotive crankcase oils using modern engines was developed. The fuel consumption was primarily proportional to the viscosity of the oils down to 5 mm2/s at operating temperatures, indicating that the use of low-viscosity oil was effective in improving fuel efficiency. This may be because the oil film would be formed easily, since sliding parts, such as valve train systems, in modern engines are finely finished. Organo molybdenum dithiocarbamates were effective in improving fuel efficiency at high temperature. A 2.7% improvement in fuel efficiency relative to conventional SAE 10W-30 oils was achieved by the combination of low-viscosity SAE 5W-20 oils and organo molybdenum dithiocarbamates under constant operating conditions with engine speed 1,500 rpm and torque 37.2 N•m.

Slip-controlled lock-up clutch systems are very efficient and greatly improve fuel economy. On the other hand, these systems can cause unstable vibrations including those known as “shudder vibrations”. In this study, the authors made a theoretical analysis of these unstable vibrations to clarify the fundamental frictional properties of automatic transmission fluids (ATFs) required for slip-controlled lock-up clutch systems. Based on this analysis, we established lubricant technology having a sufficient anti-shudder property and high torque capacity. Further, we developed a new test apparatus to evaluate the anti-shudder durability for lubricant development.

A newly developed fluorescent diagnostic system can measure the oil film thickness distribution through two-dimensional images with high sensitivity and quick response. This system consists of a filtered Xe-flash lamp, a filtered charge-coupled-device video camera, a personal-computer-based signal analyzer and lubricating oil with the fluorescent dye added. We have installed the system in a single cylinder research engine and measured the oil film thickness distribution around the piston under various operating conditions. One example of the results is that an oil spout from a gap in the first compression ring, which agrees with the measured oil consumption rate of the engine, was clearly observed at high engine speed.

The viscosity of automotive lubricants containing polymers decreases temporarily in the oil films of sliding parts with the increase in shear rate. This decrease sometimes causes surface damages such as bearing seizure and gear pitting. This paper describes the effect of polymers and base oils on viscosity under high shear rate conditions. The viscometer was newly developed to evaluate the viscosity at high shear rates. Shear rate can vary between 105 sec-1 and 106 sec-1. By using the viscometer, the effects of various factors such as polymer type, molecular weight, polar group and concentration on shear viscosity were investigated. The effects of polymer solubility and molecular weight distribution of base oils were also investigated.

This paper describes lubricant technology to enhance the durability of the low friction performance of gasoline engine oils which were formulated with molybdenum dithiodicarbamates (MoDTCs) as friction modifiers. This paper also describes an evaluation method which consists of three tests: (1) Our in-house rig test to simulate oil deterioration in an engine stand; (2) Quantitative analysis of MoDTC and ZnDTP in oils and; (3) A friction test (SRV). It was found that the low friction performance of fuel economy engine oils deteriorated primarily due to the consumption of MoDTC and ZnDTP. Calcium salicylates had better durability of low friction performance than calcium sulfonates. Furthermore, sulfurized compounds enhanced the durability. Based on these findings, an experimental oil was formulated.