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It has been long established fact that fuel economy is a key driving force of low viscosity gasoline engine oil research and development considered by the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and lubricant companies. The development of low viscosity gasoline engine oils should not only focus on fuel economy improvement, but also on the low speed pre-ignition (LSPI) prevention property. In previous LSPI prevention literatures, the necessity of applying Ca/Mg-based detergents system in the engine oil formulations was proposed. In this paper, we adopted a specific Group III base oil containing Ca-salicylate detergent, borated dispersant, Mo-DTC in the formulation and investigated the various effects of Mg-salicylate and Mg-sulfonate on the performance of engine oil. It was found that Mg-sulfonate showed a significant detrimental impact on silicone rubber compatibility while the influence from Mg-salicylate remains acceptable.

Described here is the tuning of the combustion systems of a precombustion chamber diesel engine for lower level of exhaust gas emission. The key points of the tuning are the decrease of the prechamber volume, the selection of the combustion chamber configuration, the injection nozzle characteristics and the optimum injection timing. It was made clear, in the results of investigation, that the degradation of lubricating oil and the cavitation pitting on the outer wall of cylinder liner were directly concerned with the combustion characteristics of low emission systems. And both problems have been solved. The result of combustion tuning of the engine shows less than 5 g/hp-h of NOx + HC with CARB 13 mode test cycle without deterioration of performance nor durability.

Described herein is the tuning of the combustion system of a direct injection type diesel engine to obtain low emission level and better fuel economy. Though the most important method of emission control for a direct injection system is considered to be timing retardation, it brings a higher level of smoke density and fuel consumption. In order to remove these faults, the authors developed a new combustion system based on a newly designed intake port which provides a favorable local mixing of fuel droplets and air in the combustion chamber for ignition by means of air turbulence. This new combustion system was analyzed with high speed photographs which were taken from the underside of the piston to enable observing the whole combustion chamber. Favorable characteristics of ignition and burning pattern of the new system were recognized by this analysis.

1 Many environmental problems, such as global warming, drain of fuel and so on, are apprehended in all over the world today, and down-sizing is one of the wise ways to deal with these problems. It is significant that a decrease of the engine power must not be produced by using a small displacement engine, so more efficient engine system should be designed to increase the torque with a little fuel. This study achieves an improvement of efficiency for mounting the super charging system on the small displacement engine. As a result, comparing a super charged engine and a naturally aspirated one to drive the same course and laps, fuel consumptions are 2547 [cc] and 3880 [cc], respectively, and an improvement of fuel consumption is 52%. Designing points to mount super charging system is introduced below. 1 It can be forecasted that intake air blow-by gas at the combustion chamber is increased in low engine speed because engine for motor cycle is used.

Fuel economy measurement test is one of important engine tests to establish fuel economy engine oil performance standard to support CO2 emission reduction efforts in the automotive industry. On the other hand, it is difficult to develop an engine test without appropriate engine hardware that is designed to utilize low viscosity engine oils. A new firing fuel economy test was developed based on 2ZR-FXE engine designed for hybrid powertrain. The new test procedure aimed to provide the tool to evaluate new low viscosity grades such as 0W-8 and 0W-12 that were adapted in SAE J300 in 2015.

A historical review of Japanese turbocharged diesel engines for heavy duty vehicles is described, and newly developed turbocharged diesel engines of HINO are introduced. The design features of these engines include new turbocharging technologies such as highly backward curved impeller for compressor blade, variable controlled inertia charging and waste gate. Laboratory and field test results demonstrated better fuel economy and improved low speed and transient torque characteristics than the predecessors. Several operational experiences, technical analysis and reliability problems are discussed.

It is important to reduce the viscosity of automatic transmission fluid (ATF) in order to improve fuel economy. However, in general, low viscosity fluid can cause metal fatigue, wear, and seizure. It is necessary to increase the viscosity of the fluid at higher temperatures to maintain the durability of the automatic transmission (AT). The key point is the selection of the base oil and the viscosity index improver (VII) with both a high viscosity index (VI) and excellent shear stability. On the basis of this concept, a new generation high performance ATF named WS was developed. WS can achieve the highest level of fuel economy, while maintaining the durability of the AT.

We developed a new Manual Transmission Gear Oil (MTF) named LV for improved fuel economy and CO2 reduction. MTF LV is a low viscosity fluid to reduce stir losses at lower temperatures. In general, low viscosity fluids can cause metal fatigue, wear and seizure. The MTF LV was designed to overcome these problems by maintaining the oil film thickness after it is deteriorated and improving the wear characteristics with additives. As a result, the MTF LV provides equal or better durability than the current MTF. In addition, it also has good performance at low temperatures, better shift feeling characteristics, and improved oxidation stability.

Further fuel economy improvement of the internal combustion engine is indispensable for CO2 reduction in order to cope with serious global environmental problems. Although lowering the viscosity of engine oil is an effective way to improve fuel economy, it may reduce the wear resistance. Therefore, it is important to achieve both improved fuel economy and reliability. We have developed new 0W- 8 engine oil of ultra-low viscosity and achieved an improvement in fuel economy by 0.8% compared to the commercial 0W-16 engine oil. For this new oil, we reduced the friction coefficient under boundary lubrication regime by applying an oil film former and calcium borate detergent. The film former increased the oil film thickness without increasing the oil viscosity. The calcium borate detergent enhanced the friction reduction effect of molybdenum dithiocarbamate (MoDTC).

This paper presents technical solutions and a development process to accomplish not only superior fuel economy but also excellent driveability with a turbocharged diesel engine for heavy duty trucks. For better fuel economy, one of the basic considerations is how to decrease the friction losses of the engine itself while keeping the required horsepower and torque characteristics. A high boost turbocharged small engine offers this possibility, but it has serious disadvantages such as inferior low speed torque, poorer accelerating response, insufficient engine braking performance, and finally not always so good fuel consumption in the engine operating range away from the matching point between engine and turbocharger. These are not acceptable in complicated traffic conditions like those in Japan - a mixture of mountainous and hilly roads, city road with numerous traffic signals, and freeways.

Diesel engines need to optimize the fuel injection timing and quantity of each cycle in the transient operation to increase the thermal efficiency and reduce the exhaust gas emissions through the precise combustion control. The heat transfer from the working gas in the combustion chamber to the chamber wall is a crucial factor to predict the gas temperature in the combustion chamber to optimize the timing and quantity of fuel injection. Therefore, the authors developed both the heat loss and the polytropic index prediction models with the low calculation load and high accuracy. In addition, for the calculation of the heat loss and the polytropic index, the wall heat transfer model was also developed, which was derived from the continuity equation and the energy equation. The present study used a single cylinder diesel engine under the condition of engine speed of 1200 and 1500 rpm, and measured the local wall temperature and the local heat flux of the combustion chamber.

Increasing numbers of vehicles equipped with downsized, turbocharged engines have been introduced seeking for better fuel economy. LSPI (low speed pre-ignition), which can damage engine hardware, is a potential risk of the engines. We reported that engine oil formulation affects frequency of LSPI events, and formulating magnesium detergents into oil is a promising option to prevent LSPI events. From the viewpoint of achieving better fuel economy by engine oil, lowering viscosity is being required. However, it causes reduced oil film thickness and will expand boundary lubrication condition regions in some engine parts. Hence, a technology to reduce friction under boundary lubrication becomes important.

With the electrification of automobiles, such as hybridization, engines on these vehicles operate more frequently at low oil temperatures, while engines are more specifically run at low engine speed and high load condition for driving vehicles. Hence, engine oils are required to reduce their viscosity at low temperature for friction reduction to improve fuel economy and maintain high temperature viscosity enough to protect engine parts for robustness at the same time. This leads to the improvement of viscosity index, the "ultra-high viscosity index (UHVI)" concept. The novel engine oil technology with a new high performance polymer was investigated. One of experimental oils showed the 100°C viscosity equivalent to SAE 0W-16 grade and the better fuel economy than that of SAE 0W-8 oil by an engine motoring friction test.

This investigation was concerned with the rate of heat transfer from the working gases to the combustion chamber walls of the internal combustion engines. The numerical formula for estimating the heat transfer to the combustion chamber wall was derived from the theoretical analysis and the experiment, which were used the constant volume combustion chamber and the actual gasoline engine. As a result, mean heat transfer in the internal combustion engine becomes possible to estimate with measuring the cylinder pressure. In addition, the derived numerical formula forms with quite simple variables. Therefore it is very useful for engine design.

The paper reviews the experimental development of fuel economy of engine powering the 2012 Formula SAE single seat race car of the University of Sophia. The balance of high power and low fuel consumption is biggest challenge of racing engine. It was found that improving the efficiency of engine by supercharging as a way to achieve that. In order to adapt the supercharger for the engine, the important design points are below: It was found that intake air blow-by gas at combustion chamber is increased in low engine speed. To improve that, the valve overlap angle was changed to adopt supercharged engine and improve effective compression ratio. Typically the racing engine demands maximum torque for performance but that does not imply that the air fuel ratio should be rich than theoretical. The point is the maximum torque of the engine is proportional to the amount of air intake. Therefore, supercharged engine is possible to increase the supercharging pressure for bigger torque.

Fuel economy improvement has been one of the most important challenges for the automotive industry, and the oil and additive industries. The automotive, oil, and additive industries including related organizations such as SAE, ASTM, and testing laboratories have made significant efforts to develop not only engine oil technologies but also engine oil standards over decades. The API S category and ILSAC engine oil standard are well known and widely used engine oil specifications [1] [2]. The development of an engine oil standard has important roles to ensure the quality of engine oils in the market and encourage industries to improve the engine oil performance periodically. However, the progress of technology advancement can go faster than the revision of engine oil standard. An introduction of new viscosity grades, SAE 0W-16 and 5W-16 is one good example. The 16 grade was added into the SAE J300 standard that defines viscosity grades for engine oils in April 2013 [3].

Temperature distribution as the flame propagated and contacted to the wall of the combustion chamber was measured by real-time holographic interference method, which mainly consisted of an argon-ion laser and a high-speed video camera. The experiment was done with a constant volume chamber and propane-air mixture with several kinds of equivalence ratios. From the experimental results, it can be found that the temperature distribution outside the zone from the surface of the combustion chamber to 0.1mm distance could be measured by counting the number of the interference fringes, but couldn't within this zone because of lacking in the resolution of the used optical system. The experimental results show that the temperature distribution when the heat flux on the wall increases rapidly and when the heat flux shows the maximum value are quite different by the equivalence ratio.

A fired fuel economy engine test procedure developed by Toyota was proposed to be a new JASO test procedure. Under the JASO Task Force, the fired fuel economy engine test working group was formed. Four test laboratories from oil and additive industries in Japan participated in the JASO Round Robin matrix to evaluate the repeatability and the reproducibility with four candidate reference oils. These candidate reference oils include two viscosity grades and two additive technologies that represent fuel economy engine oil technologies in the Japanese market. The project was successfully completed and the procedure was proposed to be a part of the new JASO GLV-1 engine oil standard.

In recent years, the realization of carbon neutrality has become an activity to be tackled worldwide, and automobile manufacturers are promoting electrification of power train by HEV, PHEV, BEV and FCEV. Although interest in BEV is currently growing, vehicles equipped with internal combustion engines (ICE) including HEV and PHEV will continue to be used in areas where conversion to BEV is not easy due to lack of sufficient infrastructures. For such vehicles, low-viscosity engine oil will be one of the most important means to contribute to further reduction of CO2 emissions. Since HEV requires less work from the engine, the engine oil temperature is lower than that of conventional engine vehicles. Therefore, the reduction of viscous resistance in the mid-to-low temperature range below 80°C is expected to contribute more to fuel economy. On the other hand, the viscosity must be kept above a certain level to ensure the performance of hydraulic devices in the high oil temperature range.

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.