Ford’s 1.0-litre EcoBoost engine wins International Engine of the Year
There is evidently a revolution underway in engine technology that has manufacturers moving towards small-capacity, high output, efficient engines. These were attributes which, until a decade back, were hard to combine resulting in compromising power for fuel efficiency or vice-versa. But, in 2012, Ford set out to develop and put into production their innovative EcoBoost engine.
But what’s so special about this tiny turbocharged engine? Doesn’t the technology already exist?
Yes, actually. The technology has been in existence since the early nineties. Suzuki developed a 657cc DOHC, turbocharged 3-cylinder engine that was used in the Cappuccino and produced 63bhp. The car was not only famous for its sporty intentions but also for its frugality. The engine’s specific output was an impressive 96bhp/litre. But we’re delving into technology that was in existence more than two decades ago, a time when emission norms were barely in existence and it was cool to paint the town blue on a two-stroke motorcycle. The Cappuccino soon succumbed to stringent emission norms at the end of the last millennium.
Soaring fuel prices and the global financial slump is what we were greeted with at the turn of the new millennium, but consumer demand for frugality without compromising on the fun-to-drive factor were at an all-time-high. This resulted in car manufacturers under increased pressure to deliver more for less. The answer they came up with (again) was turbocharging. Even if you ignore the performance benefits of forced induction, turbocharging allows for better fuel efficiency too. If the wasted exhaust gases pass through a turbo and compressed air is fed back into the intake, the increased mass of air ensures better fuel combustion thus improving thermal efficiency. Increased power is simply a by-product of turbocharging. So by using a smaller engine (that consumes less fuel than a bigger engine), better fuel efficiency can be achieved while still making as much power as the bigger engine.
Take for example Fords own TiVCT 1.5-litre engine doing duty in the Fiesta. This engine uses variable cam timing, is naturally aspirated and develops 108bhp. Compare this to the turbocharged 1-litre EcoBoost engine in the EcoSport that develops 123bhp. Despite a 500cc handicap, the smaller motor pushes out 15bhp more with a specific power output of 123.12bhp/litre against the 1.5-litre’s 72bhp/litre. The EcoSport also delivers a claimed 18.5kmpl against the Fiesta’s 16.9kmpl.
They say there’s no replacement for displacement, but clearly, there is. Essentially, a turbocharger force-feeds a larger volume of air to the engine than an equivalent naturally aspirated one would otherwise take in. This makes a smaller capacity engine act like a bigger one. Ford uses a low-inertia turbocharger that spools up to 248,000rpm — that’s 4000 revolutions a second and nearly twice as much as the turbos powering the current F1 cars. The turbo is capable of delivering 1.6 bar (24psi) of boost pressure and can put out up to 138bhp, as seen on the European-spec Fiesta. These numbers are astonishing figures for a regular road-going production car.
The company’s European facilities located in Germany and Romania have the combined production capacity to dish out an EcoBoost engine every 42 seconds, recently hitting 500,000 units produced thus far. Ford’s 1.0-litre EcoBoost-equipped cars are now available in 72 countries worldwide and the American auto major has recently begun production of the engine in a new facility in China to address demands in the Asia-Pacific region.
More than 200 Ford engineers spent in excess of five million hours developing the 1.0-litre EcoBoost engine, an engine that can be packed in a suitcase and fit in the overhead luggage compartment of an aircraft. Apart from the innovative turbocharger design and application, the engine uses an integrated exhaust manifold that lowers exhaust temperatures for optimised air-fuel ratio. 3-cylinder engines, due to the odd count of cylinders and their firing cycle, are inherently high on vibration and refinement levels are lower than a 4-cylinder motor. To counter the effect, apart from a balancer shaft, this engine uses specially coated pistons, low tension piston rings, low friction crank seals and a cam-belt immersed in oil. A variable displacement oil pump tailors lubrication to demand and optimises oil pressure while an innovative flywheel and front pulley design further improves refinement.
“This year’s competition was the fiercest yet, but the 1.0-litre EcoBoost continues to stand out for all the right reasons — great refinement, surprising flexibility and excellent efficiency,” said Dean Slavnich, co-chairman of the 16th International Engine of the Year awards and editor of Engine Technology International magazine. “The 1.0-litre EcoBoost engine is one of the finest examples of powertrain engineering.”
