Ally 2-litre diesel Hotfire breaks cover first

The first Hotfire engine from JaguarLand Rover (JLR) will be a lightweight 2-litre diesel with an aluminium cylinder block.

Hotfire will come to market weighing 80kg less than today’s equivalent engines.

Ingenium, the new family of premium diesel and petrol engines designed, engineered and manufactured by Jaguar Land Rover under the code name Hotfire, will deliver “class-leading levels of torque, horsepower and refinement while reducing emissions and fuel consumption” according to JLR.

JLR has developed its own new family of advanced technology, low-friction, high-performance petrol and diesel engines to meet growing customer demand for lower fuel consumption and cost of ownership, without compromising performance and the driver experience, the company claims. It has done this with the help of major contractors.

Engineers at Whitley, Coventry and Gaydon, Warwickshire, have configured the engines for “seamless” installation in a range of new Jaguar and Land Rover vehicles.

Engines are scalable up and down to create smaller or larger displacement variants in the future, and accommodate a range of powertrain layouts including rear-, all- and four-wheel drive, as well as manual and automatic transmissions as well as electrified hybrid drive systems

Engineers claim they can “easily” accept new advances in engine technologies as they become available using as a foundation the “extremely strong” and compact aluminium blocks for both diesel and gasoline versions.

These lightweight blocks share the same bore, stroke, cylinder spacing and 500cc cylinder capacity.

Thus two, three- and five cylinder engines – can be “quickly and efficiently” developed to meet future regulatory and competitive requirements.

JLR has invested £40 million to expand and enhance its powertrain engineering facility at its Whitley Technical Centre, Coventry. As already reported here, Horiba Automotive has been one of the beneficiaries of contracts.

All diesel and gasoline Ingenium variants have the latest turbochargers to improve performance, particularly at low speeds, and help reduce consumption and CO₂ emissions.

Diesel and gasoline engines will share many common internal components and calibration strategies. This reduces complexity, raises quality and simplifies manufacturing, and allows JLR to react more quickly to changes in global demand. Ricardo has played an important part in the development of Hotfire as can be seen from some of the rigorous testing procedures shown below.

“Engineering and manufacturing our own engines improves our ability to react to changes in demand and improves our ability to react to changes in legislation and competitive technologies in the future,” claims Dr. Wolfgang Ziebart, JLR Group engineering director.

“Only with the range of technologies we are investing in, can JLR absolutely satisfy the often conflicting requirements of delivering engaging high-performance luxury vehicles that reduce our carbon footprint in the long-term,” he added.

                                      Aluminium powerhouse

In the first Ingenium engine to go into volume production, a 2-litre diesel known as AJ200D, internal friction is reduced by 17 per cent compared to the current engine, helping to make it one of the most efficient and responsive 2-litre turbo diesels in its segment.

In addition, Ingenium engines feature six technologies that reduce friction and add refinement:

      

O  Roller bearings on cam and balancer shafts, instead of machined-in bearing surfaces.

O  Computer-controlled variable oil pumps save energy by delivering optimum oil volumes at all speeds, engine loads and temperatures.

O  Computer-controlled variable water pumps that adjust coolant flow through the engine, based on temperature, speed and driving conditions. The split or twin-circuit cooling system lowers CO2 emissions by enabling fast warm ups, and provides quick cabin heat on cold days.

O  Simplified cam drive system for modular application.

O  Crankshafts offset from the centre of the block.

O   Electronically controlled piston cooling jets improve efficiency in the oil pumping circuit. Jets switch off when piston cooling is not needed. They enable the engine to reach optimum operating temperatures faster, further helping to cut CO₂ emissions.

All Ingenium engines have central direct high-pressure fuel injection, variable valve timing and start-stop technology.

Engines have undergone the equivalent of over eight years of arduous testing, including a wide range of integrity and durability testing and over 72,000 hours of dynamometer testing and 2 million miles of real-world testing.

JLR claims it had “the rare opportunity to start the project with a clean sheet of paper”, not locked into any of the “usual restrictions that force engineering compromises because we had no existing production machinery that would dictate design parameters, no carryover engine architectures to utilise and no existing factory to modify.”

An engine without “engineering compromises” indeed promises to be a very interesting engine family.

The Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG) is one of a number of units which had played a part to play in the development of Hotfire.