Renault Duster had flourished its affordable culture throughout the globe with the trademark of being the world’s cheapest SUV. Factors what makes this vehicle most-affordable may vary from the components to components, where engine also marks a dutiful impression throughout the costing.
Contemporizing the fact that Renault is trying to make the 1.5-liter dCi four-cylinder engine a more efficient machine than before, mentioned below is the detailed account giving an insight how the French automaker is about to barge through the ongoing legacy. Read on…
First of all, unlike the other automakers of reducing the number of cylinder in order to bring in the fuel-efficiency to a desired level, Renault planned to adhere to the four-cylinder layout. Instead, it is about to deploy the ‘new steel pistons’ to gain the better fuel-efficiency figures. Hopefully, the technology seems to be borrowed from the Nissan which it uses in a number of small vehicles. The tech-sharing may have been concluded under the hat of ‘Nissan-Renault’ alliance.
Steel pistons have their own advantages and disadvantages. First let’s study the advantages.
Steel is comparatively solid in nature than aluminum and also had the capacity to expand and contract as per the temperature inside the chamber, like the cast iron engine block, which means the chamber will be tightly sealed all the time.
On the flipside, drawbacks: the higher mass, low thermal conductivity and their predisposition to oxidation are chalked out by Renault on paper, but it said the engineers at backend had already worked on it and gained better results.
Elaborating how engineers achieved the results at French R&D, the pistons walls is reported to be reduced by 58% as well as compression height by 22%, compensating for the part’s higher density. So, the result on the table concludes, the steel piston-pin assembly’s mass would be equivalent to aluminum counterpart or maybe even lower than that.
The heating problem that said had been chapped off by the more efficient oil gallery which offers better oil flows in and around the section and cool off in no time. In comparison, the temperatures of steel and aluminum would now stand beside each other on the comparison table.
Piston oxidation nag is termed to be sorted out by coating the surfaces with special anti-oxidation compounds, while a DLC (Diamond Like Carbon) pin coating along with a molybdenum one is also applied in order to reduce the friction.
Overall, by abiding to these aforesaid improvements on engine in actual, Renault experience power at 4,000 rpm has increased by 2 percent, whereas torque and BSFC (Brake Specific Fuel Consumption) had been also improved by 1.7 percent.
However, the changes made with the steel pistons can only be relied only for a shorter term. It’s because, the evolving technology that keeps updating itself with every passing second is about to eat up this whole new development of Renault in a very shorter time, and as there aren’t enough changed made to prove them in bulk numbers. So, to gain an upper hand in this competitive environment Renault should also take into consideration the EVs as well as hybrids, and must take necessary steps to evolve fruitfully for a longer tenure.
