Is America ready for 4-cylinder full-size pickup trucks? Because they're here (GM)

[niky]

Originally Posted by Vman455

Toyota has been using water-cooled EGR for several years on at least the Camry, Prius, and Prius c, probably others I don't know about. Or did you mean on trucks specifically?

Gasoline engines in general.

Interesting. I didn't catch that when I reviewed the Prius C. We don't get the Camry hybrid here, and I don't think our local 2.5 (which doesn't have the Atkinson's cycle) uses the cooler.

[joemac]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

Didn't see this engine efficiency feature in the original article:



Source: https://www.greencarreports.com/news...on-2-cylinders

This, in combination with the electric water pump, can keep providing cabin heat in cold temperatures even when the engine auto-stop feature is active.

I know most conventional heaters will quickly run out of heat within a few seconds of stopping the engine, if the HVAC blower is still on.

That's becoming more common in boosted gasoline engines. Also, the exhaust manifold is integral to the head and has a coolant passage. Not sure if GM is doing this, but in some cases the coolant loop to the head/exhaust manifold can be split off so that it is on a separate loop from the block. That allows priority cooling to the top of the engine to mitigate knock at high load without having to go deeper into command enrichment or spark retard. It also allows the exhaust to reject some heat to the cooling system to keep turbine temperatures lower at higher loads. During cold start, coolant flow is usually restricted to the head/exhaust manifold to aid with catalyst light-off.

[joemac]

Originally Posted by niky

Gasoline engines in general.

Interesting. I didn't catch that when I reviewed the Prius C. We don't get the Camry hybrid here, and I don't think our local 2.5 (which doesn't have the Atkinson's cycle) uses the cooler.

Even non-hybrid Camry's now use cooled EGR. The base 2.5L in the 2018 Camry has cooled EGR. 2.0L in the 2019 Corolla has it, too. Also, the Mazda CX-9 SKYACTIV-G Turbo has cooled EGR. Chrysler even has cooled EGR on one version of the Pacifica.

[joemac]

I forgot - the new Jeep Wranger with the 2.0L Turbo also has cooled EGR. Cooled EGR's role on spark-ignition gasoline engines is different from diesels. For gasoline engines, it serves two roles - reducing part load pumping losses (run more EGR and use less throttle) and knock or preignition mitigation (more of an impact on the turbo applications). It's not easy to do on gasoline engines. High EGR rates can slow down combustion to the point that combustion phasing can be less than ideal. It can also be difficult to ignite. Engines using cooled EGR usually have higher energy or multiple strike ignitions systems and intake ports that do a better job of inducing tumble. Having a lower bore-to-stroke ratio helps generate turbulence, too - increases port velocities for a given engine displacement. Check out the relatively long stroke on the new Toyota I4 engines.

[GdB]

Gm should turn the 4-cyl 90 degrees to make it front wheel drive, simplify the transmission, i.e. direct drive for cruising, and add a high torque E-motor for the rear wheels with enough KWh battery to make this a much cleaner and nice truck! I am certain the cost and weight could be very close.

[19bonestock88]

While that’s a good idea for efficiency I don’t think people would buy a primarily FWD Silverado... they couldn’t do burnouts/donuts/etc

[Xist]

I can peel out in my Civic. They cannot do that with the weight of their engine over their wheels?

[19bonestock88]

Originally Posted by Xist

I can peel out in my Civic. They cannot do that with the weight of their engine over their wheels?

I’m sure it’s possible (my Saturn will nuke it’s front tires in 1st gear with the ported intake manifold) but I was referring to the classic, stomp both pedals and smoke the one rear tire trick...

[Vman455]

Originally Posted by 19bonestock88

While that’s a good idea for efficiency I don’t think people would buy a primarily FWD Silverado... they couldn’t do burnouts/donuts/etc

Yeah, Honda already has the (small--less than 10% of Silverado sales, let alone Ram and F-150) FWD truck market cornered with the Ridgeline. 'Muricans wouldn't stand for it coming from one of the Big Three.

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by Vman455

Yeah, Honda already has the (small--less than 10% of Silverado sales, let alone Ram and F-150) FWD truck market cornered with the Ridgeline. 'Muricans wouldn't stand for it coming from one of the Big Three.

The Ridgeline as far as I can tell isn't a particularly great truck. It doesn't get good fuel economy and people complain of poor brakes.

This isn't to say it's a horrible truck, but Honda had an opportunity to show us a new way to truck, and it wasn't compelling enough to be adopted by anyone else.

I think the first good implementation of a hybrid pickup will be a huge success and spur most trucks to adopt a hybrid platform. It doesn't make sense to have an enormous engine for the relatively short amount of time spent accelerating, and trucks throw a lot of energy away stopping.