* Introduction of EcoBoost technology to Australian market continues a year of technological innovation for Ford Australia
* Mondeo spearheads local launch of high-efficiency EcoBoost technology with a 2.0-litre four-cylinder direct injection turbocharged petrol engine
* EcoBoost 2.0L GTDi engine produces 149 kW and 300 Nm, increases of 26 per cent and 44 per cent respectively over the previous 2.3-litre engine
* EcoBoost 2.0L GTDi engine has combined fuel economy of just 8.0 L/100km and CO2 emissions of just 187 g/km
The Ford EcoBoost 2.0-litre petrol engine is an all-new, state-of-the-art four cylinder design providing Ford’s global vehicle line-up with a new high-efficiency power unit delivering power outputs of over 147 kW (200 horsepower).
With a lightweight all-aluminium construction, latest generation high-pressure direct injection system, low-inertia turbocharging and Twin Independent Variable Camshaft Timing (TiVCT), the EcoBoost 2.0-litre engine features an advanced combustion system, which brings new levels of performance and fuel efficiency to petrol engines in this power range.
Initially installed in the latest European S-MAX and Galaxy models, in Mondeo the EcoBoost 2.0-litre GTDi – for Gasoline Turbocharged Direct injection – engine has a maximum power output of 149 kW at 6000 rpm, combined with maximum torque of 300 Nm delivered across a broad 1750–4500 rpm range.
It is available exclusively with the six-speed Ford PowerShift double wet-clutch automatic transmission, providing drivers with a powertrain that combines outstanding performance and efficiency with supreme refinement.
Fuel economy and CO2 emissions are also significantly improved with the new EcoBoost 2.0-litre GTDi engine. Compared to the 118 kW Duratec 2.3-litre automatic power-train currently in Mondeo, CO2 emissions are reduced by over 17 per cent to 187 g/km, even though the new engine has 26 per cent more power and 44 per cent more torque. This translates into a combined ADR 81/02 fuel economy number of 8.0 L/100 km, with an extra urban (highway cycle) figure of just 6.3 L/100 km.
EcoBoost benefits Ford's Power-train engineers have maximised the fuel economy and CO2 emissions improvements delivered in EcoBoost engines by creating a new combustion system, which combines the benefits of three critical elements: high-pressure direct fuel injection, advanced turbocharging and twin independent variable camshaft timing.
While each of these features has potential technical advantages on its own, deploying all three together brings significantly enhanced performance and results in a much more efficient combustion process across the full engine operating range.
This enables Ford's EcoBoost technology to provide customers with many of the benefits offered by the latest diesel engines, while retaining the driving character and cost advantages of a petrol unit.
The primary benefits delivered by the EcoBoost design approach include:
* optimised engine efficiency – fuel consumption and CO2 emissions reduced by up to 20 per cent
* greater driving enjoyment – strong low-end torque and responsive performance across the full rev range
* opportunity to downsize – large-engine performance, but with the size, weight and fuel economy of a much smaller unit The technology featured in EcoBoost engines builds on existing petrol engine knowledge and offers customers a more affordable alternative to reduce carbon emissions than equivalent hybrid or diesel engine designs.
Optimised engine efficiency
The reduction in fuel consumption and CO2 emissions achieved by EcoBoost engines is the result of a combustion system that burns the fuel in the most efficient and cleanest way possible.
At its heart is the latest generation high-pressure direct injection system which injects fuel into each cylinder in small, precise amounts.
The EcoBoost 2.0-litre GTDi engine features side-mounted seven-hole injectors, which operate at 150 bar using a system that directs the individual fuel plumes exactly where they are needed for efficient combustion.
Compared to conventional fuel injection, direct injection produces a cooler and denser charge, enabling the EcoBoost GTDi engine to operate with a higher compression ratio and increased boost from the turbocharger, resulting in improved fuel efficiency and strong low-end performance.
Low-inertia turbocharger for responsive performance
To maximise driver enjoyment, Ford EcoBoost engines deliver the same strong low-end torque that has made the latest diesel engines so popular, combined with refined and responsive performance across the full engine speed range.
Careful matching of the turbocharger ensures that EcoBoost power-plants remain powerful and responsive at engine speeds in excess of 5000 rpm, providing a much wider spread of power than a typical diesel unit.
This is made possible by using advanced turbocharger technology, with small, low-inertia rotors that spin at speeds in excess of 200,000 rpm.
The 2.0-litre GTDi engine features a Borg Warner K03 turbocharger with optimised design to ensure that maximum torque is achieved at very low engine revs, with the absolute minimum of delay (or ‘turbo-lag’) when the driver requires quick acceleration.
The charge cooling benefit of direct injection plays an additional part in boosting performance at low engine speeds. Variable valve timing further enhances this through a ‘scavenging’ effect, which increases air flow through the engine and maximises low-end torque.
While the EcoBoost 2.0-litre GTDi unit has outstanding responsiveness at low engine speeds, careful turbo matching ensures that this has not been achieved at the expense of a wide, flexible power band and effortless top-end performance.
For example, the driver can call upon 90 per cent of peak torque between 1400 and 5500 rpm. This broad spread of power also enables higher gearing to be used, further benefiting fuel economy and refinement.
TiVCT technology enhances efficiency The EcoBoost 2.0-litre GTDi engine features independently variable timing on both intake and exhaust camshafts, optimising gas flow through the combustion chamber at all engine speeds. The TiVCT (Twin independent Variable Camshaft Timing) system plays a significant role in improving engine efficiency and performance, particularly at partial loading.
The use of TiVCT has also allowed Ford's EcoBoost engineers to further enhance low-end torque by exploiting a ‘scavenging’ effect.
Scavenging takes advantage of pressure differences between the intake and exhaust manifolds to increase the flow of cooler, fresh air through the engine at low speeds, generating increased torque and helping the turbo to spin up more quickly.
The TiVCT system uses vane-type actuators driven by oil pressure and can vary the camshaft angle by 50 degrees on both the intake and exhaust valves.
What is TiVCT technology?
TiVCT technology creates precise, variable timing control of both the intake and exhaust camshafts, which control the valve opening and closing events. Each of the two camshafts is controlled independently.
TiVCT uses the intake camshaft phasing to advance the intake valve opening and closing events and the exhaust camshaft phasing to retard exhaust valve events from their base "engine off" positions.
How does TiVCT help?
The ability to vary the overlap between intake and exhaust valves helps eliminate compromises in the two processes: fresh charge induction and exhaust has discharge.
The result is greater efficiency through reduced gas exchange pumping work, which leads to better fuel economy – approximately a three to four per cent improvement from this strategy alone compared to non-VCT engines.
Another benefit of TiVCT technology is a broadened torque curve. As the TiVCT strategy allows the intake valve to be advanced, instant power is delivered when the customer demands it at low speeds.
At high speeds, the intake cam is retarded and higher airflows are available, which results in approximately a 10 per cent power improvement over non-VCT engines.
Optimised design reduces CO2 emissions
The EcoBoost 2.0-litre GTDi engine is an all-new design that has been developed with the latest power-train technology to deliver outstanding performance and reliability.
It has a lightweight all-aluminium construction, with an extremely stiff and light precision sand-cast cylinder block and ladder-type, cast-aluminium, bed-plate. The cylinder head is a 16-valve DOHC design with chain-driven camshafts operating direct-acting shimless mechanical tappets.
Engine design has been optimised for maximum operating efficiency, with a particular focus on minimising friction and other parasitic losses. Specific features include the use of special low-friction coatings on the piston rings and highly polished surfaces on the tappets.
As the 2.0-litre GTDi engine is also downsized, this brings additional efficiency advantages from reduced internal friction, lower pumping losses, lighter weight and quicker warm up. This helps to ensure that the real-world fuel economy benefits of the engine are delivered in all driving conditions, including both city and motorway driving.
To ensure that optimum engine performance is maintained at all times, a state-of-the-art electronic management system monitors all key variables including the TiVCT system, turbo boost, electronic throttle position, ignition timing, fuel injection pressure and delivery, and the knock sensor.
The controller operates in real time, taking data samples from the engine thousands of times per second.
Meeting the toughest global emissions standards
Each element of the advanced combustion system design on the EcoBoost 2.0-litre GTDi engine – including the design of the intake and exhaust ports, the combustion chamber shape, the injection spray pattern and the air motion – has been meticulously developed, not only to provide outstanding fuel efficiency, but also to meet the most stringent global emissions requirements.
The engine is fully compliant with the latest European Stage V regulations and has also been designed to meet Californian PZEV (Partial Zero Emission Vehicles) standards.
A key factor is the engine’s ability to heat up the exhaust catalyst extremely quickly during critical cold start conditions. This is achieved by optimising the valve timing using the TiVCT system and using the capability of the fuel injection system to deliver multiple injections per combustion cycle.
Cold start performance is also enhanced by the unique fabricated design of the exhaust manifold, which integrates the turbocharger scroll. The manifold’s two-skin design absorbs less heat than a conventional cast manifold, so that more heat is transferred into the catalyst.
Ford PowerShift – easy and efficient
After the successful local introduction of the Ford PowerShift transmission in Focus TDCi and Mondeo TDCi models, as well as the latest WT Fiesta petrol range, this state-of-the-art technology is now extended to the EcoBoost power-plant in Mondeo.
The six-speed double-clutch transmission combines the efficiency and driving dynamics of a manual transmission with the ease of operation of a premium automatic transmission.
Ford PowerShift is fitted as standard equipment with the new 149 kW EcoBoost 2.0-litre GTDi engine, creating a high-tech combination that will deliver new levels of fuel efficiency and low CO2, but is still fun to drive.
PowerShift is also fitted as standard equipment on Mondeo with the 120kW 2.0-litre Duratorq TDCi common rail turbo-diesel engine. In either case, PowerShift demonstrates clearly that driving pleasure does not have to result in high CO2 emission levels.
Fuel economy data for the EcoBoost 2.0-litre GTDi engine paired with PowerShift clearly demonstrates how efficient this modern, state-of-the-art power-train combination can be – in Mondeo it delivers a combined ADR 81/02 fuel economy of just 8.0 L/100 km, with corresponding CO2 emissions of just 187 g/km.
When integrating the PowerShift transmission into the Mondeo range, particular attention was paid to maximising the abundant available torque of the 2.0-litre EcoBoost GTDi engine. The system has been calibrated to deliver a shifting strategy that excludes, as far as possible, wasteful double-shifts – for example, reverse switching of gears 5-4-3 when high acceleration is required.
This calibration offers many advantages, as the lowering of the relative engine speed level has a particularly positive effect on fuel consumption and driving comfort, while the high torque reserves of the engine over a broad torque spectrum ensures responsive performance at the same time.
In developing the PowerShift transmission and pairing it with the EcoBoost engine, a significant number of special technical solutions were implemented to improve packaging and ease of use.
The transmission hardware is constructed around a parallel arrangement for the double wet-clutch system, which not only offers significant advantages in terms of the cooling of the clutch units when compared to integrated designs, but also contributes (in combination with an all-new connection to the crankshaft, a claw design) to providing a very compact overall length for the transmission unit.
Special efforts to further minimise fuel consumption were implemented with the PowerShift system calibration: the 'neutral idle control' feature reduces drag torque for the engine when the vehicle is stationary with the gear shifter in the D position and the brakes are applied.
Controlled by a brake sensor, the clutch units are partially opened to reduce drag torque when compared to the conventional 'creep' mode with brakes not applied.
Another advantage of this set-up is that despite the reduced drag torque, the internal oil circuit of the system still has enough oil pressure to allow a completely smooth and immediate vehicle launch.
New Ford EcoBoost 2.0-Litre GTDi Engine In Detail
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