BMW has adopted an aluminum piston developed by Federal-Mogul for use in its M550d xDrive sedan. The piston meets the strength and thermal performance requirements of very high-power diesel engines that have been designed to reduce CO2 emissions and improve fuel economy.
These diesel engines also offer improved dynamic performance, but their power output of more than 90kW/liter is a challenge for the pistons. BMW, reportedly the first automaker to adopt the new piston, will use it for its triple-turbo 3.0-liter diesel engine, the N57D30S1, which is said to be the world's most powerful light diesel engine at a specific power output of 93kW/liter.
BMW will use a new Federal-Mogul aluminum piston (right) for the triple-turbo, 93kW/liter engine (left) in its M550d xDrive sedan. The piston is design to satisfy the high heat and strength requirements of new diesel engines. (Source: Federal-Mogul)
As we've reported before, a new generation of smaller vehicle engines (like the N57D30S1) are being designed to improve fuel economy, reduce emissions, and run much hotter than previous engines. These engines require higher-grade materials.
"By combining all our process and materials expertise, Federal-Mogul has produced an aluminum piston with the durability and the thermal characteristics that high-power diesels require," Gian Maria Olivetti, its vice president of technology and innovation for powertrain energy, said in a press release. "These advances mean that aluminum pistons can retain their leading position in diesel engines for light vehicles for some time to come."
With higher specific power outputs come not only higher temperatures, but also higher mechanical loads, which make a piston's heat dissipation and strength equally important. Federal-Mogul's new aluminum piston can operate efficiently under higher thermal and mechanical loads than previous models. They also come without the risk of problems associated with steel pistons, such as engine oil cracking and carbon deposits.
The piston's design uses the company's Durabowl process, which creates a reinforced combustion bowl rim that can withstand high thermal and mechanical loads. The process remelts the alloy around the bowl's rim to improve the aluminum's fatigue strength. A raised cooling gallery, made possible by Federal-Mogul's two-dimensional ultrasonic inspection process, improves thermal performance.
Federal-Mogul developed the nondestructive, 2D ultrasonic inspection technique to tighten quality control. Typical one-dimensional ultrasonic testing can identify defects but doesn't provide data about their size or position. The 2D ultrasonic process lets engineers determine defect size and position. The data helps develop the casting process.
The piston was developed at a Federal-Mogul facility in Nuremberg, Germany, that produces steel and aluminum pistons for light and heavy-duty diesel engines.
Hi David,
Thanks for the article. Makes sense
re: racing my turbo BBC. Nope, I drove it on the street - for almost three years. Street racing is illegal!
:-)
@Ockham: Here is an article that describes in more detail why these pistons are a big deal. Was your 7L V8 turbodiesel for racing? If so, you probably didn't need to worry too much about thermal fatigue. Also, two decades ago, you probably didn't need to worry about emissions too much.
Aluminum pistons are obviously nothing new, but in order to reduce diesel emissions, it's desirable to get piston bowl temperatures as high as possible. Unfortunately, if you get them too high, the aluminum will melt. (Also, at temperatures near the melting point, the fatigue strength of the aluminum is greatly reduced).
Interestingly enough, when the aluminum melts and resolidifies, its mechanical properties are greatly improved. This is the idea behind Federal-Mogul's Durabowl process. I have no idea how they got the idea, but I wouldn't be surprised if it occurred to someone while looking at a failed piston.
Aluminum pistons, cast, hypereutectic and forged have been standard fare for piston technology for decades, some of them in very high stress applications.
They're talking about 93kW per liter. O.K. that's a 250 hp 3 liter diesel. Great. I was getting over 600 kw out of a turbosupercharged 7 liter V8 over two decades ago, and it had typical OEM forged aluminum pistons. They seemed to hold up just fine, even with over 20 inches of turbo boost...and I did all that design with a piece of paper and a slide rule and OEM components! :-)
Aluminum blocks? So? That's no big shakes either...and long before the Vega, too. They've have been around in various GM products since the early 1960's (Buick 215, Corvair flat six, etc.)
The much maligned Vega used aluminum block and cylinder with a spray coated cylinder wall which failed rather miserably in the Vega. But (like so many other technologies prototypd on the Vega, such as the HEI ignition system) very similar technologies eventually made their way into the GM product line, like the LS1.
Pardoning the pun, why are we suddenly so gassed about an aluminum pistoned turbo diesel?
I believe the GM "LS" series V8 engines used in rear-drive cars since 1997-1998 is an all-aluminum block (no iron cylinder liners). It was first used in the 1997 Corvette. The LS engines are used in the current Corvette and Camaro high-performance cars.
Personally, I own a 1998 Chevrolet Camaro Z28 that is factory equipped with the LS1 5.7 liter V8 with aluminum block and heads (and 6-speed manual transmission). I have 135,000 miles on the car, and it still runs like new...brutal power and acceleration by normal car standards.
For most GM truck applications, the LS engine blocks are cast iron.
During the late 1970's, I had a 1973 Chevrolet Vega with the aluminum block. It drank about one quart of oil for every 100 miles, due to the aluminum cylinder wear.
@Chuck: Yes, Mercury used their proprietary Mercosil low-copper hypereutectic alloy, along with a nickel-based piston coating, for some 15-25 HP engines in the late '90s. As far as I know, they never used it outside of that horsepower range. I'm not quite sure why it hasn't been more widely used, since it does seem to have offered a number of benefits.
Mercury's decision to keep most of their casting in-house and to develop it as a core competency has paid off; the Mercosil alloy is sold commercially, along with a series of die-casting alloys, called Mercalloy, which Mercury developed. Mercury casts these alloys for outside customers, and also licenses the alloys to foundries.
While Evinrude closed its die-casting division prior to the OMC bankruptcy, they have held on to their lost-foam casting facility; in fact, they recently won Best-In-Class in the AFS Casting of the Year competition. Like Mercury, they also do work for outside customers.
Thanks, Dave, for stirring my memory a bit. I do recall the outboard engine industry using aluminum alloy blocks. I looked back at an old article (from the '90s) and found that Mercury Marine was using (and maybe still uses) a hypereutectic aluminum-silicon block alloy known as Mercosil. Those engines went into production in '94. The silicon in the block was supposed to enhance wear resistance. Later, they used a nickel phosphorous/boron nitride piston coating with no cylinder liner, but I don't know how that turned out, or whether they still use it.
@Chuck: I can't speak for the auto industry, but in the outboard engine industry, the status quo is a block made out of a lost-foam cast or die-cast alumium alloy (typically A356), a cast iron cylinder sleeve, and a hypereutectic aluminum alloy piston. However, Yamaha has started to use plasma-sprayed cylinder liners instead of cast iron sleeves. I believe the technology they use was developed by Ford and Flame-Spray Industries. Sulzer Metco has a different plasma-sprayed cylinder liner technology. One of the advantages of the plasma-sprayed liners is that they save weight compared to a cast iron sleeve. The properties of the coating be tailored to get additional benefits.
Chuck, trying to get details on the piston construction proved very difficult. This company makes both aluminum and steel pistons, and their liners are made of several materials including cast iron.
BMW Motorcycles ran an all aluminum block with no cast iron liners with great success. I've seen them run over 100,000 miles with no loss of compression. I don't think the problem is purely aluminum but the overall design of the combustion process. The normal diesel "crack" that occurs at the time of ignition created enormous stresses in all the metal in the combustion chamber, not just the piston; spreading this explosion out over time would go a long way toward reducing stress. I'd guess that BMW has adopted more than just a triple turbocharger and an aluminum piston to make this engine meet their performance goals. Using aluminum pistons and reducing reciprocating mass is a significant step toward increased performance and durability.
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