Diesel Engine Blocks
 

Has anyone ever been stupid enough, or smart enough to design an all aluminum Diesel Engine?

The 07 CDI is all aluminum, the Audi R10 is, and the VW Touareg V10 is.

doesnt the new V6 diesel use cast iron/machined piston sleeves

Yes, they are press in dry liners like our engines use.

I believe it is not possible to design an engine, gas or diesel without Iron sleeves at least. also, any motor not designed for very limited use (like a drag motor) must have iron in the rods and the crank. as well as the valves and the connecting pin. possibly titanium would work, but not aluminum. just the main castings could be aluminum. the block and the heads and intake manifold. high strain items need more durability than aluminum can provide.
JMHO.
John

IIRC, Porsche uses Nikasil coated alloy cylinders instead of iron sleeves. Honda/Acura also has a similar process. Some snowmobile engines have the same coating and I believe the bores can be "replated" to renew them so the engines are rebuildable. I think the Duramax is an all-alloy diesel. Properly designed, there should be no problems with an all alloy diesel engine. The engineering and metalurgy has come a long, long way since the first problematic alloy engines. RT

I seem to remember the Chevy Vega was one of GM's experiments with an all-aluminum block. No iron liners as far as I know. You could recognize them by the blue smoke.

Not many on the road now except for the few that received an engine transplant to a traditional GM engine.


:)

Ken300D

Just the 32v heads are aluminum. Still a deep skirt, reinforced web iron block.

Mercedes V8's are all aluminum including the cyl wall. BMW does the same thing as well on the 4.0l v8 Idont know about any of the others that BMW makes.

Most new engines are all aluminum. Thats old technoligy they have been going that way for ten years. Nikasil coating of the cylinder linners caused lots of problems for Jag and BMW in the late 90's. But by 2000 it was all well sorted out. Now most engines don't use linners and are all aluminum. If done properly the bottom end should last just about forever. There is almost no wear in the cylinders.

BMW has some really exotic stuff coming out:
The E90 began production in May 2005 as a 2006 model. Currently, four engine options are offered, two being part of the new 'N' series of BMW inline engines featuring a lightweight magnesium/aluminum construction and technological innovations such as individual cylinder throttles, steplessly variable valve timing, and dual stage intake timing. The 3-Series is manufactured in Regensburg, Munich, and Leipzig, Germany while only the coupe, convertible, and some sedans are manufactured in Regensburg. The E91 touring model has also been available since fall 2005 along with 4WD models 325xi, 330xi and 330xd. The E92 2-door will come out in September of 2006 along with BMW's new N54 twin-turbo engine.


Look for more magnesium contruction in the future.