COVER You

STORY
will find the3-Cylinder Diesel
figures mentioned Engine
in this article in the German issue of MTZ 1/2005 beginning on page 6.

Der neue Dreizylinder-Dieselmotor

von Mercedes-Benz fr Smart und Mitsubishi

The New Mercedes-Benz

3-Cylinder Diesel Engine
for Smart and Mitsubishi

For the joint project Smart Forfour and Mitsubishi Colt,

Mercedes-Benz developed a 3-cylinder diesel engine
derived from the A-Class 4-cylinder engine. This engine
allows both high performance and low fuel consump-
tion. The top version with 70 kW is the worlds most
powerful three-cylinder passenger car diesel engine.

1 Introduction tion, performance, comfort and low manu-

In mid-2000, Mitsubishi and Smart began a
joint project to develop a four-seater com-
pact car. Their combined efforts led to the
idea of transforming a four-cylinder A-
Class engine into a three-cylinder diesel en-
gine and installing it in Smart and Mit-
subishi compact cars. In addition to the cost
benefits resulting from the newly created
engine model series, the large individual
displacement of a 1.5-litre three-cylinder
diesel engine leads to better thermody-
namic ratios compared to the four-cylinder
By Steffen Digeser, engine with the same displacement.
As a result, a completely new three-
Mario Erdmann,
cylinder in-line engine producing 50 and 70
Franz-Paul Gulde, kW of power was developed for the diesel
version of the Smart Forfour and the Mit-
Thomas Mhleisen,
subishi Colt.
Joachim Schommers
1.1 The Concept
and Roland Tatzel
The stringent guidelines for exhaust emis-
sion level Euro 4, as well as fuel consump-
facturing costs led to a solution with the
following characteristics:
transverse, front installation
unified combustion chamber as in other
Mercedes-Benz CDI engines going on the
market in 2004
four-valve design with built camshafts
and roller cam followers
swirl generation through tangential and
spiral intake with infinitely variable swirl
control
exhaust gas turbocharging
cooled exhaust gas recirculation
second-generation common rail fuel-in-
jection system with 1600 bar and solenoid
valve injectors
balancer shaft
dual-mass flywheel
engine (transmission) control unit (with
Green Oak processor)
powertrain designed for peak pressures
of up to 180 bar
engine mounting as roll axis system.

2 MTZ worldwide 1/2005 Volume 66


1.2 Key Data
The most important technical data are
compiled in the Table.
2 Engine
2.1 Longitudinal Section and
Cross-Section
When designing the engine layout in the
vehicle, our objective was to make the en-
gine as compatible as possible with the
petrol (gasoline) engine. At the same time,
we wanted to maintain the production net-
work with the A-Class four-cylinder diesel
engine. As a result, the petrol and diesel en-
gine designs differ with regard to the posi-
tion of the intake and exhaust sides. This is
primarily due to the cylinder head design.
The resulting exhaust ducts as well as the
compact overall height requirement led to
connecting the balancer shaft on the side of
the crankcase. The shaft is driven via a joint
chain leading to the oil pump.
Figure 1 shows the structural design of
the OM 639.
2.2 Crankcase
The crankcase was designed as a closed
deck and is made of cast iron 26 Cr. A land
width of only 7 mm results from the 90 mm
cylinder spacing and an 83 mm bore,
through which two land coolant bores pass.
The water pump body and an exhaust
return duct are integrated. The flange was
adapted to the transmission shared with
the petrol engine. In contrast to conven-
tional in-line engines, the starter is located
on the transmission side.
2.3 Powertrain
The A-Class four-cylinder diesel engine pro-
duction network determined such key di-
mensions as the 92 mm stroke and the 90
mm cylinder spacing. The crankshafts are
lightweight forgings made of 38 Mn S6 BY
with rolled radii, hardened working sur-
faces and four counterweights. The pistons,
rings, rods and plain bearing powertrain
components that are identical to the four-
cylinder diesel engine have been described
in detail in the MTZ article 12/04.
Throughout the development process,
one of the objectives was to maintain low
lubricating oil consumption even after long
service lives, Figure 2. Employing a 2 mm
high ventilated spring-loaded oil ring with
tapered mini-lands in the third piston ring
groove proved to be the decisive solution.
At the same time, the flow through the oil
injection nozzles was reduced and the
crankcase was locally reinforced in order to
reduce deformation of the cylinder bores.
Moreover, the flow through the oil injec-
tion nozzles was reduced.
MTZ worldwide 1/2005 Volume 66
COVER STORY
The post-bonded torsional vibration
damper on the crankshaft, which holds the
five-groove belt, is designed for a frequency
of 495-550 Hz.
A dual-mass flywheel (DMFW) was de-
veloped to improve ride comfort. The dual-
mass flywheel is equipped with an external
damper with bow springs and a three-stage
internal damper. It almost completely fil-
ters out the torsional vibrations that are
above the natural frequency. Consequent-
ly, the vibrations in the transmission and
the powertrain that occur above the engine
idling speed are reduced to a minimum.
This prevents rattling noises in the trans-
mission during idling or while driving. Be-
cause the torsional excitation on the pow-
ertrain is reduced, noise interference and
vibrations do not develop at low engine
speeds of up to approximately 2000 rpm.
2.4 Three-Cylinder Diesel Engine
Mass Balancer System
A mass balancer offsets troublesome free
inertial forces of the first order developing
in three-cylinder engines. It sharply re-
duces noise emission and prevents vibra-
tions and, therefore, contributes to a dis-
tinct improvement in ride comfort.
The balancer shaft is designed as a com-
pact module and is bolted to the side of the
crankcase.
The shaft is driven by the oil pump chain
via a gear with a 1:1 gear ratio. A gear in the
chain drive is integrated in order to reverse
the rotation between the crankshaft and
the balancer shaft. A rubber coating on the
crankshaft gear was chosen to improve the
acoustics. Figure 3 shows the complete
chain drive.
The balancer shaft is mounted using
bearing bushings with a centre oil groove.
Oil ducts that are fed directly out of the
main oil duct of the crankcase supply the oil.
At the same time, the balancer shaft cas-
ing holds the oil filter and the oil/water
heat exchanger.
As a result of extensive FEM calculations
and external tests, an optimum compro-
mise was found between rigidity (positive
effect on noise and vibrations), strength
and weight for the mass balancer system.
2.5 Cylinder Head and Valve Gear
In addition to the crank assembly and the
crankcase, the cylinder head is the most im-
portant component in the production net-
work for the four-cylinder engine of the A-
Class. The crossflow concept, duct geome-
try, oil circuit and control system are identi-
cal. A new feature is the integration of the
camshaft bearing covers into the cylinder
head cover. This results in advantages for
the height of the engine.
3-Cylinder Diesel Engine
The high peak pressure of 180 bar re-
quired an optimised sealing concept. A
four-layer cylinder head gasket and high
bolting forces ensured the desired positive
results.
The timing chain and the balancer
shaft/oil pump chain have been designed
as single-bush chains. Particularly the de-
sign of the highly stressed chain drive for
the balancer shaft and the oil pump re-
quired detailed analysis and investigation,
e.g. torsional vibration measurements. Pre-
cision-blanked lugs are used to minimize
wear on the guide rails. A non-return valve
in the chain tensioner limits the movement
of the tensioning rail and thus reduces the
dynamic loads on the chain drive.
Both are composite camshafts and are
manufactured using hydroforming.
The exhaust camshaft drives the vacu-
um pump while the intake camshaft drives
the common rail high-pressure pump. The
valves are actuated by the roller cam fol-
lower with vertical hydraulic valve play
compensation.
2.6 Oil Circuit
In order to reduce the friction losses, the oil
pump was optimised and the gear width
was designed to 18 mm. Moreover, oil
foaming is minimized by a chain wheel
cover at the oil pump chain sprocket and an
oil deflector under the crankshaft.
The oil/water heat exchanger limits the
maximum oil temperature to 135 C.
The service interval is variable and is
calculated depending on the driving style
and the oil brand used.
Intervals of between 25,000 and 31,000
km are achieved when low-viscosity oil ac-
cording to DaimlerChrysler specification
229.5 is used.
2.7 Auxiliary Units
The auxiliary unit drive is designed as a sin-
gle belt drive. A five-groove belt made of
EPDM and a mechanical belt take-up is
used. The automatically tensioned belt ten-
sioner has tapered bearings and is
equipped with a synthetic friction lining.
An air-cooled 120 A generator with a free-
wheel pulley and a type 5SEU9 A/C com-
pressor are integrated as auxiliary units.
The belt drive without refrigerant com-
pressor uses a guide pulley at this point,
with the result that only one belt length is
necessary because of the uniform belt lay-
out.
2.8 Charge Exchange and
Exhaust Gas Recirculation
Figure 4 shows the layout of the gas-carry-
ing components. The outside air flows
through the intake pipe to the vehicles air
3
COVER STORY 3-Cylinder Diesel Engine
filter and is measured by a hot-film air-
mass meter (HFM) upon exiting. The waste-
gate turbocharger compresses the air to a
maximum pressure of 1.3 bar. A heat ex-
changer located in front of the left wheel
arch cools the boost air. This increases the
air density by 21 %.
The necessary high exhaust return vol-
umes (up to 40 %) require the relevant scav-
enging gradient between the exhaust re-
turn tract and the compressed fresh air
tract. As a result of numerous series of tests
conducted to optimise flow conditions, it
was possible to keep the pressure losses
that occur over the entire return track so
low that there was no need for an addition-
al throttle valve to generate a pressure dif-
ferential.
The exhaust heat exchanger has a cool-
ing matrix with six rectangular pipes and
impressed winglets. The turbulent gas
flow generated by this has a self-cleaning
effect on the internal pipes and positively
influences the cooling capacity (DT exhaust
temperature = 180 K), which does not ex-
ceed a power loss of 8 % throughout the
components service life.
The pneumatic EGR valve found in the
mixing chamber directly upstream of the
collecting section was designed as a bev-
elled poppet valve in order to further im-
prove the regulating conditions for small
strokes.
The exhaust gas enters the mixing
chamber centrally through an intake pipe
with slots on its sides in order to optimally
supply the exhaust gas with fresh air.
2.9 Ventilation System
A multistage separator directly mounted to
the cylinder head cover separates the oil
from the blow-by gases. It is made up of a
smoothing volume with spiral separation,
a flow separator to protect the HFM and an
integrated pressure-reducing valve. The
separated oil flows back into the oil pan
through the oil level gauge guide pipe via a
freeze-proof hose. The ventilation gas flows
through a cooling water-heated tube into
the intake manifold in front of the tur-
bocharger.
3 Fuel-Injection System
The configuration of the fuel-injection sys-
tem used in the three- and four-cylinder
diesel engines is consistent in its design
with the proven common rail fuel-injection
system in second-generation Mercedes-
Benz CDI engines (MTZ 4/2002).For the sec-
ond generation, the injection pressure was
raised from 1350 bar to 1600 bar. Due to the
special design of the A-Class engine, the
overall length of the injector had to be
4 MTZ worldwide 1/2005 Volume 66
shortened. For the first time, Daimler-
Chrysler integrated a gear drive to run the
flow rate-controlled high-pressure pump.
In order to fulfil the stringent Euro 4
specifications, including good combustion
acoustics and without the need for active
aftertreatment, DaimlerChrysler worked
very closely with Bosch to increase the min-
imum volume capability in comparison
with the 1600 bar EU3 solenoid fuel injector
known to date, Figure 5. This was achieved
by reducing the solenoid valve armature
stroke and also by optimising the cross-sec-
tion of the control room input and output
throttle.
The reduced hydraulic flow rate of the
mini blind-hole nozzle and the flow-opti-
mised spray orifice (KS geometry) excels in
its improved injection preparation.
The long-term stability of the fuel injec-
tor was improved by applying a carbon
coating in the area of the nozzle seat, which
in conjunction with the optimised solenoid
group results in consistent fuel-quantity
performance over time.
The injector fuel-quantity compensation
guarantees that the target injection quanti-
ty is maintained precisely as manufac-
tured.
The self-adapting zero fuel quantity cal-
ibration ensures that the small injection
quantities are controlled over the engines
lifetime.
In order to generate multiple injections
for soft combustion depending on the op-
erating range, the pressure waves triggered
by the preceding injection and the quantity
changes associated with it are corrected by
a pressure-wave correction.
4 Combustion
From a customers perspective, a modern
diesel engine must exhibit high torque and
power performance on the one hand, and
low noise emission and fuel consumption
on the other.
Meeting all the specifications regarding
bulk volume, Euro 4 emission levels and
target costs in addition to customer needs
required a fundamental redevelopment of
the combustion process and the engine ap-
plication.
The basic principles were derived in con-
junction with the newly developed OM 640
four-cylinder engine for the new A-Class.
Using the 1500 cc displacement of the
derived OM 639 three-cylinder engine, the
50 and 70 kW power variants were de-
signed with an equivalent wastegate tur-
bocharger. This makes the top version with
70 kW the worlds most powerful three-
cylinder passenger car diesel engine. Dur-
ing the development phase, the air com-
pressor efficiency and the turbine response
were extensively optimised. In conjunction
with the optimum-flow single-piece ex-
haust manifold turbine casing, this tech-
nology achieved high medium pressures,
both steady-state and transient in the low-
er engine speed range. The maximum
torque of 210 Nm in the top version is avail-
able over a wide range from 1800 to 2800
rpm, Figure 6.
The turbocharger is controlled by a
pneumatic actuator.
The air-to-air charge-air cooler is located
in the vehicles wheel arch. The high air
compressor-dependent charge-air tempera-
tures caused by the high boost ratio of 2.3 in
the top version are reduced by over 75 K.
The cooled charge air is fed into the cylin-
der head via an integrated mixing chamber
with the introduction of recirculated ex-
haust gas and a low-volume air intake
manifold on the cylinder head, practically
without effective intake runner length.
The emissions concept is based on a very
low level of engine-out emissions. The
structural design of the combustion cham-
ber and the duct was developed in conjunc-
tion with the four-cylinder engine for the
new A-Class. The goal in this case was to re-
duce the conflicting objectives of specific
power and emissions.
Here, the focus was on the design and
detailed optimisation of all parameters in
the intake duct configuration, made up of
tangential (permanent) and spiral ducts
(can be deactivated) in order to control the
swirl electrically using an infinitely vari-
able intake duct valve.
The delicate optimisation of the injec-
tion nozzle geometry was an additional fo-
cal point.
In conjunction with a high combustion
chamber proportion in the piston recess
and an optimised recess shape, the com-
bustion process fulfils all requirements re-
garding emissions, fuel consumption, pow-
er and noise.
In particular, it was possible to ensure
the engines insusceptibility and long-term
stability to tolerances. Outstanding specific
fuel consumption was achieved despite the
high specific power and internal engine
compliance with Euro 4, Figure 7.
This was managed within the require-
ment of a favourable mean friction pres-
sure in conjunction with an efficiency-ori-
ented application of all combustion para-
meters.
In order to meet the high requirements
regarding NVH, dual pilot injection was ap-
plied over a wide engine map range. Infor-
mation gained during the parameter tests
on the engine noise test stand was imple-
mented, taking emissions and fuel con-
 5 Engine Control Unit
Figure 8: Basic structure of EPB modular design
sumption into account. In particular, em-
phasis was placed on the subjective com-
bustion noise impression (frequency spec-
trum) inside the vehicle and the various ve-
hicle applications as a basis for decision-
making.
5 Engine Control Unit
A Bosch control unit designed specifically
for this application is used for the OM639
three-cylinder engine. In addition to the ve-
hicle functions and the common rail injec-
tion control, the complete transmission
control has been implemented in the con-
trol unit, Figure 8 and Figure 9. Most of the
required sensor signals are directly ob-
tained and processed by the control unit.
The control unit directly triggers the appro-
priate actuators. Data exchange to the oth-
er systems used in the vehicle is achieved
through the CAN and LIN communication
interfaces.
5.1 Hardware
Additional requirements regarding dissipa-
tion of maximum thermal power of the
control unit are caused by the integration
of the manual transmission actuators.
Through extensive evaluation and sim-
ulation for the sequence of the required
current profiles of each actuator, the di-
mensioning of the H-bridge final stages
was optimised, thus enabling integration
into the Bosch EPB housing.
In this housing design, the thermal pow-
er loss of the components is released direct-
ly to the environment through cooling
MTZ worldwide 1/2005 Volume 66
Figure 9: View of control unit
banks in the floor plate. A constant thermal
dissipation over the life of the control unit
is ensured by a bolted connection of the cir-
cuit board and by using a heat conducting
paste.
5.2 Software/Application
The control unit software is based on the
EDC 16 platform and is designed as a
torque-driven diesel engine control.
The range of engine related functions
corresponds for the most part to those of
the control unit for the diesel engine in the
new A-Class.
5.2.1 Emulation EEPROM
When the vehicle is running, all sensor and
actuator signals are constantly monitored.
Faults found are stored with additional en-
vironment data for further diagnostic pur-
poses. Compared to previous engine control
units, data are not stored in an external, se-
rial EEPROM, but in form of an emulated
EEPROM. In this case, emulated means that
the reference data are archived in the con-
trol units flash memory. This is designed
only for a small number of write cycles,
thus requiring a special write strategy,
which ensures that the EEPROM emulated
in the flash is capable of the required num-
ber of write cycles for the entire life of the
control unit.
5.2.2 Synchronization
without a Camshaft Sensor
A special feature of the three-cylinder en-
gine is the possibility to synchronize fuel
injection and position of the crankshaft
without using a camshaft sensor. As op-
posed to other engines, here the synchro-
nization takes place here with the help of a
virtually generated camshaft signal. This
is detected using the irregularity of the
crankshaft rotation as it develops through
the compression processes in the cylinders,
and it is made possible by a high-resolution
rotation signal acquisition.
6 Test Results
At -25 C, the OM 639 starts almost as quick-
ly as at start temperatures above 0 C. For
example, the preglow time is only 3 s at
-25 C. Endurance runs on engine test
benches amounded to a toal of 30,000
hours. The vehicle endurance runs took
place in part under extreme climatic condi-
tions. A total of 1.5 million km was
achieved.
7 Summary
The three-cylinder diesel engine designed
by Mercedes-Benz meets the Euro 4 emis-
sion level and allows both high perfor-
mance and low fuel consumption to be
achieved. The top version with 70 kW is
thus the worlds most powerful three-cylin-
der passenger car diesel engine. The inte-
grated balancer shaft module and the dual-
mass flywheel result in a pleasantly quiet
engine.
5