 Direct injection 2
kfz-tech.de/PVe54
Things were initially quieter in the passenger car diesel engine segment due to the small number of suppliers (Mercedes, Peugeot). Only VW shook up the field a little, when one achieved
almost the same performance with drastically reduced fuel consumption in a remarkably lightweight vehicle with a small diesel engine featuring a swirl chamber and distributor pump (pictured
above). Other manufacturers followed suit, until almost every manufacturer had a diesel engine in their program.
In 1980/90, Audi had a phase of continuous development in which research was also carried out on a diesel engine reduced to one cylinder. The results, later adopted by parent company
VW, led to the famous TDI. However, these weren't the first, considering the somewhat rougher Transit engine from Ford and the one from Land Rover.
kfz-tech.de/PVe55
The diesel engine's stubbornness was weaned off by modifying its injection system. Injection pumps responsible for all cylinders disappeared almost as quickly as carburetors had. Common
Rail (pictured above) was the magic word initially coined by Bosch and Fiat, which, after an initial detour by VW to the pump injector, has since become established throughout the passenger
car sector.
kfz-tech.de/PVe56
Truck engines also tended in this direction, but sometimes still preferred the unit injector, which creates maximum pressure in the immediate vicinity of the combustion chamber. The most
dramatic changes had now taken place on the exhaust side, thanks to massive aftertreatment systems, and on the fuel side, thanks to additional substances like AdBlue.
While diesel engines struggled with their exhaust emissions, gasoline engines struggled with their fuel consumption. Even in racing, which attempted to adapt to the target, engine speeds
shrank significantly. If this continues, the rated speeds of gasoline and diesel engines in production vehicles will soon barely differ.
kfz-tech.de/PVe57
Even more important to mention is gasoline direct injection, which is becoming increasingly common for performance and fuel consumption reasons (pictured above), and whose injector you
can see above. In general, there was a point at which the performance of gasoline engines increased much more rapidly than before, and not just due to turbocharging. Relative to
displacement, there is now more power than ever before.
Fortunately, this also applies to torque, which is much more important for everyday driving. This is where turbocharging has the greatest impact, interestingly initially realized in the form of
superchargers, but now apparently more often through turbochargers. If displacement also shrinks in the process, this is now called 'downsizing'.
kfz-tech.de/PVe58
| 
