Another Big Step for Proton

“Having its own engine is crucial to Proton’s future. It’s the ‘heart’ of a car, and without it, you can’t have a car. So we want to have our own Malaysian engine which we can manufacture ourselves and stop buying from other manufacturers.”

That statement was made by Tan Sri Tengku Mahaleel, CEO of Proton in early 1997, about six months after he joined the national carmaker. The economic crisis had not yet hit and he was talking about getting Proton in shape for the next decade when it would no longer have protection due to Malaysia’s participation in AFTA.

The success of Proton in the domestic market had brought in enormous profits allowing the company to build up cash reserves of about RM2 billion by mid-1998, enough to help Proton weather the crisis. The money was used for strategic investments in expanding R&D facilities (RM400 million) and also for the Waja project which required an expenditure of RM970 million.

The amount remaining allowed for one more major project and it was decided in April 1999 to proceed with the development of its own ‘heart’. RM450 million was allocated to develop an engine family which went under the project name of SENG – for Small ENGine – and the target date for getting the engine into production was set as late 2002.

“The objective in developing our own engine is to improve Proton’s competitiveness in future through not having to import engines from overseas,” Kamarulzaman bin Darus, GM of R&D and New Platform Development, told AUTOWORLD.COM.MY. “The cost savings to Proton will be in the region of 25%, which is quite significant.”

“Like the Waja, having our own engine would also save Malaysia a substantial amount of foreign exchange through reduced importation of engines. It would also mean that we own the engine and can do whatever we want in future according to our own needs and strategies,” he added.

A big step towards realising that strategically important goal takes place today as the Prime Minister unveils the prototype of the SENG at Lotus Engineering in England. After today, the engineers will proceed with the challenge of preparing the SENG for commercial production and spend the next couple of years refining it and testing it thoroughly.

Many other companies are involved in the SENG project, notably Petronas, Advanced Engine Research (a Proton-Petronas joint-venture for engine development) and SIRIM. Various leading component makers are also participating and providing valuable input.

Encik Kamarulzaman said that although there is also the Petronas engine which has reached an advanced stage of development, that powerplant is intended to be a ‘high-performance engine family’ with 1.8-litre to 2.2-litre displacements. The SENG, on the other hand, will be for the high-volume market and have displacements ranging from 1.0-litres to 2.4 litres.

In view of increasingly strict regulations being introduced in Europe in coming years, the SENG has been developed with substantially lower toxic emissions (it will meet Euro-3 standards and be Euro-4 capable) and fuel consumption, lower noise levels and less electro-magnetic/radio emissions. Recyclability is also a key feature as, by 2005, some European countries will make it a requirement that at least 80% of an engine can be recycled. And as the engine is a large and heavy mass, its characteristics during a collision have also to be ‘programmed’ so that occupant safety is maintained.

In the initial phase, development will focus on the 1.3-litre (1332 cc) and 1.6-litre (1597 cc) engines. These are 4-cylinder DOHC 16-valve engines with cast iron blocks and aluminium cylinder heads. Encik Kamarulzaman said that aluminium cylinder blocks had been considered but were found costly and in terms of weight-savings, the amount was not as substantial as might be imagined because of the stiffening structures that would be required. Also planned for the family are a 1.0-litre 3-cylinder (999 cc) engine and V6 engines of 2.0-litres and 2.4 litres.

The SENG engines have been designed on a modular concept which means that there are many common components, lowering production costs. The pistons, for example, are common to all the engines and have a 76 mm bore. Thus, to get the different displacements, the stroke is varied. For the 1.3-litre engine, the stroke is 73.4 mm while the 1.6-litre engine has a 88 mm stoke. As for the V6, these will essentially be two of the 1.0-litre engines joined together.

The long-stroke configuration suggests that these engines will be high on torque and such a characteristic is popular in engine tuning nowadays, rather than high-revving engines. Plenty of torque makes for easier driving and stronger acceleration which is more useful in daily driving. But to broaden flexibility, the engines will also have cam-phase switching, which is like variable valve timing. Preliminary specifications show that the 1.6-litre SENG will have 82 kW of power and 148 Nm of torque while the 1.3-litre SENG will have 70 kW and 120 Nm.

The numbers appear modest and Encik Kamarulzaman admitted that the need to achieve commonality of components meant some compromises had to be made. “It was very important for us to minimise the number of different parts in the engines and also to ensure that the SENG could be produced at our existing engine plant without needing new investment,” he said.

Other impressive features of the SENG will include cylinder deactivation and direct fuel injection. Cylinder deactivation enables one or more cylinders to be ‘cut’ during conditions when all the power is not necessary, thereby reducing fuel consumption. The concept is not new as Volvo was experimenting with it in the early 1980s and GM even put in it some of their models. However, the early cylinder-cut engines did not run smoothly when cylinders were shut down. But Encik Kamarulzaman said that with modern electronics and better engine management, this will not be a problem.

Direct injection (DI) is actually how electronic fuel injection was conceived to be but because earlier fuel supply systems that could deliver fuel precisely were too costly, the concept was not commercialised on a larger scale although it has been used in some sportscars. But now that it is economical to have DI, Proton is adopting it for the SENG.

Unlike conventional EFI, DI sprays the fuel right into the combustion chamber instead of the intake port area. With advanced electronic engine management systems, the injection timing can be more precisely timed to optimize combustion in response to operating conditions. The temperature inside the combustion chamber is lowered by evaporation as the fuel comes directly inside. At the same time, the air density at the intake side is raised which enhances power output (same principle as turbocharging).

With a DI engine, the moment of fuel spraying into the chamber can be delayed to constrain the spread of fuel atomization. This helps form an air layer next to to the cylinder wall, reducing cooling losses, boosting thermal efficiency and ultimately improving fuel economy. DI also reduces the emissions of carbon dioxide from the engine, helping to reduce the introduction of the gas which has been blamed for global warming.

But the SENG program does not stop at developing just five different petrol engines. Like the world’s leading carmakers, Proton is also thinking well ahead when eco-legislation or diminishing traditional energy resources make it necessary to use alternative fuels. The SENG engines are being developed to be able to run on NGV or as part of a hybrid package (petrol engine + electric engine). There are also studies being done on fuel cells and hydrogen-fuelled engines for the future, revealed Encik Kamarulzaman. Diesel engines are not expected to be developed as Proton is not so interested in the segment. In fact, as reported earlier, even the Waja Turbodiesel is not likely to be produced.

It is not known at this time which models will get the SENG engines but they will certainly be adopted for as many models as possible. In the short-term, Proton will still have to buy engines from Mitsubishi and Renault (for the Waja 1.8) but from 2003 onwards, you can expect to see changes progressively taking place.

“We believe that the SENG engine project is totally viable for Proton and it is planned for a 10-year lifespan with a total output of 500,000 units. That figure is only for the 1.3-litre and 1.6-litre engines; if you add in the variants, then the economies of scale will be even better,” said Encik Kamarulzaman.

Now you can understand why Tan Sri Tengku Mahaleel has been quietly confident that Proton can be a competitive player in due course. More information will be available later on.