ENGINE & TRANSMISSION
The Kenari is available only with a 1.0-litre engine and this is a new unit –
coded ‘EJ-DE’ – mounted transversely in the engine bay. The compact and
light long-stroke engine has three cylinders with four valves per cylinder,
one camshaft operating the inlet valves and another separate one operating
the exhaust valves. Such specifications were once found only in high
performance sportscars but are today commonplace in ordinary cars to get
more power without having to resort to larger displacements. Fuel efficiency
is also enhanced due to better combustion.
In case you wonder why there is a need for so many valves and two camshafts, the answer is to squeeze more power out of the 329 cc in each
cylinder. Two valves per cylinder, even though the valves are smaller, allow
for a combined valve port area that is actually larger than a single valve.
This means more of the air and fuel mixture can be introduced. The same
applies to the exhaust valves: the increased exhaust port area allows faster
flow of the exhaust gases. Incidentally, the intake ports are positioned
vertically and kept straight to allow the air-fuel mixture to flow smoothly.
Separate camshafts for the intake and exhaust valves enable the camshafts
to spin at higher speeds and complemented by the lighter weight of the
individual valves, the engine can rev more freely.
Electronic fuel-injection (EFI) is used and this makes for far more efficient
fuel delivery than the carburettor while generating less ‘dirty’ exhaust
fumes. With a computer managing the fuel supply, the needs of the engine
for a given driving condition are more precisely met and maintained consistently. In fact, with EFI, maintenance is less demanding because there
is no need to make adjustments as the air-fuel mixture will always be at
optimum.
Power output of the engine is 40.5 kW (about 55 bhp) at 5200 rpm, with
88.3 Nm of torque at 3600 rpm. The dyno chart reveals that the power
output curve is steep but the torque curve tends to fall sharply after its peak
at 3600 rpm. The latter characteristic is not unusual for such a small engine
and shows how a compromise has to be made with limited torque; in this
case, the focus was on the low to medium speeds where most driving is
done.
Because of the compactness of the Kenari, the catalytic converter is not
installed towards the middle of the exhaust pipeline as in bigger cars.
Instead, it is located next to the engine and occupies a space just behind the
radiator. The proximity of the exhaust-cleansing device to the exhaust ports
is actually better because it will enable the catalytic converter to heat up
faster (the catalyst works best when it is hot).
With EFI and a 3-way catalytic converter, the Kenari’s engine satisfies Euro-2 emission control standards and this is important for Perodua because it has
to stop selling the Kancil in UK as that model’s engine cannot meet the
 new
emission control standards that will be introduced in that country from this
October. The Kenari will therefore take over from the Kancil for that market.
Both manual and automatic transmissions are available. The manual transmission is a 5-speeder with overdrive ratios in 4th and 5th gears and a
final drive ratio of low 4.266:1, while the automatic has four forward speeds
with an overdrive ratio in top gear. For enhanced acceleration at the low
end, the final drive ratio fitted is 4.438:1.
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