Cummins unveils '07 engine lineup

[Tom N]

Cummins unveils '07 engine lineup

by Sean Kilcarr, senior editor

Feb 13, 2006 2:50 PM

ST. PETERSBURG, FL. Cummins gave reporters an overview of how its heavy- and medium-duty 2007 engines will differ from its current models as the engine maker prepares to roll out several "beta prototypes" to select truck manufacturers this month for final testing.

Jeff Weikert, executive director of mid range engineering, noted that the medium-duty product line for 2007 will include a new beefed-up 6.7-liter ISB, replacing the current 5.9-liter platform. The '07 ISB will offer 325 hp
and 750 lb-ft of torque - an improvement over current ISBs by 50 ponies and 90 lb-ft. He
also said Cummins' ISC (330 hp, 1,000 lb-ft of torque) and ISL (365 hp and 1,250 lb-ft of torque) will be equipped with the same exhaust gas recirculation technology (EGR) currently used on the ISB platform.

Weikert added that 170 beta prototypes of Cummins' entire mid-range line are scheduled for production starting this month, with 150 earmarked for fleets in the U.S. and Canada and 20 for the engine maker's engineering research team.
This follows 2.5-million miles of total medium- and heavy-duty '07 engine testing that began in May 2005 across multiple truck applications - delivery vans and utility trucks plus tankers, heavy haulers, garbage and dump trucks as
well as LTL and TL applications, he said.

"These [beta] engines represent the final validation of our 2007 process,"
Weikert noted here during a news conference ahead of the Technology & Maintenance Council's annual meeting. "The results so far from our field tests are better than I thought they would be - especially in terms of how much
active regeneration of the DPF needed to undergo. We didn't need much active
regeneration to keep the filters clean; and the less active regeneration we have, the better off we are in terms of fuel economy."

Other key changes for Cummins '07 mid-range line, said Weikert, are a bigger
18-quart oil pan to allow for oil drain intervals to be extended to 20,000
miles, a new "coalescing filter" to clean crankcase emissions that needs to be
replaced every third or fourth oil change, optional electronic oil level sensors, and an optional compression brake for the ISC platform.

On the heavy-duty side, however, Cummins was more circumspect about ratings for the '07 ISX and ISM platforms. Yet Steve Charlton, the company's executive director of heavy-duty engineering, stressed that ratings won't be reduced for the heavy-duty lineup.

The engine maker stressed that the Cummins '07 ISX engine has no additional subsystems other than a coalescing filter to clean crankcase emissions and an exhaust dosing injector in the turbocharger to add minute droplets of fuel to
the exhaust stream for active regeneration. "Other than that, the '07 ISX
looks a lot like the '02 ISX, with the exact same base engine design," Charlton noted.
"The stability of the base engine design, we think, gives us much better reliability."

For the '07 ISM, all the emission-related components - including the EGR cooler,
variable geometry turbo (VGT), and coalescing filter - will all be on one side of the engine for easier maintenance, he said.

"The heart of our ['07] engine system is VGT, and the heart of our aftertreatment system is a diesel oxidation catalyst (DOC) and DPF," he said. "System integration is the key to success, especially for maintaining fuel
consumption comparable to current levels. So incremental improvements for the ISX and ISM for 2007 include an electric actuator for the VGT to provide faster response and improved precision in adjusting airflow to the engine,
improved EGR subsystem with a high-performance cooler, and a faster electronic control
module (ECM)."

Both Weikert and Charlton emphasized that DPF service internals, to remove ash build up, are going to range between 200,000 and 400,000 miles for both its medium- and heavy-duty engine lines, depending on the vehicle's duty
cycle, or 6,000 hours for a typical urban bus. Both said the filter Cummins plans to use
for its medium- and heavy-duty products is designed to last the life of the engine.

Charlton added that only one DPF is going to be required for the engine, no matter the application or rating. "If, for example, an owner-operator wants to stay with a twin-exhaust stack style, we'll use a horizontal DPF placed under the sleeper to clean the exhaust before the stream splits," he noted.

Cleaning the filter itself is going to require a special machine, but Jeff Jones, Cummins vp-sales and marketing, said with the potential for a 400,000 mile service interval, most fleets won't need to get cleaning done during the ownership life of their trucks.

Cleaning itself doesn't take long, he said - 30 minutes on average, not including the time to remove and then replace the filter on the vehicle. The filter-cleaning machine has a five-gallon bucket for ash collection, which
should take 30 to 40 filter cleanings to fill.

Jones added that Cummins expects a total of 1,000 distributors and truck dealers
to be certified for warranty work by the first quarter of 2007. "We started explaining the certification process in the fourth quarter of 2005 and plan to start sending them certification kits during the second and third quarters this year," he said. "On the service and support side, we're a full year ahead of
where we typically would be in terms of certification and training on previous
product rollouts."

In short, Cummins believes it is ready for 2007, said Ed Pence, vp & gm--heavy-duty engine business. "Our 2007 field testing is well ahead of schedule, with field tests jointly conducted with [truck] OEMs and end customers so they
could validate the performance of the entire system in real-world conditions and duty cycles," he said. Both '07 model medium- and heavy-duty engines will be available for purchase in the fourth quarter this year.

[Tom N]

Cummins unveils '07 engine lineup

by Sean Kilcarr, senior editor

Feb 13, 2006 2:50 PM

ST. PETERSBURG, FL. Cummins gave reporters an overview of how its heavy- and medium-duty 2007 engines will differ from its current models as the engine maker prepares to roll out several "beta prototypes" to select truck manufacturers this month for final testing.

Jeff Weikert, executive director of mid range engineering, noted that the medium-duty product line for 2007 will include a new beefed-up 6.7-liter ISB, replacing the current 5.9-liter platform. The '07 ISB will offer 325 hp
and 750 lb-ft of torque - an improvement over current ISBs by 50 ponies and 90 lb-ft. He
also said Cummins' ISC (330 hp, 1,000 lb-ft of torque) and ISL (365 hp and 1,250 lb-ft of torque) will be equipped with the same exhaust gas recirculation technology (EGR) currently used on the ISB platform.

Weikert added that 170 beta prototypes of Cummins' entire mid-range line are scheduled for production starting this month, with 150 earmarked for fleets in the U.S. and Canada and 20 for the engine maker's engineering research team.
This follows 2.5-million miles of total medium- and heavy-duty '07 engine testing that began in May 2005 across multiple truck applications - delivery vans and utility trucks plus tankers, heavy haulers, garbage and dump trucks as
well as LTL and TL applications, he said.

"These [beta] engines represent the final validation of our 2007 process,"
Weikert noted here during a news conference ahead of the Technology & Maintenance Council's annual meeting. "The results so far from our field tests are better than I thought they would be - especially in terms of how much
active regeneration of the DPF needed to undergo. We didn't need much active
regeneration to keep the filters clean; and the less active regeneration we have, the better off we are in terms of fuel economy."

Other key changes for Cummins '07 mid-range line, said Weikert, are a bigger
18-quart oil pan to allow for oil drain intervals to be extended to 20,000
miles, a new "coalescing filter" to clean crankcase emissions that needs to be
replaced every third or fourth oil change, optional electronic oil level sensors, and an optional compression brake for the ISC platform.

On the heavy-duty side, however, Cummins was more circumspect about ratings for the '07 ISX and ISM platforms. Yet Steve Charlton, the company's executive director of heavy-duty engineering, stressed that ratings won't be reduced for the heavy-duty lineup.

The engine maker stressed that the Cummins '07 ISX engine has no additional subsystems other than a coalescing filter to clean crankcase emissions and an exhaust dosing injector in the turbocharger to add minute droplets of fuel to
the exhaust stream for active regeneration. "Other than that, the '07 ISX
looks a lot like the '02 ISX, with the exact same base engine design," Charlton noted.
"The stability of the base engine design, we think, gives us much better reliability."

For the '07 ISM, all the emission-related components - including the EGR cooler,
variable geometry turbo (VGT), and coalescing filter - will all be on one side of the engine for easier maintenance, he said.

"The heart of our ['07] engine system is VGT, and the heart of our aftertreatment system is a diesel oxidation catalyst (DOC) and DPF," he said. "System integration is the key to success, especially for maintaining fuel
consumption comparable to current levels. So incremental improvements for the ISX and ISM for 2007 include an electric actuator for the VGT to provide faster response and improved precision in adjusting airflow to the engine,
improved EGR subsystem with a high-performance cooler, and a faster electronic control
module (ECM)."

Both Weikert and Charlton emphasized that DPF service internals, to remove ash build up, are going to range between 200,000 and 400,000 miles for both its medium- and heavy-duty engine lines, depending on the vehicle's duty
cycle, or 6,000 hours for a typical urban bus. Both said the filter Cummins plans to use
for its medium- and heavy-duty products is designed to last the life of the engine.

Charlton added that only one DPF is going to be required for the engine, no matter the application or rating. "If, for example, an owner-operator wants to stay with a twin-exhaust stack style, we'll use a horizontal DPF placed under the sleeper to clean the exhaust before the stream splits," he noted.

Cleaning the filter itself is going to require a special machine, but Jeff Jones, Cummins vp-sales and marketing, said with the potential for a 400,000 mile service interval, most fleets won't need to get cleaning done during the ownership life of their trucks.

Cleaning itself doesn't take long, he said - 30 minutes on average, not including the time to remove and then replace the filter on the vehicle. The filter-cleaning machine has a five-gallon bucket for ash collection, which
should take 30 to 40 filter cleanings to fill.

Jones added that Cummins expects a total of 1,000 distributors and truck dealers
to be certified for warranty work by the first quarter of 2007. "We started explaining the certification process in the fourth quarter of 2005 and plan to start sending them certification kits during the second and third quarters this year," he said. "On the service and support side, we're a full year ahead of
where we typically would be in terms of certification and training on previous
product rollouts."

In short, Cummins believes it is ready for 2007, said Ed Pence, vp & gm--heavy-duty engine business. "Our 2007 field testing is well ahead of schedule, with field tests jointly conducted with [truck] OEMs and end customers so they
could validate the performance of the entire system in real-world conditions and duty cycles," he said. Both '07 model medium- and heavy-duty engines will be available for purchase in the fourth quarter this year.

[RobAndTeresa]

It will be interesting to see how Cummins, CAT, and other less popular diesel manufacturers deal with the new EPA guidelines.

Also any changes in reliability/dependability, service and maintenance costs to the end user, etc.

Take care.

[Lug_Nut]

I Noticed they did not mention the 140 lbs. muffler that is 3 times the size of convential types.

[Radarr]

I've heard from good sources, that the 400hp engine is going to be coacked becaused of the 2007 specs and if your looking to buy a new coach check try to get it with a 2006 engine. Definitly something to consider, remember the CAT engines with their new ascert technology and how HP and were effected. I think it's going to be another learning curve for the first year, as usual, until they get these new specs dialed in,but hopefully not at our expense.

radarr

[Joe-K]

It is interesting to follow all the changes the engine manufacturers are needing to make in their new designs to comply with the EPA requirements. I wonder how much cost increase and enviromental impact there is in a negative manner to comply with the standards designed to improve emission quality.

As an example...How much steel is used to make these new systems, how much energy is consumed in fabricating the parts vs the amount of reduction in polluntants. Maybe the items make sense in high mileage vehicles, but one would think some type of exemption would exist for RV engines that don't get as many miles put on them.

As an example, the article talked about the DPF (diesel particular filter) which has a potential for a 400,000 mile service interval. There is a custom machine to clean the DPF which can clean 40 filters until the five gallon ash bucket for waste ash is filled. Lets see now doing some quick math in my head someone can drive their RV 16,000,000 that 16 million miles to fill a 5 gallon bucket with ash.

More realistically, the average RV driven perhaps 16,000 miles a year will generate a whopping tablespoon of ash a year

I really wonder if the benefit of eliminating that tablespoon of ash a year is worth the inpact of designing, manufacturing, and installing the fancy filter. Again, how much steel, coal, electricty and fuel were consumed in manufacturing, distributing, transporting and installing the filter. I'm betting the ultimate inviromental impact end up being negative.

I'm all in favor for clean air and improvements in technology to achieve our clean air goals, but you also have to be realistic and evaluate the "big picture" to see the effectiveness of such systems.

[Lug_Nut]

Add to that the ash is considered a toxic waste and requires special handling.

[WeBrzn2]

Joe-K brings up an interesting and often overlooked point these days. On the polution side, are we creating more polution than we are saving with some of the ideas when taking into account the entire picture? Only way to know is to do the analysis that no one wants done that is connected to it.

The same thing applies in the energy sector. The push out here in California is for Hydrogen. Great idea, but how many BTUs of energy are expended per 100 BTUs of Hydrogen? Unless things have changed (other than nuclear power) it is in the neighborhood of 150! Thus, we are in a net loss situation on the nergy balance equation. It seems that all of the alternative fuels explored as well as the alternative sources are being looked at very myopically, I never hear of an energy balance assessment being performed as part of the evaluation. There are very few alternatives that are a net energy source (get more out than you put in), including (based on my crude assessments) hybrid vehicles!

[Two Sides]

Does anyone know of a Cummins forum ?