An Experimental Study on Improved Fuel Economy and Lower Exhaust Emissions of New Automotive Engine adopting Split Cooling System

This paper presents a split cooling system for a new inline 4-cylinder automotive engine. The split cooling system circulates coolant to the cylinder head and cylinder block separately. The coolant flow in the cylinder block is controlled by a $2^{nd}$ Thermostat installed at the outlet of cylinder block. The $2^{nd}$ thermostat closes when the coolant temperature is low. And this makes the coolant flow in cylinder block nearly stagnant, thereby reducing the coolant-side heat transfer coefficient and raising cylinder bore temperature. The $2^{nd}$ thermostat starts to open when the coolant temperature reaches a specified temperature. The test results on engine dynamometer show improved fuel economy and lower exhaust emission which result from the decrease in friction works and cooling loss. Also, several vehicle tests, with application of the new engine have been performed. Fuel economy improvement of 0.5{\sim}2.0%$ yields from different test modes and details are discussed in this paper.