Honda Amaze ‘Earth Dreams’ diesel envelops cutting edge technology and efficiency
The soon to be launched Amaze has a choice of both petrol and diesel engines. The petrol is the tried and trusted 1.2-litre engine used for the Brio before this and even before that in the Jazz. Its refined, efficient and dependable but it's the 100PS/200Nm diesel that is of concern to us because this is the first time Honda is using a diesel in the Indian market.Â
The 1.5-litre i-DTEC features an aluminium cylinder head joined to an open deck aluminium block. Each cylinder wall is around 8mm thick, which for a diesel engine is quite amazing. Each cylinder is also surrounded by a continuous water jacket operated by a new compact water pump that enhances engine cooling significantly for more efficient operation.
Inside each cylinder is a lightened piston with a thin and short piston skirt floating inside lightened cylinder liners. The connecting rods are light weight units as is the crankshaft which is also stiffened and lightened after having treated them with nitrides. All of these weight saving measures are to reduce frictional losses within the engine thus improving fuel efficiency. Â
This with other weight saving measures makes it one of the lightest passenger car diesel engine in the country today. The engine uses a fixed geometry Garrett turbocharger (future Honda models from higher segments will receive a VGT). To keep the engine refinement in check, the engine-mounts are liquid-filled. This engine codenamed N15A is fuelled by a set of solenoid fuel injectors running 1600 bar rail pressures.
To improve volumetric efficiency of the cylinders, Honda's engineers introduced a high intake flow and high swirl head port. This enables precise monitoring of the combustion process thus reducing unwanted emissions.