etruck.com.au

The latest new ‘World Engine’ from Detroit Diesel has just been unveiled in the US and will be replacing the MBE 4000. The new 12.8 litre DD13 will provide the basis for all of the engines in Freightliner, Sterling, Mercedes Benz, Western Star and Fuso trucks in the intrastate and vocational segments needing a 13 litre’s power and torque.

The MBE 4000 was only released five years ago but can now be seen as a stop gap between the engines the Daimler Group had at the time and their plan for a series of global engines fitted in all of their brands

The six cylinder in-line DD13 will be offered to the US market in output and torque variants from 350 to 450 hp and 1,350 to 1,650 lb-ft.

The engine features the electronically-controlled Amplified Common Rail Fuel System (ACRS), a fuel delivery system that works in unison with Detroit Diesel’s DDEC VI engine management system to deliver the exact amount of fuel needed at just the right moment, creating an optimal combustion event.

The details released so far talk about an asymmetrical turbocharger, said to result in less moving parts when compared to competitor’s VGT or waste-gated turbocharger designs. However, the actually technology involved is not clearly explained.

Detroit’s announcement also confirms the engine will use SCR to meet US EPA 2011. We can expect to see the version announced in the US lauch here in Australia in 2013 but may see a simpler version, perhaps without SCR, here by sometime in the next couple of years.