An electronic control system has been developed to control the heat exchange in the engine, so as to maintain the engine structure temperature at full-power levels, whatever the operating conditions.
With this system, higher temperature levels of the engine structure can be attained under low load and low rpm conditions, thus increasing the adiabatic properties of the combustion process and reducing the viscous friction between piston rings and cylinder walls.
This paper discusses the system design criteria and provides a description of the tests made on engine and vehicle. It has been shown a fuel economy improvement of about 7% on ECE driving condition, 13% at 40 km/h reducing to 1% at 90 km/h.
