3 Big Problems With Direct Injection Engines (Gasoline)
How Gasoline Direct Injection causes Chain Wear, Fuel Dilution, and LSPI.
Oil formulations and testing can ensure direct injection engines are protected.
Sponsored by Mobil 1 - www.mobil.com/en/lubricants/a...
One of the biggest changes to gasoline combustion engines in recent history is the mass adoption of direct injection technology. With direct injection, engines can run with higher compression ratios, higher boost, and higher efficiencies. The marvel has lead to widespread downsizing of engines, ditching large naturally aspirated engines in favor of smaller, turbocharged engines.
But the industry shift didn’t happen without complications; these new engines have faced three big challenges: chain wear, fuel dilution, and LSPI. In this video we’ll discuss the differences between port and direct injection, what causes the issues direct injection engines face, and how oil formulations & testing can help solve these problems.
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Late 90s early 2000s engines were the best. Decent power, not too much plastic, port injection, good fuel economy, and most were ulev so very clean. It’s a shame we massively increased price and complexity and decreased reliability for another 3 mpg.
Yeah, this is true. Most of the German cars that I've worked on from that era were great in both power and efficiency, yet weren't too overly complicated where you needed to disassemble half the engine to do an AC Compressor. Unfortunately somewhere in the mid to late 2000's engines became increasingly more complex and crammed with more plastic and sensors/electrical components.
Thank the government for this.
Facts
I think that, inch by inch, we'll get better without sacrificing the spirit of 90's cars. Look at the GR86, for example. It retains and improves upon the driving experience of 90's sport coupes while improving fuel economy a bit. I think cars like that give us hope for the future of petrol.
Love my K20 for that reason, it was just before emissions became stricter and so it revs to 8300rpm. VVT, Vtec, Still gets about 27mpg which isn’t bad, and is port injection
The engine oil in the wine glasses was a nice touch. Pairs nicely with SAE 5W-Chardonnay
I find 20W-XXs to be a fine vintage.
Wine Conneisseurs ...............non detergent Beer here !
Excellent!
May I suggest cheese appetizer and main course of grapevine smoked salmon with side of broccoli and rice pilaf can substitute w cous cous. Yum yum! engineering brain food
You will taste notes of pistons with a hint of bearing material. Pairs well with some aged gasket cheese
As a forty year retired general duty HD mechanic,this video brought me up to speed on the new auto engine problems quickly ,well done👍
I've owned 1 x small capacity direct injection turbocharged engine, never again - intake valves required carbon cleaning at 34k miles which eventually the vehicle manufacturer paid to repair. Traded it in & got a Toyota hybrid fitted with D - 4S, direct & port fuel injection so best of both worlds, no turbocharger & 2 litre capacity.
Only Jason, can make an entire product placement video both interesting and useful.
Gotta pay the bills. 🤓
it helps that Mobil 1 is smart about it and doesn't try to ram it down your throat the entire time.
good products im ok with. its when they start slinging crappy products at my face that I cant stand. Only the hot stuff please
No comma needed, Ted.
I was already using mobile one anyhow. And have been for 30 years. I must say I have yet to get rid of a car because the engine was bad. But it's surprising how many other expensive things can go wrong.
As usual, your videos are very informative and without much "fluff". Very well explained in layman's terms and easy to watch. Others should take note!
Thanks!
@TakeDeadAim Have you seen speedkar99 videos? Takes apart everything and explains how it works, no fluff. A good compliment to EE channel.
* Taking Notes *
@@EngineeringExplained Jason, in regards to timing chain wear, as a mechanic of some years, the main issue seems to me to be the engineering choices made by the engine manufacturers to use tiny, jewel-like chains and complex curved tension side guides to make the systems quiet. The prevalence of small pitch single row chains on spindly plastic guides would, in my eyes, be the major cause of failure. They just don't have enough margin in them to last. Surely a poorly tuned old school carby engine had at least as much soot in the oil as a modern clean burning DFI
@@Danger_mouse I agree 100%. All American V8 engines had a double row timing chain and it was very short by nature. When we see the timing chains used in these overhead cam engines , the timing chain is three times as long and yet it appears to be a single row type.
Mazda got GDI right. There's an air/oil separator from factory and they rerouted the coolant in the block to increase temp at the very valve seats, minimizing carbon deposits. Moreover, the Skyactiv design of the headers and other components work together to prevent knock (pre-ignition). Just keep with oil changes and the engine is expected to last 300k+ miles.
what doesn't Mazda do right? thanks for posting this info.
@@benca101 yep, sound deadening on the first 3 gens of Mazda 3 😂
Not all GDI engines are made by Mazda
@@benca101 Well they didn't do my 323 or my 929 very well in fact I'll never buy another Mazda again.
@@chasl3645 you've had bad luck. I got a Mazda with over 300k miles, got new piston rings and didn't even had to bore the block, meaning it can go another 300k easily.
Great video as usual. I used to change the Mobil One oil in my 96 Impala (5.7 liter LT1) every 5,000 miles - like clockwork. Now, I let the oil change monitor in the car tell me when it needs to be changed. The "change oil" light came on yesterday. That means I drove 5,800 miles since the last oil change. Under ideal conditions, the oil monitor allows a max of 7,500 miles between oil changes and reduces that max number based on driving conditions and habits. In my case, I make a lot of short trips so the monitor decreased the max miles by 1,700. The monitor does not actually analyze the oil, but instead it monitors how the oil is used.
I usually change in the 25 to 30% range. even then the oil comes out thin and black as coal. If you run it the whole way down it comes out like water.
@bacorable That's exactly what I'm doing...Jesus!
I do it by mileage or time whichever comes first and I am religous about it, it usually gets changed 2 weeks early or 500 miles early because I won't go 1 day or 1 mile over the interval. My car always gets a proper service at the right time with the correct oil. It is also run on premium fuel at all times which I am sure is great deal of help for the engine.
Your LT1 is port fuel injected and is therefore entirely immune to this problem.
6000 mile intervals is way too long. the oil and the filter together cost 30 bucks at walmart
Every time I see the white board looking like this at the start of one of Jason's videos I think, "I'm not going to want to sit through all this." Then I look at the clock and it's 10/15/20 minutes later and I'm still glued to the screen. It's hard to fathom the amount of work that must go into making a video like this both informative and captivating, yet somehow he does it time and time again.
This means a lot, truly. And from a creator's standpoint - that first part scares me (the "I'm not going to want to sit through this). KZhead as a platform has certainly evolved, and I with it, but I'm still a one man show and a whiteboard is a really effective tool for the kind of content I like to produce. It's very warming to hear it's appreciated! And yes, there's a lot of time going into a video like this. Numerous discussions with engineering, follow ups, planning the whiteboard out, filming, editing. Even with a simple premise like a whiteboard as an educational tool, it's not nearly as easy as hit record and upload haha. Thanks for your comment!
@@EngineeringExplained Don't let it scare you! I think everyone interested in logic and physics-based explanations understands that the white board *needs* to look the way it does (and by the way, compared to professors I've had your white board is extremely neat and has great illustrations)...I just sometimes assume I'll lose interest before all of the information is covered, yet I never do. Thank you for all your hard work and for making learning about these concepts consistently fun. :D
That was the smoothest oil plug removal I've ever seen from an engineer! Well done
Haha I promise I have plenty of b-roll of it not going that well. 😂
Very Very good! We purchased a Ford Edge 2.0 new in 2020. I try to change the oil every 4000 miles with Amsoil 5-30, but usually get around to it by 4500. I sent in 2 oil samples for analysis. Both came back with excess fuel readings. Everything else was optimal, except for the fuel in the oil. This has totally answered my questions, and I appreciate it.
Back in ye olden tymes, the 40, 50s and 60s, the common practice with airplanes operating in the Arctic was to dilute the oil with avgas, on purpose, before shutdown. This would get the viscosity down to a level where you could start the engine at -20C without building a fire under it, or having to drain the oil from the engine and keep it indoors overnight (another common practice). Oil dilution systems were common options on airplanes run in the far north. You had a button you'd push for a certain time while idling the engine before you shut it off, which would pump raw gas directly into the oil tank or sump.
Invented by a WWII B17 mechanic in England who got in the brig for doing it. Then the AirCorps had them all do it because it worked. When the oil warmed, the gas evaporated.
The real TIL is in the comments.
@@hotrodray6802 An oil dilution system was first patented in the late 30s (it appears in Google Patents). I'm sure the mechanic story is true, but probably was not the first to do it.
I just watched a p51 mustang video that showed that switch in the cockpit, the narrator didn't explain it's purpose but you just did, thank you!
Oh yeah International Harvester would call for a quart of kerosene per 5 gallons (I think..) in 10 degree or below weather for better cold starts with the 400 series, such as DT466. Something along the lines of a quart, not much.
I am glad I watched this. I was expecting or maybe hoping for a discussion on the type of emissions GDI produces compared to port injection, and the effects on overall pollution, but this was informative and made me ask questions I hadn't even thought about before and seek out their answers! Learning! Stay safe.
Great! Another video to fuel my existential dread of owning a Flex Ecoboost while living in a small town. Good job! It's why we give it the Italian Tune-up on the regular. Or, as my son called it once, the "Irish Pedal!"
Italian tune-up is vital! 😂
The Ecoboost is pretty solid, just use synthetic oil and change it every 5K and you'll be fine. Some people see 5K as excessive, but for "severe duty", ie lots of short trips, its good practice.
@@ice44567 I get my oil tested every time I change it. I only use mobile one 0 20. This last time I waited 7 months which was only 5,600 miles. The oil test came back from Blackstone with excess gasoline. So from now on I'm going to make sure to change my oil at least three times a year never mind the mileage. I think testing is a good idea with these engines. I have a GDI four cylinder Accord with turbo. I plan to test every time I change the oil but if you wanted to make an economy move you could probably test once a year as long as you were changing the oil three or more times a year.
Take mine in the back roads with high loads in 3rd or 4th for about 20 minutes and it brings oil temps 200-230F.
If you change your oil with good full synthetic regularly the ecoboost is good
Your description of GDI engines features & problems was spot on! I was privileged to be a lead auro research technician for several years, in LSPI phenomenon consortium studies at SwRI. The 2.0L GM LHU Turbo GDI engine was my assignment at that time. What a sturdy engine for that test matrix. The pistons had a hollow donut ring under the combustion face & was oil squirter cooled (like some diesels,) evenly cooled as the oil traveled thru the donut, & cooled piston top equals a stronger, LSPI resistant piston. I operated these engines for hundreds of hrs., heard thousands of LSPI's, watched amazing cyl. pressure traces (LSPI spikes), and the LHU would hold up amazingly well. Yes, you mentioned the oil additive that grossly exacerbated LSPI's (the engine sounded like a popcorn machine!) Without the additive, the engine might run for hrs. totally quiet! I love your show, great dissertation & nice learning experience! Thanks!
In my experience the chain failure on GM ecotec engines tend to be the results of the guides breaking down. These guides are often plastic. In Ford v6 engines it's the water pump bearings. Very rarely do I replace a chain because the chain itself is worn. Usually it's because I'm in there anyway and something else has failed causing timing to be off.
Thats only on Ford's transverse V6's though. The longitudinal V6's, like in the F150, do not have a chain driven water pump. It's driven by the regular belts and yet 1st gen 3.5 Ecoboosts in the F150 still had major issues with chain stretch. The 1st gen had a single long chain that drove both cylinder banks. The 2nd gen(2017+) went to dual chains, one for each bank, that are close to 1/2 the length and therefore are not as sensitive to elongation.
Seth Jones. I can’t agree with you more. I’ve owned a 2011 GMC Terrain 4cyl ecotec. I’ve always been up to date with my service intervals with regards to the oil changes. At 36k Mi, it needed a new chain. At 75k Mi it would die out in traffic and I got rid of it. At only 55k Mi I found myself doing 2k Mi oil change intervals. The engine would burn 1 quart of oil every month at 1,000 mile use within that month. It’s a crap engine. Faulty piston rings caused oil to burn leading to a faulty maintenance minder reading. If you went by the recommended oil change by the shop or the minder you would have no reading on the stick like me. This in turn caused the chain to slap because the tensioner on this engine works by oil pressure. The ecotecs were made to fail.
AFAIK every manufacturer uses plastic chain guides. If they are metal the running surface is still some kind of plastic or teflon insert.
I had a 2016 1.6d made by GM. It started chain rattle at 30.000 miles and this was indeed the plastic guides breaking off of the metal they were moulded onto. The reason, i was told, was the chain tensioner was weak and at startup it would take a few seconds for it to tension. This meant that the chain would be able to "slap" the plastic, and this made it fail. That engine was dubbed "Whisper Diesel" because it was supposed to be extra quiet, but it did not take long before people online, renamed it the "Rattle Diesel". To change the tensioner, chain and guides, they needed to take the engine out of the car and split the engine from the gearbox. Price for this repair was quited by a GM workshop here to be "No less than $2500"... That problem and a few others made me lose faith in the car completely, i sold it to a GM dealer and bought an EV instead, i dont want to have to contend with expensive engine problems. PS. Yes when it started the car was in warranty, but i, and others were told by GM that this was just an "Engine characteristic" and not to worry. When the warranty ran out, they found out it was a problem (Engines started "exploding") i talked to them again and they agreed i should get that car fixed, but now it was out of warranty so i would have to pay out of pocket. If you wonder then.....Yes, i am NEVER buying a GM vehicle ever again.
The new Nissan VC-Turbo engines [Variable Compression, Turbo, Direct Injection] are just what we need. We can expect both transmission and engine failures now.
More because it's Nissan than high-tech.
@@townhall05446 More because of ringing ever bigger horse power and torque out of ever smaller displacement. That being said, I have no trust in modern Nissan vehicles either.
The DI chain stretch is also caused by the added stress of running a camshaft driven high pressure fuel pump.
High quality silent chains dont use a single pin either, they use a split pin that is much better.
Hi Jason, would it be possible for you or one of your viewers to make a spreadsheet of your video productions by subject and/or topics. Your productions are excellent and very useful to young engineering students (and older engineers such as yours truly) to illustrate, complement, and/or supplement what they learn/we teach in engineering classes. Your videos are an outstanding resource for our students as they present "real-life" scenarios and uses of the theory they learn in the classroom. Thank you, Ciao, L (FoMoCo engineering, retired)
Awesome video Jason! Can letting your car idle after a short trip turn it into a "long trip" or does the car need to actually be driven?
I would think you'd actually need to drive it. The goal is to get the oil up to operating temp (let's say 200 *F or so) to evaporate the fuel and moisture, and idling after a short trip is unlikely to get it there, particularly in the cold weather.
@@IJMacfarlane but the engine runs hotter when you're sitting in traffic which is the same as a car idling. I would think that might help instead of driving the car at highway speeds which would cool the engine because of the air passing through the radiator. I currently have a car that overheats if it sits still too long.
@@WilbertIsRandom well it is something like this. When you are idling you don't have abundant air coming in over the cooling system so parts of the engine heat up. But at the same time the engine is not engaged. It is not doing any work. When the engine is doing the work of making you go forward it requires more energy to push against the Pistons. Therefore the combustion in the engine when the car is running it is at higher pressure than when it is idling. When you are idling you can get a higher engine temperature because of the lack of cooling not because of the reduced pressures in the cylinders. The reduced pressure in the cylinder means the ignition occurs under lower pressure and therefore there are more pollutants in the exhaust. Specifically more unburned fuel. That's why for decades air quality measures have targeted reducing idling emissions. Your engine can be at a higher temp because the cooling isn't working as well and at the same time not burning the fuel as efficiently. That would lead to build up of fuel in the oil particularly on GDI engine. So driving, rather than idling, is the ticket burning gasoline that is built up in the oil. Yes, when you are driving at high speeds the cooling system is working more efficiently. But in order to generate those speeds higher pressures and therefore higher temperatures in the actual combustion chambers are required. And that leads to a more efficient burn and reduces gasoline in the oil.
@@tim71pos if my temp gauge centers that’s up to temp. So say I run my truck at 70 mph for 10 minutes 4 times a week I’m clear of gasoline buildup in my oil?
OKAY people you’re ready for It ??? Simply get a diesel engine block heater put it in your gasoline engine and make sure it’s up to temperature before you go on your short trip !!!! No joke .. this is an option he did not discuss .. .. GOD BLESS ALL !! …. This means you plug it into 120 V power supply .. This also means you have a certified technician install the block heater and make sure it has a thermal switch on it that shuts it off when it gets up to temperature !!! … Again GOD BLESS
Ford/Toyota/VW: "Why don't we have both?" Everyone: * cheers *
Hyundai and Kia too, I guess manufacturer’s realized GDI wasn’t all it was hyped up to be
Mazada.. gm... almost everyone.
In addition to those brands, Suzuki also uses both injections with their Dualjet engines.
Some engines now come with port injectors, as well as direct injection. I'm curious to know if you feel this is to address these issues or the build up on the valves.
Yes, but also to reduce soot emissions out the tailpipe. Direct injection gas engines emit up to 200 times more soot than modern diesel engines. Manufacturers like VW were looking at particulate filters for their GDI engines.
@asutin Grubbs best of both world
My Lexus RX350 has this. You can definitely hear the GDI injectors popping on cold days, but it’s significantly quieter than pure GDI engines I’ve driven. Edit: okay I’ve looked at a cross section of their design, the buildup on the intake valves in GDI is because there’s not gasoline flowing over them to clean them. The Toyota engine shouldn’t have this because of the port injectors inserting fuel into the intake side, so it should stay comparatively clean.
In DI/PI engines, port injectors are used at start-up and at low RPMs when efficiency isn’t needed, switching over to direct injection at higher RPMs to produce more power. This not only reduces carbon build-up on intakes by pouring gasoline on them, but also ensures that direct injection isn’t used at low temperatures. That reduces unburned fuel (soot) and oil dilution. The trade-off is that these engines are quite a bit more complex in fuel injection and pumps, but also in timing and programming.
Complexity can be a problem later (complex systems break down if not properly maintained).. So keeping up with oil change intervals (full synthetic always), avoid a lot of short trips. Keeping engine clean and free of carbon buildup (carbon is a great insulator and has a high heat storing capacity.. heat accelerates oxidation exponentially). I wold use a PEA based fuel cleaner periodically (2 or 3 times a year at least) to prevent carbon buildup on piston tops, port intakes, etc.
Thanks Jason for clarifying timing chain “stretch”. I never really understood how that occurred until today.
All I can say is thanks. This is the most informative, best explained engine video I've ever seen!
I find it strange that in the quest for cleaner, stronger engines, we now have increased oil dilution and carbon fouling. Seems like it wasn't really well thought out
Yeah we should stop wasting our time with barbaric gasoline and focus on electricity
@@jordanmackay6746 electric estrogen cars, which super expensive batteries
@@jordanmackay6746 rare Earth minerals depletion...
@@jordanmackay6746 If EVs are as great as pundits claim, we don't have to do a damn thing. Just sit back and let the Invisible Hand of the marketplace TCB. After all, nobody had to regulate out horses, now did they? Wanting EV mandates is a tacit admission that EVs aren't "all that."
@@bcubed72 it doesn't really matter at this point whether or not EVs replace internal combustion, wholesale. The mining, extraction, and burning of fossil fuels has already set us on an irrevocable course. Hope an unlivable planet was worth burning those V8s!
A few really easy tips to keep your GDI engine healthy, based on the information in this video: 1. Try to limit your amount of short trips 2. Don't floor the car when you are on low RPM 3. Rev it up once in a while when it's on operating temperature 4. Change the oil regularly and use the correct oil (this is a recommended for every car, but even more so for GDI engines)
So cynicism towards 10,000 mile oil change recommendations might be founded.
Nope, you didn't quite ace the final exam. Need to look for "API SP" or "ILSAC GF-6A" on your oil to prevent chain wear at 5:35.
@@briangeiger9307 That's a more specific description of my 'use the correct oil' remark
Ahh, so a rotary then.
@@bobdevreeze4741 Weird that others seem to have success but not you 🤔
Thanks for answering some questions I had, and raising awareness of other issues. Relevant topics, fine exposition!
Good job! Well explained. I love Mobil1. Used it since the marketing push back in the early 80s. I worked at an Exxon and Mobil station. Every engine I've looked into that ran Mobil 1 all the time, were always spotless.
Synthetics in general all seem to be very good. Though still needs regular changes. I generally do mine every years or 10000 km.
Port injection is so much simpler and more reliable. It cleans your intake valves as well 😊
And another thing he does not mention. With GDI engines they increase the compression, which leads to more very fine soot particles being released into the exhaust. This is then countered by installing a particulate filter, just like on diesel engines. The thing is....Diesel has caught a bad rep, because of the soot problem, but now they introduce this into petrol engines as well. So now they have petrol engines with bad particulate emissions like diesels and because of the lower energy density in petrol, they have higher Co2 emissions. So in short...A modern diesel engine puts out less pollution than a modern GDI petrol engine, but diesel is still getting a lot of hate.
@@JohnDoe-bd5sz Moreover, a diesel engine is wayyyy more efficient and reliable than GDI or whatever the sh!t it is.
@@protograde2723 Totally agree, but for some reason the politicians seem to be hellbend on hating on diesels. They just released some figures here, almost no one buys a new diesel anymore, even though it would be better for the enviroment, compared to the petrol ones they get instead.
@@JohnDoe-bd5szmodern diesels have become some of the most unreliable engines. Manufacturers have slowly increased reliance on electronics while competing for class leading power numbers and being choked down with emissions reducing equipment. Modern diesels require such precise parameters inorder to make their stated power while exhausting low emissions, new vehicles frequently throw check engine codes requiring a visit to the dealer. Longevity has been sacrificed in the name of torque hence most owners who do long distance heavyweight towing for work trade their trucks in after 5 yrs for a new one. Older diesels could be diagnosed and repaired at home but any new owner of a warrantied diesel truck can tell you about having to bring their truck to the dealer atleast a few times in the first couple years. The cheapest sensors have become extremely expensive out of warranty as have all other parts. You only have to speak to a junk yard owner or follow engine core sales to see how many people are looking for replacement engines after as little as 150k.
@@JohnDoe-bd5sz The issue with diesels is that their exhaust is highly carcinogenic. I know three people who have gotten lung cancer from years of exposure to diesel fumes via trucks and in one case, diesel powered boats. Europe is beginning to ban diesels because of their toxic exhaust emissions. And, just walk by one of these diesel pickup idlers in a parking lot and see how the fumes make you choke.
In other words, think twice before buying a high mileage chain-driven direct-injection engine, especially a turbocharged one.
And don't get a diesel with a DPF. Even worse.
@@MattBrownbill diesel engines are dead, m8. From now on you will only see diesel engines on trucks and ships
@@nn843 I know, mine is dying as fast as it can....
Good thing vq are probably not DI.
Well. If you do just get one with constant oil changes and highway miles. Kinda same principle of buying any other car just more important
I got into this right after high school went to college and got in the field and there is a never ending about this knowledge as the years go by!
Excellent lecture, so lucid and yet so fast paced.
Very good video Jason, thanks! Interesting stuff, on my ND MX5 where API SN is the highest specified oil in the owners manual, I should be able to use API SP as it looks like it most oil manufacturers say that API SP can be used where API SN was recommended by the manufacturer. My current oil is SN but having watched this I think it may be a good idea to go to SP to better protect the timing chain.
I can't believe you didn't mention Top Tier gas, when discussing GTDI engines and LSPI.
I am from South Africa,man your discussions gives me hours of pleasure.thanks
Very much appreciate your videos. Compressing so much information in a readily absorbed method.
Just to mention, in Europe the downsizing was more from 1.8/1.6L to 1.0 Turbo. From 4 to 3 cylinders. Having driven both, the new ones are far nicer to drive (low end torque, thanks to those turbo's) but resilience to abuse is lower... specially lack of maintenance..
Excellent info as always. These gave me ideas on How to "Fix" these 3 problems: 1.- Change Your Oil in Shorter Intervals *wink wink mobil 1* 2.- Drive it Like You Stole it so Engine Oil Gets Hot 3.- Try not to Go Full Throttle unless after 3,000 RPMs
Yup!! I live by a few of the national parks, so I'm regularly on the side of the road taking photos... and you can hear vehicle after vehicle just pinging away as we're at elevation... The other comical thing are the automatic transmissions... on/off/on/off the gas, taking 115 years to simply select a lower gear/higher rpm, so you hear them just pinging away.... even more comical than that, you can actually tell which direction the driver is looking by listening to the sound of the vehicle. So if they see YOU taking photos, the FOMO hits them, and you'll hear the pitch change and let off the gas from their vehicles.... this is in Arches nat park by the way.... even better than that: if they don't see what/why you're pulled over for, it's not an immediate photo opportunity for their instagram account, then, they make up for the 1.3 seconds they let off the gas, by increasing throttle position so much, that they effectively just wasted even more gas on the perception that somehow they lost time by slowing down, when, in reality, if they would have just chosen a specific gear and a constant speed, they would have been able to accurately observe what was being photographed AND, not lost any time through this whole ON/OFF upshift/downshift miscalculation and confusion dynamic.... It's difficult to describe, but, when you're out there almost daily, minding your own business and setting up for photographs waiting for the light, you get to hear this take place over and over.... My fave part about the entire experience: These people will SPEED right past you like "WTF is that guy pulled over for, there's no photo there...." then, fast forward around 37 minutes: "I want to NOW park there, but there's no room!?!? and I'm MISSING the sunset now!! whaaaa whaaa whaaaa".... I'm sitting there thinking: "Welp, all you had to do was NOT speed, and you would have NOTICED a perfect composition along with the sunset happening, but, you were too busy driving with tunnel vision like a zombie: MUST go to the windows, must go to bucketlist spot..." So I watch all these people "on vacation" supposedly the time where one is to "enjoy the journey" but, they don't actually enjoy the journey. They have a preconceived checklist/bucketlist (why can't liberals ban those words?) and they miss out on unique photos, and overall enjoyment. It's like they've decided they want to see 115 things in 22 minutes, but be miserable in the process Vs. seeing maybe 6 things, and bring home some unique and meaningful experiences.... so "vacationing" is like a "job"... it's hilarious, and all these SUV's with 4-cylinders just struggling is beyond comical... so they get 1-3 mpg better supposedly, but it's nullified because of the fact that they cannot choose the correct gear needed, thus creating all of this constant upshift / downshift inefficiencies that dont' take place until throttle positions are over applied, thus the 1-3mpg they "thought" they were gaining by getting "just" the 4 cylinder is nullified... but, people will buy them because "feelings" and "emotions" have told them that they're saving the planet, but really, they're just scammed into higher maint intervals and higher propensity for turbo related issues to come up (actuators, overboost, bad tunes, bad gas, turbo oil seals, etc).... Other than that: I have no opinion.
@@07wrxtr1 Wtf are you on about ranting here, I want 2minutes of my life back
@@07wrxtr1 I hear ya, but i bet a majority of those drivers that you are "hearing" don't know any better to simply push that over drive button or down shift manually, plus there are so many people using the cheapest fuel they can get, which can also cause pinging.
Disagree with driving like you stole it..assuming your 0 wt 20, is now 0 wt 10, or less, high rpms with oil that has barely more viscosity than water, will be extremely bad for rod bearings, along with everything else.
Thanks for the info. It's really interesting as a DI owner. I have a 2019 Toyota Yaris(Mazda 2) with a 1.5 DI engine. I use a spray and soak carbon cleaner before each oil change to clean the intake valves every 5000 miles. I wasn't aware of the low speed detonation and chain pin wear, though I am aware of the oil dilution. It's good to know. In an effort to prevent wear from dilution, I'm using just regular full synthetic Quaker State with the gold label. 540RAT blog tested it last spring and found it to have a film breakdown strength of 152ksi, and respectable high temp breakdown, I think around 280°? It outperformed the Amsoil signature that I ran in my 5.7 hemi to keep the cam lobes from wearing out, so I switched, plus it's a lot cheaper than Amsoil.
Great video. Answers a lot of questions I had - all in one place. Thanks for posting this!
It seems we have always had the cold start issue, with carbs, TBI, Port I and now DI. All require extra fuel when cold, so I don't believe this is DI specific. However, I think this is a greater issue with hybrid vehicles where the engines may not get to a warm temperature when switching between battery and combustion power for short hauls.
With a hybrid they 200% engineered for it. I don't know how hybrid cooling systems work so this is a big if, but if they use the same radiators and cooling system then that electric motor and batteries will heat up the engine while running.
yeah but port injection or a carb dont spray the oil off the cylinder wall. im really not a fan of DI with out port injection also
My 1989 Chevy Van , TBI , 5.0 L had 199 K when the transmission went . It never had a check engine light and ran well when cold . But that was a very basic system with a single wire O2 sensor that I replaced at 125 K as a maintenance item . It had to be warmed up to pass inspection . I don't see many of these over engineered motors giving longevity . There is just too much to break . There are gains in emissions , torque , mileage , etc. but they require expensive repairs . Your best insurance is conservative oil changes with the best oil - like he recommends .
My daughters 18 year old Prius uses a heat storage tank in the cooling system to keep the coolant hot for long periods of time. It has a vacuum isolated coolant tank.
They all do need more fuel when cold, true. But the massive downside causing oil-dilution is the direct injection itself. When your engine is cold you have wider ring-gaps and therefore more blowby. With a port-injected engine that is not that big of a deal. But with a direct-injected engine that hightened blowby causes fuel to be pushed down into the crank-case and dilute the oil. And with the coldstart-enritchment this effect is more prominent.
Thank you for consistently teaching me cool interesting things, in easy to digest and entertaining segments. Also, thank you for sticking with ICE, because it's just way more fun than EV powertrain tech. All the best.
Great video it explains a lot of questions I had about problems with turbo charged gas engines and direct injection on gas engines.
Having the injector issue right now with my Alfa Romeo 159, it has the 1750 Turbo engine, car has not been running 100% for a while, EML came on the other day, smell of fuel in the oil (oil was changed 1 year and 4K miles ago), issues all pointing to dirty, blocked injectors, have pulled the injectors out and sent them off for testing/cleaning. I was a mechanic back in the 90's but new car tech has passed me by, thought direct injection was only a diesel thing, this channel is very educational, i do lots of short trips (work is only 5 miles away) but from now will try and give the car a longer blast now and then, also frequent (yearly) oil changes despite the low annual miles, also going to run a fuel system cleaner through it once a year.
Seafoam it. !
Great video! I once had a 2008 MINI Cooper S (1.6 DI turbo) and over the course of 60k miles of ownership experienced both carbon issues and timing chain issues. During my ownership, I had severe valve carbon issues that I ended up remedying myself by walnut shell blasting…..and also had the timing chain replaced THREE TIMES through factory warranty. Until now, I really had no idea that both issues were related….interesting!
😳 wow. Those minis are garbage
@@WolfmanZX no, just a driver that doesnt drive the car hard enough or change the oil under the severe service interval.
I wonder if this is why the wrx sti still uses port injection
@@OxBlitzkriegxO Agreed, just cut the oil change interval in half and use it on longer trips and you avoid most of the problems on this video.
@@smoke05s or just install a catch can
A huge issue with the previous gen VW/Audi 2.0 TSI engines, aside from carbon fouling on the intake ports and valves, was that soot you mentioned clogging the ultra fine mesh filters that preceeded the balance shaft. It was not uncommon for the balance shaft to tear it's bearings apart and subsequently send material into the oil pan, straight into the pickup and into the crank bearings. Those engines are notorious for destroying themselves in 100 000 - 150 000km if you stick to the factory 16 000km interval. That being said... I've seen one that did that, and lasted another 200 000km with regular 6000km oil changes before the crank journal bearings finally gave up.
More or Less as planned by the manufacturer. Service intervals calculated at elevated wear rates to failure. These calculations can be made and are being made all the time especially in Formula 1 However, the majority of people that are NOT in the know but thinks they are or have self interest vested in the early failure spread the misinformation hiding the trend of shorter life cycles and designed or planned obsolescence.
Yes the car will less efficient than a 20 years old NA engine.
Fords i3,i6 turbos too are in same ball park.. Most f em good for 1,00,000 to 2,00,000 kms, after than junk
500k Vw mkV golf tsi engine. Everything engine original. Installed water methanol injection kit at 30k. Smallest 50cc nozzle. Vehicle is strong and zero carbon build up.
@@lukekilah6257 German engineering at its finest
I learn something new from your videos every time, thank you.
Thank You so much. I just bought a used car with direct injection and I was looking for some technical info and you were a great help ,thanks again.
Well I learnt something new today! I was aware of the soot build up problem on the inlet valve, but I didn't know that GDIs tended to put more soot into the oil in the 1st place, and I didn't know that could be such a problem for timing chains! I work at a Suzuki dealer, we've noticed that the GDi engines generally have much darker oil when drained, I thought it was mostly related to them being turbo'd engines, now I know better! And Suzuki increasing the service interval from 9000 to 12,500 miles for the Booster Jets (their name for turbo'd GDi, lol) seems an even worse idea now! But, so far, no timing chain issues, although the oldest engines are only from late 2015 (at least here in the UK) and they're the ones on a 9k service interval. We've not seen any of those reach high mileage yet though.....
Thanks for sharing your experience, interesting!
Also as mentioned in a previous Eng.Explained vid., the max. internal temperature of a N.A. engine is ~200`C compared to a turbo's engine's 400`C. This much higher temperature also can compound with the specific GDI problems (e.g., making the soot in suspension more abrasive) and adds weight to the argument around more frequent oil changes than the +10,000miles.
@@zenden6564 And would probably increase soot oil load via more carbonising of the oil, as well as likely more piston blow by from higher combustion pressures.
Also because because the stratified injection for low load and low speed. The mixture is bad and builds up soot like Diesel engine. It's why they have to use GPF no?
I bought my first turbo gdi car this year. I like the car it makes great power and is the quickest car I’ve owned. I’m the kinda guy who doesn’t like to leave things stock. I bought six fueling system for the car so along with DI it also has two injectors at the throttle body that run off the maf. I can program when I want them to spray through hp tuners. My next part is Tracy Lewis catch can to completely eliminate lspi.
this is one of your best videos in last year if not more and thank you for that :)
Very helpful, thanks. I'm cutting my oil replacement intervals in half for many reasons.
VA WRX owner and I had to spend $400 mitigating all the downsides of DI before I even installed an intake and exhaust. Wish my FA20 had dual injection.
What did you get? My Dad was born in Weems, on the Rappahannock River. I have a WRX.
VA STI here. The EJ of course has its known problem areas but at least I won't have to worry about DI stuff until (probably) my next car. Funnily enough, I think our two different engines' potential problems have similar solutions
Filter the soot with a bypass filter, common on large diesels, its really keeps the oil clean and the wear down
Exactly what I was thinking, an easy routine to just replace that filter at regular intervals, and won't block up and reduce oil pressure. A clever manufacturer could even make a filter similar to a DPF and burn the soot off
Clever and DPF should never be together.
@@derekhobbs1102 point taken 🤣
I always enjoy your videos. This one in particular. Thank you for teaching me stuff I never knew. My next vehicle is a Ford EcoBoost 4-cylinder truck now I know how to take care of it!
You just made so much sense explaining why short trips are bad for your car and what's considered a long vs a short trip duration wise.
Thank you, this was very informative. I have a 2020 Honda CR-V with the 1.5 L GDI turbocharged engine. I change the oil every 4,000 mile with Mobile 1 and I find the dipstick oil level is above the full mark after a few hundred miles. In my experience, the gas diluting the oil does NOT burn off during a long trip. After long (100+ miles) trip on a hot day in the summer, I never find the oil level returning to the normal full level; it's always above full. I'm very concerned about this.
Very VERY cool and informative video. The only issues I’ve had with cold starts has been with DI engines. I’ve also noticed how DI engines get to temp when it’s cold outside. If you’re not doing highway driving or long distance drives in DI engines in the cold, you will definitely have problems in the future. Look at Honda’s 1.5T engine. The combination of a CVT that keeps engine revs low and the small turbo DI engine is disastrous in cold temperatures.
I've read that they have a serious problem getting up to temp, providing enough heat for passengers or window de-icing, and sometimes get a LOT of unburned gasoline in the oil pan.
@@townhall05446 Yup! You really have to make sure you get them up to temp every now and then to make sure that there isn’t gas accumulation in the oil. With my DI Mazda 3, I’ve noticed that on really cold days it struggles to get up to temp unless I take it out on the highway.
Extremely informative and easy to understand. Thanks!
Great explanation. I remember reading about this in reference to Mazda's current engines. However none of the oil samples sent in had much fuel in them, so they must have engineered for this.
One thing worth mentioning, on older engines a little chain stretch often ending up improving fuel economy, essentially retarding the camshaft by ~2 degrees. We'd often see a small drop in fuel economy after replacing the timing chain and tuning the engine after around 50k to 100k.
If you're in your engine by 50k you need a better choice in vehicle manufacturer. My 96 taco has 290k and I get 35 mpg and I haven't changed the plugs yet.
@@Bramon83 Note: "on older engines". Back in the 80s they still ran carbs. It was far better than the 50s where you had the valves done every 30K or the 60s where you had to give it a full tune up every 30K. That's only one generation behind yours, don't underestimate the longevity added by EFI. Most of the time you wouldn't replace the timing chain until the first major overhaul, plugs/wires every 30K to 50K, replacing valve cover and oil pan gaskets around 100K, generally leaking by then, still might not touch the timing chain unless I have to go into the engine for another reason. 99% of the time you'll hear the timing chain rattling by 100K, it's still perfectly fine, just makes a bit of noise. If the timing set had been replaced by *anything* other than OEM then it won't even rattle by 100K.
@@glenwaldrop8166 If you used leaded gas in the 50s, you didn't need constant valve jobs, and 30,000 miles between tuneups is too long, but you are right about timing chains and leaking gaskets.
@@michaelbenardo5695 I should have been clearer, not 50s model cars, 50s mechanics working on old crap, the rest I pretty well said what I meant. My grandfather was a mechanic on the side for 50 years, think he worked for a dealership briefly after the army. He was telling me about how they had to do the valves after around 30k, which involved disassembling the engine on the old flat top V8s. I may have gotten some of the details wrong, my grandfather was damn good with cars but not so good at getting a point across clearly.
@@glenwaldrop8166 Yup, before the late 50s, "Regular" gas was still unleaded in many places, and yes, you would have to grind your valves and seats often every 20,000 miles. If you used Ethyl, which had Tetraethyl lead in it, you were spared of that, as the lead protected the valves and seats. That's why the automakers were mad about the lead being removed from all gas for 1975 - they had to use Stellite valves and seats in the engines, as they knew motorists would not take kindly about having to go back to constantly having a major valve job.
It is amazing to me the incredibly stringent emissions standards that diesel engines are choked with, and yet the diesel-equivalent soot production of GDI engines is ignored by the EPA. In Europe, GDI engines are getting exhaust soot filters just like diesels. I don't think it will be too much longer until we see a similar crackdown on GDI emissions here in the States. If I'm wrong, then maybe the EPA doesn't actually care about protecting the environment. We really create marvelous problems for ourselves. Engineers in search of an extra 1% of efficiency finally get there, and now it likely will be negated by a restrictive emissions system.
they just wanna kill diesels cause they make less money off of them due to their better fuel economy
I would like to see a Ban on Diesels, as the Carbon Particulate is getting so small it gets very deep into One's Lungs and wrecks real Havoc in there
@@pjimmbojimmbo1990 yeah and lithium ion batteries are great for our health
@@alexanderkennedy2969 I never mentioned Lithium Ion Batteries. I just want a ban on Diesels. I can't breathe when there is one within 120 ft. I will be coughing, causing me to Puke, and I will continue to Cough. Once at a Boat Show, during teardown, some Jackass drives a Diesel inside(against the Facility's Rules), gets out leaving it running. After 20 seconds of not being able to breathe, I went up to it, opened the door, shut it off, removed the Keys, told the woman still inside that she should call a Tow Truck. I then left the Building, throwing the Keys into one of the Disposal Bins outside.
@@pjimmbojimmbo1990you sound like a real Karen willing to do crime in order to get your way. If diesels were banned you would not have grocery stores, or gas, or many other things.
this was extremely helpful, just started to pay attention to my car maintenance and this video really helped me understand some things I need to consider.
As far as I'm concerned this is the best Channel on KZhead!
I'm so glad I forego such headaches with my old and simpler and way more reliable Honda Accord with PGM fuel injection. No mass airflow sensors either. More reliable than a Swiss watch.
This makes me gladder about my recent purchase of an STI and its port injected EJ257. The low gas mileage is inexcusable (even for 2005), but at least there's less to worry about with my short commute.
Lol. The EJ has other problems hahaha
@@JeffSSartor Yeah, turbo lag. No engine is perfect, but an LS2 would've been a start
Make sure to do oil flushes. And fuel system treatments
That’s the kind of information that makes me feel smart for understanding!! Love your video’s
You're really into engineering. Really well done video. Thanks and hope this spurs you on for upcoming videos. You're the man and expert.
I drive an Audi TT RS, it's quite possible a perfect example of engines talked about in this video. Small displacement (2.5L over 5 cylinders), with lots of power, torque, and boost pressure. 18.1 PSI as early on as 1,700 RPM. Peak torque (343) from the same to 5.4K, peak power (360) from 5.4-6.8k. I'm now going to make sure no matter what I buy API certified oil. Especially as my goals for the car are around 500 HP/TQ on a similar power band, at higher PSI, with pump gas. Always informative, Jason.
Endless money pit car in countries where people don't know how to repair them right.
@@labourlawact7826 I don’t know where you’re getting that from, but if Audi/VW does one thing right, it’s five cylinder engines. People often see well passed 300k miles of engine life even with track use and heavily modified, with nothing but typical maintenance. Mine is as 72k miles and needed nothing but standard maintenance.
@@JustinBone Are you from Germany?
@@labourlawact7826 The US
@@JustinBone 😊👍
Here we are, I am about 20 years into my automotive career at this point. These days I am seeing quite an increase in engine failures. Even though there has been a plethera of poor designs to account for this, it 'more often than not' has to do with the owners lack of care and/or understanding overall, in the larger scheme of things. Peoples bad habits are about the same over this period (the general populus has always been horrible at getting their oil changed on time), but more of the failures these days are because modern engines simply cant handle going too far over milage for thier oil changes due to the complex internal designs. In the past engines were simple and could usually take ALOT of abuse, such as going over your oil change interval by 3x the milage. However new engines with SO MANY components especially in the valve train are especially sensative to dirty oil. Since peoples bad habits and horrible maitenance practices are about the same, there is a massive amount of failure due to lack of maitenance. The same applies to drivetrain service, -i cannnot tell you how many people dont even "know" that there is oil in the diff's and transfercase, transmission, etc that MUST be changed on a regular cycle. Mix this with the manufacturers willingness to try and convince people that drivetrain oils are "Lifetime fill" (which is a load of BS btw) and increased OCI recommendation, along with harsh environments like where i live,. aaand let me tell you the amount of needlessly broken stuff we see would stagger you.
Ppl not taking care and manufacturer's with their "longlife" blaaa blaaa intervals or "life time fill" just kills stuff.
Oh, I believe you! I'm a mechanic and probably one of the worst offenders lol
Completely agree
Ok this video really opened my eyes. Thank you so much! I have an older A3 with the EA888 engine, and this video helps a lot!
Love an ole fashion EE whiteboard video. I like the clarification of chain elongation and not stretching.
Very informative. Have you ever done a video on GM' s DOD/AFM/DFM and why they fail for so many and why some go many miles without a problem?
Definitely would be an interesting topic because I’m curious if the lifters fail because of one or more issues leading up to it or if it’s just poorly made lifters. Everyone blames the afm/dod but is it ?
This is a great idea. They sell half a million 5.3s a year and the cylinder deactivation problem needs an answer. Honda also had an issue with VCM eating piston rings. I'd love to hear EEs take on it.
Direct fuel injection, AKA: Bosch mechanical fuel injection utilizing a fuel distributor (of all things) and was something that was whole heartedly embraced at the dawn of the golden age for 'Brickyard motors'. Mechanical fuel injection bore witness to the rise of the of B-21 Volvo powerplants that were neigh indestructable.
These were manifold injection systems, not direct injection.
@@oldanslo Yes DI is a type of fuel injection. The original comment seems to be talking about fuel injection in general
@@oldanslo he might be talking about the old DI systems you see on like the 12v cummins
Really good explanation and information for the masses, as usual. Thank you.
Brilliant stuff, thanks for educating the rest of us.
Could we see an update video on how manufacturers use port and direct injection together?! That would be awesome!
Shoutsout Toyota
Running an unopened Chevy I6 in my daily truck...dating to 1927. Smooth, quiet, powerful and revs to 5000. Put a Weber two barrel and a big air filter on for driveability and fuel savings. Cheap oil and big external full flow filter. No PCV system. Crankcase vents to street. The engine cover has vents. The oil stays golden for 3000 miles. No sludge and no glitter in oil after 450000 miles. The engine pulls hard in my tropical boat towing, desert, jungle, sand, volcano environment. Modern cars here last 3-5 years..complicated German boutique automotivetry 6 months to 1 year.
I agree I have a 85 d150 with a slant probably has 300k miles on it and I get almost 20 mpg and I paid $1200 for it lol
@@alexlandsberger1423 rare truck nowadays.
But no one gets to financially exploit people using efficient designs like this, and we can't have that.
Fabulous detail! Thanks for sharing.
Very useful information, thank you Jason!!
Thanks for your video. How does the short trip vs long trip consideration (and diluting your oil with fuel) get affected by those auto-start stop cars?
Fuel dilution is a big problem. Whenever I emptied my catch can, it seemed like it was mostly fuel. The gas smell was strong. I worked down the street but just far enough away where walking wasn't practical. During winter, the engine may not have even reached operating temperature. I was doing oil changes every 2000 miles or every 2 months (whichever came first). It was worst case scenario for an engine.
It would have been worse with a carb and choke.
why 2 months? I think it is a waste of oil and money unless you race it, if you are doing short trips, for example 10 miles per day, you will reach 2000 miles after 200 days which is around 6 to 7 months
If you're interested, I think you can submit those catch can contents to a lab like Blackstone ($30) and get back a report of what it is. Would be interesting to see what the fuel percentage was.
@@EngineeringExplained That would've been awesome! I no longer work at that location. A missed opportunity
Awesome video, this was very informative because I drive an ecoboost F-150. I always use good full synthetic oil and change it every 4 to 5 thousand miles. So far have had good luck with it.
Thank you Jason for clear explanation! I have few questions that I want to put out here. 1.Gasoline has higher octane number compared to diesel. Is it because the auto-ignition temperature of gasoline is higher than that of diesel? 2. If that is the case, can we operate GDI gasoline engines with sufficiently high compression ratios and injection pressures without spark plugs? Because in GDI engines, the fuel is added much much later to the air and the chances of knock are less. 3. In that case can we operate gasoline engines as compression ignition engines with leaner air fuel ratios like that of diesel? 3. If we operate GDI gasoline engines on compression ignition principle, will knock become desirable. That is, will I want the fuel to ignite spontaneously beyond a certain temperature? Will I want low octane gasoline? Please answer if possible.
I've seen more gdi engines wrecked in the last 5 years that I can shake a stick at. People are lazy and often mistreat engines based on manufacturer directions. I don't know if this is a sure thing, but generally if you contaminate oil (even if you evaporate off the gas) it doesn't work as well as oil that just has mileage on it. I've worked on cars, trucks, semi's, tractors and heavy equipment for over 30 years and I can tell you that simple is best when it comes to the average person, sure some folks actually maintain their stuff but most folks think companies are in it to provide them with a product not that their main goal is to make money...and if it happens at the hands of planned obsolescence than so be it.
That's why I bought a 2020 Corolla SE. It's like a fire and forget missile. Just a regular oil change, a regular fuel grade. Low maintenance cost, no headache.
"Wah! I want improved fuel economy and more power but refuse to change my oil on time or take care of my engine. How dare these evil dirty manufacturers "plan" the obselence of my car?"
First failure of maintaining and engine is going by the oil light to change it. If you change the oil at regular intervals you're fine, if you wait until the light tells you to change the oil you're gonna have issues.
@@glenwaldrop8166 for sure, I run synthetic high mileage that is supposed to be good for 10,000 miles but I can't bear to think of sludge building up🥴
@@spacebound1969 I used see grease fittings, and now it's all sealed balljoints and bushings that require costly part changes. I wish I could a benefit with some of the engineering choices but other than money it's kinda hard. Sure people would skip out on their service intervals and mess up parts but a ball joint change was simpler and cheaper than a whole control arm by far😪
That's why I have bypass depth filtration. It extended the life of my timing chain well over a hundred thousand miles. Combined with Amsoil the service life and testing has been amazing. About 30% better than Mobil 1 based on the hundreds of dollars of testing I have find. Combine that with a pcv separator and the intake ports have been very clean. Life has been long and performance has been great.
I'm making the switch to Amsoil on my next oil change. I have a BMW 328xi port injected N52 that I've been running Liqui Moly in but I think Amsoil is the best stuff out there now.
PCV separator? Is that a catch can?
@@saganworshipper6062 you will be very happy with Amsoil. I would recommend using their engine oil flush before you drain your old oil. Ideal for 15 mins and it will clean all the crud out of your engine. Then use their Signature Series oil and you will notice an improvement in how smooth it runs. Yes, it is more expensive up front. The savings comes from extended oil changes (up to 25K miles) depending on your driving use and extended engine life. Lots of city driving: 15K change. Lots of highway driving: up to 25K. Be sure to use their EA oil filter for max protection. All the best to you.
I have an Acura ILX and a Honda Ridgeline both with direct injection, but neither are turbocharged. In fact, I specifically settled on the Acura ILX because it seemed to be nearly impossible to find a NON-turbocharged engine in a small or even standard sized sedan these days. My previous car was a Honda Accord with a V-6 engine , but they stopped offering them years ago and now they are all turbocharged 4 cylinders. Very annoying. Ironically, my Honda Ridgeline has, basically, the same Honda V-6 engine that my Accord had, but with direct injection. I’m hoping having non-turbocharged engines will help me to avoid some of the problems of direct injection engines, but this video is very helpful pointing out issues I was unaware of such as the problems caused by “short trip” driving. Unfortunately, there’s not really much one can do about it if one’s driving requirements involve mostly short trips. But it’s good to be aware of the issue. I guess I could drive around in circles to make my trips longer. 😉
Thanks for the clear and concise educational video
It's wild how far we've come from carburetors!
What??? I'm only about 15 feet from the carbs on my 58 cadillac and 68 Mustang!
Interesting and detailed video. It seems GDI leads to similar challenges faced by diesels, which also have DI and have to deal with soot and don't do well with short tripping. It is quite notable that GDI engines produce more soot than port injection out their exhaust. Perhaps we will eventually see DPFs on gas powered engines too, another PITA to deal with.
Direct injection gas engines foul up the intake valve which is not a big problem in diesel due to differences in valve timing. I didn't know that they made more soot than ported injection - that's not an attractive feature either. 300 horsepower from a small engine is not for the home mechanic.
Perhaps if we weren’t trying to get 300Hp out of a four cyl engine we wouldn’t have most of these problems. If we simply put a horsepower cap on new engines and reduced power output by around 30% on all automotive engines we wouldn’t have a lot of these problems.
@@MrKnutriis make sure to use gas with good detergents, ie Top Tier gasoline. Use their website to find stations in your area. It helps with intake valve buildup.
They have already started installing GPF on petrol engines. Now Petrol engines has just as bad particulate emissions as diesels and still put out more Co2, but hey...Diesels bad, petrol not...
Just when you think you know it all about DI I am humbled by my man here. Great vid !
Like your explanations of the subjects you do excellent 👌.
Short oil change interval is key! 3K miles is the sweet spot (and if you do a lot of short trips) or 5K miles max. Also intake valve cleaner on the correct interval.
A 3k interval is a complete waste of oil, especially if you're using the correct oil. There's more to the engine oil interval than just how many miles you're driving and whether you have direct injection or not.
Great video. This would explain why timing chain issues seem to be resolved with more frequent oil changes.
Thank you for this detailed video!
Glad it was helpful!
this was GREAT, and quite educational as well. My car's (2015, Audi Q5 2.0) oil specifications are such that whenever I enter info into Advanced Autoparts or Autozone, it does not put up any ILSAC-GF6, nor API SP oils. The approved Audi list has SL & SN oils, but does not mention the newest ones. In this case, I'm talking about the Mobil 1 5W40, 0W40, Castrol Eurocar 5W30 & 5W40, Valvoline 5W40 European formula. None of these have the API SP or ILSAC-6GF labels. Go figure.
All good points and not saying you're wrong with all the points but some cases seeing older motors vs newer vechiles with more emissions devices. Your carbon build ups are coming from the Exhaust Gas Recirculation devices, pcv valves dumping back into the intake, lack of oil changes or the obvious air fuel mixture, but not from where the injectors are located. Carbon comes from the exhaust. Yes the indirect injection can help clean the intake valves but it's from the emissions going back into the motor to be reburned to reduce emissions. All performance vechiles dont have any of these and their components are cleaner than those motors on the road today. This is what I've seen with vechiles but not saying this is always the case for everyone else.
Right.
I have an aging fleet of first generation DI engines - BMW N54 (140k miles), BMW N55 (82k miles), 2 Audi 3.0 TFSI (150k miles and 60k miles), Audi 2.0 TFSI (140k miles recently sold) and a Porsche 9A1 (89k miles). (Also have one Tesla Model S, no DI of course). Of these, I had to walnut blast the N54, but it is still running strong with a Cobb stage 1 tune. The older Audi had to have a very expensive timing chain replacement recently, but that was because of failed plastic tensioners and a bad cam sprocket. Both Audi 3.0T motors suffer from carbon build-up in the secondary air passages which cause occasional to frequent check engine lights. This is somewhat expensive to clean/repair and is a major annoyance. The Audi 2.0T had none of the issues in the video that I know of and it was running an APR stage 2 tune. And the 911 engine so far has been trouble free. The biggest fail on this list is the N55 - it developed rod knock. I took the engine apart expecting a spun bearing, but could not conclusively determine what was wrong. Bearing tolerances seemed fine on both rods and mains. Ended up sourcing a used engine to replace it with. I don't think it was a DI induced problem however, but you never know.
N54 FTW! Change the oil @5k and run meth injection, voila clean valves.
As an owner of a 9A1 engine (Boxster S, 75k miles) I am glad to hear your 911 is still fine! 👍
@@TML34 As someone that owns an N52 I am jealous of your power but I can't be having my daily breaking down all the time 😂 I just gas n go and change oil once a year because I only drive 4k miles a year. My friend has an N55 with like 700hp but he's constantly working on his car lol.
@@saganworshipper6062 you just have to know the faults and what to look for. My N54 has been perfectly reliable....so far. 😀
Showin the regal some love! Good daily drivers. I understood a little about gdi engines, but this video was extra informative. I wonder if, at the time of an oil change, dropping a little oil down there with the drain plug out might help reduce some of that carbon/sut buildup in the oil?
Very well explained. I have a 2011 lexus is250 awd and daughter has a 2015 lexus gs350 f sport. Frequent oil changes done every 5000 miles with 0w-20 synthetic oil. Mostly hwy miles driven