Rebirth of the 1980s: The Military Industry Empire

The inline six-cylinder is already the limit. Except for some special cases, if you want to continue to increase power, you still need a V-shaped structure!

Speaking of this, Zhao Zhiqiang couldn't help but say: "President Qin, do you think we can develop a V8 engine to meet the needs of the army's new generation of vehicles?"

If Qin Yang supports it, then they will do it!

In his expectant gaze, Qin Yang shook his head: "Let's forget it. After all, you are a civilian heavy truck factory. The engines you develop should still be based on inline six-cylinders. If you want to increase power, you can further increase the displacement."

The V8 route is not reliable. After all, military engines and civilian engines are very different. If they invest huge sums of money to develop a V8 engine, and then only a few models use it, the high investment will not be shared.

"Yes, the Steyr V8 engine only has a displacement of 11.97 liters, which is about the same as our inline six-cylinder engine. We can completely continue to increase the displacement and use a six-cylinder engine to achieve the performance of an eight-cylinder engine."

In later generations, the displacement of truck engines continued to increase, with 13-liter and even 15-liter models, but the engine form has always been inline six-cylinder, and V8 structures are rarely used.

This is also the result of careful consideration.

The V8 engine just sounds domineering. More two cylinders mean more wear and tear. At the same time, the complexity of the V8 structure far exceeds that of the inline six-cylinder. For example, camshafts, etc., must be doubled. Truck engines pay attention to cost-effectiveness, and V8 is destined to be a minority.

Qin Yang didn't want to lead the truck engine down a wrong path. He had to let our domestic truck engines follow a normal track.

Continuing to develop inline six-cylinders is enough. The engine structure is simple, mature and reliable. As long as high-efficiency turbochargers and fuel injectors are used, the engine performance can be continuously improved. There is no need to take the V8 road.

"Currently, we have increased the power to 490 horsepower, which is already quite good. It can be completely used in our commercial vehicles and become the strongest existence. Steyr can't compare to us," Qin Yang said.

The Steyr V8 engine only has 320 horsepower, which is entirely because the turbocharger is not powerful enough. We use advanced processing technology to strengthen the engine block, so we can have such strong performance.

This engine can of course also be used in trucks, becoming a high-end product for trucks, and used in many special places.

"Well, we also have this consideration. Our brother unit plans to manufacture large-sized vehicles, which will use this engine."

In the field of trucks, large-sized vehicles are the strongest existence.

Ordinary trucks can only pull dozens of tons, but in various industrial equipment, there may be hundreds of tons of goods that need to be transported. For example, a power plant is built in the northwest, and turbines, generators, and transformers need to be transported there. These cannot be assembled on site, but can only be assembled in a factory in the east and then transported there.

A single component may weigh hundreds of tons, and be super long and super wide. At this time, professional large-sized vehicles are needed for transportation.

The trailer has many wheels that can withstand such a large weight, but the tractor unit must also be powerful.

This requires a powerful engine. Generally speaking, 500 horsepower is just the starting point, and 600 or 700 horsepower is better.

In the past, China could not manufacture this kind of vehicle and could only import it at a high price. Now that China has this level of engine, it can of course also be used in large-sized vehicles.

Weichai only manufactures engines, and the complete vehicle is manufactured by brother units. In this era, everyone's relationship is still relatively good, and it has not reached the point where they need to split up in later generations.

"Large-sized vehicles can be used, and ordinary vehicles can also be used," Qin Yang said, "Haul more and run faster, serving our country's construction."

After Steyr entered the East, it was called the train skin on the road. Especially on the road from Shanxi to Tianjin, it is often seen that the truck bed is full of coal, and then a trailer is hung behind it. More than one hundred tons is commonplace.

At the same time, the speed is also like a snail crawling. When encountering a small slope, you have to drive slowly. If you stop halfway, you even have to back up to the bottom of the slope to start again. There is no way, after all, the power is not enough.

If you replace it with this four or five hundred horsepower engine, the power will be much more abundant.

There is no concept of overloading in this era. Haul more and run faster to build the motherland.

"Well, ordinary vehicles can be directly matched with conventional gearboxes, and large-sized vehicles must also be matched with hydraulic torque converters. We don't have them on hand, so we have to import them."

With an engine, there must also be a matching gearbox.

When Steyr was introduced, the dual intermediate shaft gearbox used on it was also introduced, and it was handed over to Shaanxi Gear Factory. Since then, Fast gearboxes have begun to develop and grow in the East. However, this gearbox is still conventional, using a diaphragm clutch to combine power. Ordinary heavy trucks are fine, but large-sized vehicles are not.

Even ordinary heavy trucks are not suitable for people who can't drive them. After all, if too much cargo is loaded, the clutch must carefully find the engagement point when engaging, and slowly release the clutch. A little faster will stall the engine. Moreover, after starting, the clutch cannot be used anymore. You must master the coordination of vehicle speed and engine speed, and shift gears without stepping on the clutch, and you cannot grind the gears.

"This is very similar to what we need to use on tanks," Zhu Lao said.

The entire project is a wheeled infantry fighting vehicle, which has nothing to do with tanks, so Zhu Lao didn't speak just now, and now he mentioned it.

Tanks also need automatic transmissions, and power also needs to be transmitted through hydraulic torque converters. In the West, automatic shifting has long been realized, but the East is not yet able to do it. When developing the third-generation tank, considering the technical difficulty, it was finally decided to imitate the T-72's dual-side planetary transmission system. However, this only solved the problem of whether or not there was one, and it will definitely be developed later.

Using automatic transmissions in tanks will save a lot of physical strength during driving, and can also be replaced with steering wheel operation, and can also achieve turning in place.

"That's right, so this project can be put here with us to study together!" Qin Yang said.