Raising the MTU BAR

MTU's M94 Series 2000 beefs up their top-of-the-line marine diesel engine with more horsepower

On July 2, 1900, the sylvan countryside surrounding the health resort town of Friedrichshafen, Germany, was momentarily set askew. Looking up into the sky, those strolling about on that particular summer's day were greeted by a most startling sight. For there, drifting lazily over the placid waters of Lake Constance, its motors droning away like some giant beehive, flew the LZ1, the first engine-powered, steerable, rigid airship.

The flight lasted some 18 minutes and reached an altitude of about 1300 feet. A pair of 12hp Daimler gasoline engines, built by Wilhelm Maybach, powered the Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin-designed airship. The Luftfahrzeug-Moterenbau company was soon formed to construct engines for airships and power-driven vehicles on land and water. And while no one could foresee it then, this was the beginning of the Motoren und Turbinin Union, GmbH, better known as MTU.

DIESEL DOMINATOR

Today, MTU is one of the world largest manufacturers of diesel powerplants designed for marine use. And the latest engine to roll out of the manufacturing facility is the 2600hp M94 Series 2000.

"In 2004, we introduced the Series 2000 engines, rated from 1600hp up to 2400hp in eight, 10, 12, and 16-cylinder models built strictly for marine applications," said MTU senior marine sales manager, Steve Mazepink, as we discussed the M94 design with Andrew Packer, the company's senior manager for marine applications, at this past Miami International Boat Show.

The requests for more power, faster acceleration, and better fuel economy began surfacing fairly soon after the engines hit the water. That's when a research group was formed and Packer came aboard.

"In order to get this done, the engineering group had to go into dealing with combustion, the sequential turbochargers, cooling system, and exhaust manifolds among other factors affecting horsepower," Mazepink added. "On the downstream side, we then had to figure out how to deal with conforming to the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Tier 2 commercial emission standards as well as those set by the International Maritime Organization."

It was obvious that more than speed was a consideration of the already excellent performance of the models. "The first thing we had to look at was the combustion system," said Packer.

Working with the pistons and connecting rods, they were first beefed up to handle the added power. Going from 2400 to 2600hp might not seem like a lot, but it is. "Remember, internal combustion engines are trying to tear themselves apart. We've engineered them not to," said Mazepink.

On the turbo side, Packer and his engineers had to rematch them. "On our M93 products, the engine was optimised to operate at wide open throttle," said Packer. "When we put in the recipe for the new engines, we re-optimised the turbo package to give us better fuel consumption at cruise speed."

MAKE THAT THREE TURBOS

For the 12 and 16-cylinder models with sequential turbocharging, there are three turbos on the engine. Given that most owners, when they need to, tend to cruise their boats with the engines running in the 2000 to 2100rpm range, the optimum operating level is achieved right after that third turbo kicks in. Packer was also able to have the engines generate higher boost pressure at lower engine speeds to help reduce a vessel's acceleration time.

The exhaust system components were lightened up in order to allow some of the heat to build quicker and thus get a faster response time from the turbocharging system. Other areas include remapping the governors to conform to the EPA standards, engineering double-wall fuel lines and triple-wall, water-cooled turbo and exhaust routings to keep the engine surface temperature under 428°F (220°C), resulting in a cooler engineroom. In addition, all the engines are SOLAS (Safety of Life At Sea) certified.

It took a little over two years for the M94 to become reality. The 10 and 12-cylinder engines are available now with the 16 due out this month. The eight-cylinder M94 will follow by year's end.

"We build engines. It's the only thing we do. And for the M94, we raised the bar on ourselves," said Mazepink.

For more information, visit MTU's website here

Raising the MTU BAR

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