New Scania V8s top 1,000 hp for marine use

Dag Pike was invited to Sweden last month on behalf of MJ to test the engines on two lifeboats and meet key Scania personnel.

“This is a completely new engine designed from the bottom up, commented Robert Sobocki, senior vice president of Scania Engines. “It offers more power than the previous 16 litre engine that was in our range and for the first time we are able to offer an engine of 1,000 hp for marine use”.

This new engine, like its predecessor, is a V8 design and is based on a truck engine, which is the pattern for all marine diesels these days. The new engine has been developed to meet the latest emission standards demanded by the IMO, EU and US regulations and along with these high standards, Scania is also promising low fuel consumption and easy servicing.

The engine is based on a block of 16.4 litres with a footprint that is almost square so that it will take up minimum space inside the hull. The engine is available is a variety of ratings from 550 hp for heavy duty commercial use up to the 1,000 hp version that is designed for patrol boats and leisure use.

“With the power of this new engine we are highly competitive with engines well above 16 litres in capacity, said Lars Eklund, the sales director of the marine engine division at Scania. “The high torque ratings of this new engine ensure ample performance even at low revs and this engine is designed for efficient operation across the whole speed range”.

“We have designed the marine versions of this engine to be suitable for a wide range of vessels”, added Robert Sobocki. “At the highest power outputs this engine will meet the demands of performance craft such as patrol boats and fast yachts. The high torque of the engine will make it suitable for a range of displacement vessels where the excellent fuel consumption will be a bonus. One of the main applications of this new engine will be for planing workboats such as pilot boats and rescue craft and then there will be application in larger ships where the engine can be used to power generators. In this last application the expanded intervals between oil changes will be a bonus.”

The engine has a swept volume of 16.4 litres, a length of 1.551m and a width of 1.251m. There will be eight versions of the engine, offering suitable power outputs for various applications. The power ratings range from 550 to 1,000 hp with all versions operating at 1,800 rpm. The same variety of engine versions is available for generator applications, where the maximum power will be 596 kW. The engine is available in two cooling versions, one with a heat exchanger and one with keel cooling.

The new engine features individual cylinder heads on each cylinder and Scania claims that this allows many of the major service items to be carried out without removing the engines from the boat because each component is small enough to be lifted by hand. These cylinder heads are combined with wet cylinder liners, which help to make it easy to conduct overhauls in confined spaces. The service intervals have been extended by fitting a centrifugal oil cleaner that filters out small particles. This has allowed for a smaller filter cartridge to be fitted and for the oil change intervals to be raised to 500 hours of running.

Whilst Scania uses electronic control with a PDE system for the operation of the fuel injection systems, they have retained a form of mechanical injector which Scania claims facilitates the servicing of the engine. The electronic system includes an engine management system and the turbo-chargers have waste gates. This new V8 engine has a slightly increased swept volume compared with the earlier V8 and there is also an increased combustion pressure. A Saver Ring placed at the top of each cylinder liner helps to reduce carbon deposits on the edge of the piston crown and also reduces cylinder liner wear.

Lars Eklund commented, “Scania’s new engine platform is renowned for its high efficiency, providing very good fuel economy irrespective of the type of operation. We achieve full control of our engine production by carrying out virtually all of the design and production in-house. The modular architecture and common work methods simplify training in Scania’s service network whilst maximising the uptime for users.”

Last years Scania introduced a 13 litre in line 6 cylinder engine with many of these advanced features incorporated. Like the V8, this engine was designed to meet the higher emission requirements and it has power outputs from 400 hp for continuous use up to 750 hp for intermittent use. In addition to these to upgraded engines at the top of their marine range, Scania is planning to add a 9 litre diesel engine in the future. This will be based on an updated version of its current five cylinder truck engine of that size and will enable the company to offer a competitive range of engines to meet a wide variety of marine applications. These 9 litre engines are available in version to run on ethanol and on LPG and it is possible that marine versions for use on these fuels will become available.

Two of the new V16 engines rated at 1,000 hp have been retro-fitted into 20m lifeboats from the Swedish Sea Rescue Society. They are reported to provide the instant response and high reliability demanded for rescue work. In this application, the engines are coupled to Rolls-Royce water jets.

Since 2008 Scania has been part of the German Volkswagen group. It produces over 70,000 diesel engines each year from factories in Sweden and Brazil. Currently Scania diesels are offered as part of the Yanmar range where they extend the Yanmar range up from its high speed smaller diesels. These Scania/Yanmar engines will continue with the current engines and are sold mainly to meet the requirements of the leisure market. However, this badging arrangement will not apply to the newly introduced 16 litre engine and it seems that the arrangement with Yanmar will be phased out once the existing engines in the Scania range have stopped production, leaving Scania to handle all marine sales directly from its many service and sales stations worldwide.

Further information: www.scania.com