The Petronas E01
You’re looking at the product of the first Malaysian commercial engine project, the Petronas E01. This project started back in March 1997 with a collaboration between Petronas engineers and development partners. The engine applies knowledge gained from taking part in Formula 1. The result is a powerful engine, up to Honda K20A performance standards.
The engine was designed in two phases. The first phase involved training Petronas Engineers in areas of Computer Aided Design and Computer Aided Engineering. Actual design and engineering of the engine was done in the second phase of the project, supervised by development partners.
The engine start-up ceremony was held on 20th February 1998, and four months later on 23rd June 1998, the engine was finally installed in 2 cars, a Proton Waja and a Proton Satria GTi.
The PETRONAS E01 can be installed about 15 degrees tilting forward or backward within the engine compartment of the vehicle. This allows the engine to be fitted into any model of cars. Versatile! The picture above shows the Petronas E01 installed in a Proton Waja.
Aesthetics-wise, the engine really looks great. The DOHC cover is in black and green, and look at those polished stainless steel extractors! Yum! The engine is not only pretty to look at. Let’s have a look at it’s technical specifications.
Technical Specifications
Valve mechanism: Continuous Control VVT (Variable Valve Timing)
Camshaft: Double OverHead Camshaft (DOHC)
Displacement: 2 litres
Induction: Natural Aspirated
Cylinders: 4, In-line
Valves per cylinder: 4
Block: Aluminum
Weight: 108.9kg
Max Horsepower: 204.3 PS @ 7300rpm
Max Torque: 203Nm @ 5300rpm
Power Output per litre: 100 PS/litre
Volumetric Efficiency: 107.8%
Emission Standards: EURO 2
Original design targets for the engine was 200ps max power, 200Nm torque and 120kg weight. So basically PETRONAS engineers managed to exceed their original design targets.
As a benchmark, the Honda K20A makes 220PS but at a higher 8000rpm. Maximum torque is equivalent to the E01 at 200Nm, but maximum torque is only achievable at 7000rpm while the PETRONAS E01 gets max torque at a relatively low 5300rpm.
The Petronas Satria GTi, spotted at Mutiara Damansara area. Picture courtesy of Verne.
Sadly, news has been going around that this engine has been bought by Hyundai because Proton did not want it. They chose to focus on their own Campro instead. How many of you would have been interested in a Gen2 R3 with this monster of an engine under the hood? I know I wouldn’t mind.
Update: The Hyundai purchase is just a rumour. The engine has been bought by Nanjing Automobile from China. Story is available here.
July 8, 2005 @ 3:42 pm
I wonder how much that engine is worth if I am interested to buy it off-the-shelf. Oh well… impossible but just a thought.
July 8, 2005 @ 4:10 pm
Stupid Proton…can’t see a quality product even it is right in front of their face. They should have dropped Campro and used E01 instead.
July 8, 2005 @ 5:24 pm
The late Tan Sri Azizan, former Petronas chairman live near my house and he use to drive the Perdana and Satria with the E01 engine. But his widow still drives the Perdana though…
July 8, 2005 @ 5:27 pm
What can I say?
How can Malaysian Automotive Industry prosper when the saudara-saudari do not work with each other?
Instead we see Petronas developing a good engine without a great chassis to complement with; while Proton are still struggling on their CAMPRO and importing Anglo-French technology.
We also see Proton and Perodua competing head-to-head instead of collaborating hand-in-hand. With Naza coming into the picture producing ‘national car’ by simply rebranding an end-product from elsewhere.
Now I know why our national car costs so much, because the technology is being out-sourced!
July 8, 2005 @ 5:30 pm
VERY HOT!
Max Horsepower: 204.3 PS @ 7300rpm
Max Torque: 203Nm @ 5300rpm
Power Output per litre:- 100 PS/litre
Volumetric Efficiency - 107.8%
Gold in front of every car manufacturer, but crap in Proton’s eyes?
July 8, 2005 @ 6:15 pm
OMG! I want that in Me!!!!
*pssst Paul, where can I buy/steal it?
July 8, 2005 @ 6:16 pm
Is this the ‘SENG’ engine that they launched sometime in the 90s?
July 8, 2005 @ 6:19 pm
Paul, did you notice the engine is made from alumimum? It is a smart move to reduce the weight of the engine. Kudos to the engineer for the creativeness using the material.
Many sin-kar(smart-alecks) think alumimium block is weak. Maybe it is the main reason Proton don’t want the engine.
July 8, 2005 @ 6:36 pm
moo_t: aluminium engine blocks are actually pretty common already in. even nissan’s SR20DET uses an aluminium block and it’s a turbocharged engine. that proves an aluminium block can stand the pressure of turbocharging.
kenjiro: SENG is campro
July 8, 2005 @ 6:46 pm
Not that Proton don’t want to use the Petronas E01, however the cost will be too much to bare and if Proton indeed use the engine, manalah kita nak dapat spare parts? Petronas petrol station? That’s why Proton came up with SENG with Lotus and concurently the CAMPRO.
July 8, 2005 @ 6:49 pm
Adan: Actually I think it cost too much to buy the engine or something. Would make the cars too expensive. But I think it would still be okay if the engine is only used in high-end cars.
Spareparts and everything wouldn’t be a problem. Can be manufactured when demand is there.
July 8, 2005 @ 7:21 pm
our campro engine name like pro but do a think not even like pro n there not even no what means a PRO word at the back of CAMPRO, there only PRO how to do a stupid thing that what there PRO for.
How there PROFASIONAL?. people r looking for there own identity whit different pro of our own work like Petronas eo1 engine look more pro on it.
July 8, 2005 @ 8:12 pm
paul i got a pic of proton putra(the new one)how do i upload it to ur page?
July 8, 2005 @ 9:51 pm
my neighbour has a petronas GTi thingy. the house up the hill, at the end of the road .. same lane was mine
July 9, 2005 @ 12:17 pm
impressive …. but i dun understand why so complicating for proton and petronas to develope in the name of our nation
July 9, 2005 @ 4:41 pm
apa lah korang nih..
enjin nih tak sesuai langsung untuk kereta harian..
mungkin bleh ubah.. tapi dah jadi macam buat enjin semula..
dah tentu la tak sesuai untuk proton!..
bijak la tu, dari beli tapi tak bleh pakai..
tuh belum kira kos aluminium blok.
kalau tak jual nak buat ape?
simpan? sampai dah ketinggalan zaman?
so = berbaloi dijual.. dapat juga duit.
July 9, 2005 @ 5:16 pm
pomen_kete: i agree with you, proton probably did not take this engine because of the cost. but as for daily driving, with the variable valve timing, the engine can have good daily driving behaviour but good high performance stats at the same time.
July 9, 2005 @ 5:46 pm
Enjin nie dah lama collecting dust on the shelf. Shame on you Paul….baru sekarang nak comment. My friend who developed this engine said no party interested to commercialize it. Sad thing is Petronas spent maybe hundreds millions to develop it(although by Petronas standard, that is peanut). Each prototype that was fitted into Sepang F1 marshall car costed 1 million or so it was said. I wonder how much of these powerplant need to be produced in order for the cost to be managable.Also there was rumor Hassan Merican and Mahaleel are not the best of buddies which explain proton lack of interest.
July 9, 2005 @ 5:50 pm
Shame on me? Just because I did not feature this engine earlier, shame on me? Thanks alot for your comments. They are very encouraging.
July 9, 2005 @ 7:43 pm
i want to fit this on my bike.. can?
July 9, 2005 @ 9:28 pm
well,talking about the EO1 engine,its a rubbish that the engine is sold to hyundai.and do you know y proton did not take up the engine?if u guys dont know,i guess you better shut up.im using a proton wira for 5 years and my car have not gave me any problem.power window tak fail fail lagi.its how u use ur car.well,back to the engine,petronas selling price to proton was very high,and proton was already started with their own engine project by the time EO1 was out.btw,we never new the results of the engine in long term.it was only used at the f1 in the marshal cars.and btw,CamPro camshaft profile engine is already on testing.when the new satria is out,this engines will be an option..i heard that the face lift was which is due to be out around sept might use the campro engine…and the last thing here i wanna say is that proton is protected but the arent gaining anything finacially.where does the taxes go?government rite?so,whose making lots of money here?if the government is smart,the car protect the national car in different way.u gotta look at other countries…
July 9, 2005 @ 9:51 pm
Paul,
Dont mention it. Keep us posted.
July 9, 2005 @ 11:30 pm
nicholas phillip: this comment box is free discussion. there will be no “shutting up” here.
as for results of using the engine in the long term, Wide Open Throttle testing was performed to see how the engine would perform under load for prolonged durations.
July 10, 2005 @ 12:23 am
please improve ur english and understanding before criticizing what PRO at the end of CAMPRO means.. and it’s professional.. not profasional..
what i know is proton is trying to do their best for the campro engine.. any improvement is good.. the current new cars are having improvements aren’t they? support la a bit as malaysians.. as long as they don’t grow weaker as time passes by..
by the way.. i wish Petronas could sell this engine to ‘kedai potong’.. ROFL.. if it’s priced a little cheaper than K20A, i’m sure there are some ‘beta testers’ out there.. =D
July 10, 2005 @ 12:36 am
well….. what i want to say…IT IS A WASTE THEIR MONEY……invest in good engine .. thatn time-lah now….collect dust only sell to scarp metal i think they weight by kilo… i think we are forever get outside….
July 10, 2005 @ 4:11 pm
heard of this petronas engine before i actually heard of campro, and i had (note past tense) faith that proton together with lotus will make a good engine. I dont think campro has fundamentally bad design, however it is definitely not at its best tune.
as for whether the petronas engine should or can be used, i would say definitely. detune the engine, tweak the ECU so the engine make more torque down low and say about 160bhp at 6000… pretty drivable and definitely competitive. Use the 200bhp version on R cars, sell at a premium to compensate for the lower profit margin of the cheaper models.
Better still, shorten the stroke and make it a 1600cc, making say 120-130bhp, but it in Gen3 (probably a rebodied VW Golf by then) and it may be nice. But i no longer have faith in Proton, unless someone up there made some drastic SHIFT_.
July 10, 2005 @ 4:44 pm
i truely agree with bumboy… u make sense and ahahah u must be driving a Nissan eh?> with the SHIFT- =p
July 11, 2005 @ 8:21 am
i hear that the campro engine is the cutting-edge technology in engines, potentially superior even to the dvvt/vvti technology promoted by the japanese. heard from a friend that the problem is the campro used in the gen2 is a very diluted version of a campro engine. a full-fledged campro engine still needs some r&d before it can be made commercially viable. can somebody care to shed a light on this?
July 11, 2005 @ 9:30 am
yah in fact i drive an antique nissan sunny when i am back in msia. i am just very impressed by how nissan rises from the dead. i am sure any enthusiast would have followed that saga through and through.
as for campro being cutting edge… not really. Lotus is developing a new valve system that is, if you go through Lotus Engineering website you could find some papers on it. I am quite sure that system can be adapted to work in Campro. However what they are working now is on a VVTi version of campro, which is fundamentally similar to those by the japanese. The surprising thing I have read in some auto industry magazines some time back, is that the best variable valve system is the one on Rover’s K series engine, the one used by MG TF and the first 2 series of Lotus Elise. Surely, that VVTi is developed by Lotus, for their 190bhp version of Elise. Imagine, 1.6l making 190bhp.. normally aspirated. Reminds me of the days of CRX…
July 11, 2005 @ 9:44 am
read it here http://www.sandsmuseum.com/cars/elise/thecar/engine/vvcrover.html
Rover developed the VVC, not lotus, but lotus made the 190 version
July 11, 2005 @ 9:47 am
napps: the campro in the gen2 does not have any variable valve timing at all. the variable valve timing version is still under testing stages. it’s not diluted… it’s completely missing! this is why people say “campro without campro” as campro is supposed to be the name of proton’s variable valve timing technology.
July 11, 2005 @ 1:01 pm
Sadly, news has been going around that this engine has been bought by Hyundai because Proton did not want it
sadly….
Lets look forward to buy a hyundai at the cheaper price compare to proton. I wonder is this kind of thing make proton more expensive.
July 11, 2005 @ 8:11 pm
how proton gone go for international if whit no improvement, only sale old wira just for Malaysians crab who no how to buy in only?. my b only old Malaysians only support old wira never gone change that still eat used a hand type of mind.
who say whit just only that 200 hp cant used on Dayle used!.
July 12, 2005 @ 10:25 am
I’m sure this website is worth the time for mahaleel to take a look… the feedback is enough for him to open up his eyes… lol…
anyway, proton should have their r&d long time ago… pampered company started this only (as in putting some effort) after globalization… keeps on whining like p**sy saying this and that about government policy and cant survive… imagine, low grade quality products sold at whoppingly high profit margin… who said they dont earn much? i guess most of it goes to the coffers of those ‘up there’ and to prove that claims, they’re rich enough to acquire Lotus rite??? compare, a non taxed proton wira in malaysia cost RM6x,xxx while in aussie it costs AUD24,xxx plus shipping and cash back of 1k, leather seats and other plus plus (conversion rate of 2.5 back then)… talk about ripping off own malaysians… i pity those of you who supports proton…
if you do have any critics for me, i did try to support, purchased a brand new iswara but damn disappointing… am no rich bargher like some to afford new japanese cars, but a 10years old corolla i just bought is definitely much more comfortable and better condition now than a brand new iswara i bought 5 years ago… imagine, car companies are talking about quantity of cars per defect… wonder how our quality assurance team doing with QUANTITIES OF DEFECTS PER CAR…
Lets see how proton fares in the near future… they survive till today because of protection from the government… in other words, laws created to let them exist… perodua is doing fine… i’m cool with perodua, as far as they progress today… would the government capable of setting new laws to protect proton in today’s globalization??? personally, with their rate of progress, i wouldnt care less… i’d rather put my luck with perodua or naza… afterall, proton started with assembling others parts and stick their brand too… with perodua and naza’s pace, i’m sure they can do much better job…
July 12, 2005 @ 11:44 pm
Why not petronas just commerciallize it to public….. sure sell like hot cakes if affordable hehehe….
3-4k i think worth for a 200HP engine….. and gov has to approve every car with that engine…. but that is just a dream that never exist in malaysia
July 15, 2005 @ 2:18 am
Government should authorise Petronas to buy over Proton.
Then apply this super engine into Proton cars.
This will make the world open their eyes on us.
July 24, 2005 @ 12:12 pm
Just out of curiousty, which Hyundai car uses the Petronas E01 engine ? Paul said it was sold to Hyundai right.
July 24, 2005 @ 3:19 pm
rizal: just rumours
August 4, 2005 @ 4:25 pm
My car uses this engine, I must say it’s quite a powerful engine, good looks too.
August 4, 2005 @ 4:48 pm
Ambayah: are you serious? how did you get hold of it?
August 4, 2005 @ 5:51 pm
ambayah, u serious? where u get it? how u get approval frm jpj to get OTR?
August 9, 2005 @ 1:29 pm
How to get d engine? yeah, look at d spec is very powerful liao..
Mind share with us, Ambayah?
August 10, 2005 @ 12:59 am
Hey guys..i was recently talk to one of the people in Petronas . He was mention that Petronas was NEVER HAVE A TALK TO HYUNDAI to sell the eo1 engine. That was i know so far but Petronas have a talk with rover to sell the engine design, finally at one stage it was stuck because petronas was asking rover to find out the money to cover the r&d cost. The Rover did’nt manage to get the money because of financial problem.
Lastly, rover have a talk to sell a certain car design to China company like what Paul was mention in other topic. And Petronas was planning to sell the engine design to China company..
August 10, 2005 @ 10:11 am
Aiseh… y dun petronas sell the engine as a aftermarket brand in M’sia.
off d shelf mah. sure everyone will go rushing for it. haha.
especially the new batch proton car user which face lotta hassle with d new SIEMEN ecu..
Hmm. tat will make all M’sian proud of.. M’sia got a official well known aftermarket brand selling powerful engine then. hahaha….
September 4, 2005 @ 10:58 am
Pro*on is fool, 10-10M times fool than ur expected.
1.wira & etc engine n car itself 25-30 years ago technology.
2.Campro 20 years ago technology
3.DOHC 40 years ago technology
4.V6/V8 is 60 years ago design (USA)
5.VVT/VVTi is 7 years ago technology - hot!!
6.Mitsubishi cannot make buss with proton , they quit .
7.Petronas gives engine, but never became a car .
8.VTECH is 15 years ago technology - still hot!!
9.HYBRYID car is 3 years ago technology - getting hot!!
What u can expected !!!!!!!!!!
September 4, 2005 @ 7:46 pm
Sell E01 to the public? Hahaha….. so the very funny one la people! WTF were u guys thinking? The cost to develope the engines are millions. Anthony, RM3-4k for that engine? U think this engine from chop-chop shop from potong cars ka? U think thats B18’s and 4AG’s ka? A brand new 4G63 (Evo 4) engine without the tranny is oredi about RM30k. E01 at RM3,000???? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Damn, r u kiddin yerself? Even if Petronas sell it at 50k/engine, belum tentu balik modal. Heh.
September 4, 2005 @ 11:04 pm
i love to have this engine in my waja.
ambayah, please answer paul question.
September 5, 2005 @ 8:35 pm
if im not mistaken, evo 4 engine can be fitted inside gen2 engine bay. heard some very creative ah beng are modifying their gen2 and swapped in the evo 4. the same with waja. eh, if that so, E01 can also be fitted inside gen2. sure can la. it was said that the engine can be tilted easily what. so wats the problem? kat proton ade orang bodoh sombong ke? dont tell me that cost is everything…
September 5, 2005 @ 9:01 pm
i want E01 … two hundred of Hp… they sell i first buying .. for my volkswagon bettle lah.
October 8, 2005 @ 8:46 am
how can proton don’t want the engine? STUPID la. i believe the performance of engine is better that Lotus….
January 29, 2006 @ 12:15 pm
[...] Proton Holdings Bhd signed a memorandum of intent (MOI) with Petronas to develop larger-capacity engines and an environmentally friendly alternative fuel system. The MOI involves Proton and Petronas working together to explore the development of Petronas engines like the Petronas E01 for mass production and fitment into Proton cars. Proton intends to use the E01 family for it’s 1.8 to 2.2 liter product range. Proton and Petronas will also collaborate on NGV systems for Proton cars. [...]
September 1, 2006 @ 11:48 pm
[...] Proton reports that the Memorandum of Intent between Proton and Petronas has ended, and both parties are now assessing alternative engine sourcing opportunities. I am not sure if I am right, but from what I can understand by “assessing alternatives”, it looks like Proton will not be using the Petronas E01-based technology for it’s larger displacement engines. [...]
September 3, 2006 @ 9:19 pm
Leow said,
July 15, 2005 @ 2:18 am
Government should authorise Petronas to buy over Proton.
Then apply this super engine into Proton cars.
This will make the world open their eyes on us.
————————————————
I believe Petronas used to be a major shareholder of Proton and then sold off to Khazanah Nasional.
Petronas ain’t stoopid.. Being patrotic is one thing, but not at the expense of financial savvy..
November 1, 2006 @ 4:36 pm
[...] Petronas has reached an agreement with two Chinese automotive companies to jointly manufacture the Petronas E01 engine for commercial use, after a Letter of Intent was signed between the three parties back in September 2005. [...]
April 7, 2007 @ 11:33 pm
So this engine is not fit for daily use, so whut? Sometimes we just wanted raw power and something fresh to experiment with. With 200+ hp, that is some awesome machine. AND guess whut, mad in Malaysia. Whut if we charged it up with turbo? Surely this machine could put the Proton name in the the same bench as Mitsubishi Evolution Series? Could this be a new beginning for Malaysian auto sports?