Honda’s Variable Cylinder Management i-VTEC
Honda is famous for their 4-cylinder VTEC and i-VTEC engines, but they also have V6 engines in their stables. The Acura NSX had a 3.2 liter V6 and the current shark-faced top of the range CBU Honda Accord on our markets has a 3.0 liter SOHC VTEC V6 engine with the code J30A under the hood. However, USDM and Japanese versions of our Accord (actually called the Honda Inspire in Japan) has a new i-VTEC version of the J30A.
What’s special about this new J30A with i-VTEC is it comes with Honda’s Variable Cylinder Management technology. What happens is under low engine load the i-VTEC system disables 1 of the two cylinder banks, effectively turning the engine into a 1.5 liter inline-3 instead of a 3.0 liter v6. What Honda defines as low engine load is actually a mixture of vehicle speed, engine speed and throttle position patterns. The disabled rear cylinder bank is sealed by idling the intake and exhaust valves and no fuel is injected.
Now everyone knows 3-cylinder straight engines have alot of vibrations due to the cylinder count being unbalanced. What happens is vibration is cancelled out by the active engine mounting. This engine mounting rocks in a similiar motion to dampen the vibrations. Noise is also cancelled out with a special speaker which emits the exact opposite phase of the engine noise read from a microphone. Pretty funky stuff.
What you get is a 3.0 V6 with the fuel economy of a 2.4 liter inline 4 cylinder under normal mixed city and highway driving situations. This is approximately 11.6km per liter, compared to the Accord 2.4 running the K24A which manages 12km per liter.
Getting down to the basic performance stats, the J30A makes 250 horsepower and 296Nm of torque.
January 17, 2006 @ 1:53 pm
Sounds amazing but the difference is not much.
Wonder how much price difference this new technology will cost? And also wonder if the local Honda mechanics and also the non-Honda-authorised-but-experienced-enough-to-maintain-Honda-cars mechanics would be able to handle such a radical change in technology.
But definitely sounds very cool, especially when telling people about how it works.
January 17, 2006 @ 2:02 pm
So, in one word, u’ll get what u want at any circumstance, either pause-and-continue city driving, or smooth north-south traveling… Cool men!!! Honda - really made the term Power of Dream.
Really interested to know how a speaker can cancel out noise by outputting its opposite phase, never heard this before. Gonna find it out.
January 17, 2006 @ 2:06 pm
We’ve learned in physics before what, when a direct opposite sound wave collides with another sound wave, it cancels each other out. That’s how noise cancellation headphones work too.
January 17, 2006 @ 2:13 pm
Noise cancellation system had been already used on Japanese highway especially at Tokyo city. I was Surprised that Honda had applied it on vehicle too. Great move!
But wonder how noisy of this new Engine could be (I means normal condition without this device) if the noise cancellation device out of order.
I like HOnda engine Technologies!
YAU MOU GAU……CHOR!!! Cheers!
January 17, 2006 @ 2:24 pm
Yes, I got that active noise control had been there quite long time liao. But really surprise it apply into a vehicle because definitely it won’t be cheap.
I think many mechanics would feel sucked to service this kind of hi-tech engine… haha…
January 17, 2006 @ 2:42 pm
looks similar to MIVEC-MD. Anyone felt this too?
January 17, 2006 @ 3:02 pm
Wow, using only 3 cylinders instead of all 6, and noise cancellation. All so cool, wonder how will the engine sound should the noise cancellation gadget go out of order? I like the 3 cylinder idea though, it’s really practical and saves a lot on fuel.
January 17, 2006 @ 3:38 pm
Huh, why so little difference in mileage. Well, it does run cheaper than 3.0 V6 since they are comparing with 2.4.
January 17, 2006 @ 3:53 pm
Actually this noise cancellation system is simple. It is actually a MIC, recorder and Speakers. At first Records the engine sound using a MIC and then send back the same Signal or Waves to the engine. To repeat this proceed frequently.
But it is not easy to apply it on vehicle, due to space, environment and durability issues.
Honda engineers is great!
YAU MOU GAU…..CHOR!! Cheers!
January 17, 2006 @ 4:09 pm
hmmmm….boring engine…
mitsu already use this technology in mivec-md…
my savvy is savier than this engine,it can go to 18.86km per litre…
the cygnus engine by toyota is really quiet…no need this speaker to do the job…
January 17, 2006 @ 5:05 pm
Honestly Syamen, you can’t compare a Savvy engine against a Honda 3.0. That would not be a fair comparison =)
I believe Mercedes has something similar in the S-Class engines. But if you guys think that the 3.0 veriable cylinder engine is spectacular, wait till you read about it’s hybrid cousin (the 3.0 V6 hybrid available on the US Accord). The engine will completely switch off during idling and then run on electric motors at low loads. Its not just fuel efficient, but is also very environmental friendly, especially during idling as there are no emissions. Cool, huh??
January 17, 2006 @ 5:23 pm
heybadigol said,
January 17, 2006 @ 5:05 pm
Honestly Syamen, you can’t compare a Savvy engine against a Honda 3.0. That would not be a fair comparison =)
shaymen said,
January 17, 2006 @ 4:09 pm
————————————————————–
hmmmm….boring engine…
mitsu already use this technology in mivec-md…
my savvy is savier than this engine,it can go to 18.86km per litre…
the cygnus engine by toyota is really quiet…no need this speaker to do the job…
January 17, 2006 @ 6:21 pm
Hey, if they can have noise cancellation in cars & highway, perhaps you can find similar application against your noisy neighbour or nagging “significant other”, hehe….. Just imagine, your bf/gf start nagging, just shut them up by pointing the noise cancellation device against them.
A question please? The noise cancellation works only in 3 cylinder mode right? Meaning that there is less noise or no noise at all from the engine combustion during idling (except for exhaust & intake note)? Must be weird to hear only exhaust note, but not accompanied by the engine combustion sound.
January 17, 2006 @ 9:40 pm
Actually, I read about this noise cancellation device a few years ago. I think it was Nissan who was researching this technology. The device was fitted under the front seats (mic and speaker) and it picked up the sound emanating from the engine compartment and sends back the same frequency in real time.
January 17, 2006 @ 11:24 pm
paul..3 cylinder vibrates a lot due to imbalance count? kelisa, kancil (not sure about kenari…kapcai all imbalance count. kapcai one cylinder only…how do they cancel out vibration?
January 17, 2006 @ 11:31 pm
Lotus was the company who invented and used the Active Noise Cancellation system.. i think they used it on the Esprit V8..
January 18, 2006 @ 8:33 am
nissan used it in 3.0 nissan cefiro v6. They already have smooth, silky and powerfull engin already .
and already won years ‘good engine’ awarded .
for me = honda just another kind of copier
in my personal view. nissan still the best one in engine = Powerfull but economic.
January 18, 2006 @ 10:22 am
nissan is indeed the leader in technology…they just built a car with non scracth paint..
January 18, 2006 @ 11:10 am
hooray to nissan..but sayang,msx project from proton is heard to be using nissan engine…sigh..now all gone.
January 18, 2006 @ 7:06 pm
holy s**t, 520NM from the M5 engine. You could power a small ship with that =)
January 14, 2007 @ 3:53 pm
[...] For this concept, Honda employed a 3.0 liter V6 with Variable Cylinder Management (VCM) technology which shuts off 3 cylinders during low load operations. It also has an ACE body structure - Advanced Compatibility Engineering(TM), a front-end structure that helps absorb and disperse crash energy over a large area in frontal impact. [...]