AutoWeek Interview with Super Duty engineer Peter Reyes
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02-03-2007, 05:28 PM
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AutoWeek Interview with Super Duty engineer Peter Reyes
Originally Posted by AutoWeek
Since late 2003, Ford engineers have been abusing the new 6.4-liter twin-turbo diesel engine in the redesigned 2008 Super Duty pickup. They've been using every trick in the book trying to make it break. They've pulled heavy loads up steep hills in minus-40-degree weather. They've punished it by hauling trailers in broiling desert heat. And they've run test engines nonstop for thousands of hours on a dynamometer.
The man cracking the whip on the new Super Duty is chief engineer Pete Reyes. Reyes, 43, is under immense pressure to deliver a flawless truck. Ford needs perfection to atone for the previous Super Duty's troublesome diesel engine as well as to fend off fresh challenges from General Motors, Dodge and Toyota. Reyes spoke with Automotive News staff reporter Richard Truett.
I've heard that your engineers have put 10 million test miles on the new Super Duty. Tell us about that.
It's 6 million dyno miles and 4 million real vehicle miles. We've had fleets and fleets of trucks, hundreds of trucks, with this engine. And we've had fleets of trucks we've run internationally, piling on big miles. Some of our known customers have had trucks in extreme conditions, up in Alaska and down in Houston. So they are out piling on miles for us now.
We also went to existing customers, about 15 different fleets running the 6.0-liter, and we took black-box data from them. We needed to understand all of the operating and environmental conditions that people really see.
Going out and seeing how the trucks were being used in the real world was a bit eye-opening for us. We tailored the druability, length and heat of the tests to real world conditions.
In the 10 million miles, did anything break? How did you make the Super Duty better?
In the first million miles, we had a lot of things we wanted to fix. After that, the number of incidences of things you want to address decreases. You know you are in good shape if you have a pretty aggressive ramp-down of things you've got to fix. We've been in good shape. You can monitor whether you've got issues replaced by other issues. But this one came down as we expected it to.
The new engine has technology we've not seen before on a Ford diesel engine, such as piezo fuel injectors and twin turbochargers. Was that the reason for the strenuous testing?
Absolutely. The new technology probably dominated the testing. When you get the engine right, then the next tests are to ensure that the cooling system and everything else on the vehicle works right.
Is this the new standard of testing for Ford trucks?
As we develop diesel engines in the environment of extreme measures for emissions, I would expect the 10 million miles to be a standard for Ford.
Did you have a chance to crawl under the new Toyota Tundra at the Detroit auto show?
I looked at the Tundra. I would say there's a no-excuse lineup out of Toytoa now. How well it sells is going to be up to the marketplace. I can't predict that.
The man cracking the whip on the new Super Duty is chief engineer Pete Reyes. Reyes, 43, is under immense pressure to deliver a flawless truck. Ford needs perfection to atone for the previous Super Duty's troublesome diesel engine as well as to fend off fresh challenges from General Motors, Dodge and Toyota. Reyes spoke with Automotive News staff reporter Richard Truett.
I've heard that your engineers have put 10 million test miles on the new Super Duty. Tell us about that.
It's 6 million dyno miles and 4 million real vehicle miles. We've had fleets and fleets of trucks, hundreds of trucks, with this engine. And we've had fleets of trucks we've run internationally, piling on big miles. Some of our known customers have had trucks in extreme conditions, up in Alaska and down in Houston. So they are out piling on miles for us now.
We also went to existing customers, about 15 different fleets running the 6.0-liter, and we took black-box data from them. We needed to understand all of the operating and environmental conditions that people really see.
Going out and seeing how the trucks were being used in the real world was a bit eye-opening for us. We tailored the druability, length and heat of the tests to real world conditions.
In the 10 million miles, did anything break? How did you make the Super Duty better?
In the first million miles, we had a lot of things we wanted to fix. After that, the number of incidences of things you want to address decreases. You know you are in good shape if you have a pretty aggressive ramp-down of things you've got to fix. We've been in good shape. You can monitor whether you've got issues replaced by other issues. But this one came down as we expected it to.
The new engine has technology we've not seen before on a Ford diesel engine, such as piezo fuel injectors and twin turbochargers. Was that the reason for the strenuous testing?
Absolutely. The new technology probably dominated the testing. When you get the engine right, then the next tests are to ensure that the cooling system and everything else on the vehicle works right.
Is this the new standard of testing for Ford trucks?
As we develop diesel engines in the environment of extreme measures for emissions, I would expect the 10 million miles to be a standard for Ford.
Did you have a chance to crawl under the new Toyota Tundra at the Detroit auto show?
I looked at the Tundra. I would say there's a no-excuse lineup out of Toytoa now. How well it sells is going to be up to the marketplace. I can't predict that.
well that makes me feel a lot better about the 6.4. what do you guys think?
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02-03-2007, 09:06 PM
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02-04-2007, 02:37 AM
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#5
02-04-2007, 02:54 AM
Well, and I seen someone else post this in another thread somewhere... yes the abused the heck out of it, but how much "real world" testing did they actually do? Not much from what i have read, and can tell from that article and any others I have seen. yes they put it through it's paces in commercial applications, and abusive applications, but let soccer mom get a hold on it, or even a farmer that fires it up drives it to the sale barn 5 miles away shuts it off for a couple hours fires it up drives to the co op, has coffee then to the farm again and never gets it warmed up and watch that emissions equipment take a dump in a hurry. What they didn't tell you in that article is they tested the you know what out of the 6.0 too, and it passed all of them, yet we all know the problems that happened when it came out. I figure that if we are lucky they will have the bugs worked out of the 6.4 about time for the even newer emissions to come out in 2010.
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02-04-2007, 03:32 AM
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#8
02-04-2007, 03:50 PM
Originally Posted by Ry_Trapp0
it says they logged 4 million real world miles, so i would imagine they would have tossed some on/off 10 minute drives in there somewhere.
#9
02-04-2007, 03:57 PM
Let me add this just for a further thought for you. EPA mandated those engines be used after Oct 1, they pushed that back to Jan 1, after EVERY single OEM went in and said we can't make these things work we need more time, ok Jan 1 came around and non of them including Ford is actually pushing them out the door, and EPA had backed off yet again saying well they could use any engines that were completed adn able to be fired by Jan 1 as a carry over engine (all the engine manufactures were working double shifts 24/7 to get as many built as possible before that deadline) If Ford really had it tested that much and it was working that well, they wouldn't have had a problem meeting the deadlines, they didn't have a shortage of people wanting them, unlike the class 8 truck market that wants no part of this stuff. So they put it off cause they still aren't sure it's going to be a good thing, the article is more of a PR deal to reassure people that it's not going to be a repeat of the 6.0 deal, and it isn't really that much different.
You really have to read between the lines, well that and the fact I work in a industry that is actually involved with the particulate filters, and have actually seen prototype after prototype being shipped, and worked on, and hear the real outcomes coming from the factories as to what is happening in the testing and what they are doing with it. it's not the rosey picture that they are putting out as press releases.
You really have to read between the lines, well that and the fact I work in a industry that is actually involved with the particulate filters, and have actually seen prototype after prototype being shipped, and worked on, and hear the real outcomes coming from the factories as to what is happening in the testing and what they are doing with it. it's not the rosey picture that they are putting out as press releases.
Last edited by monsterbaby; 02-04-2007 at 04:00 PM.
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02-06-2007, 09:34 AM
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re
Originally Posted by Crash687
2010, all hell is going to break loose then.
I just hope Ford looses this body style. Even cheby tried to look like the 2005 through 2007 model years for Ford. It was a good try, but turned out bad.
Ford had it figured out. They just dropped a damn good looking body style, the first time they have done this (they usually keep it for about 7 years) and come up with this. Dodge has to be laughing their *** off, Ford just promoted their trucks with this Dodge like look.
People with the 2007 6.0 seem to be pretty quiet. I am guessing they are not having any problems ?
I have always had a wait and see attitude about all this. That is why i bought three 6.0's in 2005 when they were giving them away.
#12
02-06-2007, 12:28 PM
Originally Posted by rimshoes
Ford had it figured out. They just dropped a damn good looking body style, the first time they have done this (they usually keep it for about 7 years) and come up with this. Dodge has to be laughing their *** off, Ford just promoted their trucks with this Dodge like look.
