Geely-Volvo’s CEVT engine boss explains why the Proton X50’s 3-cylinder is better than a 4-cylinder

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...Removing one cylinder is also a super effective in cutting down weight, which is directly related to fuel consumption and exhaust emissions. There’s also the added benefit of achieving better front:rear weight balance in front-wheel drive cars, which is the norm these days anyway.

The benefits of a 3-cylinder over a 4 is very clear. The challenge is to mitigate the vibration problems from a 3-cylinder’s uneven firing order. Solving it is complex, but not difficult if you know what you are doing. Technology for dampers and today’s understanding of engine harmonics is good enough to allow car companies to overcome the problem.

The Geely 1.5TD engine, which Malaysians know as the 1.5 TGDi (identical to 1.5 MPI except for fuel system), contains many of such countermeasures into its engine design.

Explaining them requires a Ph.D but Sandquist briefly said the use of counterweighted crankshafts, dual mass flywheel with centrifugal pendulum absorber damper, single balancing shaft, low noise timing belt, high stiffness oil pan, asymmetric oil pump impeller, engine compartment and vibration dampener – all hidden away from view, allows the 3-cylinder to run very smoothly.

Dr Sandquist adds that vibration (lack of) of the 1.5TD engine is not only controlled, but it’s actually better than some of their rivals’ 4-cylinder engines...

Good god the sohai logic being peddled here.....

if 3 cylinder better why not 2 cylinder or 1 cylinder?
because 3-cylinder is the minimum? If manufacturers can make 2 cylinder engines without them vibrating out of the car, they will most definitely do so. In fact the new breed of Ford ecoboost 3-cylinder engine have cylinder deactivation technology, so the engine only runs on 2 cylinders when cruising.

3 cylinder less reliable
Malaysians have been driving 3-cylinder cars for donkey years and praise that brand to be super reliable. Why suddenly now 3-cylinder = unreliable.

Turbo is for expensive cars that owners don't care about fuel economy
Obviously, those small turbo made for economy cars are not the same as big turbos/twinturbos/biturbos/quadturbos you find on luxury cars.

All those additional engine parts to reduce vibration will be expensive to replace
Except for the timing belt, the other parts are not wear and tear parts and are designed to last the lifetime of the engine. Those old 3-cylinder that vibrate like washing machine, how often do you replace the flywheel?

I was referring to this paragraph in the article
Engine mountings are not mentioned, but they are obviously wear and tear parts in any engine.

If say you wanna argue that modern 3-cylinder engine mountings die faster than 4 cylinders, that is debatable too.
Engine internal parts are not regular wear and tear parts. Which 3-cylinder engine you know needs to have internals replaced every 5 years?

And where did you pick that 5 years figure from?
My point is as long as it is fit for it's designated function then it doesn't matter the size nor number of cylinders. RM40k car have 4 wheels so do you expect a RM80k car has 8 wheels?

ktards ain't doing any better here either.
The "vibration damper" mentioned in that article is a specific engine part usually built as part of the crank pulley. It is not related to the engine mount. steady bro, just FYI.
Like I asked, which 3 cylinder engine you know need this part replaced after 5 years? or any other engine internal parts referred to in that article?

You guys keep mentioning engine mount, I already addressed it in my post replying to steady bro.

As for vehicle lifetime, you're just taking that "lifetime fluid" as reference and running with it. If manufacturer deem the car's lifetime to be 5 years, why do some markets enjoy 7-10 yrs warranties on their cars? in fact in Malaysia some Ford cars get 7 years warranty on clutch parts and 10 years for the transmission controller. Why bother with such long warranties if they don't think the car can last that long?

https://www.aarp.org/auto/trends-lifestyle/...-cars-last.html

It tells me Malaysian car buyers are being shortchanged everywhere by being given only 5 years warranty with every car sold. Meanwhile in China the very same engine in the Geely Binyue comes with 8 years warranty.

You made a blanket statement that carmakers deem 5 yrs being the lifetime of their cars. I told you that is false. That's the end of it.
Read carefully, the bolded part is what the other ktards said, the unbolded part is my reply to those allegations. Basically I am in agreement with you.

You could be doing 500k km in 5 years. That's how confident proton is

Lol manader. Ayam using one now mileage 110k km, still on stock mounting and everything

Meanwhile the other 4 cyl car at home (poton suprima and pijot 308) mileage baru 105k km already almost needing its 4th engine mounting change

Ayam pesta ekobus fuel consumption around 8-10l/100km, meanwhile the pijot and ploton same driving style and condition around 12-14l/100km