{"id":29593,"date":"2019-10-16T17:00:54","date_gmt":"2019-10-16T21:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dodgegarage.com\/news-api\/?p=29593"},"modified":"2024-03-25T11:23:57","modified_gmt":"2024-03-25T15:23:57","slug":"put-to-the-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/showcase\/2019\/10\/put-to-the-test.html","title":{"rendered":"Put to the Test"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Powertrain Testing Shows the Lengths FCA US LLC Goes to Exceed Customer Expectations<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The powertrains found in FCA US LLC vehicles are designed and\nengineered under incredibly demanding conditions, each enduring rigorous,\ndata-driven tests according to their intended purposes. Vehicles bearing the\nStreet & Racing Technology (SRT\u00ae<\/sup>)\nbadge undergo similar tests with the addition of track evaluations meant to\nsimulate real-world use. Whatever the vehicle, the powertrains go through\na battery of tests meant to ensure customers get maximum performance and\ndurability. To better understand powertrain testing at FCA US LLC, we caught up\nwith Gregg Black, Sr. Manager for SRT Powertrain Engineering, who provided an\noverview of how powertrains are tested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou can make all the power you want in a powertrain. But it is\ncritical that you validate it through testing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cMaking power is cool and fun to show off. But there\u2019s of course\nmore to it than that and where the rubber meets the road is the product delighting\nthe customer.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cDurability and power are always at odds and each vehicle\u2019s\npowertrain has different requirements. As such, we design and test a Dodge\nCharger [SRT] Hellcat differently than we test a Ram 1500. But we put all our\npowertrains through testing that far exceeds anything the end customer will\never do.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe do all kinds of durability testing. This means hundreds of hours of \u2018dyno\u2019 time to confirm statistically the powertrains won\u2019t break.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cHere\u2019s where our testing correlates to real life: In powertrain, our bench testing is more severe than the worst thing you can do in the vehicle. Some of these tests include tens of thousands of miles at the proving ground \u2013 constant loops, forward and reverse, driving over aggressive terrain, and more. It\u2019ll make you sick if you\u2019re not the driver. In the end, it\u2019s all about establishing baseline performance characteristics for these factory systems and exceeding the customer\u2019s expectations.\u201d \u2013 Gregg Black, Sr. Manager for SRT Powertrain Engineering<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Select Street\n& Racing Technology (SRT) Powertrain Tests<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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<\/strong><\/a>SRT Duty\nCycle:<\/strong> The SRT duty cycle includes a simulated run on a road course.\nWe have collected data which we use to simulate a road course lap on a dyno. In\nour tests, we push an engine to three minutes of peak torque and then three\nminutes of peak power. If we\u2019re not on the dyno, we are frequently on the drag\nstrip with the cars where we do 50 passes, back to back \u2013 almost a continuous\nloop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cooling and Thermal Management Modeling:<\/strong> With\ncooling modeling, we are matching the engine and transmission cooling needed\nfor different types of driveline load.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Deep Thermal Shock:<\/strong> The deep thermal shock test\nis designed to be a gasket or sealing surface test. We <\/a>invented this test back in\nthe day when we first had an aluminum head on iron block \u2013 which have different\ncoefficients of thermal expansion. Today, we start an engine test at -40\ndegrees F, let it idle for a bit and then immediately go to peak torque and\nhold it there until we get the coolant to max operating temperature. Then, we\nmove on to hold peak power. Then, the engine runs through a series of thermal\ncycles, which simulates worst-case winter time driving. Then, the engine is\nshut down and we hit it with coolant at -40 degrees F. It\u2019s a very aggressive\ntest but an excellent way to simulate 10 to 15 years of engine life. After this\n-40 degrees F cold soak, the engine actually has frost all over the exterior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

System Resonance:<\/strong> With system resonance\ntesting, we\u2019re\nbasically measuring how various engine parts vibrate during operation,\ndetermining if, when and where parts may crack or otherwise fail. We put\naccelerometers all over the engine and do a full wide open throttle speed sweep\non the dynamometer. We take measurements on all the parts (intake, exhaust,\naccessories, brackets, etc.) to determine the worst-case speed for each one,\nand then build this into the test plan. We camp out at those engine speeds on\npurpose and prove the durability and life capability under these worst-case\nconditions. In fact, we assure up to 30 million cycles on components. All the\nparts are dyno tested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crank Resonance:<\/strong> <\/strong>With a\ncrank resonance test, we basically subject the crank to maximum torsional\nvibration to ensure that there aren\u2019t any flaws or weak points. What most people\ndon\u2019t think about is that a crankshaft is continually being twisted by each\ncylinder firing event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/strong><\/a>Exhaust\nManifold Durability:<\/strong> <\/strong>In exhaust\nmanifold durability testing, we run the engine at peak power over a period of\ntime and then shut it down and blow cold air directly on the exhaust manifolds\nto thermally shock them and see if they will crack. It isn\u2019t realistic to think\nthat this happens in the vehicle, but it allows us to confirm the design of the\ncomponents in a much shorter time than 15 years. Similar to the deep thermal\nshock test, we\u2019re looking for any thermal growth that may affect performance or\ndurability.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Powertrain Testing Shows the Lengths FCA US LLC Goes to Exceed Customer Expectations The powertrains found in FCA US LLC vehicles are designed and engineered under incredibly demanding conditions, each enduring rigorous, data-driven tests according to their intended purposes. Vehicles bearing the Street & Racing Technology (SRT\u00ae) badge undergo similar tests with the addition of track evaluations meant to simulate real-world use. Whatever the vehicle, the powertrains go through a battery of tests meant to ensure customers get maximum performance and durability. To better understand powertrain testing at FCA US LLC, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":29666,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[638],"tags":[519,2011],"class_list":["post-29593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-showcase","tag-charger","tag-hemi-engine"],"acf":[],"custom_fields":{"post_thumbnail_image":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/feature-35.jpg","icon_selection":"article","external_link":"","featured_article":[],"upload_background_image":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29593"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29593"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29593\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29674,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29593\/revisions\/29674"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}