The Tritec engine (also known as Pentagon) is a four-cylinder petrol engine that was manufactured between 1999 and 2007 by Tritec Motors in

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

and was used in various cars including

Chrysler FCA US, LLC, Trade name, doing business as Stellantis North America and known historically as Chrysler ( ), is one of the "Big Three (automobile manufacturers), Big Three" automobile manufacturers in the United States, headquartered in Auburn H ...

and

Mini The Mini is a very small two-door, four-seat car, produced for four decades over a single generation, with many names and variants, by the British Motor Corporation (BMC) and its successors British Leyland and the Rover Group, and finally ...

models.

Tritec Motors Ltda

In 1997,

Chrysler Corporation FCA US, LLC, doing business as Stellantis North America and known historically as Chrysler ( ), is one of the " Big Three" automobile manufacturers in the United States, headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan. It is the American subsidiary of ...

and Rover Group (then a subsidiary of

BMW Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, trading as BMW Group (commonly abbreviated to BMW (), sometimes anglicised as Bavarian Motor Works), is a German multinational manufacturer of vehicles and motorcycles headquartered in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Th ...

) formed a joint venture called Tritec Motors to design a new small

straight-4 A straight-four engine (also referred to as an inline-four engine) is a four-cylinder piston engine where cylinders are arranged in a line along a common crankshaft. The majority of automotive four-cylinder engines use a straight-four layout ( ...

engine. The new company built a factory in Campo Largo of Curitiba, Brazil specifically to manufacture the new engine. The Tritec name stands for the union of the three countries involved: Germany, the United Kingdom, and Brazil. When BMW broke up the remains of Rover Group in 2000, BMW kept the stake in Tritec Motors because the engine was in use in the Mini range which BMW had retained. In 2007 BMW sold its 50% stake to

DaimlerChrysler Mercedes-Benz Group AG (formerly Daimler-Benz, DaimlerChrysler, and Daimler) is a German multinational automotive company headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is one of the world's leading car manufacturers. Daimler-B ...

and cancelled its contract for the Tritec engine. BMW entered into a new joint venture with PSA Peugeot Citroen to develop the Prince engine which is used in the second generation Mini cars. The factory had a capacity of 400,000 engines a year, and in 2006 production was around 200,000 engines. Production ceased in June 2007 following the ending of the joint venture. In March 2008 Fiat Powertrain Technologies bought the plant and licenses to produce Tritec engines at a cost of €83 million, and in 2010 subsequently launched its own E.torQ engine.

Engine details

It is a modern engine with an

SOHC An overhead camshaft (OHC) engine is a piston engine in which the camshaft is located in the cylinder head above the combustion chamber. This contrasts with earlier overhead valve engines (OHV), where the camshaft is located below the combus ...

16-valve head,

electronic throttle control Electronic throttle control (ETC) is an Automotive engineering, automotive technology that uses electronics to replace the traditional mechanical linkages between the driver's input such as a Car controls#Throttle control, foot pedal to the vehi ...

, and meets Euro IV emissions requirements. There are three versions of the engine, , and

supercharged In an internal combustion engine, a supercharger compresses the intake gas, forcing more air into the engine in order to produce more power for a given displacement. It is a form of forced induction that is mechanically powered (usually by ...

. BMW complained about the performance of the engine. According to Ward's Auto, Erich Sonntag of BMW described the Tritec engine as old fashioned and not very effective on function, performance and

fuel efficiency Fuel efficiency (or fuel economy) is a form of thermal efficiency, meaning the ratio of effort to result of a process that converts chemical energy, chemical potential energy contained in a carrier (fuel) into kinetic energy or Mechanical work, w ...

. This was no news to the Rover Group engineers on the MINI project, who had wanted to use Rover's K-Series engine, an older design which had similar power output and fuel efficiency, but was built next door to the proposed MINI line at Longbridge, and already had amortised its R&D.

1.4 (T14a)

The version uses a bore and

stroke Stroke is a medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to a part of the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemor ...

of . Like all Tritecs, it is an SOHC 16-valve

cast iron Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content of more than 2% and silicon content around 1–3%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloying elements determine the form in which its car ...

engine with an

aluminium Aluminium (or aluminum in North American English) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Al and atomic number 13. It has a density lower than that of other common metals, about one-third that of steel. Aluminium has ...

cylinder head In a piston engine, the cylinder head sits above the cylinders, forming the roof of the combustion chamber. In sidevalve engines the head is a simple plate of metal containing the spark plugs and possibly heat dissipation fins. In more modern ...

and multipoint sequential electronic fuel injection. Output is rated at and . Applications: *

One (Portugal, Greece) (until 2008)

1.6 (w10b16a)

The version uses the same bore with a longer stroke. Output is rated at and in the Mini One, and and in the Mini Cooper and Chrysler PT Cruiser. Applications: * Chery A11 (Windcloud) *

Chery A15 The Chery Cowin (), also known as Chery A15, Flagcloud, or Amulet, is a subcompact car produced by the Chinese manufacturer Chery from 2003 to 2010. A facelifted variant was called the Cowin 2 and was sold from 2010 to 2016. Overview The Cowin is ...

(Flagcloud) * Chrysler Neon (in non-US markets) * Chrysler PT Cruiser (in non-US markets) * Lifan 620 * Lifan 520 *

Mini Hatch The Mini (stylised as MINI) supermini range, marketed under various names such as Mini Cooper, Mini Hatch, Mini Hardtop, Mini One, and Mini John Cooper Works, are a family of Retro-style automobile, retro-styled three-door hatchback, two-door ...

and Convertible (until 2008).

1.6 SC (w11b16a)

The 1.6 SC uses an Eaton M45 Roots type supercharger with

intercooler An intercooler is a heat exchanger used to cool a gas after compression. Often found in turbocharged engines, intercoolers are also used in air compressors, air conditioners, refrigeration and gas turbines. Internal combustion engines Mo ...

. The

compression ratio The compression ratio is the ratio between the maximum and minimum volume during the compression stage of the power cycle in a piston or Wankel engine. A fundamental specification for such engines, it can be measured in two different ways. Th ...

is reduced from 10.5:1 to 8.3:1. Output was initially rated at and of

torque In physics and mechanics, torque is the rotational analogue of linear force. It is also referred to as the moment of force (also abbreviated to moment). The symbol for torque is typically \boldsymbol\tau, the lowercase Greek letter ''tau''. Wh ...

and increased to and . The SC won the "1.4 L to 1.8 L" category at the

International Engine of the Year The International Engine of the Year was an annual competition for automotive industry internal combustion engines and electric motors, judged by a panel of automobile journalists from around the world. It is organised by UKi Media & Events' Autom ...

awards for 2003. It also won Ward's 10 Best Engines award for 2003. The 2006 Mini John Cooper Works GP Kit was upgraded to at 7,100 rpm and of torque at 4,600 rpm. Applications: *

Cooper S *2006 Dodge Hornet

concept car A concept car (also known as a concept vehicle or show vehicle) is a car made to showcase new styling or new technology. Concept cars are often exhibited at motor shows to gauge customer reaction to new and radical designs which may or may not ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tritec Chrysler engines BMW engines Gasoline engines by model 1997 introductions Joint ventures Straight-four engines