Sneak peak at the new Subaru Diesel engine

Edmunds' Straight Line has announced that they got their hands on the upcoming Subaru diesel engine! It looks like a sweet bit of machinery, marrying a diesel powerplant and Subaru's excellent boxer engine. Discuss the diesel Subaru and other diesel vehicles in the diesel vehicle section of our forums.

Subaru's upcoming diesel engine

Someone over on another Subaru fan site found some images of the upcoming new Subaru turbo boxer diesel engine on Subaru's global media site. The original image in the press packet was ghosted way back, but with some tricks in Photoshop, the image was brought back virtually to full strength.

What can clearly be seen here is that it is indeed an H4 boxer. It's a turbocharged DOHC unit with a timing chain. Currently the only Subarus using a timing chain are those with the H6 engine. So this is the first timing chain-equipped H4 Subaru.

This engine is primarily for the European market, where diesel cars are a huge part of the market. We may also see it here, perhaps in the next-generation Forester, as there have been rumors to that effect. Expect the Subie diesel to be announced at the Geneva auto show in March.

More on the engine from Gizmag.com.

September 29, 2006 Subaru Europe President Hiroyuki Ikeda dropped an unexpected announcement in his Paris motor show speech when he mentioned that the company was working on a SubaruBoxer Turbo Diesel and that development is nearly complete. The horizontally opposed engine layout made famous by Volkswagen has long been favoured by Subaru and has been the mainstay of its fleet for more than three decades with its latest effort winning first place in the 2.5-liter class of the International Engine of the Year Awards. Though it’s logical that the company would develop the world’s first horizontally opposed diesel engine, there are many technical difficulties to overcome, so it was by no means regarded as a given. Anyway, we have the drawings in high res and we suspect it’ll be a beauty.

The superb rotational balance of the horizontally-opposed engine allows low vibration because the pistons counteract each other to cancel it out. Moreover, with its firmly supported crankshaft, the crankcase construction is strong enough to resist huge combustion pressure. The horizontally-opposed engine’s character is proving an excellent match for a diesel engine.

Ikeda said, “the adoption of a thin journal for the crankshaft and turbo charger placed under the cylinder block enhances all the advantages of the Boxer Engine, which are a low center of gravity, lowvibration, high rigidity and compactness.”

Ikeda said he anticipated unveiling the Subaru Boxer Turbo Diesel engine next year at Geneva Motor Show.