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today we're out here in Irvine

California doing something a little

unusual because we're looking at a Mazda

that you can't buy today and this exact

Mazda don't really ever be on sale

however it is full of things that Mazda

is going to be selling the public in

America in the calendar year 2019 that

includes an all-new Mazda 3 platform

some new seats but most importantly the

SKYACTIV X engine which you can see

definitely displayed on the side of this

vehicle this is really an interesting

brand new engine technology it's the

world's first production compression

ignition gasoline engine that sounds

like a mouthful but it really is kind of

an extraordinary tale you see this Mazda

3 right here just like the Mazda 6

behind me every other Mazda sold in

America and of course every other

gasoline car sold in America period the

spark plug in the engine is what

ignitions the combustion of the gasoline

and produces the power for the engine

but things are very different in the

average diesel vehicle in America

because diesel cars don't use spark

plugs instead just the compression of

the air and the fuel is enough to cause

the fuel to ignite but up until this

point it's been a lot trickier with

gasoline because gasoline is a lot more

volatile than diesel and so it's harder

to have those high compression

situations where you could have gasoline

do that versus a diesel engine and

that's where SKYACTIV X comes in because

this is again the world's first

compression ignition gasoline engine but

they're not just compressing the gases

until they explode because that wouldn't

be as reliable and predictable as if you

could make that event happen exactly

when you wanted it to this has been

something that a lot of manufacturers

have been trying to do for a while but

Mazda is gonna be the first manufacturer

to actually bring this for sale in the

United States now let's talk about how

exactly this works spark controlled

compression ignition is kind of a hybrid

process it slots between traditional

diesel engines and traditional gasoline

engines in terms of operation it shares

aspects of both and hopes to raise

gasoline engine efficiency to the range

of some modern diesel engines without

worrying about nitrous oxide or soot

production to understand SKYACTIV X we

first have to explain generally how

gasoline and diesel engines work first

up we have the modern diesel direct

injection engine diesel engines are

called compression ignition engines

because instead of a spark plug igniting

things the heat of compressing the air

is what gets things started when you

compress a gas it heats up and this is

the basic principle that allows diesel

engines to work this is also of course

the way air conditionings and

refrigerators work it's a thermodynamic

principle in a diesel cycle air is drawn

into the cylinder the intake valve is

then closed and then the compression

cycle starts and the air heats up

somewhere around top dead center which

is when the piston is at the very top of

its travel diesel is injected into the

cylinder and when that fuel is atomized

and the right air fuel ratio is reached

boom compression ignition happens now

because the majority of the fuel

combusts at once we get a strong push in

the piston and therefore a large peak

torque which is characteristic of a

diesel engine now we need to talk about

gasoline because things get a little bit

more complicated a traditional gasoline

engine ingests a mix of air and atomized

gasoline the mixture is optimized for

the engine and the load but generally is

close to optimum or stoichiometric which

is the fancy word for the optimum air

fuel ratio mix the mix is then

compressed a spark plug fires and then

the fuel starts to burn but just like

lighting a fuse the burn starts at one

point of ignition and then grows outward

from there and that means that not all

the gasoline is burning at exactly the

same time now it happens very quickly

but it's not all at that exact same

moment this results in a longer and

slightly slower push on the piston

versus a diesel engine in order to

improve efficiency gasoline direct

injection engines were then developed

most GDI engines use at least two

general modes of operation that allow

compression to be raised to around 14 to

one at the high point

Mazda's own skyactiv-g engines operate

right around this same compression ratio

basically the highest in the industry

for a traditional gasoline naturally

aspirated engine the first boat is a

lean burn or stratified charge mode

which is used in low load situations air

without fuel comes into the cylinder

just as in the diesel engine but unlike

a diesel engine

gasoline is injected during the

compression stroke not at the end of the

compression stroke

the combustion chamber is designed in

such a way that the fuel is concentrated

around the spark plug in an air fuel

ratio mix that will be ignited by that

spark this allows the engine to use less

fuel than an engine that had to fill the

entire cylinder with a stoichiometric

mix or at least a mix that would be able

to be sparked off by the spark plug

things then go boom and power happens

just like a traditional gasoline engine

the other way that GDI engines can work

is they can inject fuel during the

intake stroke and during the compression

stroke and of course sometimes even

during the power stroke for maximum

power the computer carefully monitors

the air fuel ratio mix in order to

optimize emissions power and even

cooling by injecting more fuel than can

actually burn in the engine and that

causes temperatures to drop inside the

cylinder now let's get back to Mazda's

SKYACTIV ex engine one of the key

benefits to this technology is the

ability to increase compression ratios

beyond traditional limits high

compression is one of the reasons that

diesel engines are so efficient and

that's exactly why SKYACTIV ex uses a

high compression ratio as well so why

can't we just crank up a standard

gasoline engine to the high compression

levels we find in diesel engines the

answer is easy

gasoline is more volatile than diesel

and that means that if we just took a

traditional gasoline engine and bumped

up the compression to diesel light

compression ratios ignition would happen

before the cylinder was done compressing

gases and that's bad juju if we tried to

operate more of the traditional diesel

cycle then as we're injecting the fuel

it would actually start burning as soon

as it was injected that means that we

would get a very rich burn right at the

injector not a great deal of power and

emissions could be a problem that sort

of spoils the whole reason to increase

the compression ratio in the first place

so what can we do about this well in

theory we could calculate just the right

amount of air and fuel needed so that

when things reach maximum compression we

get an explosion but as it turns out

that's easier said than done because the

perfect ratio changes based on

temperature altitude outside temperature

inside the cylinder and a lot of other

variables in addition to this switching

from compression ignition to spark

ignition has proved to be quite

complicated when other companies have

tried this this is where the Mazda

solution becomes quite interesting

because in my head it seems so simple

that I can't think of why we haven't

done this before

or instead of fighting the use of a

sparkplug Mazda actually uses the spark

plug to solve issues around compression

ignition let's see how Mazda starts off

with an ultra lean mix of fuel and air

in the cylinder it's so lean that even

the 16 to one compression ratio of the

engine can't possibly ignite it on its

own so if this engine didn't have a

spark plug and it was reciprocating

around the engine would simply be

pumping this ultra lean mix of air and

fuel around and not burning it that's

because in order for this mix to explode

we need to get things even more

compressed and that extra compression is

the key what Mazda does is they inject a

small amount of gasoline later then they

ignite that with a spark plug this

burning fuel causes pressure inside the

cylinder to rise to the point the

compression ignition happens inside this

cylinder is a blend of spark and

compression ignition but the purpose of

the spark isn't to power the engine it's

to power the compression ignition cycle

igniting the small pocket of rich air

fuel ratio mix inside the cylinder

causes pressure inside the entire

cylinder to go up to the point where the

ultra lean blend can then actually

ignite the result is a power stroke

that's more similar to the diesel power

stroke when the spark goes off we

obviously get a little bit of force

pressing down on the piston however once

compression ignition happens we then get

a large force pressing down on the

piston that gives us the torque

characteristics a little bit more

similar to the diesel now compression

ignition doesn't work for all driving

situations and for the maximum and power

the engine needs to be able to switch

modes back to a richer cycle and more

traditional spark ignition and that's

been where other manufacturers have

fallen down because they weren't using

the spark plug for everything but

because the SKYACTIV ex is using the

spark plug for everything and thanks to

modern variable valve timing systems

what they can do to switch modes is

simply leave the intake valve open

longer this thereby decreases the

effective compression of the engine to

arrange where they can do traditional

spark ignition at more traditional air

fuel ratio mixes if that sounds familiar

that's because a lot of engines use this

same modified auto cycle in order to

improve efficiency but in the SKYACTIV X

they're not using this mode for

efficiency they're use

get to be able to switch between

compression ignition and spark ignition

perhaps the most impressive thing about

sky activex is how ready this seems for

production because mazda actually let us

drive SKYACTIV x engines inside a

current generation mazda 3 that had some

tweaks to it out on public roads in

southern california and the big thing

that I noticed was it feels just like a

regular engine it has sort of a more

diesel like lower end torque curve than

your average gasoline engine but in

general it just felt like a regular old

Mazda 3 I think that's actually high

praise for this kind of technology there

were a few occasions where if you really

romped on the throttle unexpectedly you

could get a little bit of a knock or

predetonation going on there inside the

cylinder that was a little noticeable

Massa says that that will be tuned out

for the final version but overall that's

really the only thing I can comment on

now this engine is not designed to

replace the 2.5 liter turbocharged

engine and Mazdas lineup because the

power figures are more in line with

their current generation 2.5 liter

naturally aspirated gasoline engine

Mazda tells us that because the engine

spends most of the drive cycle in its

compression ignition mode they were able

to keep the existing six-speed automatic

transmission and tweaked the gear ratios

a little bit in order to make things

more advantageous for the engine rather

than moving to a more complicated 8 or 9

speed automatic like we see in some of

the competition that of course makes

sense for instance if you take a look at

the 2018 and 2019 Chevrolet Equinox with

its turbo diesel engine

they actually have retained the 6-speed

automatic with that engine because

according to General Motors there wasn't

really a fuel economy benefit from

moving to a different unit an

interesting tidbit is that what we were

driving around in this Mazda 3 there was

a little display on the dashboard again

this is a prototype vehicle but it

showed us what mode the engine was

operating in whether that was the ultra

lean compression ignition mode or were

there that was spark ignition mode and

spark ignition mode seemed really just

to be limited to high speed or high

output situations so if you had the

engine floored out on the freeway then

it would enter that spark ignition mode

but for 90 95 percent of the drive cycle

it really was in its compression

ignition mode that's what's really

interesting about this engine that's

been our quick look at the brand new

Mazda's SKYACTIV ex engine which

you will find under the hood of a Mazda

supposedly sometime in the 2019 calendar

year if Mazda can deliver on all of the

promises of sky ActiveX we should be

seeing a brand new Mazda 3 with fuel

economy that's at least 20% better than

the current generation Mazda 3 depending

on your driving situation that could

even be 30 or perhaps even higher based

on the fuel economy numbers we're seeing

right now in the compact hatchback or a

sedan segment that should comfortably

put Mazda into the lead now of course

Mazda has not said exactly which vehicle

is going to get sky activex first

however we feel pretty confident here at

Alex's autos that it's going to be the

Mazda 3 because that's going to be

announced right around the same time as

the production version of this engine

now Mazda has said that we should expect

to see it in a variety of different

Mazda models at some point in the future

we really don't know exactly when that

will be

I expect that over time it is likely

going to replace the 2.5 liter naturally

aspirated four-cylinder engine that we

see for instance in the Mazda 3 and the

Mazda 6 thanks taking the time to check

out this video be sure and hit that

subscribe button down there below me on

the screen and of course stay tuned for

our full drive of the Mazda SKYACTIV X

when we can get our hands on one

probably in about a year you can also

find us over at facebook.com slash Alex

not us and if you want to support this

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