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Closer look at new engine for F series Isuzu trucks

The star of Isuzu’s freshly launched medium duty truck range is a brand new four-cylinder engine option

 

The skin on Isuzu’s new range of F series medium duty trucks doesn’t look any different to the current one – new chrome badging, new chrome-plated grille, that’s about it.

But there’s a big change underneath many models, which Isuzu says makes it the biggest upgrade to its range in almost a decade.

And that change is something that doesn’t come along very often in the Australian trucking industry – a brand-new engine.

The new engine is the latest example of what seems to be an increasing trend in both cars and trucks, and that’s smaller motors putting out more power and torque.

Even amongst the big bangers, 13 litre engines are now working in what used to be the almost exclusive domain of 15 and even 16 litre workhorses.

The new Isuzu 4HK1 has only four cylinders and a 5.2 litre displacement, but it has two power ratings up to 240hp (177kW) with a gutsy 765Nm of torque.

To put that into perspective, 20 years ago the six cylinder, 8 litre Isuzu engine of the day only produced 175hp (129kW) and 490Nm of torque.

Isuzu’s 4HK1 is available in the medium duty trucks up to about 14 tonnes GVM. You can also choose the revised six cylinder option.

All up, there are now two engines and four different power outputs in Isuzu’s 4×2 and 4×4 medium duty range.

The 4HK1 is a similar engine to the one in the new light duty N series, but rated higher.

Isuzu says amongst other improvements there is a two-stage turbo with minimal lag, 10 per cent greater injector pressure and a larger intercooler.

Isuzu Australia sales manager Andrew Harbison charted the evolution of power at the grand launch of the new F series at Docklands in Melbourne recently.

“For some time in the broader automotive industry we’ve seen the trend develop towards lower displacement and higher output engines,” Harbison said.

“By way of example the bestselling family cars back in the late 90s – early 2000s were powered by 4 litre naturally aspirated engines. Fast forward to 2016 and the bestselling family cars of today are usually powered by four-cylinder turbocharged engines with less than 2 litres capacity.”

 

Check out the full feature on the new Isuzu F series range in the April issue ofATN.

 

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