We come across different terms like say, CRDi, DiCOR, MPFI etc in the engine type attribute whenever we read any car specifications and approximately 85% of people don’t know about it. It’s not a must to know about these things but still it will let you understand about the car more precisely. The following are the various engine technologies to know about:

CRDi (Common Rail Direct Injection)

CRDi Engine

This engine technology was invented by Robert Huber from Switzerland and was applied primarily by Fiat Group. As the name suggests, there is one common rail for all cylinder where fuel is compressed whereas in older engines, there is a separate rail for each cylinder. This conversion of separate rails to one rail greatly reduced the amount of fuel consumption and emissions which the engine produced. This technology uses a microprocessor to control the various operations like fuel injection, quantity of fuel injection, timing of valve opening and closing etc.

The whole process happens like this; fuel is passed in a single rail for compression. After compression the resulting fuel is injected to each cylinder according to the piston position which is indicated by the various sensors placed. The amount of fuel and timing of fuel injection is calculated by the microprocessor resulting in better fuel economy and less harmful emissions. Older engines used mechanical parts to control the opening and closing of valves that resulted in more sound and less efficiency. The sound is also greatly reduced in CRDi engines.

This technology is currently applied in diesel engines only. Various companies use this technology with different names and slight variation in the working of engine.

CRDe, DiCOR, DDIS, Turbojet etc are all of CRDi pattern. Different companies use different names as patent for their engines.

MPFI (Multi Point Fuel Injection)

This technology is particularly developed for petrol engines to deliver more power with efficient use of fuel and resulting in less harmful emissions. The older engines worked with carburetor which sends a fix ratio of fuel and air to the cylinders for burning. It doesn’t judges of how much fuel is needed at what time. There are times when the engine is only idling at a traffic signal, or is just rolling downhill, so at that times injecting the fuel in the same amount is useless. The MPFI technology uses a microchip to control the quantity and timing of fuel injection to various cylinders. It opens and inserts the fuel to individual cylinders as per needed. The calculation is of chip is done on various factors like pressure on accelerator pedal, position of piston and current speed of piston movement. This overall process results in less harmful emissions and improved efficiency.

GDI (Gasoline Direct Injection)

This is a more advanced form of engine technology which came after MPFI engines. In GDI, the fuel injection of gasoline fuel takes place directly in individual cylinders of the engine and not in a common intake manifold as in case of MPFI.

There is a single high pressure fuel line which is directly connected to the injectors. As a result, all the injectors have the same pressurized fuel which gives the engine a balanced control over all cylinders and at the end, engine gives more power and more fuel economy. The intake and exhaust system are all controlled by a chip as where in the case of CRDi and MPFI engines. The calculations are based on engine speed, load, acceleration and temperature.

Different companies use this technology with different names. DGCI, CGI etc are all based on GDI pattern with minute changes in working.