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 ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

and was used in various cars including

Chrysler Stellantis North America (officially FCA US and formerly Chrysler ()) is one of the " Big Three" automobile manufacturers in the United States, headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan. It is the American subsidiary of the multinational automotiv ...

and

Mini The Mini is a small, two-door, four-seat car, developed as ADO15, and produced by the British Motor Corporation (BMC) and its successors, from 1959 through 2000. Minus a brief hiatus, original Minis were built for four decades and sold during ...

models.

Tritec Motors Ltda

In 1997,

Chrysler Corporation Stellantis North America (officially FCA US and formerly Chrysler ()) is one of the " Big Three" automobile manufacturers in the United States, headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan. It is the American subsidiary of the multinational automotiv ...

and

Rover Group The Rover Group plc was the British vehicle manufacturing conglomerate known as "BL plc" until 1986 (formerly British Leyland), which had been a state-owned company since 1975. It initially included the Austin Rover Group car business (comprisi ...

(then a subsidiary of BMW) formed a joint venture called Tritec Motors to design a new small

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

engine. The new company built a factory in Campo Largo of

Curitiba, Brazil Curitiba () is the capital and largest city in the state of Paraná in Brazil. The city's population was 1,948,626 , making it the eighth most populous city in Brazil and the largest in Brazil's South Region. The Curitiba Metropolitan area c ...

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 as the engine was in use in the Mini range which BMW had retained. In 2007 BMW sold its 50% stake to

DaimlerChrysler The Mercedes-Benz Group AG (previously named Daimler-Benz, DaimlerChrysler and Daimler) is a German multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is one of the world's leading car manufacture ...

and cancelled its contract for the Tritec engine. BMW entered into a new joint venture with PSA Peugeot Citroen to develop the

Prince engine Prince is the codename for a family of straight-four 16-valve all-aluminium gasoline engines with variable valve lift and variable valve timing developed by PSA Peugeot Citroën and BMW. It is a compact engine family of 1.4–1.6 L in disp ...

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 FPT Industrial is an Italian multinational designer and manufacturer of transmissions, axles, diesel and petrol engines that was established in March 2005 as a Fiat Group division which included all the activities related to powertrains and tr ...

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 where 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 combustion cha ...

16-valve head,

electronic throttle control Electronic throttle control (ETC) is an automobile technology which electronically "connects" the accelerator pedal to the throttle, replacing a mechanical linkage. A typical ETC system consists of three major components: (i) an accelerator ped ...

, 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. The current categorisation is that a supercharger is a form of forced indu ...

. 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 is a form of thermal efficiency, meaning the ratio of effort to result of a process that converts chemical potential energy contained in a carrier (fuel) into kinetic energy or work. Overall fuel efficiency may vary per device ...

. This was no news to the Rover Group engineers on the MINI project, who had wanted to use Rover's K-Series engine, which had greater specific power output, better fuel efficiency, 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 A stroke is a disease, medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemorr ...

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 more than 2%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloy constituents affect its color when fractured: white cast iron has carbide impuri ...

engine with an

aluminium Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It ha ...

cylinder head In an internal combustion engine, the cylinder head (often abbreviated to simply "head") sits above the cylinders and forms the roof of the combustion chamber. In sidevalve engines, the head is a simple sheet of metal; whereas in more modern o ...

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

One (Portugal, Greece) (until 2008)

1.6 (T16b3)

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 The Chery A11 (), also known as Fulwin, Fengyun or Windcloud, is Chery's first car. Created without government approval, it has nonetheless been the first step of Chery's success story and helped transform the Chinese automotive market from one de ...

(Windcloud) *

Chery A15 The Chery A15 (), also known as Cowin, 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 It is based on a r ...

(Flagcloud) *

Chrysler Neon The Chrysler/Dodge/Plymouth Neon is a front-engine, front-wheel drive compact car that was introduced in January 1994 for model year 1995 by Chrysler's Dodge and Plymouth divisions in two- and four-door bodystyles over two generations. Marketed ...

(in non-US markets) *

Chrysler PT Cruiser The Chrysler PT Cruiser is a retro-styled compact car manufactured and marketed internationally by Chrysler in 5-door hatchback wagon (2001–2010) and 2-door convertible (2005–2008) body styles—over a single generation, with an intermedia ...

(in non-US markets) * Lifan 620 *

Lifan 520 The Lifan 520 is a subcompact sedan produced by the Lifan Motors division of Lifan Group. Overview The Lifan 520 is the first car produced by Lifan Motors, and was launched at the 2006 Beijing Auto Show. The exterior and interior are specific ...

Mini Hatch The Mini Hatch, stylised as MINI Hatch (or MINI Hardtop in the U.S.), also sold as Mini Cooper, Mini One, or simply called the (BMW) Mini, are a family of retro-styled two-door supermini hatchback and convertible; and (from 2014) a longer, sub ...

and Convertible (until 2008).

1.6 SC (T16b4)

The 1.6 SC uses an

Eaton Eaton may refer to: Buildings Canada * Eaton Centre, the name of various shopping malls in Canada due to having been anchored by an Eaton's store * Eaton's / John Maryon Tower, a cancelled skyscraper in Toronto * Eaton Hall (King City), a conferen ...

M45

Roots type supercharger The Roots-type blower is a positive displacement lobe pump which operates by pumping a fluid with a pair of meshing lobes resembling a set of stretched gears. Fluid is trapped in pockets surrounding the lobes and carried from the intake si ...

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 ...

. The

compression ratio The compression ratio is the ratio between the volume of the cylinder and combustion chamber in an internal combustion engine at their maximum and minimum values. A fundamental specification for such engines, it is measured two ways: the stati ...

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 equivalent of linear force. It is also referred to as the moment of force (also abbreviated to moment). It represents the capability of a force to produce change in the rotational motion of th ...

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 is 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' Automot ...

awards for 2003. It also won

Ward's 10 Best Engines 10 of the World's best engines is an annual list of the ten ''"''best''"'' automobile engines available in the U.S. market, that are selected by '' Ward's AutoWorld'' magazine. The list was started in 1994 for Model Year 1995, and has been drawn ev ...

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, show vehicle or prototype) is a car made to showcase new styling and/or new technology. They are often exhibited at motor shows to gauge customer reaction to new and radical designs which may or ...

References

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