DRIVEABILITY CORNER Oct 2015_Layout 1 9/23/15 3:11 PM Page 1
Driveability Corner
Mark opened the discussion on ways of measuring engine load
last time, and he was just getting started. He delves further into
the subject of calculated engine load here, with more yet to come.
I
n my August column, I dis-
cussed ways of measuring en-
gine load—specifically calcu-
lated load (CL)—and promised
further insights into the sub-
Mark ject in this column. Without
Warren further ado, let’s get right to it.
Looking at the formula for calculat-
smwarren@motor.com ed load from the last column, which is
r e p r i n t e d b e l o w, p r o m p t s u s t o a s k
several questions:
What’s a normal value for calculated
load at idle? What’s the normal value
for CL at wide-open throttle (WOT)?
How much will this value vary with
temperature? How much will this val-
ue vary with altitude? How much will
CL vary with engine vacuum/manifold
absolute pressure (MAP)? How will
positive aspiration affect calculated
l o a d — e i t h e r t u r b o c h a r g e d o r s u p e r-
charged?
L e t ’s c o n s i d e r n o r m a l a s p i r a t i o n
f i r s t . L e t ’s b r e a k d o w n t h e f o r m u l a :
Current airflow divided by the max
airflow at that rpm. We’ll use a 3.0L
engine and make some assumptions:
•At 100% volumetric efficiency
(VE) and WOT at 700 rpm this 3.0L
engine could theoretically flow: 700 ÷
2 x 3.0L x 1.18 grams per liter ÷ 60
seconds = 20.7 grams per second.
•Actually, at this rpm most engines
are only 50% volumetrically efficient.
•Therefore, our max airflow value is
half the 20.7 grams per second, or
10.35 grams per second.
•Assuming sea level BARO of 29.9
in.-Hg and an intake vacuum of 20
in.-Hg, only about one-third (10 in.
MAP) of the atmospheric air pressure
is available to the engine.
•Now our calculated idle closed-
throttle airflow for this 3.0L engine is
10.35 grams per second divided by 3,
which equals 3.4 grams per second.
So, the baseline of our formula for
calculated load at idle is 3.4 grams
per second (current airflow) divided
b y 1 0 . 3 5 g r a m s p e r s e c o n d ( m a x a i r-
flow) equals 33%. In the last column
we saw that normal CL readings at
idle could be between 30% and 50%.
N o w l e t ’s l o o k a t t h e b a r o m e t r i c
p r e s s u r e / a l t i t u d e c o m p e n s a t o r. We
know that as you get higher in alti-
t u d e t h e r e ’s l e s s a i r p r e s s u r e a v a i l -
able, and therefore the MAP/engine
vacuum ratio is affected by altitude.
To k e e p c a l c u l a t e d l o a d a d j u s t e d f o r
altitude, we have the correction in
the formula of BARO ÷ 29.9. General-
l y, y o u s u b t r a c t 1 i n . - H g o f p r e s s u r e
for every 1000 ft. of altitude. So at
10,000 ft., the barometric pressure is
29.9 minus 10, or 19.9 in.-Hg, or
about two-thirds of sea level pres-
s u r e . We ’ l l r e v i s i t t h e e f f e c t s o f a l t i -
tude in a future column.
The final compensator is for air
density changes due to temperature
in degrees Celsius. If the ambient
October 2015 15
DRIVEABILITY CORNER Oct 2015_Layout 1 9/23/15 11:51 AM Page 2
Driveability Corner
temperature is 25°C, then 273
plus 25 equals 298, and the
square root of 298 divided by
298 is 1, or no compensation.
While the temperature com-
p e n s a t i o n i s i m p o r-
tant for accuracy, you
can see that tempera-
ture variations do not
move the final calcu-
lation very far.
Now refer to the
screen capture on this
page, from a 2014 VW
Passat, and look at
the readings at the
green cursor:
•Engine rpm (bot-
tom chart) is 878 rpm
at idle.
•Calculated load (top chart)
is 17.3%.
•Intake MAP is 14.5 in.-Hg.
These readings were taken at
near sea level. Note that throt-
tle position and calculated
load are fairly well-correlated.
Wa i t a m i n u t e . C a l c u l a t e d
load is 17.3% at idle? What
happened to our “normal” 33%
to 50% from the last column
and the above calculations?
18 October 2015
Referring to the third chart,
the max intake manifold pres-
sure/MAP is 54 in.-Hg. What
does that tell you?
Let’s revisit the definition of
As you get into the higher
altitudes, there’s less air
pressure available, which
directly affects the MAP/engine
vacuum ratio.
calculated load from SAE:
•It reaches 1 at full open
throttle for any altitude, tem-
perature and pressure or rpm
for both naturally aspirated
and boosted engines.
•It indicates percent of peak
available torque.
•It’s linearly correlated with
engine vacuum.
• I t ’s o f t e n u s e d t o s c h e d u l e
power enrichment.
Screen capture: Mark Warren
What does the first bullet
point say? If this 1.8L turbo
has a max reading of 100% for
calculated load and it can
pump 54 in.-Hg pressure—al-
most double the 29.9
atmospheric—won’t
the engineers have to
adjust the idle CL
number down to get
the correct spread? Is
the max airflow at 878
rpm at WOT actually
six times the idle
number? I doubt that
the turbo is wound up
at this point. But to
make the numbers
work and to make the
max at high rpm equal
1 or 100%, then the idle num-
ber must be cranked down.
With so many positively as-
pirated engines on the market
now, we’re going to have to get
used to adjusting our diagnos-
tics and calculations for posi-
tive vs. normal aspiration.
We s t i l l h a v e n o t e v e n
touched absolute load, altitude
and other aberrations in the
calculations. More next time.