COLUMBUS, Miss. — Paccar, parent company of both Kenworth and Peterbilt, is quickly moving forward with the North Americanization of the European 12.9-liter engine that will be offered in its trucks here in 2010.

Known as the Paccar MX engine in Europe, it’s now built in the DAF plant in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. It will eventually be built in Paccar’s completely new 400,000-sq-ft engine plant in Columbus, Mississippi, now under construction and set to be finished in 2009.

DAF has been designing and building engines for a very long time, incidentally, and it’s actually responsible for the invention of turbocharger aftercooling. Paccar has owned the Dutch truck and engine maker since 1998.

The new Paccar MX engine seems
to fit nicely with this Pete 386.

In Europe the MX powers the big DAF XF105 cabover, voted Truck of the Year for 2007, the company’s flagship tractor. It’s available with outputs of 410, 460 and 510 hp, with maximum torque up to 1845 lb ft. In every rating, the torque curve is absolutely flat between 1000 and 1500 rpm.

In Euro 4 and 5 emissions trim it uses selective catalytic reduction, but Paccar hasn’t yet decided on its 2010 emissions strategy for North America, according to director of marketing Alan Treasure.

The engine, an inline six, was designed by DAF completely from scratch, front to back. Its features and innovations include the design of the cylinder block and one-piece head, which integrate as many pipes as possible to minimize the number of engine components.

Also pretty interesting are the engine’s projected B-50 life of a million miles plus (the point at which half the engines sold will need a rebuild) and its oil-change interval which can stretch out to maximum 150,000 km (93,000 miles).

Another unique and interesting technical detail is the full encapsulation of electric cables and connections — by a technology called ‘over mold’ — that aims especially to protect sensor wiring.

It uses wet cylinder liners (a first for DAF) in order to obtain more direct cylinder cooling. The engineers opted for a camshaft in the block, which gives the advantage of low engine height, fewer components, and maximum integration of functions. The ‘Smart’ high-pressure fuel-injection system, developed in co-operation with Delphi, is completely integrated into the cylinder block. Depending on the circumstances, pre-injection, post-injection or a combination of both can be used and the injector opening pressure can be varied electronically.

Other technical details are the fully encapsulated electric cables and connections, Poly-V belt drive for the alternator and air conditioning, the valve cover with integrated crankcase ventilation, the timing gear at the rear of the engine, the combined steering pump/fuel supply pump, the aluminum flywheel housing and, as a completely new development, rocker assemblies with integrated decompression brake. The engine brake has an output of 440 hp and is available at 2,100 rpm.