Kamaz 4911 Master .. Paris - Dakar Vers A.2022 .. 2nd Offroad Test on the East Siberia Taimyr Map ..

"Dakar-2018" is the last one in which engines with a volume of more than 13 liters are allowed in the cargo category. For most teams, this makes little difference, as most of the trucks have been equipped with smaller motors over the years. But for KAMAZ-master this change is significant - after all, the main engine for the team in recent years has been the Liebherr V8 engine with a volume of 16 liters.
It is these engines that are used in three out of four KAMAZ trucks at the current Dakar. The fourth, under the control of Dmitry Sotnikov, is equipped with an experimental 13-liter engine, an in-line "six", which should become the power plant that will be installed on KAMAZ trucks in the future.
The change of the engine for KAMAZ-master is far from news. Over the years of competing in rally-raids, the team has used power plants of various companies (KAMAZ, Cummins, YaMZ, TMZ, Liebherr), a variety of configurations (in-line "six", V8 and even V12) and a variety of volumes (from 11 to 25 liters ). Vladimir Guba, technical director of the team, told us why KAMAZ-master used such large engines, and why other teams preferred engines of much smaller sizes..
Vladimir Guba: The reason why most teams use 13-liter engines is simple: all the leading teams in the world of rally-raids put on their trucks motors that are used in circuit races, in the European Truck Racing Championship. Ring trucks have strict regulations - 13-liter, 10-cylinder, single-stage supercharging. These are fairly advanced engines designed specifically for racing. There are MAN, Iveco, Mercedes teams there. Team Tatra in rally raids uses the same engine on their trucks as is used on the ring trucks of the Buggyra team. Therefore, in this regard, it is somewhat easier for them. They take an engine with a capacity of 1200 horsepower and a torque of 6000 N * m, and derate it to the level of 1000 horsepower, and 4500 N * m.
But this is a special product. We can't do that, we don't have our own truck racing team. We tried to work with the Buggyra engine, but we cannot build trucks on its basis, because we are a professional team, and our advantage is that we thoroughly know all the components of our car. We must be able to diagnose, test, repair them in any conditions. If we take a ready-made node, then, as a rule, we do not know what is inside it, we do not have access to the program, we do not even have access to diagnostics. That is, we are completely and completely tied to the services of the supplier. It doesn't suit us.
Therefore, we act in the opposite way - we take the production engine as a basis. This was the case with Liebherr - we took a serial engine that was used on special equipment, and a separate modification was used on MAN trucks. But this is a serial engine with a capacity of 500 kilowatts, 700 horsepower. We forced it, brought the power up to 1000 horsepower. Now we are doing the same with the 13-liter Cummins engine. We took an engine with a capacity of 520 horsepower, and we are trying to get more than 1000 horsepower from it, we double the torque.
Cummins engines are also installed on serial KAMAZ trucks, but small, 7-liter ones. Recently launched the production of 9-liter. That is, in terms of volume, they still occupy the lowest step in the hierarchy of these power plants. We're using a 13-liter engine. This is not our first experience with Cummins, they have been on our trucks, including racing ones, back in the 90s. And already in 2007-2008 they used a 15-liter Cummins engine, with a twin turbocharger. He did not show himself very well, which once again confirms the inefficiency of working with someone else's motor. It was made to order, and, of course, the manufacturer lays in a certain reserve for the client's engine, so that, God forbid, what does not happen. Therefore, its characteristics were not the best. However, we are now back to the Cummins block. But we are already developing everything ourselves, and we strive to approach the limit of its capabilities.
Indeed, for many years KAMAZ-master used a large-volume engine, 18.5 liters. We even tried the Yaroslavl 24-liter 12-cylinder once. But he was quickly abandoned because he breaks everything. Excess power. So we returned to the 18.5-liter, Yaroslavl, or now Tutaev engine. But this motor is quite old development ..