Navistar pumping out MaxxForce 13s

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Navistar’s engine plant in Huntsville, Alabama, has kicked into a higher gear by building more than 70 International MaxxForce 13 engines a day.

The engines are a mix of 2007 and 2010-spec motors, and before long they’ll be joined by the MaxxForce 15 as the factory ramps up to its maximum capacity of 400 a day.

During a recent visit to the plant, senior vice president Jim Hebe told us the target is to have nearly 16,000 MaxxForce engines in the field by year-end.

The MAN-designed 11- and 13-litre blocks are made by Navistar subsidiary MDM in Brazil, and they’re identical. The displacement difference is managed by the cylinder liners.

As for the MaxxForce 15, based on the Caterpillar C15 block made for Navistar under licence and with a top end similar to the 13-litre motor, several are in fleet field tests now, with at least two coming to Canada this summer, one west and one east.

The plan is to have the big engine ready for sale in the ProStar by February of 2011, in the 9900 model some time in Spring ’11. Pre-production build starts this fall.

Both the MaxxForce 13 and 15 use a Bosch common-rail fuel system and twin Borg Warner turbos. Injection pressure has risen to 32,000 psi in 2010-spec engines, up from 25,000, with five injection pulses per stroke for the new engine, up from three.

Among other changes for the ‘010 engines, they now have electronic EGR valves, said to be more precise than the pneumatic ones they replace.