NEF 2.6 Diesel Engine

The NEF Diesel Engine was major project to develop a more fuel efficient Direct Injection Diesel engine to replace the ageing IDI engines for both tractor and later adopted for automotive products. The project was named as NEF – New Engine Family and was jointly developed with the help of M/s AVL, Austria.

• Plant – Igatpuri
• Production – 2002 to ?
• Engine Model(s) – NEF NA(EUV3600), NEF TC (Turbo 2.6), NEF CRDe (SZ 2.6)

The NEF NA was the base version and was used in some of the tractor models. It was also used in the Cabking 576 DI as well as Loadking models.

The specifications of the NEF NA engine are –

• Type – Direct Injection Diesel (DI)
• No of cylinders – 4
• Capacity – 2609 cc
• Fuel Delivery – Mechanical Rotary fuel injection pump (Lucas TVS DP203) with multi-hole nozzles.
• Naturally aspirated
• Power – 62 hp at 3600 rpm
• Torque – 15 kg-m at 2000 rpm

The turbocharged version of the NEF engine was used in the Scorpio. In the initial batches, the timing mechanism was driven by gears and later converted to a chain drive.

NEF 2600 TC Engine –

The specifications of the NEF TC engine are –

• Type – Direct Injection Diesel (DI)
• No of cylinders – 4
• Capacity – 2609 cc
• Fuel Delivery – Mechanical Rotary pump (Bosch), with multi-hole injectors.
• Turbocharged and intercooled
• Power – 109 hp at 3800 rpm
• Torque – 26 kg-m at 1800 rpm

The upcoming BS3 emission norms in 2005 required that the fuel injection system is converted to common rail fuel injection. The conversion was done along with AVL and Bosch in a record time of 11 months. The jump from a mechanical fuel injection system directly to Common Rail Diesel, bypassing the intermediate step of EDC with electronic governer (VP44), was a bold move by Engineering. The engine was christened as CRDe (Common Rail Diesel Engine) as the original name CRDi was registered by another OEM.

NEF 2600 CRDe Engine (SZ 2.6) –

The specifications of the NEF CRDe engine are –

• Type – Direct Injection Diesel (DI)
• No of cylinders – 4
• Capacity – 2609 cc
• Fuel Delivery – Common Rail Direct Injection with multi-hole nozzles.
• Turbocharged and intercooled
• Power – 115 hp at 3800 rpm
• Torque – 28 kg-m at 1700 – 2000 rpm

Author’s note – The sudden technology jump from mechanical fuel injection system to CRDi required that manufacturing, suppliers and dealers needed to be upgraded to handle complex electronics in diesel engines for the first time. It was successfully executed. Mahindra was the first OEM to design, develop, manufacture and deploy a CRDi system in the Indian market.