Choosing engine power

[Fjordland]

Right now I have a 480hp, and while it uses a terrible amount of fuel getting up to speed, when cruising it basically just idles along and fuel/100km drops fast.

Should I replace the engine with a stronger one as I level up?
Is there a "sweet spot" where a stronger engine doesn't give any benefit?

[BCS]

Well if you pull heavy loads your ingine works hard and use more fuel, so think of it that way in real life you use lot of fuel with big engines they need more gas and small engine there are used hard becouse they have to run overtime. so if i was you i would go middle, i got a Scania R500 Topline and it works great for me, What i try to say is go in the middle what ever truck you have and it should be okey.

[ArcticBliss]

I drive a R560 6x2 myself and it seems adequate for most tasks. If you drive very heavy loads though, 6x4 and 500-550kW would be your thing.
If you have an analogue controller, go easy on the throttle and just accept it takes a little longer to get up to speed. To "floor" the ♥♥♥♥♥ would only turn the fueltank into a sinkhole with very little to show for it. Happy trucking.

[SundayPilot]

I drive Volvo FH16 and I use the 700 HP engine, which is now a minimum for me. With a 25 ton load, it's really great. The 750 HP may be good too.


I suggest you try to upgrade your engine and to choose the fuel consumption upgrades when you level up.

[S10sleeper]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Frank:

I suggest you try to upgrade your engine and to choose the fuel consumption upgrades when you level up.

Just a FYI, the fuel consumption upgrade skill is a useless skill if you turn dynamic fuel on.

[Ant0n0vich]

Currently driving a MAN with a 590hp engine, but I also use the Engine Overhaul Mod. It definitely uses less fuel than my Volvo with 750hp engine. 590hp is enough for me to pull heavy loads. Though the heaviest I pulled was 25t. I'd say 550hp is enough for any load. Try that Engine Overhaul Mod, it adds a bunch of new engines for all makes, and gives you a broader range of engine options to choose from. Small engines are usually weaker but also use less fuel, bigger engine are more powerful but use more fuel.

[Runereader74]

listen to frank,he knows the way.

[ServiusTheBear]

my 700 on my Scania is good :)

[chaseydog]

Drove 700+ for a while but at some point it started to get a bit boring. I find 450-600 to be more interesting, particularly with heavier loads. I use an increased trailer weight mod so I'm generally pulling 25-45 tons

[Sherab]

Hi everyone!
I know topic is rather old now, but I don't find reason for now to start new. I haven't made real testings, but I drove yesterday on similar routes from Venice to Hamburg with Volvo 550 and 750. Vanilla game ver. 1.22.2 + my own engine actualisation for new euro 6 engines. First engine is ~13 l and much weaker than 16 l second engine. But I found out (with simulation of realistic fuel consumption) that my bigger Volvo had 23.4l/100km vs 28,9 l/100km of smaller engine. To be honest, there was different cargo weight (little lighter for 750 engine). But I still finded this suprising. I have no wheel or pedals - I drive with keyboard using realistic aotuamatic transmission for gaining desired speed (80 kph) then I sweatch to sequential to shiftup to 12 gear (with 80 kph auto transmission reduces quickly to 11). I maintain speed with cruise control.

What do you think about this?

I understand this that way - with more powerfull engine I need less power applied to pull same cargo, so if everything else is same (gear, transmission ratios, diff ratio, rpm, actual speed) I can more feather gas ♥♥♥♥♥ than with smaller engine. However it is still bigger (volume) engine, so it should be burning more still? Or maybe not. Another thing is accleleration speed and dealing with hills. Biggers engine accelerate me faster to desired speed (and acutally at least in passanger cars it is more fuel efficent than feathering ♥♥♥♥♥ during acceleration - I do not drive trucks IRL, so I don't know how it works here, but I suppose it might be similar). The goal is here to keep engine in up-stressed situation for shortest time possible - even if temporary fuel consumption is going up rapidly it happens only for short time. With hills - with 750 often I don't even need to drop from 12 gear.

I suppose without cargo smaller engine would be indeed more fuel efficent but with cargo (at lest in game) of about 15 T and more (and in hilly terrain even from 8 T) it starts to loose with bigger one.

So, again, what do you think?

[Ant0n0vich]

Not sure exactly how the game manages fuel economy, maybe it is as simple as size of the engine, power, load weight; but in real life there are obviously more variables. As trucks (vehicles in general) get older, components fail and wear out, which attribute to worse fuel economy, loss of power, and problems in general. I drive a 2007 Volvo VNL670 with Volvo's D12 engine, 430hp, which has just over 700,000 miles on it, and I average 4.2 mpg while hauling heavy loads. I drove a 2015 Freightliner Cascadia before, which had a Detroit Diesel engine, 450 hp, it had only 65,000 miles on it, and I averaged 7.5 mpg.

As far as the game it self. Well, I haven't played it in a while, but as I remember fuel is pretty cheap. So really you might as well go for the bigger, more powerful engine.

[Vini]

Alooo

[Sherab]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Kalash156:

Not sure exactly how the game manages fuel economy, maybe it is as simple as size of the engine, power, load weight; but in real life there are obviously more variables. As trucks (vehicles in general) get older, components fail and wear out, which attribute to worse fuel economy, loss of power, and problems in general. I drive a 2007 Volvo VNL670 with Volvo's D12 engine, 430hp, which has just over 700,000 miles on it, and I average 4.2 mpg while hauling heavy loads. I drove a 2015 Freightliner Cascadia before, which had a Detroit Diesel engine, 450 hp, it had only 65,000 miles on it, and I averaged 7.5 mpg.

As far as the game it self. Well, I haven't played it in a while, but as I remember fuel is pretty cheap. So really you might as well go for the bigger, more powerful engine.

Thx for answer. I suppose that in game mechanics are not very complicated. But I was rather asking do you guys have some similar experience with driving (virtually) more and less powerful engines? I understand that bigger engine have better pulling capacity, it do better with hills and so on, but common sence tells me that it should be still more fuel hungry. This is one point. Second is, do IRL engines (as a part of hole truck-trailer system) can behave such way? For the assumptions lets we take new engines from same producer differing only by volume and torque (and hp). By new I mean modern units as we have in game and that they do not differ by millage and other wear of factors. With one should consume more fuel with 40T set (truck+trailer+cargo)?

Btw. sorry for bad english - I tend to read a lot in english but I use it myself rarerly, unfortunatly.

[Ant0n0vich]

If you remove all of the factors except engine size and power, then yes, bigger + more power = more fuel consumed. Simple idea behind this is: bigger engine, means more fuel goes into the cylinders.

But like I said there are many other factors besides just engine size and power. Maybe ETS2 utilizes these other factors, maybe not, I don't know how the game is programmed. IRL tire pressure plays a big part in fuel consumption. Under-inflated tires will definitely cause the truck to burn more fuel. At high speeds, aerodynamics play a part as well. Hypothetically speaking, lets say there are two trucks with identical engines, transmission, tires, and total weight (truck + trailer), one is a modern style truck (Kenworth T680 for example), the other is a classic style truck (lets say Peterbilt 379 with low cabin sleeper). Going at highway speeds, the Pete should theoretically burn more fuel. But again, I don't know if ETS2 takes this type of thing into account. If you can't decide maybe just go for the middle. Around 500hp. IRL you don't really need a powerhouse of an engine to haul heavy loads. We regularly haul around 20-25 ton hauls. And our ♥♥♥♥♥♥ old Volvos with those garbage 430hp D12 can handle it just fine.

[Sherab]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Kalash156:

If you remove all of the factors except engine size and power, then yes, bigger + more power = more fuel consumed. Simple idea behind this is: bigger engine, means more fuel goes into the cylinders.

But like I said there are many other factors besides just engine size and power. Maybe ETS2 utilizes these other factors, maybe not, I don't know how the game is programmed. IRL tire pressure plays a big part in fuel consumption. Under-inflated tires will definitely cause the truck to burn more fuel. At high speeds, aerodynamics play a part as well. Hypothetically speaking, lets say there are two trucks with identical engines, transmission, tires, and total weight (truck + trailer), one is a modern style truck (Kenworth T680 for example), the other is a classic style truck (lets say Peterbilt 379 with low cabin sleeper). Going at highway speeds, the Pete should theoretically burn more fuel. But again, I don't know if ETS2 takes this type of thing into account. If you can't decide maybe just go for the middle. Around 500hp. IRL you don't really need a powerhouse of an engine to haul heavy loads. We regularly haul around 20-25 ton hauls. And our ♥♥♥♥♥♥ old Volvos with those garbage 430hp D12 can handle it just fine.

Heh, thanks!

You know, I simply belongs to those players with tends to make things as reallistic as possible - still playable ofcourse, but more realistic is better. And as you said in reality even those 430 hp engines do the job. :) And I suppose they are still more-less fuel efficient (I think driver skills plays a big role here as well and employer demands in this area ;) ). Normally you don't see many 600 to 750 hp semi-trucks on the roads in Europe I believe. Maybe they are more common in Sweden and Norway (?).

But in game it seems that 750 hp engine is at least same fuel efficient as 540 (sorry for earlier 550 - this one is already 16 l - Volvo's biggest 13 liters Euro 6 is 540 hp) and what's more it demands less effort on climbing hills. I suppose that in reality it is unpractical for operator (also from financial perspective) to buy such a monster as Volvo FH16 with 750 hp engine if he don't regullary transport cargo in mountains or it is over-weight cargo. They cost more by itself and also provides more operating costs.

I think game force a little bit arcade way of thinking - gaining levels, and bigger is better. You earn so much that you don't have to bother for fuel consumption, or are you really need 6x4 chassis. But this is not the way I like to play simply. That's why I'm asking. :) I tought fuel efficiency of that FH16 750 hp to be unrealistic. :)

By the way, I started new test. I've traveled from Graz to Glasgow with 25 T cargo (so it gives about 40 T total weight) by FH16 750, and I had average fuel consumption 27l/100 km at the target. I've reloaded save before this job and changed engine to 540 hp. Unfortunatly the job wasn't available again, but I've took heaviest cargo I've found - 22 T and decided to go same route. I will let you know what mu fuel consumption was when I finish. :)

EDIT: So:
first ride - FH16 750 - 27.0l/100 km
second ride - FH 540 - 27,3l/100 km

So they were actualy the same. It's even stranger if we recoll that second ride was with 22 T insteed of 25 T cargo. Ofcourse I don't know the actual code game's use but my conclusions are:
with simulating realistic fuel consumption option on, fuel consumption is depended of cargo load, gear choosen and differential ratios, environment (going up the hill and so on) and ours style of riding.
But... it seems that it not depends of engine volume and torque/power anymore and it should.

Meanwhile, thanks for asnwers. :) Happy driving (in game and IRL) :)