GM targets development costs with commercial vehicle ECM

The hardest part of putting a proven engine into a new commercial vehicle has never been the engine itself. It is teaching that engine where it lives among the sensors, onboard computers and control modules that fill modern commercial vehicles. GM Powered Solutions is selling a shortcut, announced at ACT Expo earlier this year.

The automaker’s business-to-business propulsion group has rolled out a commercial vehicle ECM built for its 6. 6-liter heavy-duty gas engine. It’s aimed at on-road applications from companies that never put a GM badge on the hood.

The module ships with a GM-approved base engine calibration already loaded and is designed to function as a ready-to-run testing package. An ECM is the engine’s computer. In GM’s words, it decides how the engine responds to different driving and load conditions.

For integrators, upfitters and fleets spec’ing step vans, work trucks and last-mile delivery vehicles, the real value shows up on the development calendar. Programs that once started with a dead engine and a blank controller can now start with a running one. window. googletag = window. googletag || {cmd: []}; googletag. cmd. push(function() {googletag.

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push(function() {googletag. display('div-gpt-ad-1709668545404-0'); }); Turning fuel to noise The package exists because customers told GM the opening stretch of engine integration was the most punishing and the least differentiated work in the whole program. “We listened to our customer saying, ‘Hey, I really need a launching pad.

I don’t know what it takes to get an ECM to a state where we can turn fuel to noise — run the engine. It’s very technical, it’s very unique to that specific engine, and we just don’t know how to do that,’” said Anthony Locano, technical specialist and on-highway lead application engineer at GM Powered Solutions.

GM’s answer is what Locano calls a foundational starting point package. “Because every application has its own requirements, we have to be thoughtful about where we apply our engineering and calibration resources,” Locano told FreightWaves.

“When we’re certifying an engine, it has to meet a defined set of requirements, so it isn’t practical to tailor the production solution for every application. So we got really scrappy and unique with this ECM.” Locano has been with General Motors since 2013.

Before that he worked in heavy-duty trucking as a diesel and aftertreatment calibrator and in on-road and off-road applications like marine, industrial and generator-set applications running 14-liter engines and larger. What changes for integrators The controller is tailorable. That capability is new for external customers.

“What’s unique about this controller is that it can be tailored, meaning if a customer wants to add content to it for specific vehicle-related features or functionality, they have that ability,” Locano said. “That is something we haven’t been able to do in the past. That’s what makes this very unique.” window. googletag = window.

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collapseEmptyDivs(); googletag. enableServices(); }); googletag. cmd. push(function() {googletag. display('div-gpt-ad-1665767553440-0'); }); Engines do not arrive in a vacuum. Every calibration depends on the hardware the vehicle maker chooses, and that hardware changes with the chassis.

“Our controller is not specific to any exhaust system or air induction system, all these are inputs the go into building this calibration. They’re vehicle-dependent,” Locano said. “An air induction system or exhaust system out of one of our trucks isn’t going to work for a step van. It’s all integrated; our engine is integrated into another chassis.”

“The vehicle has to interface with the ECM. Now they can do that. They can tailor this specific ECM to communicate with their vehicle without a gateway and have that one piece tailored to their specific application,” he added. A starting point, not a certified product Buyers need to understand the certification boundary.

“With this controller we’ve taken it to a point where it’s up and running for engine dyno only. ,” Locano said. In practice, the customer installs the engine in a test cell and fires it at full power right away. Emissions calibration stays on the customer side because the intake and exhaust hardware is theirs. window. googletag = window.

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