The
PRV engine is an
automobileAn automobile, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...
petrol
V6 engineA V6 engine is a V engine with six cylinders mounted on the crankcase in two banks of three cylinders, usually set at either a right angle or an acute angle to each other, with all six pistons driving a common crankshaft...
that was developed jointly by
PeugeotPeugeot is a major French car brand, part of PSA Peugeot Citroën, the second largest European carmaker.Peugeot's roots go back to 19th-century coffee mill and bicycle manufacturing. The Peugeot company and family is originally from Sochaux, France. Peugeot retains a large manufacturing plant and...
,
RenaultRenault S.A. is a French automaker producing cars, vans, buses, tractors, and trucks. Due to its alliance with Nissan, it is currently the world's fourth largest automaker. Headquartered in Boulogne-Billancourt, Renault owns the Romanian automaker Automobile Dacia and the Korean automaker Renault...
and
Volvo CarsVolvo Cars, or Volvo Personvagnar AB, is a Swedish automobile manufacturer founded in 1927 in the city of Gothenburg, Sweden, and currently owned by Ford Motor Company....
- and sold from 1974 to 1998. It was gradually replaced after 1994 by another joint PSA-
RenaultRenault S.A. is a French automaker producing cars, vans, buses, tractors, and trucks. Due to its alliance with Nissan, it is currently the world's fourth largest automaker. Headquartered in Boulogne-Billancourt, Renault owns the Romanian automaker Automobile Dacia and the Korean automaker Renault...
design, known as the
ES engineThe PSA ES engine or Renault L engine is a V6 engine used in automotive applications. It was co-developed by the PSA Group and Renault to replace the outdated PRV engine. It was introduced in 1997 with the Peugeot 406 Coupé....
at PSA and the
L engineThe PSA ES engine or Renault L engine is a V6 engine used in automotive applications. It was co-developed by the PSA Group and Renault to replace the outdated PRV engine. It was introduced in 1997 with the Peugeot 406 Coupé....
at
RenaultRenault S.A. is a French automaker producing cars, vans, buses, tractors, and trucks. Due to its alliance with Nissan, it is currently the world's fourth largest automaker. Headquartered in Boulogne-Billancourt, Renault owns the Romanian automaker Automobile Dacia and the Korean automaker Renault...
.
Corporate history
The
PRV story begins in 1966 when Peugeot and Renault entered a cooperative agreement to manufacture common components. The first joint subsidiary,
La Française de Mécanique (also called
Compagnie Française de Mécanique or simply
FM) was launched in 1969. The FM factory was built in
DouvrinDouvrin is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of France.-Geography:An ex-coalmining town some east of Béthune and southwest of Lille, at the junction of the D165, the D163 and the N47 roads...
near Lens in northern
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
. The PRV engines are sometimes referred to as "Douvrin" engines, though that name is more-commonly applied to
a family of straight-4The Douvrin family was an all-aluminum straight-4 automobile engine designed in the early 1970s and produced from 1977 to 1996 by Compagnie Française de Mécanique, a joint-venture between Peugeot and Renault located in the town of Douvrin in northern France...
s produced at the same time.
In 1971, Volvo joined Peugeot and Renault in the creation of the PRV company, a
public limited companyA public limited company is a type of limited liability company in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland which is permitted to offer its shares to the public.A public limited company must include the words "public limited company" or its...
(plc) in which each of the three manufacturers owned an equal portion. The company originally planned to build
V8 engineA V8 engine is a V engine with eight cylinders mounted on the crankcase in two banks of four cylinders, in most cases set at a right angle to each other but sometimes at a narrower angle, with all eight pistons driving a common crankshaft....
s, although these were later scrapped in favor of a smaller and more
fuel efficientFuel efficiency, is a form of thermal efficiency, meaning the efficiency of a process that converts chemical potential energy contained in a carrier fuel into kinetic energy or work. Overall fuel efficiency may vary per device, which in turn may vary per application, and this spectrum of variance...
V6.
The PRV engine could be seen as a V8 with two missing cylinders, having a 90 degree angle between cylinder banks, rather than the customary 60, but with crankpins being 120 degrees apart. The
MaseratiMaserati is an Italian manufacturer of racing cars and sports cars, established on December 1, 1914, in Bologna. The company's headquarters are now in Modena, and its emblem is a trident. It has been owned by the Italian car giant Fiat S.p.A. since 1993...
V6 of the Citroën SM followed a remarkably similar pattern of development.
The 1973 energy crisis, and taxes levied against
engine displacementEngine displacement is the volume swept by all the pistons inside the cylinders of an internal combustion engine in a single movement from top dead centre to bottom dead centre . It is commonly specified in cubic centimeters , litres , or cubic inches...
greater than 2.8
litreThe litre or liter is a unit of volume. There are two official symbols: the Latin letter L in lower and upper case . The lower case L is also often written as a cursive ℓ, though this symbol has no official approval by any international bureau...
s made large V8 engines somewhat undesirable, and expanded the market for smaller displacement engines.
Additionally, Renault needed a V6 engine to fit in its new model, the
Renault 30The Renault 20 and Renault 30 are two executive cars produced by the French automaker Renault between 1975 and 1984. The most upmarket and expensive Renaults of their time, the two cars were effectively identical; the 30 was the larger engined and more expensive of the two...
.
Machinery for assembling the engines arrived at Douvrin in early June 1973, and buildings for producing the engines were finished in January 1974. The first PRV engines were officially introduced on 3 October 1974 in the
Volvo 264The Volvo 200 series was a range of luxury mid-size cars produced by Volvo from 1974 to 1993, with more than 2.8 million sold worldwide. Also designed by Jan Wilsgaard, the 200 series was essentially an updated version of the 140; it shared the same body, but included a number of mechanical...
. Adoption was swift, and the PRV V6 had been sold in at least five different models by the end of 1975.
In 1984, the first commercially available
turbochargedA turbocharger, or turbo, is a gas compressor that is used for forced-induction of an internal combustion engine. A form of supercharger, the purpose of a turbocharger is to increase the density of air entering the engine to create more power...
PRV V6 was sold in the
Renault 25 V6 TurboThe Renault 25 is an executive car produced by the French automaker Renault from 1984 to 1991. During its time, the 25 was Renault's flagship, the most expensive, prestigious, and largest vehicle in the company's line-up. It placed second in the 1985 European Car of the Year contest...
. This was the first to be
even-fireThe firing order is the sequence of power delivery of each cylinder in a multi-cylinder reciprocating engine. This is achieved by sparking of the spark plugs in a gasoline engine in the correct order, or by the sequence of fuel injection in a Diesel engine...
with split
crankpinsThe crankshaft, sometimes casually abbreviated to crank, is the part of an engine which translates reciprocating linear piston motion into rotation...
, and was the first of the second generation, and indeed EFI engine of any sort. Turbocharged versions went on to be used in the
Renault Alpine GTA V6 TurboThe Renault Alpine GTA is a coupe automobile produced by the Renault-owned French manufacturer Alpine between 1986 and 1991.It was the first car launched by Alpine under Renault ownership...
(essentially the same engine as the 25 Turbo at ), Renault Alpine A610, and Renault Safrane Bi-turbo - both with low compression. Naturally aspirated and versions of both low and high compresson 3
litreThe litre or liter is a unit of volume. There are two official symbols: the Latin letter L in lower and upper case . The lower case L is also often written as a cursive ℓ, though this symbol has no official approval by any international bureau...
engines appeared in a number of Peugeot, Citroen and Renault cars until 1997.
While Renault were working forced induction into the PRV, Peugeot and Citroen developed their own
24 valveIn automotive engineering, an engine is referred to as multi-valve when each cylinder has more than two valves. Such designs have been around since at least 1912 and perhaps earlier....
engines as an option in the 605 and XM respectively. The compression remained the same as the Renault 12v, but the
pistonA piston is a component of reciprocating engines, pumps and gas compressors. It is located in a cylinder and is made gas-tight by piston rings. In an engine, its purpose is to transfer force from expanding gas in the cylinder to the crankshaft via a piston rod and/or connecting rod...
s differed, as did some of the
timing gearA traditional reciprocating internal combustion engine uses valves to control air and fuel flow into and out of the cylinders, facilitating combustion....
, and the
headsIn an internal combustion engine, the cylinder head sits above the cylinders and consists of a platform containing part of the combustion chamber and the location of the valves and spark plugs...
were re-engineered to allow easier maintenance (the
camshaftA camshaft is a shaft to which a cam is fastened or of which a cam forms an integral part.-History:An early cam featuring a camshaft was built into Hellenistic water-driven automata from the 3rd century BC. The camshaft was later described in Iraq by Al-Jazari in 1206...
being fitted from the opposite end for example). This engine was however extremely expensive, and suffered
camA cam is a rotating or sliding piece in a mechanical linkage used especially in transforming rotary motion into linear motion or vice versa. It is often a part of a rotating wheel or shaft that strikes a lever at one or more points on its circular path...
wear problems. This was down to the exhaust
valvesA poppet valve is a valve consisting of a hole, usually round or oval, and a tapered plug, usually a disk shape on the end of a shaft also called a valve stem. The shaft guides the plug portion by sliding through a valve guide...
sharing a single lobe, while inlet valves had a lobe each. This was at least partially solved by the use of ceramic followers as one of a succession of recalls.
Meanwhile, French supercar manufacturer Venturi had been developing their own versions of the PRV. The most powerful versions they built were in the Atlantique 300 at from a single turbocharged 3 litre 12v, and they successfully raced at the
24 Hours of Le MansThe 24 Hours of Le Mans is the world's oldest sports car race in endurance racing, held annually since near the town of Le Mans, Sarthe, France...
with the 600LM with a twin turbocharged 24v 3.0 litre, pushing out over in race spec, and the road-going spin-off, the 400GT managed . This used the low compression bottom end common to the Renault turbo engines, coupled to 24 valve
cylinder headIn an internal combustion engine, the cylinder head sits above the cylinders and consists of a platform containing part of the combustion chamber and the location of the valves and spark plugs...
s with bespoke rockers and tappets.
Peugeot too allowed a small group of engineers to create a team for
endurance racingEndurance racing is a form of motorsport racing which is meant to test the durability of equipment and endurance of participants. Teams of multiple drivers attempt to cover a large distance in a single event, with participants given a break with the ability to change during the race...
, and after a few years the team grew to be called WM Peugeot. The ultimate version of the car used a low compression 3.0 litre bottom end coupled to bespoke twin-cam heads. It is the only DOHC PRV. This car still holds the top speed record at
24 Hours of Le MansThe 24 Hours of Le Mans is the world's oldest sports car race in endurance racing, held annually since near the town of Le Mans, Sarthe, France...
set in 1988. By taping over the engine cooling intakes to improve aerodynamics, the team managed to push the car to on the straight before the engine was destroyed.
Volvo began to withdraw from the PRV consortium in the late
1980sThe 1980s was the decade that ran from January 1, 1980, to December 31, 1989.The time period saw social, economic and general change as wealth and production migrated to newly industrializing economies...
, shifting its powerplant reliance onto in-house
inline enginesUsually found in four- and six-cylinder configurations, the straight engine, or inline engine is an internal-combustion engine with all cylinders aligned in one row or plane, with no offset....
.
PeugeotPeugeot is a major French car brand, part of PSA Peugeot Citroën, the second largest European carmaker.Peugeot's roots go back to 19th-century coffee mill and bicycle manufacturing. The Peugeot company and family is originally from Sochaux, France. Peugeot retains a large manufacturing plant and...
,
RenaultRenault S.A. is a French automaker producing cars, vans, buses, tractors, and trucks. Due to its alliance with Nissan, it is currently the world's fourth largest automaker. Headquartered in Boulogne-Billancourt, Renault owns the Romanian automaker Automobile Dacia and the Korean automaker Renault...
and
CitroënCitroën is a French automobile manufacturer. Founded in 1919 by André Citroën, it was the world's first mass-production car company outside of the USA. Since 1976 it has been part of PSA Peugeot Citroën, and its headquarters is on rue Fructidor, Paris...
continued using the PRV until 1997.
After producing 970,315 units, production of the PRV V6 was stopped on 15 June 1998.
Ignition timing
The original engineering work done on the
V8 engineA V8 engine is a V engine with eight cylinders mounted on the crankcase in two banks of four cylinders, in most cases set at a right angle to each other but sometimes at a narrower angle, with all eight pistons driving a common crankshaft....
can still be seen in the resulting
V6 engineA V6 engine is a V engine with six cylinders mounted on the crankcase in two banks of three cylinders, usually set at either a right angle or an acute angle to each other, with all six pistons driving a common crankshaft...
: its
cylinder bankInternal combustion piston engines are typically arranged with their pistons in rows, or 'planes', moving inside individual cylinders. This allows the engine block to be built from a single piece of machined metal. Engines sometimes have more than one row of pistons, each with their own block,...
s are arranged at 90°, instead of the much more common 60°. V8 engines nearly universally feature 90° configurations, because this allows for a natural
firing orderThe firing order is the sequence of power delivery of each cylinder in a multi-cylinder reciprocating engine. This is achieved by sparking of the spark plugs in a gasoline engine in the correct order, or by the sequence of fuel injection in a Diesel engine...
. V6 engines, on the other hand, are generally arranged at 60° (again because of
timingTiming is the spacing of events in time. Some typical uses are:* The act of measuring the elapsed time of something or someone, often at athletic events such as swimming or running, where participants are timed with a device such as a stopwatch....
), but can be built as 90° engines, with either staggered timing or split
crankshaftThe crankshaft, sometimes casually abbreviated to crank, is the part of an engine which translates reciprocating linear piston motion into rotation...
journals.
First-generation PRV engines (1974-1985) featured uneven ignition timing. Second generation PRV engines (introduced in 1984 in the
Renault 25 TurboThe Renault 25 is an executive car produced by the French automaker Renault from 1984 to 1991. During its time, the 25 was Renault's flagship, the most expensive, prestigious, and largest vehicle in the company's line-up. It placed second in the 1985 European Car of the Year contest...
) featured split crankshaft journals and even ignition timing all electronically controlled. Other similar design examples are the
odd-fire and
even-fire Buick V6 and the
MaseratiMaserati is an Italian manufacturer of racing cars and sports cars, established on December 1, 1914, in Bologna. The company's headquarters are now in Modena, and its emblem is a trident. It has been owned by the Italian car giant Fiat S.p.A. since 1993...
V6 seen in the
Citroën SMThe Citroën SM was a high performance coupé produced by the French manufacturer Citroën between 1970 and 1975. The SM placed third in the 1971 European Car of the Year contest, trailing its stablemate Citroën GS, and won the 1972 Motor Trend Car of the Year award in the US in 1972.-History:In 1961,...
.
PRV Varieties
- Z7U-702: Used in the Renault 25 V6 Turbo
The Renault 25 is an executive car produced by the French automaker Renault from 1984 to 1991. During its time, the 25 was Renault's flagship, the most expensive, prestigious, and largest vehicle in the company's line-up. It placed second in the 1985 European Car of the Year contest...
- ZM112: Carbureted version used in the Peugeot 504
The Peugeot 504 is a large family car manufactured by French automaker Peugeot between 1968 and 1983, with licensed production continuing until 2006.-1968 — introduction:...
- ZMJ140: Fuel-injected version used in the Peugeot 504
The Peugeot 504 is a large family car manufactured by French automaker Peugeot between 1968 and 1983, with licensed production continuing until 2006.-1968 — introduction:...
- ZN3J: Fuel-injected version used in the US-spec Peugeot 504
The Peugeot 504 is a large family car manufactured by French automaker Peugeot between 1968 and 1983, with licensed production continuing until 2006.-1968 — introduction:...
- ZNJK: Fuel-injected version used in the Peugeot 604
The Peugeot 604 is an executive car produced by the French manufacturer Peugeot from 1975 to 1985. 153,252 examples of the 604 were sold during its 10-year production life. It was made in France and also by Kia in Korea ....
Specifications
- power (DIN): at 92 r/s (136 hp at 5,500 rpm)
- power (SAE): at 92 r/s (130 hp at 5,500 rpm)
- torque (DIN): at 48 r/s
- torque (SAE): at 48 r/s (153 ft·lbf at 2,750 rpm)
- compression ratio: 8.8:1
- cylinder bore:
- piston stroke:
- displacement:
- firing order: 1-6-3-5-2-4
- mass (weight): ~
PRV powered automobiles
The dates following each entry denote the introduction of a PRV V6-equipped model
- Alpine A310
The Alpine A310 was a sports car built by French manufacturer Alpine, from 1971 to 1984.Dieppe-based Alpine, once an independent company specialising in faster Renaults, later a Renault subsidiary, established a fine competition history with the Alpine A110 winning the 1973 Monte Carlo Rally and...
(October 1976)
- Alpine A610 (1991)
- Alpine GT/GTA (1984)
- Citroën XM
The Citroën XM is an executive car that was produced by the French automaker Citroën between 1989 and 2000. Citroën sold 330,000 XMs during the model's 10 years of production...
(1989)
- DeLorean DMC-12 (1981-1983)
- Dodge Monaco
The Dodge Monaco was a full-size automobile built and sold by the Dodge division of the Chrysler Corporation between 1965 to 1978 and 1990 to 1992.-A Grand Prix competitor:...
(1990-1992)
- Eagle Premier
The Eagle Premier is an automobile developed by the American Motors Corporation and Renault partnership. The model was inherited by Chrysler Corporation when it acquired AMC in 1987. It was sold from the 1988 through 1992 model years...
(1988-1992)
- Helem V6
- Lancia Thema
The Lancia Thema was an executive car produced by the Italian automaker Lancia between 1984 and 1994, and was one of four cars to share the "Type Four" chassis alongside the Alfa Romeo 164, Fiat Croma and Saab 9000...
(1984)
- Peugeot 504
The Peugeot 504 is a large family car manufactured by French automaker Peugeot between 1968 and 1983, with licensed production continuing until 2006.-1968 — introduction:...
coupé/cabriolet (1974/1975)
- Peugeot 505
The Peugeot 505 was a large family car produced by the French manufacturer Peugeot from 1979 to 1992 in Sochaux, France. It was also manufactured outside France, for example in Argentina by Sevel from 1981 to 1995, China, Indonesia and Nigeria.-History:...
(July 1986)
- Peugeot 604
The Peugeot 604 is an executive car produced by the French manufacturer Peugeot from 1975 to 1985. 153,252 examples of the 604 were sold during its 10-year production life. It was made in France and also by Kia in Korea ....
(March 1975)
- Peugeot 605
The Peugeot 605 was an executive car produced by the French manufacturer Peugeot between 1989 and 1999.The 605 was based on the Citroën XM , and was successor to the unsuccessful Peugeot 604 which went out of production some years earlier...
(1990)
- Renault 25
The Renault 25 is an executive car produced by the French automaker Renault from 1984 to 1991. During its time, the 25 was Renault's flagship, the most expensive, prestigious, and largest vehicle in the company's line-up. It placed second in the 1985 European Car of the Year contest...
(1984)
- Renault 30
The Renault 20 and Renault 30 are two executive cars produced by the French automaker Renault between 1975 and 1984. The most upmarket and expensive Renaults of their time, the two cars were effectively identical; the 30 was the larger engined and more expensive of the two...
(March 1975)
- Renault Espace
The Renault Espace is a large MPV from French car-maker Renault. Generations 1-3 were sold under the Renault brand but manufactured by Matra. The current fourth generation model, which seats seven passengers, was designed and is built by Renault; the Renault Grand Espace is a long-wheelbase version...
- Renault Laguna
The Renault Laguna is a large family car produced by the French manufacturer Renault. The first Laguna was launched in 1993, the second generation was launched in 2000, and the third generation was made available for sale in October 2007....
- Renault Safrane
The Renault Safrane was an executive car designed and built by the French manufacturer Renault from 1992 to 2000. Throughout its lifespan it remained the most expensive and most luxurious Renault available...
- Talbot Tagora
The Talbot Tagora is an executive car developed by Chrysler Europe and produced by Peugeot Société Anonyme . The Tagora was marketed under the Talbot marque after PSA took over Chrysler's European operations in 1979. PSA presented the first production vehicle in 1980 and launched it commercially in...
(1980)
- UMM Alter II
UMM Alter II Phase IIn 1986 the Alter II was released by the Portuguese automobile manufacturer União Metalo-Mecânica . It featured a new 4-speed manual gearbox, a new transfer case and a new suspension. The engine remained the same 2.5-litre diesel engine which developed 76 PS...
(90's)
- Venturi (all models)
- Volvo 242GLT/6/244GLT/6/245GLT/6c/262/262C/264/265
The Volvo 200 series was a range of luxury mid-size cars produced by Volvo from 1974 to 1993, with more than 2.8 million sold worldwide. Also designed by Jan Wilsgaard, the 200 series was essentially an updated version of the 140; it shared the same body, but included a number of mechanical...
(October 1974)
- Volvo 760 GLE (February 1982)
- Volvo 780 (1985)
- Volvo 960 (rare 1991 models)
PRV engines in racing
- Alpine A310 V6
- Fouquet buggies
- Peugeot 504 V6 Coupé
- Schlesser
Jean-Louis Schlesser is a French racing driver with experience in circuit racing and cross-country rallying. He is known for his successful wins of many different competitions...
Original
- Venturi 400GTR and 600LM
- UMM Alter II
UMM Alter II Phase IIn 1986 the Alter II was released by the Portuguese automobile manufacturer União Metalo-Mecânica . It featured a new 4-speed manual gearbox, a new transfer case and a new suspension. The engine remained the same 2.5-litre diesel engine which developed 76 PS...
- WM Peugeot
External links