Anyone know why Acura opted not to put a V6 ivtec in the TL? Cylinder deactivation would be great for fuel savings. Perhaps they felt it would lower the performance?

 

ivtec is not cylinder deactivation. that's VCM, which is variable cylinder management
ivtec is intelligent vtec which varies the valve timings instead of the old school crossovers of the b and H days
We have vtec (variable valve timing and lift electronic control) in our J35/37 engines.

 

What's the difference between ivtec and vtec?

 

VTEC is Variable Valve timing and Lift Electronic Control. Basicly your cam profile switchs and depending on the design of the cam, the vavle timing may be advanced or retarded and will have more lift and duration.

iVTEC uses this AND also does cam timing. Basicly an adjustable cam gear controled by a computer that will advance or retard the cam how ever the computer feels fit.

Both are kinda a pretty basic explianation.

Here is a more indepth expliantion.

Howstuffworks.com VTEC link

IVTEC article

 

The previous generation VCM was quite parasitic when it came to midrange power. The new Accord V6 and the new RLX VCM systems, in my opinion, is perfect. I imagine the next TL will have it.

 

I think ivtec does everything vtec does in addition to being able to adjust the cam timing.
I think there's a few other details, but Google seems to point cam timing as the biggest difference.


Edit* I see someone else found asmallsol's post.

 

Thanks for pointing that out. I was under the assumption that the ivtec v6 had cylinder deactivation. But was not aware it is a separate technology all together.

 

Because the first i-VTEC V6 application for the Acura brand will be on the RLX flagship.

The TL, being a lower vehicle class than the RLX, will never be allowed to steal the spotlight from the RLX.

But once the i-VTEC V6 RLX has been released, expect the same engine be trickled down to the TL model line. It is highly unlikely that this engine will be swapped into the 4G TL, but very likely in the full-model-change 5G TL/TLX.

 

^^^ Along those lines, expect all of the current 3.5L/3.7L J series engines to be replaced with "Sky Dreams" V6's. Not just in the TL, but all of the V6 Hondas. The Accord has it right now. The Accord actually had it before the RLX was released. Eventually they'll put it in the Ridgeline, Pilot, TLX, TSX (if they don't kill it off), etc. CAFE standards means that all of the auto manufacturers need to get their mileage numbers up, and the current 3.5L/3.7L J series engines suck for fuel economy.

 

^^^^^

The Honda Accord's i-VTEC 3.5L-V6 has been detuned to 278hp, so as not to threaten the Acura sport sedans which will get the high output version of the same 3.5L-V6 (310hp).

 

I drove an RLX a couple days ago. I know it technically makes 5 more HP than my TL does, but it felt a lot more sluggish than the TL. It could have partially been the gear ratio(s) difference between a 6MT and the 6AT in the RLX, but it did feel pretty down on power - mostly on the low and mid end of the RPM range. I haven't looked at the numbers yet, but I'm thinking that the power and torque it makes are at a much higher rev than that of the TL.

The Accord had the same J series too obviously, with lower HP and TQ than the Acuras, but my point was that the traditional J is going to get phased out sooner than later and all of the Honda V6's will be Sky Dreams V6's.

Having driven the RLX though I can tell you that even though it's a few HP down, I'd still rather have two new mildly-loaded Accords for the price of a loaded RLX. Now that the SH-AWD is gone it feels like a damn Buick to drive, and when they do bring AWD back it'll probably be a $68K car and won't be too far off from 7-series territory as far as price (they start at $73K). That's aiming high.

 

You are correct.

If buyers aren't interest in the AWD and/or the more upscale Acura badge, then the Honda Accord is an excellent buy in mid-size sedan, especially that the current model is loaded with advanced gadgets.