Car guys check this out

[Dolomite_supafly]

Ford tried this back in the 80's but they were using electrically driven solenoids. They said they were too noisy and with engine heat were unreliable. These guys have solved that.

 

What is amazing about this is the profile of the intake and exhaust can be changed easily and instantly through electronic mapping. You can have a very miserly profile then have a max power profile. Or as you mash the gas to pass someone the profile changes on the fly to provide more power.

 

What is also amazing is 30% less fuel consumption with 30% more power along with 50% less emmisions. What else is amazing is the idea of using the engine as a motor that runs on pressurized air.

 

And one more thing is it doesn't require a starter. In Ford's experiments they could open some of the valves so the starter had less resistence. In this one they could use the air pressure to turn the motor over.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Bch5B23_pu0

[Guest mattgawarecki]

I was prepared to write a more thorough opinion, but... holy crap. I can only hope this stuff matures and propagates through the market quickly. That is all.

[Guest 6.8 AR]

That's an interesting leap in tech for the internal combustion engine. Some of those ideas about valve timing

and economy, plus large power increases have been achieved in earlier designs, like Yamaha building the

first SHO engine for Ford in the eighties, but that was miniscule compared to later ideas. I don't understand

enough about the VANOS system my BMW uses, but it has a ton of power, plus two turbochargers.

 

The use of air in turning engines over for starting has been around awhile in diesel locomotive energy saving

schemes, brought on by fuel cost and wear and tear on electric motors, with decent results, just poor maintenance

from the railroads that seem to limit it.

 

It's good to see technology put to use like that. There is a lot more in store for the internal combustion engine

if only the green queers would shut up. Good use of technology tends to solve the problems more efficiently

when demand controls the design.

[peejman]

Computer controlled pneumatic valves aren't new, they've been used in F1 for years.  That's how F1 engines achieve such high revs' (18k-20k rpm).  Those systems aren't known for their durability, but since it's F1 they don't care about 250,000 mile reliability.  I'd guess hyper car makers are in a similar situation... no one puts 250,000 miles on a Koenigsegg.  He even says the test Saab has gone 60,000 km's under normal driving conditions.  That's not quite 40,000 miles.. hardly a testament to durability.  I agree that it's the wave of the future, but it's got a long way to go before you see an F150 with pneumatic valves. 

[bowtieguy]

 I saw this video awhile back. This guy has the conviction and resources to develop something like this so it is marketable. Very promising technology.

[whitewolf001]

Computer controlled pneumatic valves aren't new, they've been used in F1 for years.  That's how F1 engines achieve such high revs' (18k-20k rpm).  Those systems aren't known for their durability, but since it's F1 they don't care about 250,000 mile reliability.  I'd guess hyper car makers are in a similar situation... no one puts 250,000 miles on a Koenigsegg.  He even says the test Saab has gone 60,000 km's under normal driving conditions.  That's not quite 40,000 miles.. hardly a testament to durability.  I agree that it's the wave of the future, but it's got a long way to go before you see an F150 with pneumatic valves. 

 

That and short-stroked like a MOTHER.

[Dolomite_supafly]

Back in the 80's I read in a Hot Rod magazine about a guy who developed a new intake/exhaust system for Chevrolets. He was selling them for more than a conventional head so it never really took off.

 

It was a solid rod that ran through the cylinder heads front ot back.  It had holes drilled through the solid rod. The rods were geared to the crank to keep everything in time. It was setup like a OHC setup except it didn't open valves but lined the ports up.

 

The holes were drilled and contoured so that at the right time it was allowing access to the cylinder on the intake side and the exhaust on the exhaust side just like a camshaft would. And by modifying where the ports were in the rod and how long they were exposed to the ports it affected things like duration. There was no worry about camshaft lift and interference with the pistons like a normal engine. And because there was no valvtrain it allowed higher rpm's. 

 

For some reason it also allowed a much higher compression ratio to be used with pump gas. I remember their test engine had a 14.7:1 ratio and they reported it would run on 93 octane. They aslo reported that the engine would spin above 10K where normally it would spin to about 6K.

 

I have looked high and low for this and can't seem to see it anywhere on the internet now.

[peejman]

That and short-stroked like a MOTHER.

 

True, just like bikes.  Max engine speed is mostly a function of how much air the engine can pump (after all, an internal combustion engine is nothing more than a pump) and how much stress the bottom end can handle. 

 

 

 

Back in the 80's I read in a Hot Rod magazine about a guy who developed a new intake/exhaust system for Chevrolets. He was selling them for more than a conventional head so it never really took off.

 

It was a solid rod that ran through the cylinder heads front ot back.  It had holes drilled through the solid rod. The rods were geared to the crank to keep everything in time. It was setup like a OHC setup except it didn't open valves but lined the ports up.

 

The holes were drilled and contoured so that at the right time it was allowing access to the cylinder on the intake side and the exhaust on the exhaust side just like a camshaft would. And by modifying where the ports were in the rod and how long they were exposed to the ports it affected things like duration. There was no worry about camshaft lift and interference with the pistons like a normal engine. And because there was no valvtrain it allowed higher rpm's. 

 

For some reason it also allowed a much higher compression ratio to be used with pump gas. I remember their test engine had a 14.7:1 ratio and they reported it would run on 93 octane. They aslo reported that the engine would spin above 10K where normally it would spin to about 6K.

 

I have looked high and low for this and can't seem to see it anywhere on the internet now.

 

Interesting concept.  Can't immediately grasp why that would have any effect on compression ratio, but interesting nonetheless. 

[LayNLow]

True, just like bikes.  Max engine speed is mostly a function of how much air the engine can pump (after all, an internal combustion engine is nothing more than a pump) and how much stress the bottom end can handle. 

 

 

 

 

Interesting concept.  Can't immediately grasp why that would have any effect on compression ratio, but interesting nonetheless. 

Since there would be no valves pushing into and out of the combustion chamber it could allow for higher compression ratios without worry about the pistons contacting the valves. I don't think they are saying that higher compression ratio was a result of the valveless head, moreover they can get more compression because of the design.

[Superman]

Thats pretty cool. Reminds me of an article I read about Mercedes using electric sloenoids to open the valves. Not sure if they ever went into production with it.

[peejman]

Speaking of new technology, check this out...

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqqJs0mqH9M

[bowtieguy]

Computer controlled pneumatic valves aren't new, they've been used in F1 for years.  That's how F1 engines achieve such high revs' (18k-20k rpm).  Those systems aren't known for their durability, but since it's F1 they don't care about 250,000 mile reliability.  I'd guess hyper car makers are in a similar situation... no one puts 250,000 miles on a Koenigsegg.  He even says the test Saab has gone 60,000 km's under normal driving conditions.  That's not quite 40,000 miles.. hardly a testament to durability.  I agree that it's the wave of the future, but it's got a long way to go before you see an F150 with pneumatic valves. 

If I'm not mistaken what they are doing i Formula 1 is using pneumatic valvesprings, not using pneumatically controlled valves. You eliminate the chance of valve float by taking the harmonics of a traditional coil spring out of the equation. This allows for higher vlavetrain speeds. This is why it is used with a super short stroke which allow for lower piston speeds. At a given rpm the piston that has to travel less distance is moving slower. Slower piston speeds allow for a longer dwell time at tdc, and higher combustion pressures etc... All good things for increasing the power potential of the engine. Because horsepower is just a function of torque over time, the faster you can move the engine the more horsepower you will make.

[Guest TankerHC]

There is a "rumor" that your going to see something like this in the 50th Anniversary Mustang. Motor Trend released a CAD last week of the mockup their spies saw. Ford is going back to the original Pony Car body design, only sleeker for the 50th. (They said the 13's got panned and no one wants one, guess not, they look like a rebadged Tauras), They are also making the claim that when it debuts, there will not be a Super Car on the road that will be able to touch it, and still for 50(ish) grand.

Edited July 2, 2013 by TankerHC