Yes, also true of hydraulic transmissions, hydraulic motors etc… but we use them still. Low efficiency and high wear rate do not necessarily determine what we do. Cost is a big factor, reliability, availability… other factors some of them psychological. It’s pretty hard to predict what will happen out there in the big world.
Rindert
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I’m keen on a super simple co-axial (same drive shaft) opposed cylinder engine with a linear electric generator in between. You’d need valves but the compression ratio would take care of itself. It’d kick like mule but would run really well on wood gas. Make knock your friend.
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I just hope to still be around when these new variations of ice engines finally make it to market and not to be held up in red tape for years and years , funny how no Australian media is blowing the trumpet on that engine Steve , normally just a whisper of something Aus made or designed gets on the news sticking there tongue out to the world as we did it first apparently its well known that Aus has found the cure for so many disease’s and we now gonna live for ever .
Dave
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Hello RindertW.
Many thanks for the link to the Australian Anthony Michell engineers life story.
Much new for me to learn here.
1883-86 Osborne Reynolds works on the origin of thin film oil lubrications: “Tribology”.
Then Anthony Mitchell’s original concept and development of the self-adjusting thrust bearing.
Vehicle guy me I forget about the need for this in ships, airplanes, and even large stationary power plants. This patent what gave him the credibility and royalties money to pursue his “Crankless” engines.
Dave; the Australian situation of too far, too remote, too small of a manufacturing base to get adequate credit in the Americas and Europe manufacturing centers is well lined out on page 263. True back then in the early 20th century. Maybe to day with closer developing manufacturing centers in Indonesian, Thailand, and Vietnam it is different now?
Mitchell’s high point engine seems to be on page 265 in the opposed pistons 2-stroke diesel on page 265.
I had no Internet for a few days and it took me time to get back to fully re-reading this.
Regards
Steve Unruh
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Here was a used engine design I was not aware of
View this not as searching for a better woodgas engine solution.
View this as a historical document.
Explains a bit of the Italian engine designer Garrelli.
Explains searching for the simplest mechanical solutions to improve the downsides of the 2-stroke processes.
View thru and is explained how the current applies solutions are power valves and such.
Not explained is that in todays social environment that NO engine design that intentionally uses a consumable to be exhaust expelled will be allowed to be manufactured and used anymore.
Rainy days viewing.
Steve Unruh
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Im in love with this! 60 hp and runs on everything from horse piss to jet fuel!
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Yeah.
You need to probably watch this one too to get the rest of the 2-stroke story
S.U.
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crank case stuffing on two strokes is EPIC! I used to do it to outboards to double the HP. my 700X Merc cracked 100mph
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Wery interesting thread guys keep them coming.
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I have to wonder about gyroscopic effects. Wouldn’t angle changes shoot the main shaft bearings, and make it hard to control in turns? I start to think of gimbals… I don’t even want to go there.
Rindert
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It reminds me of the super modded tractor pulling tractors.
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Art Afrons. That name brings back memories. Some time in the Mid-sixties I watched him run his jet car. Pulled the chutes too soon, burned them up and ended up way out in a field. I heard that they just left the wreckage out there. There were quite a few jet powered dragsters back then but all exhibition as far as I know. Never heard of a head to head race. A lot of carnage using them. I think tractor pulls are much safer.
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here is one you have not seen- ‘the rocket drag axle’ made by turbonique in the 1960s
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He switched from Drag racing to tractor pulling because the money was better in tractor pulling at the time. I saw him in the silverdome a few times. I didn’t know he was a drag racer until I was telling my uncle, and then he just rolled his eyes. I think he didn’t like him initially because of the jet engine, but especially after how he handled after the fatal accident.
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The post about Ben’s S10 got me to thinking. He wanted to know about getting WG through his injectors. That made me think about direct injection and the Corvette Kyle Dimario and his brother worked on with the turbo.
Wondering if there was a way to use the turbo to boost presssure and feed WG directly into the cylinder but using some sort of check valves rather than injectors. I wonder if it would be worth the effort.
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Recently there was a question of why Inverted Vee engines were done in the past.
I finally found a comprehensive video of the why’s:
A needs driven solution.
Some good comparisons of then contemporary same use aero engines from the WWII era.
I never truly realized just how important these inverted V12 German engines were to keeping their aircraft relevant.
Ha! I’ve had to work a few times on the Toyota laid over flat I-4’s in their early mini-vans. What a PITA.
I’ve avoided having to work on the turned flat I-6’s that were in some of mid-engined school and medium transit buses. Yuk. Put it upright in the far front; or the far rear, for serviceability. Idealism sucks out in real world usages. Make it practical, useable.
Steve Unruh
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Engines in buses are a pita, wherever they are placed, but i agree, middle-mounted, laying on it’s side 6cylinder diesels are a true punishment from a sadistic engineer that truly hates mechanics (Volvo buses here in Sweden) Scania buses atleast have some small hatches to reach the front (back-end) of their rear-mounted engines.
And people wonder why i stopped working on heavy vehicles, trucks and buses.
Sometimes i felt like a painter, restoring/repaint a 6-room apartment through the door mail slot
And when someone got one of these old buses for a band-bus or camper, that laying engine with it’s dry-sump lubrication systems all rotten rubber hoses, leaks and feed-pumps…
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