Posted on 08/09/2017 2:45:14 PM PDT by Red Badger
A new car engine will eventually come on the scene. This week's car watching sites have reacted to Tuesday's announcement from Mazda with interest. At a time when the total focus appears to be on electric cars as our driving future, Mazda is ushering in a type of car engine that they call Skyactiv-X.
The Hiroshima, Japan-datelined Tuesday announcement from Mazda said it is introducing the world's "first commercial gasoline engine to use compression ignition."
Reuters quoted what Mazda R&D head Kiyoshi Fujiwara told reporters. "We think it is an imperative and fundamental job for us to pursue the ideal internal combustion engine." He said, yes, electrification was necessary but "the internal combustion engine should come first."
Mazda's company release elaborated that this was a commercial gasoline engine using compression ignition, where the fuel-air mixture ignites spontaneously when compressed by the piston.
Mazda's combustion method is tagged Spark Controlled Compression Ignition.
Jalopnik said "Mazda's powertrain team has brewed up a fancy new engine that, like a diesel, uses compression to activate the combustion process." David Tracy in Jalopnik explored what their Spark Controlled Compression Ignition is all about. Tracy said, "it's a homogenous charge compression ignition engine sometimes, but it seamlessly changes over to a regular spark-ignition engine under certain engine operating conditions.
The Mazda release said the method overcomes two issues that impeded commercialization of compression ignition gasoline engines: "maximizing the zone in which compression ignition is possible and achieving a seamless transition between compression ignition and spark ignition."
The company said that compression ignition enabled "a super lean burn" (condition in which the ratio of gasoline to air is reduced to a level that would not ignite in a spark-ignition engine) that improved engine efficiency up to 20 to 30 percent over the current Skyactiv-G.
Autoweek's Jay Ramey similarly said reliable operation of these engines had eluded automakers until now.
Ramey wrote that "A homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) gasoline engine has been something of a holy grail for internal combustion engineers for decades."
Interestingly, Mazda's design will use spark plugs to achieve ignition under conditions such as low temperatures. CNET's Andrew Krok: "The engine will function like a traditional gas engine at low revs, using spark plugs to ignite the air-fuel mixture in the combustion chamber. At higher revs, though, the plugs will deactivate and the gas will ignite under piston compression alone."
Top Gear's Craig Jamieson also commented that "developing plugs that can sit idle, then work, for instance, is a massive engineering challenge on its own."
Reports said that the new engine 'SkyActiv-X' will debut in 2019.
The biggest wind farming states in the USA are in the midwest: kansas iowa nebraska texas oklahoma. as much as 30 percent of their energy comes from wind in some states
no point to that but to say that strange things are going on.
vertical farms are sprouting up all over the usa and the rest of the world. In the last two years they have started to get funding from wall st bankers so the business model must work.
I think it was the RX-7.
Actually I already knew why... It’s called “Control of the market”. Same reason the first guy who built a 100 MPG 12 HP gas over electric hybrid into a VW disappeared back in the 70’s.
But since you made a point to reply I need to settle up on something. I WAS wrong and Steam does not go through both. But I was led astray by the sentence in the Wikipedia article. But I left it alone because you are just such a skilled people person and I didn’t want to give you fodder. :)
I left the thread about cobalt mines in Africa alone. You were cherry picking with photos. I could have blown you away with the slavery being forced on children because of the local tribal overlords. But everyone keeps buying the stuff and that is the true end problem.
Cause and Effect...
“I though the problem was always that gasoline only burns as a vapor,”
True. It burns as a flammable liquid with a low flash point (volatile). Heat generates the vapor.
” but under high compression it always liquefies. “
Yes and no. A can of gas is a liquid at ambient conditions. Gasoline vapor could be liquified if compressed and the hear of compression is removed from the compressed gas through a compressor after cooler (removing the hear of compression)
It’s impossible to liquefy the gasoline inside the cylinders of a running internal combustion engine. With cars’ cooling systems, the cylinders and pistons are running at high temperature.
While true, we don’t know what is the emissions output of an HCCI engine. Has Mazda made the engine meet current emission standards, especially now with the even stricter testing?
hear ———> heat
They call this new? My ‘68 Coronet with a 318 would run almost forever with cheap low octane gas in it after the ignition was turned off...
I would guess around 13.5 to one.
With much leaner charge, exhaust emissions should meet standards.
The higher the octane the slower and more completely it burns. We used to add diesel to our gasoline to raise the octane ratio.
We lived on a dead end street our dads put in a a threaded anchor in the middle of the circle and put in one of those tether car pivots and line it was a riot the car got loose once and went though a bay window funny all the families that were into the racing pitched and split the repair costs great times
I had a buddy who swore his dad did the same with their Buick station wagon on long trips. I don't remember if he switched to straight Kero (JP-5/Jet-A) or a 50-50% mix like JP-4.
Back in the 1980's, I helped friends in Kenya drop a 283 Chevy V-8 into a Land Cruiser Pickup (the L/C Straight-6 is a copy of the old Chevy 6, so the 283 bolted right up!) When I asked about it years later, they said they'd sold it to a guy who was running it on kerosene!
It’s injected.
Yes, but since Guam is about to tip over, half your driving is "downhill", thus greatly improving your MPG! At least, that is what Rep Hank Johnson told me.
(need I say it?)
/s
“The engine will function like a traditional gas engine at low revs, using spark plugs to ignite the air-fuel mixture in the combustion chamber. At higher revs, though, the plugs will deactivate and the gas will ignite under piston compression alone.”
Sounds pretty complex and a lot that could go wrong. I sure would not get Gen 1 but a lot of good potential. Reminds of the V8/6/4 idea Cadillac offered BRIEFLY.
Fact!It was a nock off. they cloned it and tapped it metric. Same critter. It was the same as the L 6 235 chevy, bell housing and all, which was the same as the 283 small block. We did a few of those swaps here in the states back in the day. :)
Also the new 2.5 liter Camry engine is very interesting with 40 percent thermal efficiency.
NSU had the first passenger car, I believe it was called the “Prince”. Norton also made a Wankel bike and Curtis Wright and aircraft Wankel.
IIRC
You are absolutely right, They may have made it more complicated than needed. Just preheat the intake air like Cummins does and it will fire and warm up to efficiency like every diesel sold today.
But we are back to the question about human patience at that point.
“While true, we don’t know what is the emissions output of an HCCI engine. Has Mazda made the engine meet current emission standards, especially now with the even stricter testing?”
Given that it is running at leaner and higher compresssions, it should be easier to meet emissions requirements.
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