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.
ROTFLMAO!
I read every line of your replies very carefully...
“Haha! The .049 was my first. Mounted in a P-51 Mustang U-Control when I was a kid.”
My father got me one for Christmas. I told him the instructions said first time flyers should throttle it down. He laughed.
I released the plane on his command and it went up and over in a loop nose-diving into the ground. Never flew again.
It was in popular mechanics first... :)
Laugh that one off...
“I read every line of your replies very carefully...”
OK. Read this.
1. The starter motor is geared down so it would not have enough rpm to drive at normal speeds.
2. The starter motor would start to over-heat after a few minutes leading to total failure of the unit.
3. Starter motors are not designed for efficiency. Your setup is a major loss in energy to heat.
4. The Tecumseh is not a very efficient engine.
5. NO WAY IN HECK would it get 100 mpg. It wouldn’t even make it to 100 miles.
“It was in popular mechanics first... :) Laugh that one off...”
uh, .... link please ....
Let me guess, your neighbor invented a perpetual motion machine but he was kidnapped by the government to keep the technology from ruining the electric power conglomerate that is owned by the Illuminati and pays for the power structure of the Bilderbergers.
All at the behest of the Rosicrucians!
Heck yeah. I will if I’m allowed.
Nope... Pretty simple... used to have a subscription to Popular Mechanics and could actually read. Pretty good for a hillbilly right?
Seriously, please update me. :)
Can you point me toward information on the “Mann pocket system?”
I don’t seem to find references to it. Thanks.
The first time I tried mine with my Grandpap, the engine started up backwards...kicked back and ignited somehow. So, when he let it go, the Mustang went in reverse. Scared the crap outta me.
” Nope... Pretty simple... used to have a subscription to Popular Mechanics and could actually read. Pretty good for a hillbilly right?”
And I used to have to walk five miles in the snow to school and back and it was uphill both ways!
Think what you like... I know better. The DC 10 starter/generator was the popular choice for lots of early homebuilt hybrids back then.
“Think what you like... I know better. The DC 10 starter/generator was the popular choice for lots of early homebuilt hybrids back then.”
Then I am sure you can link to an article or an actual one?
I think not.
You can’t even address the points I put up showing why your contraption would be a failure.
Know what? I’m having trouble too. But I will locate it somewhere. In early diesels they had what they called a “Bulb” pocket in the intake to preheat the fuel and vaporize it. The Mann system had a round pocket in the top of the piston to do similar.
Apparently it didn’t work as well as they thought it would and they scrapped the idea. But I will keep looking, I have diesel engineering design books on my shelve here and if I can’t find it on the net I will take a photo and get it to you.
As for hydrogen - check Lakehurst, N.J. - the Hindenburg. Oh I know, I would like to see hydrogen used as an auto fuel also... but not by smokers teenagers, hold-up men - those sorts. I look at Star Wars, the capitol city, all those neat rows of flying vehicles all in good order — and I know it is a galaxy far far away!
You sure are a likable guy ain’t ya? My goat can’t be got, But go ahead and enjoy your little personal indignant hangup my friend. Get it out of your system since you insist.
Just took me back to the late ‘50s, early ‘60s. Just the mention of it and I smelled the burned methanol/castor oil as if I was there again.
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