The Incredible Shrinking Engine

MIT Technology Review ^ | 02/12/2007 | Kevin Bullis

[beef]

slinging a deer carcass across the fender of a Prius

 

I would LOVE to see that!

[GoldCountryRedneck]

Bottom line - MG evidently had little, or no, control over the engineering change process.

I never got that far. Lucas (Prince of Darkness) electrics brought me to tears.

Drive it home from the dealership, get up the next morning @ 0500 to start a commute to work, put the key in and.....nada! Borrow a car, have the MG towed to the dealership (20 miles away!) where they say "Ahhh, the 'ol seat-belt interlock problem....". That happened three (3) times and I held my breath everytime I went to start it.

No instrument lights for a month and the dealer says "Ahhhh, the 'ol fuse block problem......"

Coming back across the squirrly Half Moon Bay hwy 92 in the wee hours of the morning after too many adult beverages.... no headlights!!!! Got to a turnout via the lights of the car behind me (who kept going) and after I stopped shaking, I reached up under the dash and jiggled the wiring harness....

LIGHTS!!!

I traded it in on an Audi 4000 - which I still own today!!!

[Constitution Day]

You're doing a smashing job, dighton.

I move that the Coöperative reëlect you for another term.

[ecomcon]

Speaking of thermodynamic efficiency, remember back in the 80's when Smokey Yunick was working on an "adiabatic" engine? No cooling at all. He was talking about needing ceramic technology. I wonder what happened with that.

[absolootezer0]

they're going for economy. turbos don't run constantly, can be controled from inside the vehicle, and when they are running, they're not pulling hp away from the engine by running off the crank.

[Robert A Cook PE]

Interesting: Seems more realistic than almost all other "improve efficiency by waving a law-maker's hand" schemes. Seems everybody "wants" to improve efficiency, but nobody can say "how" ... Except by writing laws.

This one might actually prove out.

[patton]

The cooling effect of the alchohol injection is interesting, to say the least.

[MarkL]

I bet it blows up inside 10,000 miles if it makes it that far.

I don't know... High compression engines have been around for a long time, as is direct injection, and the technology is extremely mature. It's the technology currently in use in diesels. It's not unusual for a diesel to have a compression ratio in the neighborhood of 20:1 or higher, as opposed to less than 10:1 for most gasoline engines.

As mentioned earlier though, I'm not so sure about using a turbocharger: A supercharger would help keep the temperature of the intake charge down, which is the whole reason for the alcohol injection in the first place. Remember, it's not being used as a fuel, or even an oxidizer, though it has both properties: It's to help the intake charge resist premature detonation.

Mark

[MarkL]

Also, gasoline seems to be the base fuel of choice with plugs to fire it. Wheres the diesel?????

Because if someone were to come out with a high compression diesel, complete with a turbocharger and direct injection, the response would be, "We had that back in the 1990s... So what's new about this?"

Mark

[Robert A Cook PE]

He (the designer) allowed for the heavier weight/greater expense of the bearings and crankshafts and piston rods in his +1000.00 estimate for the engine cost: that's unusual since most pie-in-the-sky advocate writeups like this (deliberately ?) try to ignore such complications.

I like the idea of the dual fuel measure-and-squirt-ethanol-on-demand, rather than arbitrarily mix it like the politicians are insisting we do. All that does is waste corn feeding gas tanks rather than feeding people. Supercharge vs turbocharge?

Thought supercharging was generally better (no lag during acceleration, greater boost) than turbo-charging. Turbocharging does use waste energy from the exhaust stream rather than require energy from a belt or motor, but is another reason to turbocharge? Energy (heat) of the air from either is the same, if the same pressure is generated.

[Bryan24]

"Remember, it's not being used as a fuel, or even an oxidizer, though it has both properties: It's to help the intake charge resist premature detonation."

I think this is the "aha" of this innovation. It cools, like water injection, but has energy content which HELPS the engine fire.

I wonder what the physics are behind having to direct inject it, rather than having it premixed with the gas?

[jpp113]

Chrysler bought the design from Smokey sometime in the 80's - but I do remember being in Smokey's shop in 88 or 89 and he had 2 of the adiabatics left, all built and stored away, in addition to the one in the car he drove daily

[jpp113]

oh yeah, and Smokey got 80-90 mpg with the little Horizon he was driving - thats what he told me himself and I for one believed him, was and never will be a better engineman than Smoke

[Gandalf_The_Gray]

Smokey Yunick was working on an "adiabatic" engine? No cooling at all...I wonder what happened with that.

It melted!

Seriously, we already have that in a gas turbine. It is possible to design such an engine with a regenerative heat exchanger that transfers exhaust gas heat to the incoming air stream. Efficiency is quite good at constant load but suffers under variable load conditions.

Regards,
GtG

[HardStarboard]

>>> I reached up under the dash and jiggled the wiring harness....LIGHTS!!!<<<

This evidently really happened...Fiat was doing a world wide search for an electronics supplier to replace the notoriously falure prone Marconni electronics on their car line. They looked at Delco, Bosch, a couple of Japanese suppliers and....Lucas. They picked Lucas! So much for decisions by committee.

Listening to a carnut oriented radio program a few years ago and the guests were a couple of Brits. One of them mentioned that it was a shame that Lotus had gone bankrupt again - for the eighth time. The other chimed in that it was indeed too bad since they had great engineering but, he said, "you know what Lotus stands for don't you?" "Lots Of Trouble - Usually Serious"

Cheers

[3niner]

Have you heard about US Patent 6237579 which could be applicable to any 2 or 4 cycle internal combustion engines featuring " Squish or Quench " concepts.

This is the first I've heard of it. I'm not an engine expert, but it looks like its potential is being greatly exaggerated.