[Uncledave]

Renewable Energy Ping

Please Freep Mail me if you'd like on/off

[steve8714]

GM has had this for years, I think they had problems with it the first time around, the devil is in the details.

[Brilliant]

He cuts the fuel to 1/2 the cylinders

This isn’t new. The Big 3 have been working on this for years.

[Red Badger]

Cadillac had the V-8-6-4 engine in the 80’s.......

[RayChuang88]

Only one thing: Honda has this system available on their V-6 engines for at least three years. In fact, Honda updated their system for the 2008 model year so you have either six, four and three cylinder operation.

[Sender]

If you simply cut the fuel to half the cylinders, those cylinders still have to suck in air, compress it, then expel the "exhaust", making this a fairly inefficient and simplistic solution.

There are several new cars out now which more efficiently cut off half their cylinders, including deactivating the valves so those cylinders won't have to compress the air.

Either way, I want no part of it. Try pulling half the spark plug wires off your engine and driving to work. See if that is satisfying.

No, I want no part of that malarkey, nor do I want a hybrid with expensive and complex electro-mechanical chicanery. Give me a small, efficient four-cylinder diesel that always fires all its cylinders and gets 50 MPG.

[Jagman]

Car companies have been working on schemes like this for years, including the Caddy V8-6-4, which was a disaster. More modern versions seem to work a lot better.

[Dick Vomer]

just put your feet through the floor boards and boost the power output. I've got this design I found in the "archives".

[Crazieman]

The 2009 Camaro has this feature built in.

[PLMerite]

Hell, I had a Jag that regularly ran on three cylinders. Don’t recall it helping the mileage any though...

[Brilliant]

I read not too long ago about a new experimental technology that allows conversion of heat directly into electricity.

It would be interesting, I think, if they were to apply that to the automobile. You could do away with the alternator, reduce the drag on the engine, and reduce the weight at the same time. Might also be able to reduce the size of the cooling system.

Unfortunately, the research is only in the “pure research” phase at this point. Probably by the time they get it ready for market, the gasoline powered engine will be extinct anyway.

[LetsRok]

Doesn’t the valet key for the Corvette do this by not allowing a parking valet to have use of all 8 cyclinders?

[HD1200]

My 2007 GMC Sierra Crew Cab engine does this automatically. It senses when it needs HP and switches on the other 3 cylinders, or switches them off when it doesn’t need them. I find it looney that the media would consider this newsworthy since it has been around for a long time and now is virtually a standard on GMC trucks.

[-YYZ-]

Unlikely to double mileage. Making fewer cylinders work harder is more efficient than having more cylinders loafing - due to losses in heat energy and unburned fuel at the cylinder walls and heads of every cylinder which is working. These are marginal improvements, though, and only worthwhile to manufacturers who are doing everything they can to bump up their CAFE a mpg or two. Designing an engine with fewer cylinders to start with is even more efficient, because those cylinders that aren’t working are still generating frictional and pumping losses.

So yes, it does work in reducing fuel consumption, but not by anything like 50%

[longtermmemmory]

I thought the 1959 Cadilac el dorado did this with its multiple carbourator set up...

[chopperman]

That ABC report also has a guy falsely claiming he has the fastest electric car in the world. The fastest electric car in the world is the Buckey Bullet:

The Buckey Bullet

[mountainlion]

My GMC pickup already does that. Cutting the fuel any more and it would not run which would more than double the fuel but a dead engine means you don't go any where. You can save the world by going to alcohol and get 50% less gas millage. When you look at the economy tuns that they used to do with specially prepared cars, they did not get much better than 100 mpg and with the way they had to drive to get that they would be run off the road by irate motorists.

The problem with poor economy is that people do not know how to drive and their vehicles are improperly tuned. I have an instantaneous millage display on my truck and people's driving habits suck.

[eraser2005]

A few other notes besides the fact that many companies have been doing this for years already:

1) It really doesn’t save much gas. Some? Yep... but nowhere near 50%. 5-10%, tops....

2) They have been reliability nightmares in the past.

3) Even on new versions, owners tend to despise these systems after having to live with them for awhile. You can put on fancy noise cancelling systems to smooth the switching and kill the noise, but you can’t defeat one simple principle: The engine is no longer well-balanced when running on a limited number of cylinders. If you take a V6 that has been properly balanced and change it to a V4 or V3, it is no longer balanced. You’ll get extra vibration and torque on its mounts. What was a wonderfully smooth Accord V6 is now a rough Accord V3. The companies have all done fantastic jobs minimizing the impact of this imbalance, but it simply isn’t as nice of a feel.

[Old Professer]

The chinese noodle guy has a radar detector on his windshield...

[ovrtaxt]

GM and Chrysler do this already. They call it ‘variable displacement’.

I almost bought an Impala SS last year, with a V8 that gets 28 mpg due to this idea. But the fact that I didn’t want automatic transmission and front wheel drive on a car hat calls itself an SS sunk the deal. I got a Mustang GT instead.