Little O/T Smokey Yunick adiabatic Fiero?

[hobbyjp]

I was reading an article today that said Smokey built a fiero with an adiabatic engine(No gain or loss of heat). Supposedly the engine had 150 hp and the car did something like 5 sec 1/4 miles and got 50 miles to the gallon. I did some googling and found little info on this. Can anyone add to this? Did this thing really exist? Here is a patent number patent #4,862,859
[COLOR=#555a5f]and there was an article in 1983 Popular Science. I havent been able to find the artcle yet.

[Bruce Lancaster]

Fiesta, I think.

[lincolnlog]

that would mean that the engine was 100% efficient. Highly doubtful.

[tjm73]

Originally Posted by hobbyjp

Supposedly the engine had 150 hp and the car did something like 5 sec 1/4 miles and got 50 miles to the gallon.

That that would defy physics as we know them. This smacks of "urban legend".

[Revhead]

I don't know how 150 HP would get much of anything to do 5 second 1/4 miles. 150 HP is 150 HP no matter how it is generated. The fiero would have to weigh 100 pounds or something.

[noboD]

Not to change the subject, but did you see the Hemming's blog the other day about the '59 Opel that got 376MPG with super heated fuel? IS it fact?

[Thirdyfivepickup]

I googled it and found a bunch of info. I even figured out how to pronounce it.

[brandon]

i remember reading or seeing something about it on tv.....didn't hear anything about the super sonic 1/4 mile stuff.....but the rest sounds familiar.... ...the technology is out there......big business is buying it up ....and putting it on the shelf....never to be seen again...... brandon

[ProEnfo]

Originally Posted by hobbyjp

Supposedly the engine had 150 hp and the car did something like 5 sec 1/4 miles and got 50 miles to the gallon.

Just for comparison, in 1983 Fuel Funny Cars were runnng high 5's / low 6's, probably didn't get 50 MPG though.... sounds like an urban myth

CC

[Bruce Lancaster]

I don't think it was ever hyped as fast--I saw the magazine article mentioned, and claims made involved economy. Tech was very limited and unclear in what I read...I seem to remember heated intake, lots of insulation, and a turb that was described as for fuel vaporization rather than boost.

[Foul]

the patent itself:

http://www.google.com/patents?id=cxk...BAJ&dq=4862859

dan

[zman]

Originally Posted by Bruce Lancaster

Fiesta, I think.

No Fiero is right...

Originally Posted by hobbyjp

I was reading an article today that said Smokey built a fiero with an adiabatic engine(No gain or loss of heat). Supposedly the engine had 150 hp and the car did something like 5 sec 1/4 miles and got 50 miles to the gallon. I did some googling and found little info on this. Can anyone add to this? Did this thing really exist? Here is a patent number patent #4,862,859
[color=#555a5f]and there was an article in 1983 Popular Science. I havent been able to find the artcle yet.

It was slower but the 150hp and 50mpg was right, by the way I believe it was a 2 cylinder...

[Unkl Ian]

It's in Smokey's last book,and explains how it worked in plain english.

[SimonSez]

Pretty sure it was a Fiero. I have an article in Hot Rod from sometime in the eighties about it, but it is stored away at the moment.

The 5 second 1/4 mile part is bullshit though.

Did a search and found this web site with some more info, taken from a Swedish Hot Rod magazine article ...

http://schou.dk/hvce/

[noboD]

Maybe the 5 second part was 60 feet times!

[brandon]

Originally Posted by noboD

Maybe the 5 second part was 60 feet times!

might have been 0 to 60..... brandon

[Paul Y]

Remember reading about this in Hot Rod, probably sometime in the mid 80's. Sort of wondered what had happened to the technology. Guess it must be stored somewhere along with the machine that turns water into Petrol and grass into gold....

P.

[bwiencek]

I'm thinking it's got to get everything really really hot for it all to work well enough to lean out and burn just vapors - probably a hot or cold start problem and not enough R&D into controlling emissions during these times with the setup he had - nothing a cold start injector and a computer probably couldn't cure... Still think it would take 15-20 minutes of run time to get hot and be 'efficent'...

[3wLarry]

Originally Posted by bwiencek

I'm thinking it's got to get everything really really hot for it all to work well enough to lean out and burn just vapors - probably a hot or cold start problem and not enough R&D into controlling emissions during these times with the setup he had - nothing a cold start injector and a computer probably couldn't cure... Still think it would take 15-20 minutes of run time to get hot and be 'efficent'...

...sounds like a Stanley Steamer...

[Relic Stew]

The "secret" of that engine is how to avoid detonation at ~300°+ coolant temps. The hotter an engine runs, the more efficient it is. The first problem is the low density of hot intake mixture. That is cured with the turbo. The tricky one is keeping that hot mixture from igniting itself.

The patent just shows a carb heated by engine coolant, and the intake manifold heated by exhaust. A turbo to keep the density high enough to make usable power. Nothing ground breaking there.

It's not really about "running on vapors" as all gas engines run on vapors. Liquid fuel doesn't burn, it must be vaporized and mixed with oxygen. Thats why a cold carb without a choke or a dirty injector runs poorly. The fuel is in droplets instead of vapors. The efficiency is from not rejecting as much heat out of the engine. A typical engine converts about 1/3 of the fuel to road power, the rest is rejected as heat from the radiator and exhaust. If the engine rejects less heat ( by running hotter) more power goes to the road. Again, the trick is to keep the engine from self destructing while running that hot.