Wildest automotive engine concept?

The Oldsmobile HEMI!

 

The Chrysler Space Saver marine slant six would look neat in a T bucket
http://www.fileden.com/files/2009/9/30/2589169//Chrysler_Space_Saver_225.pdf

 

Anymore pictures of this one floating around???....

 

Yep! That's one of them...
I think there's 3-5 sets of those heads floating around...

 

Here is a picture of an engine I am currently building and tuning. It is a 3.5 liter five valve-per-cylinder quad-turbo Bugatti from an EB110. I should be firing it off tomorrow.

 

Smokey Yunick's hot vapor engine in the Fireo, still running
Pontiac OHC I-6
427 Mystery motor
Volvo engine with the combination spark plug -fuel injector
Frank Lockhart's Blackhawk engine (Miller)

 

hotroddon mentioned the Commer TS3 back in post 37. Apart from that we haven't had any opposed-piston engines in this thread.

Junkers Jumo 205 aircraft engine:




They made a smaller, horizontal version for a bus. They are 2-strokes, mostly diesels.

Gobron-Brillié:



Weslake-developed BWM 2-stroke diesel boat engine:


Diesel Air MkII opposed-piston 2-stroke diesel aircraft engine:

 

What about the Variable Geometry Toroidal (VGT) engine? It has no crankshaft, no connecting rods, no camshaft and no or few valves.

The pistons travel a circular path (i.e. a toroid) in one direction only with the driveshaft at its geometric center. The combustion chamber is external to the toroidal piston housing. See http://www.roundengine.com

Since power strokes are always at 90. degrees to the torque arm, torque is maximized. For any given load, the VGT engine can operate at a significantly lower rpm which means significantly lower fuel consumption which means significantly lower emissions.

The VGT engine would be ideal for tracked vehicles (e.g. military vehicles, construction equipment, forestry equipment, snowmobiles), offroad wheeled vehicles, semi tractors and as an alternative to the reciprocating piston engine in small aircraft where virtually no vibration is valued.

 

So how can this engine have sixteen cylinder and 32 pistons when neither of those numbers is divisible by 6?

 

18 & 36 respectively?

 

88# 400 HP.
http://www.motorauthority.com/news/...hp-3-cylinder-engine-confirms-2015-lmp1-entry

 

Still working on mine. Don't leave it outside. Was told it was running when taken from the car.

 

Smokey Yunick's hot vapor engine that he put in a Pontiac Fiero that is still running today.

 

is there any video of this engine running ?

 

Sleeves were mentioned in posts 59, 86, and 87, though not gone into in much detail.

 

Here's one from the Fountainhead Automotive Museum in Fairbanks, Alaska- a 1906 Compound. It's a three-cylinder engine, but only two fire. They exhaust into a large-diameter third piston to get additional expansion out of the exhaust gasses.

Doc.

 

I guess the wildest i ever seen is Turboniques stuff.
Here is a link to HRM about it.

 

I recall reading about those 1000 HP Turboniques inserted into VW Bugs.
"Black Widow" was one.

IIRC, you could buy those in kit form per magazine ads like Popular Mechanics or Mechanix Illustrated. (RIP Tom McCahill)

 

Fairbanks-Morse probably got the most out of the opposed piston design, highly successful in marine applications - particularly in submarines - but also adapted to railroad locomotives in the late 1940s and 1950s, resulting in a 2400 HP locomotive when most competitors could only offer 1750 hp. But they weren't successful and fell out of favor.

 

I realise this is in danger of going OT, but my hat is off to the guy who took a 7 bank, 42 cylinder, 8760cu" (143 litre) Zvezda M503 diesel engine from a Soviet missile boat, converted it to run on methanol and then dropped it into a tractor. Makes about 8000hp at 2,500rpm. It has 400some feet of plug leads and it weighted 11,900 lbs originally, though they pared it down to a more svelte 7,100lbs.

 

You Win!!!!

 

they still make them today for industrial power units

 

Is the HPV version of the VGT the air powered engine that the Indian's were pushing a couple of years ago? http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/news/preview-concept/4217016

 

gatz, I have no financial interest in the VGT engine.

I emailed your question to VGT Technologies Inc.. They replied that there was a short video on You Tube. See

The video shows VGT's third prototype running with compressed air. It is part of their automotive air hybrid project.

Also, VGT has an image of their first prototype (proof of concept) on a dynamometer test stand. It ran successfully on compressed air. Go to http://www.roundengine.com/roundengine_details/research.htm and scroll to the bottom of the page.

 

It was bolted to standard engines, but the Ford Autolite Inline 4 barrel was an oddity itself.

 

wisdonm, I have no financial interest in the VGT engine.

Motor Development International (MDI) is a French company. MDI podcars are powered solely by compressed air.

VGT Technologies Inc., the developer of the VGT toroidal piston combustion engine, is a Canadian company. The VGT air hybrid car uses the VGT toroidal piston combustion engine as its main source of power. This is completely different than what MDI is doing.

If you have any doubt, you can email your question to VGT Technologies Inc. at [email protected]

 

I haven't seen any mention of one of the pioneers of Hot Rodding----Barney Navarro. His work on the 6-cylinder Nash engine for Indy was a true hot rodders project. Supposedly 700hp from 183 ci with lots of turbo pressure!

Some more Navarro info:

https://www.google.com/search?q=Barney+Navarro+Indy+engine&es_sm=122&tbm=isch&imgil=48ze2wAj14

 

exwestracer, why would General Motors consider the Villella "rotating block" engine in 1978? GM abandoned development of their far superior Wankel rotary engine in 1974. Other than producing an estimated 220. hp at 5000 rpm for a 174 cubic inch displacement, I see only disadvantages for the Villella engine.

Since the engine mass rotates around a fixed crankshaft, doesn't the Villella engine have the following disadvantages:
1.) large gyroscopic force (e.g. car difficult to steer),
2.) sharp torque forces when the engine is started or turned off (e.g. stress on engine mounts and thin gauge steel unibody), and
3.) pressurized oil lubrication system has to fight the large centrifugal force of the rotating engine mass (i.e. questionable engine durability).

Also, it runs as a four-stroke engine up to 1200 rpm and as a two-stroke engine thereafter. Since the Villella engine uses a lean charge of fuel/oil pre-mix and air inducted through the crankcase, it is doubtful that the Villella engine could pass emissions testing without direct fuel injection of the fuel charge into the combustion chamber of each of its five cylinders.

 

Y-not, who said it had to make sense? GM investigated a lot of stuff that didn't make it into production. Besides, the Wankel HAS to have oil injected with the fuel to survive. Maybe GM saw the handwriting on the wall with that one. Mazda made it work for much longer, but I think the rotary is a dead duck as far as this country goes.