Vid for enginge junkies

[desertgasser300]

Very cool if you are an engine guy or an engineer type.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bch5B23_pu0

 

[bowhunter007]

I love idea, that air can be recycled to use with fuel to add power(like a turbo). Very creative. I'd be curious to know how long this idea has been around, untill it's been used in practitcal application.

 

[GasGas]

Just imagine how much mechanical drag they eliminated by getting rid of the cams and cam chain/belt. That has to be worth a few ponies in itself.

 

[Cruiser]

Valve trail in a 4stroke engine has substantial drag. If I remember from back in school it was a significant drag.. something like using 20-25% the HP that should have been to the flywheel but powered the valvetrain instead. GM was working on this idea back in the late 70's and early 80's but I believed they were using electronic actuators. The air pump motor is a great idea.. do a google search and you will find several small vehicles that run on compressed air.

 

[twowheels]

Nice presentation, but not new. I had tangential dealings with this type of valve actuation about seven years ago, and it was old hat to the guys I was working with at the time.

 

[GMP]

Isn't this or a variation of it used in F1 engines?

 

[gasser]

Greater power, greater efficiency, smaller size, and less weight - Why don't we see this technology already in our cars today if it's "old hat".

 

[noobi]

Isn't this or a variation of it used in F1 engines?

Yep, F1 engines have been using pneumatic valve springs over 20 years now.

 

[twowheels]

Greater power, greater efficiency, smaller size, and less weight - Why don't we see this technology already in our cars today if it's "old hat".

The "simple control strategy" isn't that simple, and dropping a valve through bad control or a bad controller is a very real concern. The actuators are also quite large, or at least were when I last looked, and they were very spendy.

Think too of what was made of each cylinder being able to do it's own thing - think the crankshaft if going to be happy about that?

Given the work that goes into meeting emissions and increasing power density within the confines of mass production, if this was the golden egg it would already be on every Ford, GM, Toyota, Honda, and Nissan made.