Ready for the six stroke engine?

[HenryDorsetCase]

http://www.gear6.net/2006/03/sixstroke_engin.html#more

Bruce Crower has made a name for himself with his aftermarket performance parts business Crower Cams, but at 75 years old Crower may have done the most remarkable thing in his life. Crower has developed a six-stroke engine that may just forever change the automotive world.

Using a modified single-cylinder diesel engine Crower converted it to use gasoline, then machined the necessary parts to create the worlds only six-stroke engine. The engine works through harnessing wasted heat energy created by the fuel combustion to add another two-strokes to the engine cycle. After the combustion stage water is injected into the super heated cylinder and steam forms forcing the piston back down and in turn cools the engine. The result is normal levels of power using much less fuel and no need for an external cooling system.

discuss!

[zadok]

I'm not technical at all, so can't really comment, other than to say, this could be a brilliant leap forword in technology, if it works.

[bugjuice]

pretty novel..
the extra 2 cycles are one being water injected into the engine for cooling, then the next being the steam forces the piston back.
Hope it doesn't rust up!

[Jamezo]

bah, I think they should have stopped with two.

curmudgeonness aside, that does sound like an interesting way to extract *some* of that pesky residual heat energy.

[Crisis management]

Initial reaction is - how much does it weigh? Power to weight is the God, this has a water tank & fuel tank & plumbing???
Power side is better tho, it's actually a 3 stroke! 2 power strokes out of total 6 strokes in a full cycle.
Is it even power? Does the water stroke provide the same thrust as the petrol stroke, think of the imbalance vibrations in a multi..... probably call it "Triumph"

No, I can't cope where's a two stroke, I need some form of sanity

[Ixion]

This is not new - I've seen it before (no, can't provide a link, 'twas long ago). It was done in marine diesels. Which makes sense because it would only be worthwhile in BIG engines, where the heat in the system was enough for the steam generated to be greater than the losses due to the extra revolution , and the extra mechanical losses. You'd also need a BLOODY BIG flywheel, because the "steam" stroke is going to be much less powerful than the "normal" power stroke, so you'd need the big flywheel to smooth out the delivery. Once again, pointing to big, marine/stationary engines. Can't really see it working on a 50cc !

[skelstar]

Was wondering if the cooling/heating idea would fatigue the metal casing? Guess if the heat differences werent high enough it wouldnt be a problem.

Could you retain the water during the process, without expelling it out the back, thus only small reservoir?

[TygerTung]

I wouldn't imagine they would be using it on motorbikes, it's just to get better fuel efficiency, not usually too much of a consideration on bikes, they are usually built for performance, or if they are for commuting, they're small so they don't use fuck all gas anyway.

[Mental Trousers]

Cool idea. What sort of volume of water would be needed to extract as much power as the combustion stroke though??

And using less petrol means a smaller petrol tank. You're just using the other half of the volume for storing water instead so you're not actually saving weight/space, just using less fuel.

[Lazy7]

sounds good.

from a technical point of view i would say that the engine would need to be overal quite a larger capacity so as not to lose out on any torque.

Probably wouldn't rev much past 4k either as while the steam would *probably* be enough to push the cyclinder down, its not going to be making the same power on that compression stroke as exploding air/fuel.

superheated steam is pretty powerful stuff, but i dont think we would be talking the same temperatures as what you would see in like a power plant. typical cyclinder temperatures for exhaust gases would be around 1600degrees, but the metal in the cylinders/block would never get that hot - especially if it was being constantly cooled by water.

and then as stated before you have the whole problem of water and oil. Water injection isn't a new thing - they've been using it on turbo cars to help with detonation for years, but its always been mixed with the air/fuel in small quantities, never injected directly into the cyclinders by itself. So the engines would probably end up being quite expensive to cope with the stress of oxidization and, heaven forbid, if it got it wrong and hydraulic'd

its bloody good though, these fossil fuels aren't going to be around for ever so every little bit helps.