Cool concept

[Digger 66 3,476]

I can't wait until this makes it's way into the ATV engine 

 

 

[953 nut 51,410]

In the early '80s a camless, valveless engine was developed that had a "log" with cutouts for fuel/air and exhaust gasses which was situated where the cam shaft would usually live. As it turned it would open and close the passages and with fewer moving parts there was reduced friction and virtually no RPM limit. Wish I could remember what they called it so I could post a link.

[diesel cowboy 263]

11 minutes ago, 953 nut said:

In the early '80s a camless, valveless engine was developed that had a "log" with cutouts for fuel/air and exhaust gasses which was situated where the cam shaft would usually live. As it turned it would open and close the passages and with fewer moving parts there was reduced friction and virtually no RPM limit. Wish I could remember what they called it so I could post a link.

Are you thinking maybe about the rotary engine in the Mazda's?  And back in the 70's I think it was Ski-Doo that had the Wankel rotary in a couple sleds.

[953 nut 51,410]

No this was a V8 crank shaft, connecting rod and piston driven engine, but rather than a cam, lifters and valves the cut outs in the rotating log would allow the gasses to enter/exit the cylinder.

[953 nut 51,410]

Took a few minutes but I found it! The "Spherical valve" engine is what I was referring to.

The rotary valve combustion engine possesses several significant advantages over the conventional assemblies, including significantly higher compression ratios and rpm, meaning more power, a much more compact and light-weight cylinder head, and reduced complexity, meaning higher reliability and lower cost. As inlet and exhaust are usually combined special attention should be given to valve cooling to avoid engine knocking.

Rotary valves have been used in several different engine designs. In Britain, the National Engine Company Ltd advertised its rotary valve engine for use in early aircraft, at a time when poppet valves were prone to failure by sticking or burning.^[1]

From the 1930s, Frank Aspin developed a design with a rotary valve that rotated on the same axis as the cylinder bore, but with limited success.^[2]

Kawasaki and others have also used rotary valves in two-stroke motorcycle engines, where the arrangement helps to prevent reverse flow back into the intake port during the compression stroke.^[3]

Austrian engine manufacturer Rotax used rotary intake valves in their now out-of-production 64 hp (48 kW) Rotax 532 two-stroke engine design and continues to use rotary intake valves in the 532's successor, the current-production 64 hp (48 kW) Rotax 582.^[4][5]

US company Coates International Ltd has developed a spherical rotary valve for internal combustion engines which replaces the poppet valve system. This particular design is four-stroke, with the rotary valves operated by overhead shafts in lieu of overhead camshafts (i.e. in line with a bank of cylinders). The first sale of such an engine was part of a natural gas engine-generator.^[6]

Rotary valves are potentially highly suitable for high-revving engines, such as those used in racing sportscars and F1 racing cars, on which traditional poppet valves with springs can fail due to valve float and spring resonance and where the desmodromic valve gear is too heavy, large in size and too complex to time and design properly. Rotary valves could allow for a more compact and lightweight cylinder head design. They rotate at half engine speed and lack the inertia forces of reciprocating valve mechanisms. This allows for higher engine speeds, offering approximately perhaps 10% more power. The 1980s MGN W12 F1 engine used rotary valves but never raced. Between 2002 and 2004 the Australian developer Bishop Innovation and Mercedes-Ilmor tested rotary valves for a F1 V10 engine.^[7]

Bishop Innovations' patent for the rotary valve engine was bought out by BRV Pty Ltd, owned by Tony Wallis, one of the valves original designers. BRV has constructed several functional motors using the rotary valve technology, such as a Honda CRF 450, which had greater torque at both low(17% increase) and high (9% increase) engine speeds, and also produced more brake horsepower up to around 30% more at functional engine speeds.^[7] The engine was also considerably smaller and lighter, as the cylinder head assembly was not as large.

A company in the UK called Roton Engine Developments made some progress in 2005 with a 2 rotor (one for inlet and one for exhaust) on a motorcycle single cylinder Husaberg. They filed patents and got an example running in 2006 but were backed by MG Rover who subsequently went bust, leaving Roton without enough funds to continue. The designs surfaced some years later in Australia with Engine Developments Australia Pty Ltd. A prototype casting was produced in 2013 on a Kawasaki Ninja 300 parallel twin unit. This unit is still in development phase at the time of writing but is significant as it has the potential to run much higher compression ratios than even other rotary valve engines due to a significant but undisclosed new cooling method of the combustion chamber and the ability to eliminate the throttle completely, making it vastly more economical at lower engine speeds, so it is claimed.

[ACman 7,504]

@953 nut yes I remember a article probably from the late 90's in either HotRod or CarCraft magazine about this setup . I always wondered why I didn't see this concept come about. Thanks for finding the info on this  .

[Sarge 3,462]

Formula One racing engines have used nitrogen fired valve trains for quite a few years now - back in the V10 days the sanctioning body had to restrict rpm limits as some of the builders (Ferrari) were trying to hit north of 23,000 revs and pulling over 1,000hp out of their engines . Made for some interesting sounds but when they failed it was like picking it up with a shovel , if you could find the parts . Now , for this year - it's V6 turbo engines again that only turn around 18,000 revs - but produce even more torque/hp than the old V10's and V12's of the old days - but they sure have an odd note to them , all from 1.6L displacement on top of it . Their technology leading many industries has trickled down to us for years - they develop the new ideas and eventually you see the results in road cars - such as anti-lock brakes , traction control and yes - crazy valve train systems .

 

Nearly every new innovation for modern cars comes from Formula One - my favorite sport to watch and never miss a race .

 

Sarge