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Internal Combustion Engine

ciechanow.ski

251–260 of 415 posts

Re: Internal Combustion Engine

#251
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The raw materials may continue to cost more for EVs. Motor windings are generally copper, and batteries contain lithium and (usually) cobalt and nickel. Permanent magnet motors sometimes contain rare earths. One could make an EV with aluminum motor windings and electrical cabling, no rare earth magnets, and lithium iron phosphate batteries. That would keep expensive materials to a minimum. EVs don't need a catalytic…

Tesla already uses aluminum for power cabling because it’s cheap and lighter weight. Tesla Model S were induction motors (at first at least) with no rare earths, and Tesla is partnering with CATL for lithium iron phosphate batteries in lower cost versions of, if I believe, Model 3 and Y.

"Tesla already uses aluminum for power cabling because it’s cheap and lighter weight."

Ugh, really ? That offends my sensibilities ...

Re: Internal Combustion Engine

#252
post #25

In a few decades the internal combustion engine will be to transportation what the typewriter is to typing today. It’s kind of mind boggling, but there is really no alternative if we want to stop increasing the CO2 concentration in our atmosphere.

Hmm... Hard to beat that energy density when the workload is large. Trucks, tractors, planes, ships. Sure consumer cars will be EV but ICEs are not going anywhere

ICEVs will outlast BEVs. Just like it did 100 years ago.

Re: Internal Combustion Engine

#253
post #25

In a few decades the internal combustion engine will be to transportation what the typewriter is to typing today. It’s kind of mind boggling, but there is really no alternative if we want to stop increasing the CO2 concentration in our atmosphere.

Hmm... Hard to beat that energy density when the workload is large. Trucks, tractors, planes, ships. Sure consumer cars will be EV but ICEs are not going anywhere

ICEVs will outlast BEVs. Just like it did 100 years ago.

Re: Internal Combustion Engine

#254

A few thoughts while reading this: In addition to a deeper understanding of engine manufacturing considerations than I even knew I cared to learn, this article helps me appreciate why people are into engine work. The perfect tolerances and synchronization of these machines makes me a little ashamed to use the word "engineer" in my title of "software engineer". There is no real comparison of the quality of the result.…

Excuse me, but modern CPUs are way more complicated than this, even if you only look at "arranging events in time". Like several orders of magnitude more complicated. Anyone who has touched VHDL/Verilog knows how delicate signal propagation is, and how crafty you have to be with the clock.

And even if you never tinkered with transistors surely you've at least looked at assembly code, and the amount of painstakingly detailed data layout orchestration that is going on there. A simple printf("hello world") is magical if you know what happens under the hood.

Re: Internal Combustion Engine

#255
Open devtools, Sources, ice.js, on line 5193, change 2 to 40. Fixes the speed of the first animation.

Disclaimer: I don't know what the real speed should be. The whole website is amazing though.

Re: Internal Combustion Engine

#256

When I was a boy, my dad decided that our '66 Mustang with a straight 4-cylinder engine needed new piston rings. I helped a bit but mostly watched as he tore down the engine to the barest elements, only the engine mounts keeping the block held up in the compartment. The crankshaft, connecting rods, tappers valves, piston heads, piston rods, all laid out neatly on the garage floor along with all the nuts, bolts, washe…

Plus it doesn't help when vechicle manufacturers will not share repair information with the customer, or independant repair shops.

It doesn't help when they refuse to sell scanners to independant shops, or customers.

Yes---vechicles are much more complicated, but every vechicle sold in America should be required to tell customers up front about the ease, and accessibility of required repair information.

My point is if they didn't hide repair information we might not look at modern vechicles as Challenger space ships.

I have been casually looking to buy a new vechicle, and every salesperson laughed when I asked about buying a factory manual.

Sales guy, "Oh--no one works on their car anymore, they bring it here." Sign behind him said, Shop rate is $275 hr. People drinking Starbuck's coffee for free though.

My father told a salesman to throw in a factory service manual on the sale of a '97 Dodge Dakota. Salesman, "Hell yes!". He gave him the manual before he received the truck.

And yes--after dealing with a failed smog check this week, and seeing the PID only shows up on the dealership scanner, I am more than pissed over propiatiary information. Failed smog--$125 gone. A trip to the dealership $450, for a sensor that one of the better scanners didn't have access to.

I went to Automotive School, and worked on all my vechicles ever since.

I am so hesitant on buying a new car.

Today is definitely my Right to Repair Day.

I thought about RTR movement while shopping. I was trying to think about being out, people getting vaccinated, friday, but that Right to Repair was stuck in my mind. We need to all get behind the movement.

(To tired to edit.)

Re: Internal Combustion Engine

#257
post #42
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hmm... Hard to beat that energy density when the workload is large. Trucks, tractors, planes, ships. Sure consumer cars will be EV but ICEs are not going anywhere

This sparked my curiosity... Currently gasoline has about 50x more energy per unit weight than a tesla battery pack. Battery energy densities have tripled in the past 10 years. Keeping on that pace, it would take over 30 years for batteries to be competitive with gas. When you account for the astoundingly bad efficiency of ICE, though, the gap in usable energy decreases. This is why a tesla can go 300+ miles with a b…

You're likely to hit a hard limit to what battery energy density can reach. The next step will be fuel cells which don't have the efficiency limits of traditional internal combustion.

Re: Internal Combustion Engine

#258
post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tesla already uses aluminum for power cabling because it’s cheap and lighter weight. Tesla Model S were induction motors (at first at least) with no rare earths, and Tesla is partnering with CATL for lithium iron phosphate batteries in lower cost versions of, if I believe, Model 3 and Y.

"Tesla already uses aluminum for power cabling because it’s cheap and lighter weight." Ugh, really ? That offends my sensibilities ...

Why? A properly engineered aluminum power cable is superior to a copper one when weight is at a premium.

Re: Internal Combustion Engine

#259
post #37

In a few decades the internal combustion engine will be to transportation what the typewriter is to typing today. It’s kind of mind boggling, but there is really no alternative if we want to stop increasing the CO2 concentration in our atmosphere.

Pure EVs will reach a fundamental peak percentage similar to any other car class... Hybrid powertrains are really where the next 20-30 years are headed for the bulk of vehicles. Automotive racing and supercars have demonstrated hybrids are the most effective setup for the past decade, and barring some major breakthrough in battery tech that will all trickle down into consumer cars over the next 0-20 years.

Hybrids are facing real challengers from a combination of PHEV, synfuel, hydrogen combustion and hydrogen fuel cell. While it is the ideal car of today I wouldn't be so sure about the next 20-30 years.

Re: Internal Combustion Engine

#260
This page is a work of art.

And going through the archives[0], looks like all the pages are!

It's really, really rare to see this level of care, attention and detail put to something we all consider will be seen only for a few seconds. But as a testament to the adage "the cream rises to the top", I spent around an hour going through the website.

Pure craftsmanship. Thank you.

[0]: https://ciechanow.ski/archives/

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