Anyone who’s interested in learning how the car engine works
This is worth watching
Internal Combustion Engine
261–270 of 415 posts
Re: Internal Combustion Engine
#262Earlier quoted context omitted.
What I want to try is replacing valves with electric iris mechanisms. The computer would signal the iris to open or close depending on the situation. No more complicated variable valve stuff. Just hold the iris open longer. Also no more interference engines and timing chain/belt changes. Iris: https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Iris_Diaphragm.gif Edit: fixed typo, added link to iris gif
I don’t think an iris like that would last very long with the immense pressures in the cylinders. It makes way more sense to electronically control the valves themselves, like Koenigsegg is doing with their Freevalve tech, so you get the mechanical seal of the valve with the control of electronics.
I figured it was something like that. It would still be a fun experiment with a small engine.
Re: Internal Combustion Engine
#263This guys writings are consistently some of the best in the world. His web design mixed with the articulate easy to understand vocabulary, and fantastic easy-to-understand motion illustrations are absolutely the finest I've ever seen.
Re: Internal Combustion Engine
#264Reminds me of how I got into computing in the first place.
During the 1970s, my dad designed an engine, similar in principle to the Wiseman Engine: https://wisemanengine.com
To better explore and elucidate his ideas, he bought a TRS-80 Model 16 computer (Model II compatible) with high resolution graphics option and wrote a BASIC program that could compare the mechanical advantage graphs of several different engine mechanisms including his own. He had begun to add a visualization of the mechanism itself to the program. He had only completed the slider crank (what is used in most auto engines), but there it was, animated at half a frame a second: a wireframe drawing of a piston that moved up and down, pushing on a crank that turned the crankshaft. And my brain was like what manner of high wizardry is this!!
This site is exemplary of what I had glimpsed that day, going on 40 years ago: the power computers have to explain our world and bring alive the principles that drive it.
Re: Internal Combustion Engine
#265Earlier quoted context omitted.
I built an LSX (Aftermarket GM) iron block engine (V8 LS) for a CTS V. I had to get some very precise tools (Have to measure to 10,000ths) or they were useless for bearing clearances and verifying cylinder diameters. My cylinders were 4.155 bore, and the bearing clearances were around 1.8 thousandths. Forged pistons, rods and crank. I had cracked a cylinder/piston on the original LSA. I did not trust anyone to do the…
Why did you go iron block for your build? Is it that your were afraid you cracked the block again? How did you do that in the first place. Are you running any boost on this engine?
I'm running 14 lbs boost yes. And yes it was piece of mind that it's much harder to crack and unlike the aluminum block I can bore it more than 5-10 thou if it needed it again. Downside is 100lbs more but this is in a 4200lb car so whatever
Re: Internal Combustion Engine
#266In 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.
> Hybrid powertrains are really where the next 20-30 years are headed for the bulk of vehicles
It depends what you mean by 'bulk'. I see a major future here for big trucks-- right now, 99%+ of our long-haul tractor trailer semis are pure ICE. There is no way to fully electrify that fleet quickly, so I believe hybrid tech is being seriously underestimated in this space (especially for retrofitting).
I've been expecting to see this emerge for over 5 years, I'm not sure what's taking so long. Likely it's a catch-22 of the industry being resistant to change, while large chunks of (reluctant) investor funded R&D are necessary to make it viable. In any case, I think some larger scale tests are finally being run this year, so I'm looking forward to the results of that.
As far as consumer vehicles go, well... we should electrify almost all of it. Simply the best choice for the majority of use cases. But that's going to take a while, and will affect battery availability, which is all the more reason why big trucks will need a longer transition phase that hybrids are perfect for.
Re: Internal Combustion Engine
#267[deleted]
Re: Internal Combustion Engine
#268Earlier quoted context omitted.
And nobody considers that dishonest? It's cheating in the spirit of the rules if not the letter of the rules.
Nope ; Motorsport is always drivers' skills coupled with engineering ingenuity. It's always about "what can I come up with, which gives me an edge, and still somehow is within the rules?" I don't know anything about Nascar, but the history of Formula 1 is full of such little tricks as well. It's just easier to regulate "other sports" than it is to regulate sports that come coupled with a lot of technological involvem…
Was watching the formula 1 series, and one team appeared to fully copy the body stylings of the mercedes team, and while it was technically legal, it was morally frowned on and a lot of other teams were pissed off.
Re: Internal Combustion Engine
#269This, like the Fourier Transform webpage, is a masterpiece.
Silly Question: when I add gasoline to my car it's a liquid. When it enters a cylinder of my Engine, mixed with air, is it still a liquid? Is it a gas? Aeresolized? What causes the change in state and when/where?
Re: Internal Combustion Engine
#270A 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.…
> 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.
I think that's because the barrier to entry is too low and anybody is being called a "software engineer" these days.
But think about a system which makes proper use of synchronization primitives, like an OS kernel or a robotic control, or a CPU design like the other guy commented too, or maybe a 3D game with tricks like that of John Carmack. Those things can be as complex as an ICU engine.
To make an analogy: in the physical world there are the engineers, and the mechanics.
In the software world everybody is a software engineer.