porksboy wrote: How about the superbike from the late 80's that was a 4 cylinder with oval pistons and cylinder walls like two cylinders siamesed together. The piston rings were the tricky part. This was to get around the max 4 cylinder regs.
My first thought 
IIRC it was Honda.
I also love Desmo valvetrains, no springs
How about a ship turbocharger? I would not want to see the bill for replacing this cartridge on MY desk. 
4cylndrfury wrote:Rusty_Rabbit84 wrote: here is one unusual engine for you guys...at first I thought: "Theres no way theres an internal combustion engine as big as my house.
www.greenawaymotoryachts.co.uk and look at the new engines link
yup, swappin it in my civic yo!!
@Curtis:
That variable compression engine was indeed a Saab. I think that with direct injection something like that could make the ultimate flex fuel vehicle. Diesel one fill up, ethanol the next, gasoline after that.
RexSeven wrote: Dave Colman wrote about funky engines often when he used to do editorials for SCC. The one that sticks out most in my mind is a three-cylinder diesel. Two of the cylinders worked like a conventional four-cycle, while the third shoved tons of air into the main pistons- like over 300psi's worth.
There is a guy who did something like that with an old Ducati. The rear cylinder supercharges the front. Makes more power as a blown single than a NA twin.
Rusty_Rabbit84 wrote: here is one unusual engine for you guys...
Maximum power: 108,920 hp at 102 rpm
Maximum torque: 5,608,312 lb/ft at 102rpm
and a new diesel pickup has what, 500-600 lb/ft...thats ridiculous.
Luke wrote: Earlier I was reading about the Rootes TS3 (two-stroke 3 cylinder) engine, used in Commer trucks. The total displacement is only 3.25 litres, but the engine develops 90 B.H.P. Contemporary four stroke engines produced this kind of power from 8 litres.
Waitwaitwait. When was this written that 8 litre engines were making 90 bhp?
alex wrote:Luke wrote: Earlier I was reading about the Rootes TS3 (two-stroke 3 cylinder) engine, used in Commer trucks. The total displacement is only 3.25 litres, but the engine develops 90 B.H.P. Contemporary four stroke engines produced this kind of power from 8 litres.Waitwaitwait. When was this written that 8 litre engines were making 90 bhp?
they make that at 483 RPM 
alex wrote:Luke wrote: Earlier I was reading about the Rootes TS3 (two-stroke 3 cylinder) engine, used in Commer trucks. The total displacement is only 3.25 litres, but the engine develops 90 B.H.P. Contemporary four stroke engines produced this kind of power from 8 litres.Waitwaitwait. When was this written that 8 litre engines were making 90 bhp?
It's a contemporary article, but the TS3 was introduced in 1954. The 8-litre example cited in the link is the Gardner 5LW, which apparently makes 78 bhp at 1500 rpm.
Luke wrote: Earlier I was reading about the Rootes TS3 (two-stroke 3 cylinder) engine, used in Commer trucks.
This is what one of them was used for! (be sure you go to the very end of the article...I did not know it was designed originally for aircraft)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecurie_Ecosse
Turbonique
A quaint little company in Orlando that sold kits to fit military surplus turbine engines in your VW Beetle back in the 60s. I always used to see their ads in Popular Mechanics
850 HP from an engine the size of a soccer ball. 
Kinda hard on gas though.
They also sold a kit to eliminate the differential gears in your Mustang and replace them with a 1000 HP turbine. Obviously, you threw away that pointless big V8 lump and trans too.
Turbonique units didn't use gasoline, they used Hydrazine as a fuel.
Ask anyone who's been around jet aircraft, particularly military stuff about how damn dangerous hydrazine is.
It's basicly liquid rocket fuel and is used for emergency re-starts in some aircraft.
Guys used to put it in dragster fuel tanks back in the day, you could tell by the green flames in the exhaust. If it got out of hand, the engine could and would explode. Not right away either, more than one went up just sitting in the pits because the fuel leaked down into the crankcase. It's very unstable stuff.
That Turbonique system had no throttle of any sort, it's 1000hp on or off.
I've never met the guys who used them but their balls must've been HUGE!
Shawn
Here's something unusual:
http://quasiturbine.promci.qc.ca/Presse/EngineTechIntl0609.htm
Our engine thread got canoed by a spammer???
Bennythekopp wrote: How about this one? Not really and engine replacement... but a head replacement. They claim that the rotary valves will last well over 150k miles. No oil req'd in the head. Coates Rotary Valve Engine
I remember seeing this in Hot Rod or Car Craft way back in the day. Seems something like this would be easier to implement than, say, BMW's Double VANOS.
Rusty_Rabbit84 wrote: yup, swappin it in my civic yo!!
I'm still laughing.
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