I'm partial to the Dyna-Cam engine...
The Chrysler A57 multibank.
Taker 5 engines, each an inline 6 on its own crank, joined together to a common central shaft, making a 30 cylinder non-radial piston engine. Then build about 10,000 of these and send 'em to war.
http://www.enginehistory.org/Piston/AcftInArmor/Chrysler_23.jpg
Or the Pratt and Whitney R4360 'Wasp Major'.
28 cylinder 4-bank radial with up to 4,300 hp.
Then there's Smokey Yunick's 'Hot Vapor' engine. Not long before he died, he put one of these in his DeLoreon. That was an interesting car to poke around under the hood. Somewhere I still have pictures of it maybe.
https://schou.dk/hvce/dia1.png
"Unusual Engines" huh?
I was going to win the internet prize for today and simply put a video of a running Mazeratti Biturbo engine here.
Apparently there are none.
Yeah I know, there are. I was trying to be funny.
Adrian_Thompson said:A mad German tween-war thing using a five-cylinder sidevalve rotary engine mounted within the front wheel of an otherwise wholly unconventional motorcycle. The engine rotated in opposition to the wheel at six times wheel speed, so at 3600rpm the wheel turned at roughly 60mph. Carburation was obviously an utter nightmare... and so was steering. Ever heard of gyroscopic precession? It's what keeps two-wheeled vehicles from falling over (and also steers spaceships and stops tall buildings bending). essentially, it means a spinny thing wants to keep going in a straight line. Try holding a bicycle wheel by the spindle. Give it a spin. Now try to turn it side to side. Feeling the lactic burn in your forearms yet? Tough, isn't it? And that weighs essentially nada. The faster it spins, the more it doesn't want to let you steer
Now try that with cast-iron engine architecture in the centre of the wheel, plus carburettor, saddle fuel tank and associated gubbins. Now wonder why your Megola will... not... turn. For anything
I imagine it's even weirder than that sums up; although according to Tony Foale, gyroscopic forces are only a very small portion of what leans a motorcycle into a turn, at least they're trying to "help" conventionally. If the engine is turning the opposite direction, the torque reaction will be the opposite direction! (Trying to lean the bike outward when you countersteer to tip in; if your handheld bicycle wheel is spinning forward and you try to "steer left" it will tip right at the top; if it's spinning backward, it'll tip left). Some folks have played with geared, counterrotating brake rotors in order to cancel the wheel's gyroscopic forces, and of course light wheels to take the simplest route to minimizing them...
after looking at these motors you wonder how many never got finished ,
and then twin engine dragsters etc
You have to give the engineers their due for these great designs
Oh boy am I a sucker for weird engines.
This may be the best sound ever made by an engine. It's just so. smooth.
How about the Napier Sabre? 24 cylinders, two cranks, double row horizontally opposed sleave valve (used in service in the Hawker Tempest):
californiamilleghia said:after looking at these motors ........You have to giveLSD it's due for these great designs
Fixorated that for you
hhaase said:Then there's Smokey Yunick's 'Hot Vapor' engine. Not long before he died, he put one of these in his DeLoreon. That was an interesting car to poke around under the hood. Somewhere I still have pictures of it maybe.
https://schou.dk/hvce/dia1.png
What the hell fuel did he run that didn't detonate when it hit ~300 degree temps in the intake?
I think it is the rotary that has no throttle. Engine speed is controlled by turning the ignition off and on.
hhaase said:Then there's Smokey Yunick's 'Hot Vapor' engine. Not long before he died, he put one of these in his DeLoreon. That was an interesting car to poke around under the hood. Somewhere I still have pictures of it maybe.
As a teenager at the time, I was fascinated by this engine, so much so that I screwed up the courage and called his shop to ask some questions. I was rather stunned when the person answering the phone said, "Here, ask him yourself," and put him on the phone.
In reply to buzzboy :
The crankcase is the distributor! That's awesome!
In reply to iceracer :
I think it does have a throttle. It looks like the throttle/carburetor are upstream of the intake manifold like a normal engine, except that the intake manifold spins.
I worked in a motorcycle accessory mail-order business one summer in high school and got to ride a pogo that was powered with model airplane fuel. Not exactly like the linked video, but similar. The foot was the piston and the body was the cylinder. It had a carburetor and glow plug from a model airplane engine. You just had to jump once to get it started and it would do the rest. If you wanted to stop, just get off and it would stop.
GIRTHQUAKE said:hhaase said:Then there's Smokey Yunick's 'Hot Vapor' engine. Not long before he died, he put one of these in his DeLoreon. That was an interesting car to poke around under the hood. Somewhere I still have pictures of it maybe.
https://schou.dk/hvce/dia1.png
What the hell fuel did he run that didn't detonate when it hit ~300 degree temps in the intake?
I presume, if it wasn't a hoax, that it's a homogenous charge compression ignition setup and it ran on detonation.
And here's my contribution for oddball engines: Liquid Piston's rotary, a tie for the strangest successful customer project I've been called to provide EFI support for.
^ that is pretty cool.
also nobody mentioned this group S rally engine? for shame...
also looks like johnny 5 alive
1,759 cc and 600hp
lancia triflux!
MadScientistMatt said:GIRTHQUAKE said:hhaase said:Then there's Smokey Yunick's 'Hot Vapor' engine. Not long before he died, he put one of these in his DeLoreon. That was an interesting car to poke around under the hood. Somewhere I still have pictures of it maybe.
https://schou.dk/hvce/dia1.png
What the hell fuel did he run that didn't detonate when it hit ~300 degree temps in the intake?
I presume, if it wasn't a hoax, that it's a homogenous charge compression ignition setup and it ran on detonation.
Definitely wasn't a hoax, was pretty well documented at the time and was getting a lot of industry attention. But while it's a neat concept it wasn't something readily applicable to mass production. Then EFI hit big-time and interest lagged away.
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