haha, hmm... what about the Wartsila-Sulzer RTA96-C?



If anything just for its sheer size and fuel consumption.

I can't boobtube at school. Is that a massive inline Diesel boat engine with cylinders so bad you can stand in the combustion chamber?

These are pretty ****ing cool too; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controlled_Combustion_Engine

Spot on my friend.

That revetech is insane!

I love inline six cylinder engines.

Naturally balanced, **** ton of torque.

I mean to get a naturally balanced V engine you need a V-12! Thats ridiculously massive and complex.

Yes, and for most applications completely unneeded.

Inline six engines often out perform V-8's and get better fuel economy. They're more reliable too.

I'm hoping to see a shift back towards the inline six, rear wheel drive cars are starting to catch on again.

not to sound cliche here but I believe one of the best examples of that to be the Toyota Supra. Great engine, solid block, smoking car.

I never liked how they looked (except for the mark II) I've hear of people shoe-horning those engines into damn near everything though.

I'd personally like to put my 4.9L six in a volvo.

TOOOOOOOORRRRRRRQUEEE

Oh, and when I was talking about a rotary radial I was talking about one of these; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ku1NIcUmdj0&feature=related

The cylinders are arranged around the radius of a circle/the crankshaft just like a radial engine. But instead of the crankshaft rotating, it is fixed and the cylinders rotate around the crankshaft. Super ****ing cool stuff. They got pretty ****ing neat towards the end of World War I. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siemens-Halske_Sh.III <---- Reactionless rotary radials used contra rotating props. The crankshaft was allowed to rotate in the opposite direction of the cylinders. One prop on cylinders, one on the crankshaft. This was done to curb the aircraft's tendency to yaw in the direction of cylinder travel. It was also a method of cheating in a way. If the crankshaft spins at 800 rpm and the cylinders spin at 800 rpm your propellers effectively move at 1600 rpm. The Sh III didn't employ contra rotating props, but it still acted to cancel out the torque effect. It was also one of the fastest engines on an aircraft in WWI.

A rotary engine like what most people think of is a Wankel engine, which Mazda has managed to use with a degree of success. Like any heat engine design however, it has serious flaws.


I'd also like to take the time to mention Turbo Compound engines. These aren't a typical turbo-supercharged engine. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbo-compound_engine The exiting exhaust gases spin a turbine that acts on the crankshaft to recover lost energy/power. You're going to start seeing these on Diesel engines, because they increase horsepower without increasing fuel usage. I've heard of designs that feature an igniter of some sort to make the thing almost operate like a turbine engine strapped to the bottom of a reciprocating engine. It's ridiculously neat OLD technology.

Dude thanks for the good reading, that stuff is seriously awesome for a hobby-ist gear head like myself. You definitely know your mechanics!

Another technology to watch in gasoline engines is "supercritical fuel injection."

Basically think of a Diesel engine, only it uses gasoline. I think these are pretty stupid, considering how ridiculously reliable and stupid proof diesel engines are.

These are the brain child of http://www.tscombustion.com/ a super hippie think tank company that wants to develop greener engines that operate within the existing system of theres 5 million gas stations, electric cars suck, hybrids = WTF, ethanol is cheaper but its sorta ghey, bio diesel is retarded, and I can't find a ****ing hydrogen station.

The main concern I've heard from mechanics about electric cars is just working on them and all the precautions so you dont get ****ing zapped.

I'll stick with my 327 V8. Fuel economy be damned.

Good news is that electric cars are incredibly reliable and much more simple so ideally, you shouldn't HAVE to work on them nearly as much.

It's a pity that they just aren't practical.

I remember that pretty much the first thing I was ever told in a Thermodynamics lecture was that "yes it'd be great to if we could all use solarpower, windpower and electric cars but we don't because they're all ****."

Rebuilding electric motors is a lot like doing the same with starters, alternators, and generators. If you can do one, you can probably figure out the other.

They aren't practical because battery technology is very immature.


And if it's a brushless motor you shouldn't even need to do that.

..Yes?

Um, just clarifying that?

Mechanically, electrical cars a a million times better than gasoline cars. Conversion from electrical to mechanical energy is very, very efficient and you can even capture the energy from braking and easily feed it back into your energy source. Trouble is we don't really have any good way to store electrical energy. Batteries are just a joke.

I'd really like to have a Tesla Sportster. I guess it does 0-60 in like 3.8 seconds.

Meh, I saw a tesla a few weeks ago. Pretty boring looking. Porsche has the 918 they're pretty interested in producing. I think thats a hybrid though.

Plus it doesn't look boring as hell like every other Porsche from the last 20 years.

Electric motors also have the benefit of INSTANT TOOOOOOORRRRRQUEEEE

Especially compound wound motors. Series get you going, shunt to keep you going.

Top gear did a feature on that car. It was rather funny. Then again most things on that show are.