Quote:
Originally Posted by Old Tele man
Welcome aboard...all perspectives are welcomed here.
What are your thoughts on the HCCI engines?
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Will be interesting to see. Was being worked on nearly 10 years ago, but I left in 2007, and don't really know how it progressed. I like the concept, anything you can do to increase CR is going to be better for fuel economy. But I'm also not as familiar with it as more conventional technologies. Torque is still controlled by throttling airflow, AFAIK (may be mistaken). That means that, unlike a diesel, you'll be running at vacuum most of the time, which means losses through the induction system. OTOH, you don't have to throw things at it like you do diesels (e.g. EGR) which hurt the fuel economy to make emissions. Hard to control things with it, though, as you dont have any "knobs" to turn like ignition on a HCSI, or fuel injection on an SCCI.
Overall, I'd like to see one made to run at a specific speed-load point. Shoot, EVERY engine would benefit from that. But hook it up to a generator, run it unthrottled at a somewhat low RPM (downsize the cranktrain which reduces friction and mass.......), tune it to deliver specified torque with less displacement, and you could make it super efficient. That's one of the beauties of a hybrid system that is electrically powered with a decoupled engine (that just charges the generator). You can REALLY optimize an engine that runs at a single speed load point.
On edit - guess given your collection, I should add mine. Nice cars!