thoughts on Crower 6-stroke?

[pumafeet10]

i googled this a few times and also found some info on wiki, i know some don't trust but there have been others that have used a six stroke design but instead of injecting water for the last two strokes then just injected compressed air i got almost the same effect. any thoughts on that being a lot less complicated then water since there are alot of other systems that are needed to work with the water system.

[MazdaMatt]

BDC... ever heard of a steam engine? make something hot and when water hits it, it will turn to steam and evaporate and expand. I think that stuff's been around for a while... even longer than the duece coupe, for that matter. And its has proven reliable...

Nobody is trying to get something for nothing here. Pumping heat out your rad is just getting nothing for something! Take that heat, make it into steam, use that steam to keep pushing the car. Its not magic.

[jonr]

Some people break down the H2 and the O and burn it. But not cost effectively. Ignore all discussions and modifications that involve this.

Water can be useful for piston/valve cooling and in some cases, good for turning some of this heat into pressure. But ecomodders are all running their engines at low outputs anyway - so excess heat isn't such a problem.

[MazdaMatt]

excess heat is ALWAYS a problem. Any time your thermostat opens, you are just using hard-earned gas money to heat up your engine bay. Any way that you can use that heat to push your car forward is good!

[Vince-HX]

water is good

add a little meth and its even better

[jonr]

Ok, as the piston moves down on the power stroke and cylinder pressure decreases, direct inject some water to flash into steam and add some more pressure.

I'm not smart enough to tell you if the expanding steam pressure is enough to offset the cooling/contraction of the existing combustion gases.

[elhigh]

I had an idea for a two-stroke engine that was two-strokes IC, then two strokes steam. It was inspired by the Crower process, but the idea was to use a half-speed cam like a four-stroke, which would operate two sets of valves, first set for the combustion process, the second set to exhaust steam after the steam expansion cycle.

Another idea is to have the conrod rigidly attached to the cylinder and project through a solid bottom in the cylinder, and the top be IC and the bottom is steam. That may be difficult to lube though - how did they do it with the old steam engines?

[MazdaMatt]

Originally Posted by BlackDeuceCoupe

Why?

Because it can take heat energy and transform it to kinetic energy without anything more than a change of state. Once it leaves your exhaust, it cools and condenses on the nearest pretty little flower to keep the hippie's garden growing.

BDC, you seem like a reasonably intellegent dude and you yourself proclaimed your ultimate status as researcher king of the world in a different thread. Go read up on it and you'll understand why this engine isn't totally bogus. It may not yet have been engineered to perfection, but the idea is quite sound and aluminum-hat-free.

Good point about the 2-stroke. I wonder if a TBI 2-stroke could simply choose when to spray water or gas based on cyl wall temps. Engine is too cold, run as normal. Reach operating temp and do 1 water cyclefor every 9 gas cycles, then, 2/8, then 3/7 till a temperature equalibrium is met... interesting.

[Rolf]

Originally Posted by elhigh

{snip}
Another idea is to have the conrod rigidly attached to the cylinder and project through a solid bottom in the cylinder, and the top be IC and the bottom is steam. That may be difficult to lube though - how did they do it with the old steam engines?

I think this idea is even more practical than the original 6 cycle setup. The bottom steam engine cylinder could be engineered as a regular steam engine with the exception that it would generate its own steam when water was injected. The two cylinders would be constructed so that the heat from IC engine could be used by steam cylinder.
A temperature monitor would determine when the water would be utilized, the rest of the time it would just idle.

My first post, nice forum!

Rolf

[Big Dave]

I'm not holding my breath. No progress after two decades...he's hit a rock.