Alfadan 654 HP inline four
 

REVOLUTIONARY new INLINE 4 - ALFADAN BIG BLOCK i4 ENGINE

one meellion dollars in crowd-sourced money, backing of Mahle and Freevalve, a proprietary 'connecting rod solution' and a running two-cylinder prototype.

I wonder if it will have the Porsche-Mahle 3D printed pistons:
What can you do with a vertical engine orientation?

Turn it on it’s side.

YouTube must be predicting my videos very well, as I’ve been watching them a day or two before someone ends up posting them here.

One was of a diesel that was turned on end for a mower...same dang engine, just had a dry sump keeping the bottom cylinder from flooding.

The engine is vertical for packaging reasons.
That way the overall size of the outboard motor can stay within reasonable limits.
Likely has some kind of dry sump setup so the oil doesn't pool on the rear main seal or floods cylinders like it sometimes does in radials.

Well, if it's dry sumped from the get-go my question is moot.

I know (or at least heard) that an Evinrude outboard motor block was used to make a steam engine for a VW Beetle. Do outboard motors even have a flywheel and clutch?

Flywheel, yes because there isn't enough rotating mass with the driveline in Neutral which supposes a rudimentary clutch system

I don't remember them having an actual clutch, which is understandable as the propeller may have an effect quite analogue to the rotors of a torque converter. On a sidenote, 2 uncles of my grandmother were mechanics and worked with marine engines.

That was so annoying!

He never gets to explaining how the new connecting rod actually works!

Everything I can find basically says it's a big displacement 4, but designed with a flat plane crank and somehow significantly shorter con rods than you would normally see.

A guy, claiming to be the founder, repeatedly says the engine does NOT use freevalve technology here:
https://www.thehulltruth.com/boating...tboards-2.html
... but that it will be an option?

Anyway, if you want to see his posts, his username is afa928. Beware the annoying continuous scroll software on that forum though.

Sam

The Beast of Turin is all I can think about

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsdWgmp4TaQ

Considering some large marine engines resorted to camless valvetrains before all the hype around Freevalve, and that a Swiss company was also developing an automotive camless valvetrain some years ago, it wouldn't surprise me if this engine actually resorts to a system different from the Freevalve.