Elio Motors, The Next Big Thing?!!...

[NeilBlanchard]

It looks like there could be a slight bore offset - the cylinders may be a bit to the left of the crank center as we see it in the photo. It does look like the valves are directly below the cam with no rocker arms.

I'd guess there is no crankshaft installed, as it is sitting on the cart.

I wish there was a object we could get a sense of scale from. I think this is smaller than we may think. Long intake runners is good for torque, right? It looks like it could be oversquare.

[redneck]

.

The crankshaft is in it and is clearly visible.

Bell housing bolt holes are usually 5/16 to 3/8" dia.
That should give a clue as into the physical size of the engine.

>

[adam728]

Yea, crankshaft is definitely in place.





If this really is the first prototype engine getting ready for testing than I'd guess they are years off of being production ready, unless everything is off-the-shelf componentry. I've yet to see a new engine go from 1st sample to fully flogged out, ready to crank out to the customer, in less than 2 years or so. Typically I'd say it's a 3-4 year process.

[Joris]

looks complicated, those manifolds are not cheap to produce either. Why would you need so many holes in your exhaust, EGT sensor and a Lambdasensor before and after the cat, unless they are going to run some fancy, complicated new injection system, but why would they then use a single overhead cam.

I do think they are using a 'Heron' type cylinderhead, by the looks of the pistons. So probably quite high compression.

By the looks of it, the are also planning on direct fuel injection.

[adam728]

Originally Posted by Joris

looks complicated, those manifolds are not cheap to produce either. Why would you need so many holes in your exhaust, EGT sensor and a Lambdasensor before and after the cat, unless they are going to run some fancy, complicated new injection system, but why would they then use a single overhead cam.

I do think they are using a 'Heron' type cylinderhead, by the looks of the pistons. So probably quite high compression.

By the looks of it, the are also planning on direct fuel injection.

For dyno testing you want full instrumentation. Often exhaust gets
EGT at port for each cylinder
EGT further downstream at each cylinder and/or collector
Wideband O2 for each cylinder
Raw emissions collection for each cylinder
That's at least 4 bungs in each primary pipe. Then you add in pressure and temperature in intake tract runners, cylinder pressure, spark plug temperature, oil temp, oil pressure, crankcase blowby measurements, etc etc etc. Signal and waveform readouts from ignition coils, TPS, O2 switching, crank/cam positioning, and much more. A test engine gets really busy, really quickly.

[Xist]

Originally Posted by adam728

Exhaust manifold on the left and intake on the right? Is the intake normally that big?

[Arragonis]

Its a remake of the Geo Metro (aka Suzuki) unit used in the 1.0.

Why ?

Even Suzuki have replaced it with the K10B - which matches the 1KRFE, 68hp from 1litre.

It's in this



and this from Nissan

[Arragonis]

Originally Posted by NeilBlanchard

Long intake runners is good for torque, right? It looks like it could be oversquare.

VVT gives you long runners (the effect at least) at low-medium revs. 4 Valves gives you "pent-roof" combustion chambers and better flow at high revs.

[adam728]

VVT gives you just that, variable valve timing. It may help compromise when running outside port and intake tuning, but does not simply trump it. Hog out huge ports and put a large diameter short runner intake manifold on it and try to make low end torque by manipulating valve timing and lift. Its not going to be all there due to the tuning characteristics of the intake (plus 1000 other variables).

[Frank Lee]

Power requirements for such a small light vehicle should be modest and not require much in the way of complexity.