Springless Valvetrain????

[Killer6]

The Wankle rotary engine eliminates a lot of parts. Ive been thinking of combining 6 or 8 Wankles in a circular arrangement at the rear end. Why not?

Eliminates a lot of internal parts, have You ever worked on one? Ever taken one apart? I have, (not any from the R8 era), those engines have so much BS on them just to make them function successfully it doubles the packaging size of the mill. Certainly emissions-wise, they have gone the way of the 2-stroke. Don't get Me wrong, I love
the little things and the achievements Mazda accomplished with them. I remember how the turbo RX-7's dominated their classes in the '80's, huge balls of flames on decel
shooting out of the pipe, ..........but as a modern powerplant the design is only suitable for racing & in turbo form. And even then, the sanctioning bodes are getting the
enviro-conscience position, which would leave the Rotary out completely.

 

[JBurch]

While the video of this valve train looks interesting; it's running at an idle, what does it do at 8000, 10,000rpm??? For how long?? Desmo valve trains have been around for a long time, Ducati seem to be the only people to make it work.

 

[beanhead]

Riiight...next they'll be talking about distributorless ignitions...oh wait

 

[RichB]

Interesting discussions of valve trains and engine internal designs. How about fuel and power? ... gas, alcohol, diesel, steam, electric, propane, jet, etc. Since my days in the university a long, long time ago I have always believed that hydrogen power was the way to go. It burns cleanly into water delivering good power, and water can be broken back down into hydrogen using solar power or other renewable sources. There are some design challenges to overcome. For one, hydrogen embrittles steel. And safety. But prototypes have been built and run successfully.