Six stroke engine.

[Tinman]

Bruce Crower, yes that Crower, has a good idea. It will be interesting to see how far it goes.

 

http://www.damninteresting.com/?p=467

[ridenred27]

very ingenius (sp) i was thinking that crowers design would work very well in large boats and cargo ships. they do have alot of water on hand, although it would have to be distilled. still very interesting

[Science Abuse]

Now that is fricken sweet. At what rate does it use water? The efficienccy may be lost if you have to carry 18 gal of water on top of 18 gal of fuel.

[El Karacho1647545492]

I was gonna say, for enough water to have an effect great enough to be worthwhile, you'd have to have A) a lot of water sitting around and B)something to get enough water in that short of a time to still have an effect. Also, I'm not sure but I'd venture a guess to say that any cooling effect that'd negate a need for a radiator would probably do buttloads of damage to the internals...I'm not too engine savvy, but in general, Mother Nature hates it when things get really hot then cool down really fast, and back again...someone refute or support that?

[Cougar1647545494]

That makes sense, very hot metal with cool water would equal bad I would think. Very interesting concept though. It seems like it does more for fuel economy then power though.

[Science Abuse]

I was gonna say, for enough water to have an effect great enough to be worthwhile, you'd have to have A) a lot of water sitting around and B)something to get enough water in that short of a time to still have an effect.

You realy dont need that much water at all. Keep in mind, you're not filling the cylindar, you just want an expansion effect. Inside the extremely hot chamber, the water immediately turns to steam– expanding to 1600 times its volume. So, you have a 1000cc engine, 250 cc cylindar. That means you only .15625cc of water to expans to meet the volumetric requirement, your using 20cc of fuel (@ 12:1) . When you run water injection with a turbo setup, you use more water. Look at the noble old steam engine (pre-turbine). Many of those have been running for over a century.

 

I'm not too engine savvy, but in general, Mother Nature hates it when things get really hot then cool down really fast, and back again...someone refute or support that?

That's just it, it doesn't get realy hot. You're doing this every stroke. Its not like dumping water on a glowing block. However, I doubt the cooling effect will be of any use in larger engines. His tiny one is small enough to be air cooled alone. A V engine will still require a cooling system.

[Lustalbert]

Seems like a good idea. One problem that is screaming at me is the problem of condensation in the oil. Since this engine dosent seem to get as hot, will the oil still reach a high enough tempature to evaporate any water that has gotten into the oil. Also, there is always a little bit of blowby, so you have water vapor entering the crank case past the rings, and condensing on the still cold oil. I guess if it is in an industrial aplication where it will be running long enough to ensure a proper warm up, this wouldnt be as big of a problem, but in an auto where short trips dont allow for a full warm up, this condensation could get to the point of coroding the internals.

[El Karacho1647545492]

Seems like a good idea. One problem that is screaming at me is the problem of condensation in the oil. Since this engine dosent seem to get as hot, will the oil still reach a high enough tempature to evaporate any water that has gotten into the oil. Also, there is always a little bit of blowby, so you have water vapor entering the crank case past the rings, and condensing on the still cold oil. I guess if it is in an industrial aplication where it will be running long enough to ensure a proper warm up, this wouldnt be as big of a problem, but in an auto where short trips dont allow for a full warm up, this condensation could get to the point of coroding the internals.

Another thing I was thinking is that if there is enough expansion of the water, it'd turn into steam which = H and O2. Both of which are infinitely more volatile than gasoline. Even if it didn't ignite, steam itself is incredibly hot, and probably wouldn't do well to cool the engine. Is it possible that this type of decompression could exist in a cylinder? In a 10:1 compression application, this means that while the motor is on a down cycle, the water would be injected and expand until the peak when presure is at 1atm (bar). Then, if the engine was at anymore than 100 degrees C the water would turn to Hydrogen and Oxygen. upon being recompressed, instead of being forced out of the cylinder at 10atm, the water would remain in the cylinder; or if it was released out of the cylinder through the valve (the idea) would be in steam form and probably just a hot as normal exhaust. I don't see where physically this could work.

[Science Abuse]

Even if it didn't ignite, steam itself is incredibly hot, and probably wouldn't do well to cool the engine.

2 things: Will not get hot enough to burn water, ever. That temp is about as high as the melt point for most steel and Iron. 100c is the point where water vapor forms, not molecular separation. You see that in Magnesium fires, about 1900c. Second, thermal expansion takes energy, heat energy. When the cold water turns to steam, is is taking heat engery with it as it does so.

 

Per Andrews post, its possible to get around that. I know it is, I just dont know how, and I'll refer back to steam engines. Back in the days of steam locomotives, some used a horizontal piston powered entirely by steam. They managed to get it to work, I'm sure we can do it today.

 

So, simply, water turning to steam uses heat energy, and therefore dissipates heat. Though I doubt its enough to cool a big engine.

[Guest Removed]

Crankcase evac system....0 gap ring's.....