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Engine design idea

G

graver555

Nov 6, 2012
89
1
Monticello IN
#1
Ok so this is probably an unneccasary and dumb idea, but what if you take an opposed piston engine, and electrically isolate the pistons. Then instead of run the spark through a plug, make it jump between the two cylinders. I feel like it would create an electrical storm inside the cylinder igniting more fuel then a spark plug could, with a possibility for very low clearence and thus high compression.

For those of you who dont know what an opoc engine is here is a picture.
images.jpg.
 
#2
How is the spark going to jump through one piston and through another piston to the fuel/air mixture on the other side? Also, how are you going to correctly time the spark so that the cylinders fire correctly?
 
#5
Are y'all guys...... Seriously???!!

Put electrodes in the piston, easily doable, now wether or not a larger spark it at all necessary I'm not sure..

And the spark doesn't have to jump
Through two cylinders and then the fuel, ***?

The fuel/air mixture is between the two pistons,, same cylinder..
 
#9
graver555 said:
Ok so this is probably an unneccasary and dumb idea, but what if you take an opposed piston engine, and electrically isolate the pistons. Then instead of run the spark through a plug, make it jump between the two cylinders. I feel like it would create an electrical storm inside the cylinder igniting more fuel then a spark plug could, with a possibility for very low clearence and thus high compression.

For those of you who dont know what an opoc engine is here is a picture.
View attachment 397994.
Click to expand...
The underlined part, I think you meant jump between the two pistons. In that case really only one piston has to be electrically isolated from the whole shebang. The engine block and one piston can be the negative, the isolated piston the positive.

The problem is getting a spark to jump very far and maintain localized heat energy. I am assuming you have seen a spark plugs gap? It is unfortunately about as state of the art as it gets. A gas under pressure like that needs a very hot spark to ignite. A more spread out spark from the same current will be much cooler. IMO timing this whole thing would be fairly easy.

Frankly if you can get those pistons to travel close enough to jump a good spark yet travel far enough to do some useful work you don't need the spark at all since it would diesel just fine.
 
#10
edpal said:
The underlined part, I think you meant jump between the two pistons. In that case really only one piston has to be electrically isolated from the whole shebang. The engine block and one piston can be the negative, the isolated piston the positive.

Frankly if you can get those pistons to travel close enough to jump a good spark yet travel far enough to do some useful work you don't need the spark at all since it would diesel just fine.
Click to expand...

Yes that is what I meant sorry. And yea It would make more sense just to use a diesel in this situation now that I think about it.

Thanks for listening to me everyone just a crazy idea I though of haha :D
 
#12
graver555 said:
Yes that is what I meant sorry. And yea It would make more sense just to use a diesel in this situation now that I think about it.



Thanks for listening to me everyone just a crazy idea I though of haha :D
Click to expand...


Why? Screw that, it has potential for high horsepower, don't stop there not to mention as I said you could do this with a normal cylinder too... So if a bigger spark could be better, why not pursue it.
 
#13
Tony Flow MMMM said:
Why? Screw that, it has potential for high horsepower, don't stop there not to mention as I said you could do this with a normal cylinder too... So if a bigger spark could be better, why not pursue it.
Click to expand...

Why not create an array of in-bedded electrodes along the face of the piston or cylinder, that way you have half a dozen or so arks? I heard on some drag engines they have 2+ spark plugs.
 
#14
The opposed piston concept is not new, and it combines the advantages of short stroke, small combustion chamber, and small bore.

The downsides are with the short stroke x 2, the piston tends to travel away faster than the flame propagation can maintain cylinder pressure, and by the time you add in the coupling losses of two crankshafts, there's no net gain.

And you still somehow need to make room for valves to get the charge air in and exhaust out, even if you're using direct cylinder injection to get the fuel in.
 
#18
kanonfodr said:
I'm not seeing how the engine torque is going to be applied as work in this reading: electrically isolating the pistons would leave no common connector to transfer the force of the combustion into a flywheel that can do work.

Peace,
Greg
Click to expand...

Cut the header into 8 pieces, one for each cylinder then isolate with high temp silicone? Would just be like a thick gasket I would think. Or do you think this would blow out from the pressure
 

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