SCUDERI SPLIT-CYCLE Technology - a new type of engine

If your next car gets twice the gas mileage of your current vehicle, and
belches out only a fraction of the pollution, you may have Carmelo
Scuderi to thank.

Scuderi, a Massachusetts engineer and inventor, started tinkering with
the fundamentals of the internal combustion engine when he retired in
the mid-1990s. The result was a radical new design that could make
engines for anything from gas-powered lawn mowers to diesel locomotives
lighter, far more efficient, and a whole lot easier on the environment.

Scuderi died in 2002, shortly after patenting the basic concept for his
engine. Since then, his children have made it their mission to bring the
engine to market. Five of them now work full time for the family
startup, the Scuderi Group.

Scuderi began by splitting the heart of the internal combustion engine
-- the chamber where air is compressed, mixed with fuel and then ignited
-- into two separate cylinders, linked by a passage. Air is compressed
in the first cylinder, and then shot through the passage into the second
cylinder, where it mixes with the gas and burns.

Wired article:
http://tinyurl.com/et4cg

YouTube video:
http://tinyurl.com/o7hcf

Company website:
http://www.scuderigroup.com/

I predict this will be important.
What do you reckon?
Will there be a DIY version of it?
--
Chris

Chris wrote:

SCUDERI SPLIT-CYCLE Technology - a new type of engine

If your next car gets twice the gas mileage of your current vehicle, and
belches out only a fraction of the pollution, you may have Carmelo
Scuderi to thank.

Scuderi, a Massachusetts engineer and inventor, started tinkering with
the fundamentals of the internal combustion engine when he retired in
the mid-1990s. The result was a radical new design that could make
engines for anything from gas-powered lawn mowers to diesel locomotives
lighter, far more efficient, and a whole lot easier on the environment.

Scuderi died in 2002, shortly after patenting the basic concept for his
engine. Since then, his children have made it their mission to bring the
engine to market. Five of them now work full time for the family
startup, the Scuderi Group.

Scuderi began by splitting the heart of the internal combustion engine
-- the chamber where air is compressed, mixed with fuel and then ignited
-- into two separate cylinders, linked by a passage. Air is compressed
in the first cylinder, and then shot through the passage into the second
cylinder, where it mixes with the gas and burns.

Wired article:
http://tinyurl.com/et4cg

YouTube video:
http://tinyurl.com/o7hcf

Company website:
http://www.scuderigroup.com/

I predict this will be important.
What do you reckon?
Will there be a DIY version of it?

There have been many improved engine designs, but almost none are seen
in road cars. One of the most promising was a clean burning 2 stroke
engine. 2 strokes are much simpler mechanically, thus cheaper, and also
output around twice the power per displacement, halving ther size and
reducing costs even further. Plus since it ran upto 12,000 rpm instead
of 6000, it could be half the size yet again. And smaller size and
weight means significant fuel savings for same performance as well as
reduced build cost. But where are these engines? We dont see them.
Scuderi might succeed but the odds for new engine techs arent
favourable. The truth is there are a lot of issues besides simple cost
and fuel efficiency, and as always new designs often dont compare with
current technology in such areas. Todays engines have had a century or
so of development, new ones have not.

The technical error in the article is also odd. The idea that a
reciprocating piston would outrun the pressure front of an explosion
seems optimistic, and anyone thats played with engines enough to set
spark timing way out knows it isnt so. Why does the spokesman of a tech
dev company demonstrate a basic failure to comprehend the subject
properly? Given this, what does it tell us about the engine's less
straightforward attributes?

It would be nice to see some of these new techs on the road, but there
are many non-obvious barriers to that happening.


NT