To GuyFawkes:
What is your obsession with Fattywaggonman's project?
All of the great inventors of our time had many failures for every success.
Seems like if more of us experimented with our machines we would have a better understanding of their ins and outs.
Academia certainly has a place, even here, but a little bit goes a long way.
Why not just let him experiment away?
jim
I'm not obsessed.
My professional opinion is that his apparent complete reliance on seat of the pants guesstimates is the core issue, because it means that no-one but himself can really comment, and yet he is apparently asking for comment.
To an outsider such as myself the seat of his ass aspect of his project is by far the most notable and significant aspect.
In my experience the instant these sorts of project are subjected to empirical analysis all the claimed breakthoughs dissapear, to be replaced with exactly the same problems and challenges that everyone else who has attempted to tackle the same problem has encountered.
I'll say it again, I think his willingness to experiment is great, and should be encouraged. Did nobody read the bit I said about he should add a paypal link because I throw him a few bucks now and again? What is that if not support?
But, in exchange for bunging him a few bucks now and again, I want to see numbers.
He is manking many fundamental errors, a classic one is "the exhaust gas looks clean to my eyes, and smells clean to my nose"
Which is great, except most emissions gases are invisible to the human eye and undetectable by the human nose, you could be quadrupling them and have absolutely no idea whatsoever.
The human eye can see white exhaust smoke, which is either too lean or just a very cold day, black smoke, which is too rich, and blue smoke which is oil.
carbon monoxide has NO SMELL and NO TASTE and NO COLOUR
nitrogen monoxide has NO SMELL and NO TASTE and NO COLOUR
and yet this guy is claiming, based upon his eyes and his nose, that his engine modifications have resulted in a cleaner exhaust with less emissions.
sure, he can eventually put an EGA on the engine and get numbers, but he won't know if the drilled depressions or milled slots contributed to the results, or maybe the weather, or maybe the fuel, or maybe contaminants in the ingested air, or anything else.
this is not about invention, or experimentation, or academia, it is about scientific method.
if you do not use a scientific method you will end up like those guys who claiimed they had managed to achieve cold fusion in a bucket of water in a lab.
they couldn't explain how they had done it
they couldn't explain what other possible sources they had eliminated
they couldn't explain to anyone else how to duplicate it.
even if you are doing good work, you just painted yourself with the same tell tale signs all the junk science freaks adorn themselves with, which is a bloody shame, to say the least.
_IF_ he is the one in a million on the right track to stumbling across something no-one else has done before, constructive criticism from the likes of me on a place like this isn't going to stop him, on the contrary, it will help him.
Has he considered the "dead zone" he is creating in those pistons? Surely not, because he would know dead zone can account for up to 20% of emissions. Wanna eliminate the dead zone, move that top ring WAAAAAY up to the top of the piston.
Google and the Internet isn't everything, there are more things than you can shake a stick at that are very real, and very old, but according to google and the internet do not exist (hell, 1954 engineering diaries is just a wee example, there are NO technical references of note online) but they are out there, I have seen actual piston designs in a range than span either side of what he is fdoing, from milder that his to wilder than his, in litho prints in books 50 / 60 / 70 years old. It ain't new and at didn't work then, why will it work now? because oil is more expensive? because we have finite element modelling on computers? because we have CNC?
no
if you want to boost the emissions performance of the lister(oid) then you are going to have to design an entirely new piston (& rings), very high top ring and top ring set for minimal dead zone, flat as possible to minimise torque losses to the barrel, pay a great deal of attantion to the mechanical interface between piston+rings and barrel (listard coating anyone?) and the real bitch will be designing a new conrod to go with your new piston and keep the whole engine in balance, this alone will reduce emissions by 25%.
