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Cars

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Re: Cars

I understand that the oem's are going over to aluminum doors and hood for the 1/2 ton trucks very soon. so as to lower the weight and up the milage. If we could get the emissions issues under control, a two cycle hybrid would be very cool. BTw, My neighbor with the volt is averaging 185 mpg over the first 18 months of ownership.
 
Re: Cars

manurespreader said:
I understand that the oem's are going over to aluminum doors and hood for the 1/2 ton trucks very soon. so as to lower the weight and up the milage. If we could get the emissions issues under control, a two cycle hybrid would be very cool. BTw, My neighbor with the volt is averaging 185 mpg over the first 18 months of ownership.
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Gas direct injection is probably the only way you'll get reasonable emissions from a two-cycle. You could try running urea injection and post-cooling on a little diesel two-cycle otherwise, or doing LNG/LPG fuel. Probably the same for a Wankel, which would be another wicked fun and lightweight engine for a hybrid. Wonder if anyone has ever worked out the economics of using a constant-speed turbine to charge a primarily battery hybrid?
 
Re: Cars

Beer Pong Horn said:
Gas direct injection is probably the only way you'll get reasonable emissions from a two-cycle. You could try running urea injection and post-cooling on a little diesel two-cycle otherwise, or doing LNG/LPG fuel. Probably the same for a Wankel, which would be another wicked fun and lightweight engine for a hybrid. Wonder if anyone has ever worked out the economics of using a constant-speed turbine to charge a primarily battery hybrid?
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I'm sitting here thinking of how small and how fast you could get the turbine, and how big the generator would be. That would be real cool though for sure. I bet it would go 250,000 miles between rebuilds.
 
manurespreader said:
I'm sitting here thinking of how small and how fast you could get the turbine, and how big the generator would be. That would be real cool though for sure. I bet it would go 250,000 miles between rebuilds.
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I know, right? Have to have a hell of a bearing set for both the turbine and the alternator, not to mention an abnormally large battery pack. The nice thing is, unlike the problems that crop up with turbo bearing failures because they don't have oil at startup, you can run purely on battery until the turbine oil pump is running and the turbine itself is at reasonable operating temps and speeds. Downside is that you would probably need to change the battery pack before the turbine and alternator, plus you wouldn't get a big power boost from the turbine. Still, it makes you think, doesn't it?

The other idea I keep having is to make the batteries part of the actual body structure of the car. I don't know if it is possible, but wouldn't it be nice to not have to build a metal shell for a bunch of metal plates?
 
Re: Cars

Beer Pong Horn said:
I know, right? Have to have a hell of a bearing set for both the turbine and the alternator, not to mention an abnormally large battery pack. The nice thing is, unlike the problems that crop up with turbo bearing failures because they don't have oil at startup, you can run purely on battery until the turbine oil pump is running and the turbine itself is at reasonable operating temps and speeds. Downside is that you would probably need to change the battery pack before the turbine and alternator, plus you wouldn't get a big power boost from the turbine. Still, it makes you think, doesn't it?

The other idea I keep having is to make the batteries part of the actual body structure of the car. I don't know if it is possible, but wouldn't it be nice to not have to build a metal shell for a bunch of metal plates?
Click to expand...

I bet you could get away with a small battery if you were willing to live with an abnormally long start up period. say 1 minute. You turn the key and hit start, and it starts an automated sequence which means it takes 1 minute while the turbine comes up to speed. with a tiny high speed turbine, say 25,000 rpm I bet it would get up to speed fairly quickly and generate oil pressure by 15 seconds into the start.
the torque would be low, but once up to speed a lot of possibilities.
 
manurespreader said:
I understand that the oem's are going over to aluminum doors and hood for the 1/2 ton trucks very soon. so as to lower the weight and up the milage. If we could get the emissions issues under control, a two cycle hybrid would be very cool. BTw, My neighbor with the volt is averaging 185 mpg over the first 18 months of ownership.
Click to expand...
Two stroke engines have multiple problems anymore. Gas emissions are one thing, but due toe the nature of the cycle, it's not exactly efficient as well. And they are also not as capable of adjustments like variable cam timing and whatnot.

As odd as it sounds, there are a lot of developments that can (are) happen with 4 stroke engines.
 
Re: Cars

joecct said:
This never flew, but it should have. I wonder if it could work today??
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,136542,00.html
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Why should it have?

Heck, it's easy to poke holes very quickly- first, micro-turbines cost as much as a car does- the way that turbines are made via single crystal blades makes them very slow and expensive to make. Worth it for planes, not so much for cars. Second, any combustion engine of any type will produce emissions, so it would be interesting to see data to support the zero emssions claim. Starting the engine from a long time stopped counts.

Flywheels are a great concept. But how many do you need to have the equivallent of 5 gal of gas?

And don't blame Detroit- there are SO many companies out there, none of the rest has done flywheels. At least Chrysler tried.
 
Re: Cars

manurespreader said:
I bet you could get away with a small battery if you were willing to live with an abnormally long start up period. say 1 minute. You turn the key and hit start, and it starts an automated sequence which means it takes 1 minute while the turbine comes up to speed. with a tiny high speed turbine, say 25,000 rpm I bet it would get up to speed fairly quickly and generate oil pressure by 15 seconds into the start.
the torque would be low, but once up to speed a lot of possibilities.
Click to expand...

You could do a lot of things with such a long start-up time - preheating a biomass-fueled steam boiler (somewhat less efficient than internal combustion, but potentially better on emissions), the aforementioned flywheel system, hydraulic or pneumatic boost systems, charging a capacitive storage system, allowing spool-up time for turbochargers on a small-displacement engine. Maybe you could cheat a bit though - set the main alternator to run backwards for a minute or two (as a brushless DC motor) to spool up the turbine once the car door opens, but have the user actually start the flow of fuel to the turbine. LNG/LPG might help too, by reducing turbine blade erosion and making fuel atomization easier.

Want to go into business together? :D

EDIT: alfablue, maybe something like this would be the answer: http://www.e-djtrade.com/co/neuros/GC02558877/CA02558886/Extra_Small_Turbo_Shaft_Engine.html I can't tell how much it costs, but used UAV turbines might be a workable solution.
 
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Re: Cars

Beer Pong Horn said:
EDIT: alfablue, maybe something like this would be the answer: http://www.e-djtrade.com/co/neuros/GC02558877/CA02558886/Extra_Small_Turbo_Shaft_Engine.html I can't tell how much it costs, but used UAV turbines might be a workable solution.
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Maybe.

But the answer of "can a gas turbine drive a car or truck" question has been answered already. Yes. Chrysler actually came out with a turbine car, and Ford was working heavily on turbine heavy trucks.

Neither of which made it very far for many good reasons.

Sure, gas turbines have come a long way since 1965 or 1972. But so have internal combustion engines. so.....
 
Re: Cars

I think we're better off sticking with internal combustion engines, instead of starting fresh with turbines. Like was already said, there have been some big advancements in the last few years, and we should continue to build off of that.
 
Re: Cars

Probably - unless something offers a huge advance (unlikely), internal combustion engines with pistons, connecting rods and so forth have proven themselves able to make continued, sufficient advances. Still fun to explore alternatives though.


In other news, to the guy driving down Grand Avenue today: maybe if you weren't driving this, you wouldn't have to have ES44AC as your personalized license plate.
 
Re: Cars

I just bought 4 tires for my airport car. I shopped, the Tire Rack, AAFES, Sears, Discount tire, Costco, and Belle tire. When you add in the cost of mounting, sears was same price as the tire rack, and I could get them on the same day. Most vendors were within 10 dollars. Ended up buying from Belle tire which is local Michigan. They had the best price because the rebate came to you out front instead of mailing in for it. Belle tire always tries to up sell you, so if you can resist that they have great prices, otherwise you end up paying more than you should.
 
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