Interresting engine concept.

Sweeper · Post by **Sweeper** » 17 Sep 2004, 12:02

Well have any of you seen this French / Canadian project?
Still there will be a while until you see it in cars but I think it is worth a look.

http://quasiturbine.promci.qc.ca/QTIndex.html

And no, it isn't a Wankel Rotary, it is fundamentally different than a wankel this engine.

boganbusman · Post by **boganbusman** » 19 Sep 2004, 04:04

Gee, it looks pretty clever.
It seems a bit less complicated than a wankel because the cylinder shape is a perfect oval. But there seem to be a lot of moving parts and I wonder if it is very reliable. And it probably uses a lot of fuel too, because it makes 8 combustions in one cycle.
Interesting.

Drewb99 · Post by **Drewb99** » 19 Sep 2004, 04:47

Well, if it eats too much gas you can just make it run at a lower rpm.

Interesting, but consitering that it's a half French project it'l be outlawed because it's not one of the more normal engines, and because it's half Canadian you'll have to pay for it in $2 coins nobody outside of Canada has.

Sweeper · Post by **Sweeper** » 20 Sep 2004, 11:26

It is supposed to consume less fuel than regular engines today... But it is more efficient running on air compression or hydrogen they state so on their page.

boganbusman · Post by **boganbusman** » 21 Sep 2004, 08:48

What would you call a 'regular' engine?

Sweeper · Post by **Sweeper** » 21 Sep 2004, 10:28

The piston engines particulary but also the wankel rotary.
But in main, piston engines.

boganbusman · Post by **boganbusman** » 22 Sep 2004, 04:16

It says on the site that they reckon that piston engines waste about half of the fuel that gets injected (which is probably exagerrating a bit).

And they also say that they have made some sort of intake system that will allow the Quasiturbine to prevent this (I don't know how it works because I couldn't decipher their mumbo-jumbo).

What I don't understand is: Why can't they use this system on a piston engine?

Maybe I will actually have to read the whole thing (but there is too much!)

Sweeper · Post by **Sweeper** » 22 Sep 2004, 09:34

They mention so as well, it has something to do with vacuum on top of the piston, plus the main thing is that slows down the piston is between the shots (Explosions) when it has to use dead time relocating the engine (Creates a braking effect, which is why pistons are said to "Waste fuel")
However, this is supposed to be a non stop system which doesn't have a braking effect and therefore, produces more power and uses the fuel more efficiently.

They state so on their page, but it is a bit hard to read, so I'm probably not understanding the whole thing about it, mainly because the interresting parts are in French (And my French is rather bad)

boganbusman · Post by **boganbusman** » 22 Sep 2004, 09:58

OK that makes sense.

Anyway, if this engine is so good, what is taking them so long to get it into production?
Surely there must be a company out there who is interested.

UrQuattro · Post by **UrQuattro** » 22 Sep 2004, 11:29

It is possible that the benefits outweigh the costs - from a car manufacturer's point of view. Don't forget, there is no single car company there is that just takes an engine from an unknown company and puts it on its cars. Perhaps it's not emission friendly?

I think most car companies today are focusing on development of alternative engine power, such as hydrogen/hybrid cars. That trend is noted in all major car companies, and while this one might be interesting, it's not really comparable to the hydrogen cars. (we got about 50 years worth of petrol cars left for us).

Think of it this way - why isn't there anyone else from major car firms who make rotary engine period, bar mazda?

Sweeper · Post by **Sweeper** » 22 Sep 2004, 12:49

Thats another problem UrQuattro, and thats why I just posted "interresting engine concept".
Motor industry is hard to change, however, this engine is built with hydrogen combustion in mind as well.

Remember when the Wankel came? They said it was a crap engine, nobody wanted to use it.
But when Mazda did accept it, they raced in Le Mans, immidiatly following a ban of the engine itself...
So that talks of the attitude inside the motor industry.

Weather this engine got a future or not, I cannot tell, but the design is made for the future, so it may end up like the G-11 rifle falling under the expression: "Ahead of its time"

Drewb99 · Post by **Drewb99** » 22 Sep 2004, 20:39

No other company than Mazda makes roteries because Mazda snapped up half the patents you need to make a good Rotary, not because other companies don't want to. IIRC, Ford tried building one but wound up just scrapping the project because it wasn't up to par with the Wankel.

Sweeper · Post by **Sweeper** » 24 Sep 2004, 09:31

Mercedes has the chance way back when, they produced a very nice sports car pushing around 220 HP and that was back in the early wankel history which wasn't all that bad.

BUT they scrapped the project and went on the piston instead, so it tells that it is harder to change the motor industry.
Besides, Mazda had one goal with their rotary engine, they wanted it to be owned by everybody like the piston is today.

drive2droad · Post by **drive2droad** » 02 Oct 2004, 09:06

its a good concept but will always remain a concept !