Yes another 'My brilliant idea'

OKay, a new type of valve system.

I was reading about some talk in another thread aobut some individually electronically actuated valves. This got me thinking and realizing how terribly inefficient our current system is.

*This is going to be hard to picture

Take a side view of a cylinder inside and engine with the valves complete (If anybody's seen any new Maserati ads, this is the view you're looking at) Now remove the entire valvetrain and place to shafts wehere the valves would be, put gears on the outside, like normal overhead camshafts, that's essentially what you are looking at.

The shafts, are just a shaft closed at one end, with 8 holes drilled at offset intervals (Think a camshaft and in place of a cam lobe, there is a hole in a hollow shaft) Basically a flute,with a gear at the open end, now where the valve would normally meet the top of the combustion chamber, just leave an open hole.

essentially you have a spinning hollow shaft that has holes that line up to feed air into the cylinders at differnet intervals to allow proper, normal combustion. Now put a screw or fan into the shaft, now you have forced induction which would give better airflow and make the whole thing work. It is all driven by the flywheel as a normal camshaft is.


I figure that this will cut down on parts, mainly moving parts and make things easier and it works for exhaust too, my only concern would be heat and maybe timing but I think it's a minor issue.

Now disect it and tell me it works.

Essentally your idea is the same as Coates rotary valve system. Their system seems to FINALLY be getting some recognition, and we could see production examples on the road within 10 years. Check here (http://www.coatesengine.com/index1.html) for more info.

As a side note, sealing and oiling issues are what have prevented other designs from gaining prominence. Rotary designs are difficult to maintain seal clearance over time due to the basic wearing patterns involved in the motion. They're also tough to lubricate without also contaminating the combustion chamber. There was another, more evolutionary poppet valve idea thrown around about 5 years ago involving vented valves, go here (http://www.variablevalve.com/) for more info.