I've mentioned these in a thread in this forum already titled
too many cylinders., but it seems that there has been no other mention of them here from what I can tell I couldn't find anything about them (except for my one post about them, which I located using the quick search function).
Does anybody have any impressions of them that they'd like to share? If you are not familiar with them, here's the web site:
http://www.coatesengine.com
I personally think they're a better direction for cylinder head design than the one that BMW is taking. BMW is researching and building prototype cylinder heads without cams, that control valve movements and timing electronically. The Coates rotary valve design does basically the opposite, keeping the cams, and pretty much
only the cams, while eliminating all the other moving parts from the head (along with motor oil!!).
Imagine a smaller, lighter cylinder head, that needed no motor oil for lubrication (the system uses very low friction parts), made great power, and offered high rpm endurance (your first enemy of high rpm use is the threat of "valve float," where the valve cannot snap itself back into the valve seat fast enough to avoid contact with the piston, often due to mechanical limitations of the system at certain high rpms - this limiting factor commonly establishes a given engine's redline). Sounds like a dream too good to be true to me
But please, I'm curious for
your thoughts. Thanks-
-
JD