Pop Science - Head mod article

[temfate]

Has anyone else read the latest newstand issue of popular science? There is a interesting article on what some India guy claims really boost effeciency etc. It looks a little dangerous for high pressure turbocharged cars but take a look and post what you think! I can't decide if I think it's a pro or con.

Basically for those of you with no intention of buying the magazine, he used a dremel/grinder to etch out grooves along the cylinder head connecting the squish zone to the spark plugs spark thus he claims more turbulence and increased burn...

Here it is:

http://www.popsci.com/popsci/futurecar/article/0,20642,679464,00.html

 

[Defiant]

"So far, all Singh’s invention has earned him is a few polite rejection letters from presidents, professors and auto manufacturers—while costing him tens of thousands of borrowed rupees"

Isn't that about six bucks?

Thanks, but no:

1.) It's in Popular Science.

2.)It really is blank. I'm too yella.

Well, no. I'm not even typing out the obvious one. But I dare any of you to say you aren't thinking the same thing.

 

[eclipse13]

I was definatly thinking the same thing.

 

[temfate]

I was definatly thinking the same thing.

What? "Crackpot"? It definitely sounds like he's a un-educated guy who un-intelligently dedicated his life to an idea that is downright dangerous. The question however is does it make any kind of since? Obviously with PopSci publishing it someone out there is now going to try it and dyno it properly.

And 50,000 rupees is about $1080...

 

[Gigaah]

Hah, ok so who is gunna be the brave soul to bust out the dremel tool and start hacking on their head?

 

[aleccolin]

From an engineering standpoint, his ideas hold water - a fluted quench pad to create turbulence in the combustion chamber and direct fuel/air mixture towards the center of the combustion chamber using some simple fluid dynamics principles to his advantage instead of the usual brute force. Give the mixture a path of least resistance instead of no path at all. The flutes themselves would effectively lower the compression ratio slightly, but I'm sure with as much thought as he's put into this he's corrected for that by shaving the head a bit. Increased burn efficiency also allows for advanced ignition timing, further increasing possible gains.

Fluid dynamics isn't something that most people (myself included) can just grasp and understand without many years of study. Sometimes it's the most basic pseudo-accidental discoveries that prove significant and quickly become the standard. In the early days of golfing, the balls were smooth. Someone realized an old, dented up ball flew farther on tee-off, so he made up some balls with dimples covering the surface and voila!, a few extra yards (increased efficiency) on the drive. Now try buying some smooth surface golf balls...

Olympic swimmers are using swimsuits now with material that is designed to mimick the surface of a shark's skin. These suits have been proven to yeild a 4% decrease in drag. Simple fluid dynamics. Why didn't anyone do it before now??? Maybe they didn't think of it, more likely it was shot down by many closed-minded nay-sayers. It doesn't matter anymore though, now you'd be hard pressed to find an olympic swimmer without one of those suits.

 

[Defiant]

Fluid dynamics isn't something that most people (myself included) can just grasp and understand without many years of study. Sometimes it's the most basic pseudo-accidental discoveries that prove significant and quickly become the standard. In the early days of golfing, the balls were smooth. Someone realized an old, dented up ball flew farther on tee-off, so he made up some balls with dimples covering the surface and voila!, a few extra yards (increased efficiency) on the drive. Now try buying some smooth surface golf balls...

Yeh. When Suzuki came out with the 1100, one of its huge innovations was the TSCC, Twin-Swirl Combustion Chamber. Four valves per cylinder and arranged to induce turbulence. Before that (well, 1912: http://www.supercars.net/cars/1912@$Peugeot@$L76%20Grand%20Prixg.html
), Peugeot came up with 4 valves, DOHC, and won race after race.

In the interim, there's been all kind of jimcrackery to fiddle with what goes on inside a cylinder, from Willys-Knight sleeve valves, to Butterworth valves (working like a trap door, with no stems), deviant, heavy valves with ¼" vanes on the backs of their heads, to various 2-stroke and Diesel designs.

I don't know in detail what engines our intrepid little friend is working on, nor how well they respond to tuning (like a 1600cc Morris engine? I saw mention of building for Rover under license, aren't they still using the '62 Buick-Olds-Pontiac aluminum V-8?). But until I hear a better source than the hoary old bag of Popular Science, I cast a "nay".

 

[aleccolin]

The Tata Indica (the one he modified then fitted with "direct drive" stickers) uses a 1405 cc watercooled SOHC inline 4 cylinder with multiport fuel injection that is rated at 74 hp at 5500 rpm. So more or less a slightly larger 4 cyl metro engine, pretty damn basic. Didn't say the number of valves per cyl, but given its goals of fuel efficiency it's likely 3 if not 4. Now imagine a Geo metro that can pull you out of a 10 mph roll in 4th or 5th gear and smoothly accelerate all the way up to redline. He's probably experimented with numerous head designs on all those motorcycles, but even a sidevalve B&S motor showed a MINIMUM of a 10% gain in efficiency, which is huge. Crazy. Hell, I might try this on my lawnmower, John Deere Tractor Pull Winternationals here I come!