Will Camshafts Soon Become Extinct?
from http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/elecovrv.html
it's at. Not directly anyway. Too much power needed in a
small hot space, bad for electricals unless you wanted to
push the art in high temperature magnetics. Electrical has
to supply all the power and that's not the slick way to do
it.
But, solenoid valves gating more serious pulsed power, like
a compressed-air open/closed disc piston on the valvestem,
contactless except for the guide, tolerate a little air blowoff
for not needing a seal and you can have a lighter valvestem
mass than right now, a thin wall cylinder mounted to the head
(or cast and bored) and maybe the air passages cast in with
the solenoid vaves screwed in? How much pulsed air power
can you deliver through a 1/4" pipe and a good air 'noid?
Cheapo belt driven compressor replaces cam drive and
all of the moving parts except the engine valves and the
solenoid valves. And solenoid valve timing can be put to
lead valve event or mess it around to make your wildest
valve event timing dreams, wet ones.
Here is my drawing of one that could be built in any
machine shop to demonstrate. Tubing and sheet stock,
tap and die, compressed air and switches, badda bing.
One thing I see as an issue for air or electrical valve
systems is that of opening against the still substantial
pressure head inside the chamber at BDC. This pressure
adds to the seat pressure and that's a bitch to push over
for a coil or even a decent air pressure (2" apply piston,
100PSI air, about 300lb of force). The hard push camshaft
type valvetrain has a whole lot more capability there.
machine shop to demonstrate. Tubing and sheet stock,
tap and die, compressed air and switches, badda bing.
That looks simple, almost too simple

That is actually a great design; one side of the 'chamber' is to open and the other side is to close.
Can air activated solenoids work as quickly as electric solenoids?
The Best V8 Stories One Small Block at Time
Al
http://www.coatesengine.com/engine_of_the_future.html
While not offering the degree of control possible with computer controlled direct actuation, it is a huge leap forward over the current poppet valve technology. A 5.0L stock engine from a Lincoln which produced 260/249 went to 475/454 when equipped with their head and valve system.
1. improving reliability
2. getting fast enough solenoids
As far as I know, there are no solenoids capable of acting continuously fast enough for a car engine at high rpms. The examples I saw were for low revving diesels.
Would the cam profile necessarily need to be dependent / controlled by the position of the throttle and / or engine sensors, or would it also make sense to allow for optional driver input? For example: Let's say that you have a pickup that you use for a variety of functions, including some towing and some off-roading. Certainly, we can all agree that there are different optimal cam profiles for low-RPM towing and higher-RPM mudding. I would think that at high-RPM's you would want the most aggressive horsepower making profile. At low RPM's, the answer get's a little more grey. Do you want to drive at 2000 RPM's with the best fuel economy or at the highest obtainable torque value? Are these two conditions one in the same? What if I want to tow at 2000 RPM's with a very aggressive cam profile for the sheer joy of it and don't care about fuel efficiency? Would the computer use throttle position as well as the other usual sensors (MAF, MAP, IAT, Temp, O2, Ect) to determine and adjust the cam profile on the fly for both driving conditions, or would it make more sense for the driver to inform the computer ahead of time that he intends to tow at low RPMs or Off-Road at high RPM's? This was touched upon earlier, but I think it is worth a second look. I guess I am just trying to imagine how much control, if any, that the driver would have or even need to have.
I just deleted about 15 replies of bullshit. If I have to do this again, some of you will be getting a vacation from this site.
Question: Has electro-magnetic valve actuation ever been seriously considered?
MI: "No chance, not at the speed we are running. You cannot generate enough energy to do the job. If you worked out how much energy it takes to open and close the valves you would be surprised!"
"An air spring is stored energy which is helping you a great deal"
Thoughts:
Are we sure we want "square wave" valve motion? I'm not sure the air can start flowing smoothly thru an "instant open" valve. Of course, as we approach a "square wave" lift profile, the aceleration and therefore the force needed increases proportionally which requires more electro-magnetic (EM) energy. It's a viscous circle!
PVRS ("air springs") have some interesting possibilities which have been explored. Spring force can be controlled to the shape of the valve acceleration (force required) curve, whici is far different from the nearly linear force/valve lift curve we get from mechanical springs. Valve bounce on the seat, a power killer, can more easily be controlled with PVRS rather than cramming more seated pressure onto the valves.
Some high end race engines have tiny piston-valve clearances, on the order of a few thousandths, so some sort of a mechanical limit of valve lift at a closely controlled degree of rotation is essential. Mechanical camshafts and PVRS are the elegant solution. EM actuated valves might have a problem here, and we wouldn't want them to bang into a hard stop.
On the other hand, perhaps room temperature super conductors (RTSC) would solve all the problems associated with EM actuated valves. Of course that holy grail has yet to be found.
Would the cam profile necessarily need to be dependent / controlled by the position of the throttle and / or engine sensors, or would it also make sense to allow for optional driver input? For example: Let's say that you have a pickup that you use for a variety of functions, including some towing and some off-roading. Certainly, we can all agree that there are different optimal cam profiles for low-RPM towing and higher-RPM mudding. I would think that at high-RPM's you would want the most aggressive horsepower making profile. At low RPM's, the answer get's a little more grey. Do you want to drive at 2000 RPM's with the best fuel economy or at the highest obtainable torque value? Are these two conditions one in the same? What if I want to tow at 2000 RPM's with a very aggressive cam profile for the sheer joy of it and don't care about fuel efficiency? Would the computer use throttle position as well as the other usual sensors (MAF, MAP, IAT, Temp, O2, Ect) to determine and adjust the cam profile on the fly for both driving conditions, or would it make more sense for the driver to inform the computer ahead of time that he intends to tow at low RPMs or Off-Road at high RPM's? This was touched upon earlier, but I think it is worth a second look. I guess I am just trying to imagine how much control, if any, that the driver would have or even need to have.
In the Variable position the engine sensors gather information and the pcm adjusts valve events for optimum torque vs. fuel economy at any rpm.



i know, but i couldnt help myself.



