AlaskaStar's Automotive X-Prize Design, Open Source Project-

[IWantATurbo]

[Jehu]

Nice cad renderings. Have you got any pics of the completed cam shafts?

[resident_genius]

alaska, what is/are the projected operating pressures of the engine throughout the system? i keep thinking and worrying about piston blow-by and the standard seals used on an ICE. i wonder if someone with a CNC machine could rough out a revised piston and crankshaft engine modified to handle the pressures associated with refrigerants. i forget the name of the seal type(the type of seal you'd see on a water pump, labrynth seal was it?), but i just dont know how well they'd hold up with blow-by gasses building pressure.

when i had addressed this problem before, you had mentioned keeping the engine's "crankcase" or "lower end" (for lack of a better term) under vacumm, to scavenge the blow-by gasses and put them back into the system. while i like the idea, how will theses seals handle the negative pressure? will they not leak as well? those seals were never designed to be operated under negative pressure, as most of those seals are uni-directional and purposefully built so.

have you put thought into these possibilites? dont take me for a nay-sayer(you know thats simply not the case) i just want to make sure i get to see you at the end of your trip, and not hear about how some unexpected problem or unforseen hiccup sent you back to square one.

[AlaskaStar]

For the crank-case being under vacuum: This is a relative term.

If I truly have the crank-case under a vacuum, it would suck in air from the end seals on the crank.

The inside of the crank-case would be equalized with the atmospheric air pressure outside the crank-case, and therefore would be neutral in relation.

There would be a pressure sensitive valve on the intake port of the 4th cylinder that allows the crank-case "over-pressure" to open the port, allowing the pressure to be sucked in by the 4th cylinder during the downward stroke.

This valve need not be more sophisticated than a simple reed valve with a spring on top with an adjustment for tension.

AlaskaStar

[resident_genius]

ah i see. so yes, it'd be under very mild vacuum about as much as it as under pressure... clever design.

and yes ive seen reed valves as used on two stroke (gasoline) motors, and safety/pop-off valves used in 80's turbo sports cars. good idea.

[AlaskaStar]

Hopefully I can have some cams made here soon....

AlaskaStar

[AlaskaStar]

[Jehu]

[haroldcr]

[AlaskaStar]

[Jehu]

[Jehu]

I found it!



and



I hope this helps.

[AlaskaStar]

The speech pathologist and I already covered all of that, and concluded that with my wife's hearing loss, that Sign Language is the only action for long term viability. Problem:

Wife is inherently too stubborn to realize that her "ASL-1" and "ASL-2" college classes are inadequate, and likewise her stubborn pride of knowing everything...until it comes to practical application....she can't even read her own name. So I just use the first letter in reference...

I have tried the Buccal speech, and used to to it many times to entertain the nieces and nephews. I can't do more than sound much like cursing...I sound like Donald Duck who just dropped an anvil on his nut sack, and is quite angrily cursing about.

The other forms require invasive surgery, and in the line of work I am in currently would cause severe problems. Insurance is non-existent, and likewise, even with a corrective knife-happy doctor, it still doesn't fix the wife's hearing.

I am only able to try so much of everything, in a marriage it takes 2. Right now it's 1 person doing the effort. She comes from a family of doctors, and you know how that goes over! At least that doctorish bunch respects my space (currently) that it's MY body and I will be the one who makes the decisions for the long term. I have the RIGHT to REFUSE medical treatment as well. Unlike that dumb judge who forced a 12 year old to go through chemo...which will kill the kid anyway in the long run. Every person has the RIGHT to REFUSE medical treatment, regardless of a court order or some judge playing God.

So, until she realizes that I am able to do so much, before I can't do it for her...it's going to be rough. 4 more months till snow. Then since all the ink pens freeze up in winter, she will be FORCED to learn ASL, and USE IT.

AlaskaStar

[Jehu]

Damn, that's no good. Wel I suppose that on your end you can only keep practicing your ASL and Buccal.

But back to the cams. Didn't you find a guy who was able to do them but you just needed them heat treated? What happened on that front?

It's a cryin shame that the magnetic valves didn't work. That would have been awsome. Have you thought about reinvestigating them? Maybe try to increase the power of them or something? Or make an entirely different valve setup? Could you run the intake into the cylinder via the hole for the spark plug and just block off the intake ports?

[AlaskaStar]

The magnetic valves functioned, but were too slow to operate at engine speeds even as low as 150 rpm.

Every cam grinder I contact says the same thing: either "Hell NO!!" or "Yeah easy" The ones that claim they can do it all have a set of cams and complete instructions and have fallen off the face of the earth, were abducted by time travelers/ or aliens, or otherwise died. They won't return my requests, wont return calls, reject TTY/TDD Relay calls, and they won't return my camshafts.

If you have a few years to waste on a camshaft I recommend this shop:
http://www.elgincams.com

He received my cams in AUGUST OF 2008! I haven't heard since I called in JANUARY! I have no bill from him, no invoice, no camshafts being returned, nothing. I am trying to find out if he died or something. He's old, but I hope he didn't die making my cams, cause it would make me feel kinda guilty...you know...blood stained camshafts going into a prototype engine....

Of course CRANE CAMS ( http://www.cranecams.com ) went out of business.

Crower Cams rejected me before even reviewing anything.

Delta Cams quote 8 months and several thousand dollars, and I already did the homework, and all the math for them so they don't need to use their brains at all.

Atlas Bronze ADVERTISES that they can make camshafts from design spec...NO THEY CAN'T!!!! They said their tooling inadequate. So much for the advertisement....FALSE ADVERTISEMENT!!!

Edelbrock doesn't make camshafts.

Leinweber referred me to a fellow that skipped town. Nice.

Andrews products never answers the phone or email. Out of business maybe?

Triverus/ Tri-jet took 5 months to get me a quote/reject. They say it cost too much, and not give a quote dollar figure. nice.

The list is a mile long, I don't feel like posting it all here. I hope you get the picture.

AlaskaStar