Duke Engine

lsayre · Post by **lsayre** » Sun. Mar. 09, 2014 11:30 am

McGiever wrote:
lsayre wrote:The Wankel engine is indeed impressive. I could never understand how they seal the rotor tips.
Look around 4:30 mins. into video...

Amazing! That video is worth watching more than once! Who would imagine that a 5 year old girl could assemble an engine.

SMITTY · Post by **SMITTY** » Sun. Mar. 09, 2014 11:36 am

That's the way every engine should be - DIRT SIMPLE.

lsayre · Post by **lsayre** » Sun. Mar. 09, 2014 11:37 am

Such a great design. Are there any current vehicles using it, and if not, then what killed the Wankel? Emissions? Fuel economy? Durability? Cost?

SMITTY · Post by **SMITTY** » Sun. Mar. 09, 2014 12:22 pm

I'd bet the farm it was emissions/government regs.

A close second would be .. money.

scalabro · Post by **scalabro** » Sun. Mar. 09, 2014 2:36 pm

lsayre wrote:Such a great design. Are there any current vehicles using it, and if not, then what killed the Wankel? Emissions? Fuel economy? Durability? Cost?

All of the above.

McGiever · Post by **McGiever** » Sun. Mar. 09, 2014 8:28 pm

I'll take the one a 5 year old girl can build...Thank you very much!

Wanna Bee · Post by **Wanna Bee** » Mon. Mar. 10, 2014 12:15 pm

Freddy wrote:Hmmmm.... if this Duke is so good.... How come it's not being used...in anything! No cars, no lawnmowers, no nothing. It just seems if it was all that good that someone would be using it for something. Wasn't it invented in 1993? They talk about all kinds of improvements, but still... no users.

I'm going to bet that it has no torque, None, zip, zilch, nada. Without torque no work can be done. The only way to use it would be with a very heavy flywheel to "fake"having torque. That would make it useless for all practical applications.

It actually looks and works just like a power washer that I have. Only difference is you spin the eccentric to make the pistons pump the water.

jpete · Post by **jpete** » Wed. Mar. 12, 2014 7:51 pm

I like that new Honda motor. I think there is a future there.

Being a mechanical nerd, I like all the old engines with a lot of what Smokey Yunick called "monkey motion". Cams, levers and linkages are cool and the geniuses who dreamt them all up and managed not to get themselves killed in the process.

http://www.caranddriver.com/features/the-10-most- ... me-feature

I like this one too.

Thirty cylinders, five banks, five carburetors, five distributors, 1255 cubic inches. This is what happens when Detroit goes to war. Chrysler built the A57 as a way to satisfy a World War II tank-engine contract in a hurry, using as many off-the-shelf components as possible. It consisted of five 251-cube passenger-car inline-sixes arranged radially around a central output shaft. The resulting 425-hp pile of hairy freedom powered M3A4 Lee and M4A4 Sherman tanks.

But for my money, give me a good old Offenhauser.

http://www.milleroffy.com/

SMITTY · Post by **SMITTY** » Thu. Mar. 13, 2014 9:48 am

On the British Racing Motors H-16 ...... "It sounded like 4 Subarus in a mailbox" .

:punk:

Wanna Bee wrote: I'm going to bet that it has no torque, None, zip, zilch, nada. ......

Then you just build it BIGGER.

Some aftermarket parts and a visit to the local machine shop, and you'll be melting tires at 3k instead of 8k.

scalabro · Post by **scalabro** » Fri. Mar. 14, 2014 8:41 pm

Excellent choice Smitty!

But my all time favorite sound is just a little old 289 on Webers with a Bundle of snakes!