Six stroke Engine

[blprice74]

Two questions....

1. Has anyone ever actually seen a six stroke engine?

2. If it is as great as what I have read, then why are we not seeing production on a mass scale?

For those who aren't familiar, and I am by no means an expert, Bruce Crower manufactured a six stroke engine. From my research, a six stroke engine was actually invented in 1915. There are several different types. A single piston, duel piston, and multiple pisons. Crower's design is a simple idea, the first four strokes are the same... The fifth stroke introduces water which vaporizes quickly (second power stroke), and sixth stroke is exhausted water and vapor. The supposed benefits are much less engine cooling is needed. No radiator, fans, etc., with an extra power stroke, increased fuel economy, less expense of gases.

So there has to be a "bad side", right? Otherwise we would all be driving six stroke engines. Problem is I can't find good information. My personal opinion is the loss in weight of engine cooling components, would be more than replaced by the weight of water. But the other gains are interesting... I've read as much as 40% gains in efficiency and economy. The major downfalls that I've read were: complex intakes, camshafts, and expensive costs to manufacture. But at a supposed 40% gain in efficiency? Wouldn't that all be negligible?

Brandon

 

[bubba22349]

1. Never seen one except for the picture of Bruce Crowers 6 stroke prototype. 2. Yes there seems to be a number of ways to build one but to my knowledge no one has seamed to have worked out all the bugs to actually make it practical. Bruce Crowers 6 stroke engine patented prototype using water injection was built but little info is found after its 2006 announcement of his experimental engine design (see link below). With his passing in July 2019, but I wonder if he was still working on the design. There is also another patented design in August 2012 from India that uses air injection instead of water I don't know if they built a prototype yet. It's also interesting that water injection was used on military fighter aircraft wayback during World War II to boost the power output of those engines.

Crower 6 Stroke Engine
https://autoweek.com/article/car-news/i ... oke-engine

6 Stroke Engine Design Using Air Injection
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KkAD34nsTdk

 

[THE FRENCHTOWN FLYER]

I think the biggest hindrance to increasing the efficiency of internal combustion engines the inability to significantly improve its thermal efficiency. If we could replace metal engines with some kind of hi-temp ceramic components that didn't need to be cooled then further gains could be realized. I think the idea of using the heat of combustion to vaporize water goes against this concept and the thermal efficiency of such a design will be worse.