Jump to content

New Engine Coming.

unit731

By unit731
in Future GM News & Rumors

Recommended Posts

unit731 Senior Enthusiast

unit731

Posted
Posted

Ursula Zerilli

Automotive News -- July 12, 2010 - 3:34 pm ET

 

 

 

DETROIT -- EcoMotors International has received $23.5 million from Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates and investor Vinod Khosla for engineering and testing of its trademarked Opoc engine technology.

 

EcoMotors said in a statement today that the investment marks a key advance in commercializing its opposed piston-opposed cylinder engine. The engine maker plans to use the funds for completing testing and building demonstration units.

 

Further details about the funding have not been disclosed.

 

EcoMotors CEO Don Runkle said it is terrific to have the support of prominent investors. He also said EcoMotors' engines will be built in Michigan because of the state's resources and talent. Runkle is a former executive of General Motors and Delphi Corp.

 

EcoMotors, based in suburban Detroit, says the Opoc architecture allows its opposed piston-opposed cylinder engines to use 50 percent fewer parts than standard engines, while providing 50 percent more fuel efficiency. Runkle says the company is working on its sixth-generation engine and the new funds may be used for the next engine configuration.

 

Touting the tech

 

Gates, also co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, said in a statement that the technology may be a stepping stone in advancing affordable, low-emission transportation.

 

Khosla co-founded Sun Microsystems in 1982 and was a general partner of the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins, Caufield & Byers in California. In 2004, he founded venture capital firm Khosla Ventures of Menlo Park, Calif., to invest in various green technologies. The firm owns 47 percent of EcoMotors

 

 

Edited because I forgot to do a "preview".

unit731 Senior Enthusiast

unit731

Posted
  • Author
Posted

BLOOMBERG BUSINESS WEEK

 

By David Welch and Mark Clothier

 

Retired Ford (F) engineer John Coletti got a call in 2007 from Vinod Khosla, the Silicon Valley venture capitalist. Khosla, co-founder of Sun Microsystems, wanted advice on a new engine technology in which he was considering investing. A mutual friend suggested he contact Coletti, who had served as the chief of Ford's performance division. Coletti was skeptical that the design in question could deliver a promised 50 percent improvement in fuel economy. "Any time you hear about a new engine technology, you look for the Achilles' heel," the engineer said.

 

He pored over the EcoMotors International opposed-piston, opposed-cylinder (OPOC) engine. To his surprise, he concluded that it could perform as advertised. Coletti joined the company as president and chief operating officer in February 2008. Khosla and Microsoft (MSFT) founder Bill Gates were impressed, too, and together have invested $34 million in EcoMotors. They are attracted by a motor that, in theory, would allow a large pickup to achieve 27 miles per gallon. The company plans to license the technology to carmakers that would make their own OPOC engines, or manufacture and sell the engines through joint ventures.

 

Traditional engines have one piston per cylinder; EcoMotors' version has two. The design saves space and weight, allowing for a 95-pound engine that is one-third the heft of a small, conventional four-cylinder motor and 15 percent to 19 percent more efficient. Designed by Peter Hofbauer, a former Volkswagen engineer and founder of EcoMotors, the small, modular engines can be hooked together to power autos of different sizes. A pair would yield a 150-horsepower motor suitable for a midsize car like a Toyota Camry. When the car is coasting, one of the engines shuts down, delivering a 50 percent boost in fuel economy. That's a similar efficiency gain to what a hybrid gets, only EcoMotors says its model is less expensive. An OPOC engine will add roughly $600 to $900 to the cost of a vehicle, compared with an extra $3,000 for a hybrid, according to Don Runkle, chief executive officer of EcoMotors. Says Coletti: "This technology is disruptive to the industry."

 

The question is whether it will be so disruptive that manufacturers won't adopt it. The OPOC engine's flat, rectangular shape is different from that of traditional motors, which typically have vertical pistons in a taller, square block. The EcoMotors pistons are horizontal. To accommodate an OPOC engine, carmakers would have to overhaul assembly lines and redesign models. That would be a huge effort for automakers that already have billions tied up in current engine designs, says James N. Hall, principal of 2953 Analytics, a Birmingham (Mich.) consulting firm. "Engine plans are usually 10 years out," Hall adds. "They'll have to find someone who is willing to alter their plan." Coletti says that it takes $280 million to retrofit a factory and make it OPOC-ready, compared with $400 million to build a new plant.

 

Khosla emphasizes that EcoMotors has potential outside the U.S. Zhongding Holding, a Chinese auto-parts maker, has tentatively agreed to invest $18 million in the technology and has plans to build diesel and gasoline versions. In India, Khosla says, the hot car is a $2,500 Tata Nano subcompact. Increasing efficiency by adding hybrid-electric hardware could double the price the manufacturer can charge and put it out of the reach of most consumers. The EcoMotors design would be more cost-effective. "A lot of technologies have a 10- to 20-year payback," Khosla says. "This has a payback in the first year."

 

Runkle acknowledges, though, that it could be a couple of years before the engine is running in a saleable car. Finding early adopters will be critical. "Somebody will be very aggressive," he says. "I don't know who it is yet, but somebody will be."

 

The Bottom Line: Backed by Vinod Khosla and Bill Gates, EcoMotors plans a new engine that may appeal to automakers in India and China

Daryl LBZ Senior Enthusiast

Daryl LBZ

Posted
Posted
Im sure that engine will run as smooth as a Windows OS will... :thumbs:

 

That would be the smoothest running engine in the world, then.

 

 

 

 

Lol what are you smoking! :thumbs:

unit731 Senior Enthusiast

unit731

Posted
  • Author
Posted

"EcoMotors has a design called OPOC, Opposed Piston Opposed Cylinder. The design is just what it says, as you can see above, with 2 cylinders and 4 pistons. Peter Hofbauer came up with the idea when he was at Volkswagen, the outboard pistons take the place of the cylinder head and each piston only travels half the distance necessary for the full stroke, allowing higher engine speeds. An electrically controlled turbocharger can be used when necessary with adjustable boost, it can even spin up before the engine starts to give instant boost.

 

The engine can be built in a modular fashion, allowing more cylinders to be added in pairs with a clutch between the modules so one pair can be used at start or light load with the clutch adding more cylinders when required.

 

Emissions are said to be very low, meeting EPA standards for both gasoline and diesel configurations.

 

They're looking for 100 mpg in an automotive application, so just think what you could do with something like this in a motorcycle"

 

LINK

Daryl LBZ Senior Enthusiast

Daryl LBZ

Posted
Posted
If you're on a mac, the best of luck to you with that overpriced thing you got.

 

 

 

 

Lol Hell no!

Daryl LBZ Senior Enthusiast

Daryl LBZ

Posted
Posted
If you're on a mac, the best of luck to you with that overpriced thing you got.

 

 

 

 

Lol Hell no!

 

 

Oh, o.k. It's all good then! :thumbs:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yea I think macs are overpriced and I never really liked how they were set up.

tylerjenkins92@aol.com Senior Enthusiast

[email protected]

Posted
Posted
If you're on a mac, the best of luck to you with that overpriced thing you got.

 

 

 

 

Lol Hell no!

 

 

Oh, o.k. It's all good then! :thumbs:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yea I think macs are overpriced and I never really liked how they were set up.

 

I don't like it for lack of script friendly coding, thus not many programs for it. Every software must be signed by mac, or it won't work. But, most of all, I don't really care for the half eatin' apple on the front. I bet Bill Gates ate that part of the apple one day when he got hungry.

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing

  • Latest Articles

  • Posts

    • B14Sierra
      Possible lifter tick after DOD delete

      By B14Sierra · Posted

      Update. I started chasing down my symptoms. Started first with pulling valve covers and looked at everything. Everything looked good and couldn't hear or feel anything different. Then a compression test. 240 psi or really close on each cylinder. I was worried I was a tooth off of timing. Not bad for an engine with 173,000. Granted I did put new heads on. I sprayed water around the injector area to see if I could hear a change. Nothing. I hooked up my new hp tuner which I should have done in the first place but I don't really know what I'm looking at just yet but am learning. I noticed the fuel trims were way off so that told me I have to have either a bad injector or exhaust leak. New injectors, so I did the shop vac on blower and in the tail pipe. Sprayed soapy water and found the exhaust flange on the drivers side was leaking. I didn't think it would be that considereding I pulled the heads and left the manifolds attached. I did have the transmission replaced not long ago. They must have not seated them properly but I guess I didn't notice. I put in new gaskets on both sides. Which by the way isn't a bad job but I had a hard time getting them to seal right. Took two attempts. Reset the fuel trims and the ticking is gone, engine runs smooth and acceleration has improved. Got to feel the real difference with that stage 1 cam. It's not that big of a difference but it does add a little more. It feels like how the truck should have been from the factory.
    • Grumpy Bear
      Some Assembly is Required

      By Grumpy Bear · Posted

      Can it still be Assembled I?    Stribeck says that we need a certain amount of viscosity under conditions of load and velocity to prevent two surfaces of a know roughness from tearing each other asunder. And we have marketing trying to tell the masses that those two surfaced require less of that commodity due to more exact limits being placed on the same old clearances. We also know that there are limits to how hard something can before it becomes to brittle to be viable and to smooth to 'wet' the surface and that both of those conditions have been known and met since about the Second World War.    That viscosity value shook out at 10 centistokes at 212 F just under a hundred years ago.  Give this a look: [Anton Parr]     What is advertised is the Kinematic viscosity (mm2/s) or that which has been density adjusted but the value we are after is the dynamic viscosity (mPa.s) or true viscosity. You can see that this number is dependent on density thus base stock and temperature. You can also see that an SAE 30 doesn't reach that value in this example. However an SAE 30 that is at the upper end of the SAE 30 range; 12.5 cSt (mm2/s), might. 12.5 * .83 = 10.375 (mm2/s). If you could find an SAE 30 at the upper end these days.   Then there is the complication of viscosity modifiers or VII or VM, whatever you wish to call them. Polymers added to very thin base oils, perhaps 3 to 6 cP oils, that will meet the SAE *W30 spec at 'tested' shear rates and 100 C/212F  target temperature. So a polymer fortified base that is a fraction of the 10 cP requirement Stribeck insist upon.   This could be all well and good if those polymers didn't have two very problematic 'features'. They shear or loose viscosity both 1.) permanently and 2.) temporality. And they do both omitted in the advertised data with the distinct  purpose of deceiving the consumer of the actual operating state of the fluid. I've shown the example of Warren Oils COSTCO 10.91 cSt 5W30 formuation several times where the 100 C HTHS value is 6.9 cP!! That's the temporary shear down and with and SSI or shear stability index of 9.4 cSt. Note the intentional deception in using mixed units?    After a short while that 9.4 cSt oil has a viscosity corrected dynamic value of 7.8 cP. But as the SSI is still within the range of an SAE *W30 whose lower value is 9.3 cSt.    This allows them to continue to call this SAE 16 weight oil a 30 weight, the cake, and still meet the API requirements for fuel efficiency IMPROVEMENT mandated by the EPA. The eating of the cake. By the time you've worn out your motor doing the responsible thing by adhering to the warranty requirements, (the stick), you get deprived of the carrot, wear control. So sad, to bad.   So what can be done? Do I need actually say? [Anton Parr]       Even this must be monitored if the oil is on the low side and the VII an organic or you opt for a 0W40 with an even lighter base oil and more / higher MW VII. (Note the lower density of the 40 weight versus the SAE 30 mono-weight?)    There is another workaround. Temperature. An SAE *W30 run at a bulk temperature of between 180 and 195 F.    Being the belt and suspenders sort I am I do both. Run it cook and run it heavy.    In Part II I'll work the AW package. 
    • Atlas
      Wow I'm in a pickle. (Broke down truck) and a story.

      By Atlas · Posted

      So, do I go elbow-deep on this thing or list it for sale and play dumb? Seems to "runs good."   I'm about $1200 away from having: -a rebuilt injector ($300) -a new cat ($250) -a new cat back exhaust (OE style) ($300) -a new AC compressor ($200) -AC refrigerant charge ($150)   In theory, this should rectify the obvious detracting issues from its value and operability. Cold AC with a non-squeaking AC pulley both sounds and feels good. An exhaust that isn't cut/hacked in 17 different places and doesn't vibrate on a crossmember would make it sound and feel less janky. A working cat would help the stink, and will save the earth, but *if and only if* the fuel system is working properly, which would also address the intermittent "rich" CEL.   Heard a good one... CEL for "Rich condition" means you haven't spent enough money on the truck lately, and it's letting you know.   Rebuilding the injector would seem to be the most important part. Replacing the cat would be secondary. I don't think mine is plugged or overly restricted, but it might be a little restricted? I have no good way to tell other than seat of the pants feel. I hate the smell.   The current theory is I have a rich idle problem: A bad fuel pressure regulator, or a leaking injector(s) being the highest probabilities. I already replaced the FPR but that doesn't mean its replacement isn't also bad. It was a new part from Dorman, but the packaging looked like it had been sitting on a shelf for 20 years.   This is the (single) upstream O2 sensor shown at idle. I'm getting a lot of "rich" it seems. Sometimes it stays high like that and doesn't drop down. That makes me think it's processing injector leaks or a partially stuck open injector.     Other times it looks like this. Nice oscillations between rich and lean, which is what I think it should be. Under load and at speed, the oscillations are nice and tight and uniform looking, high and low.     Fuel trims suggest the PCM is compensating pretty hard at idle to pull fuel out. But it's not enough to trip a CEL. Something about slowing to a stop: brake vaccum booster, EGR, or the EVAP purge is delayed, or there's pooled fuel in the intake again that's draining into a cylinder is enough to set the CEL. Of course, in two days of driving, it hasn't set. I was hoping to actually look at the freeze-frame data when it sets. IAT is high because it's idling on an 83 degree day here.  
    • Another JR
      Gasser Subforum Has Been Quiet - - So, Regenerative Braking and Using L10

      By Another JR · Posted

      Have considered installing a DC to DC charger in your camper to replace your isolator?  
    • newdude
      Gas fill door

      By newdude · Posted

      Common failure.  You need to replace the fuel door housing.   The painted cover transfers over to the new housing.  To remove the old one there is 4 spots where you poke the plastic to release it.  

  • GM-Trucks.com Clubs

  • Popular Contributors

×
×
  • Create New...