Could this work on a Type IV, Free valves Options

[johannes]

Could this work on a Type VI and improve mpg ? Looks promising.
Königsegg says this technology will be applied on every engine in 10 years...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bch5B23_pu0

[Katmanken]

That's really impressive.

They have done a lot of work to get to a test vehicle that can last 60,000 miles, and probably have a lot more to do to get it to higher mileage production car reliability.

So far they seem to have a good start on the basic issues- a working design, long wearing air seals, non-wearing materials, working clearances at different temperatures, pulse reflection surging/canellation (remember why exhausts and intakes are tuned) and the need to change the control of the system for different air temperatures.

What they didn't talk about is the need for a pretty good sized air pump, an air storage tank, really good air pressure control over a wide range of temperatures and altitudes, an air valving control block to send the correct amount of air to the actuator (see the left side of the engine bay in the video), air pulse reflection control /surging control, and a systems control computer that combines an engine fuel injection computer with a valve control computer. And, nothing is free so the air system does cause some engine HP loss that is more than made up by improved performance.

Air is a compressable fluid and more than 30 years ago I did research on an incompressible fluid (engine oil) valve actuator system. What I found was that to open the valves in a 4 cylinder engine valve with engine oil, you need about 8 gallons per minute of oil flow. Valve springs were used to close, so double the flow to 16 gallons if you open and close. Then there were the problems with oil- viscoscity changes with temperature, surging, foaming, etc.

All in all very impressive. Wonder if it is smooth to drive at all temperatures and conditions. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/idea.gif)