Camless pondering...

[Mushroomglue]

Just idly browsing the internet, looking at some stuff about the Koenigsegg freevalve system (http://www.freevalve.com). Quite like the idea, ditching mechanical timing for electronic, same as you do with electronic ignition etc, and allowing for a lot more flexibility of running, faster opening/closing etc. Anyhow, for testing, they fitted the system to the B235 in a saab 9-5, a kind of grandchild of the Triumph slant-4. May just be that it's late, and I'm tired, but I found that kind of interesting, the same basic engine spawning both production 16v and electronic camless tech. Wonder if there's a particular reason they picked the saab for development; pretty esoteric choice.

[SprintMWU773V]

I think other companies such as Ricardo have also looked at this sort of technology but there's been no production versions yet. Ricardo of course were also involved in the development of the Saab/Triumph engine!

There are huge potentials for the technology from a variable timing point of view, perhaps more from the point of efficiency than performance. Think how a petrol engine works in a typical hybrid car. It uses an Atkinson cycle imitation to vary the opening and closing of the valves for greater efficiency. being able to control this without a camshaft would be very advantageous as it could almost be infinitely variable.

Whether the technology could be made cheaply enough and reliable enough though is another question. With hybrids going to be a growth area over the next few years then I think it may yet happen.

[Mushroomglue]

I hadn't come across the Ricardo one; looks like they're using a double-acting hydraulic cylinder rather than the spring-return pneumatic setup of the freevalve, which makes more sense to me, to be honest; don't really see what a spring would be doing apart from adding more mechanical resistance. I'd quite like to have a try at making something like that work at some point, anyhow *mentally adds it to never-ending list of potential projects*

[shaunroche]

Looked at this technology as a case study when I was doing my HNC in the late 1980's that McLaren were running on their F1 car.

When I was designing Diesel engines with Cummins 20 years later, I tried to get them interested in camless/geartrainless technology for the new 4 cylinder smallish engine they were looking to develop but they all ran screaming from the room......bit too radical for them! I mean, even now they are OHV engines in the main!