Ducati V8 on the Kneeslider Very Cool

This is the beginning of the end of mankind as we know it. The engineering process behind this is absolutely remarkable.
 
I love the con-rod solution he came up with, though I think it's been done before back around the turn of the century. There were a lot of pretty wacky engine designs. Regardless I think it's neat if for no other reason than he DID it.

If you look at the patent drawing, it's just vague and misleading enough to throw most people off.
As in the drawing I think the upper RPM limit is going to be pretty low, since it shows the 'central' Y-rod doohickie running direct to the central pair of pistons and via linkages to the outer slugs. That's going to require the small ends of the inner joints at the wristpins to be pretty small. I'd bet that's part of the vague and misleading bit...
Mechanically it would be far better to run the Y-rod to the linkages rather than to the pistons. That would allow the same material at the wrist pin on the pistons AND the rods. I'd be willing to bet $5 that's what he's really doing. Never mind the mechanical losses in that link from the inner piston to the linkage then thru a link again to each outer piston. It'd probably work as shown but not efficiently. Without doing an actual study with a real live metal version one can only estimate the losses, though I'd be surprised of it's less that 8-10% mechanical loss...even with roller bearings. At least by balancing the forces applied to pivoting piston link those losses will be evenly distributed.

or maybe I'm completely wrong....
 
You guys kidding me? 44 years ago Honda was making and racing 250cc 6 cylinder engines running at a rather insane by any modern standard 18,000 redline. Mike Hailwood rode them.

Way cooler than any concept 8 cylinder modern Ducati :D

1966 Honda RC166 Exhaust Engine Sound

200508291516220.Honda%20RC166%20250cc%206-Cyl.%20Piston%20and%20Rod.jpg


yoshida_rc166.jpg
 
Nifty for sure but still a rather conventional engine layout. Not to ding it, the 250 L6 is cool but how many USABLE v8 bikes are there? Drysdale, 'Guzi....ummm.....
 
wow! the design is sound, but i bet in practice its going to make a lot less ponies then it would make theoretically.

ingenious con-rod design... why didnt i think of something like that?! only concern i see is the piston finding a way to drive down farther then it should, causing the pivot point to be broken right off. still WAY cool though.

whats he doing for the valves?
 
The pivoting link would have to be beefy for certain but levers have been controlling high kinetic loads for oh...a zillion years or so. I think the central Y-rod would be more susceptible to compression failure.
As for making less power than a more conventional design....I dunno. You're probably right simply due to the extra losses in all the joints. Every time you change direction of force thru some mechanical mean you have losses so it stands to reason. The question is.....are the losses going to be more or less than a conventional engine arrangement, and I just don't have a clue. I'll be watching his site....
 
The way it looks to me is like a bicycle you can clip your shoes in to (power on the up stroke).

It seems the outer cylinders when fired would push the inside cylinders up to the exhaust cycle. So for every one stroke made on the V2, you now get two strokes on the V8 with the same rotations of the V2. This set up also allows for a smaller rotating assembly/ mass in the crank shaft then what you would have from a conventional V6 or V8. I think its supposed to act as a high revving monster with big displacement. I foresee great gobs of power out of the hole and a much higher red line.
 
Basement rat said:
Honda also tried this too...

800px-Ovalpiston.jpg

WOW!

i havent seen that one before! i mean, i knew they had tried ovalized pistons, but that much?!
 
Power on the upstroke by use of levers...hhhhmmmmmm very cool.

Anyone ever seen a Puch Twingle ? interesting concept that was used in Puch and Sears Allstate bikes in the mid 60's. I've seen one apart and it looked fragile to me, but aparently they were quite reliable.

Piccy below

As for the Honda NR series of bikes, complexity simply to express thier engineering prowes. Early 80's NR500 GP bike had potential but the complexity didnt give it enough of an advatage compared to the 2 stroke technology of the time....monocoque chassis didnt help matters either LOL.
 
In reference to the Honda RC motor: Actually that's not the same, just oval pistons driven by two rods.

Those old twingles were a neat concept...should yield a longer power pulse, but I wonder how the weird big ends held up.

In looking at the patent drawing further, and still almost certain that the 'y-rod' will be/is connected to the pivoting link rather than the piston...I think Basement may be onto something. I just sent the guy and email via google translate, maybe he'll respond..
 
The Puch used one cylinder to pressurise the other and shared combustion chamber.
The swing link wouldn't work if you connected 'Y' link to bottom of it without making an eternal link which would give different stroke length to inner and outer pistons. (or, both pistons rise and fall together which kinda defeats the purpose of having rockers)
It just uses some kind of ball joint or more likely, a universal joint from an ATV or similar.
It means it's going to be heavy which will limit max RPM
 
The Honda NR 500 and 750 were essentially V8s built to run in classes where they had to be just 4 cylinders.

As for that nice extra power from one link pushing the other pistons, that's exactly what happens on any crankshaft!
 
PJ, I didn't mean that he was connecting to the center, that's a pivot. I meant at the tangent point under the piston. That WOULD work.
 
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