Higgs engines.

[onetrack]

Somehow, despite the constant engineering and research efforts, the 2-stroke appears to be eternally doomed to oblivion, perhaps because everyone immediately associates 2 strokes with smokey exhausts, nasty exhaust smell, poor fuel economy, and generally unacceptable exhaust noise. But the perceptions are all based on fact.

No matter how many clever people have tried with advanced designs - in this day and age of noise limitation requirements, fuel economy requirements, and emissions regulations, no 2-stroke has ever met all three requirements satisfactorily, on a long-term basis.

 

A former South African F1 driver and engineer, now resident in Australia, one Basil van Rooyen, has developed a complex 2 stroke engine design (the CITS engine) that separates the crankcase area and combustion area of the 2-stroke engine.

He's utilised the Rotax E-TEC heads with a Suzuki Boulevard crankcase, and added his own modifications, as regards the pistons, cylinders and combustion system.

His design shows promise - but he came up with the design in 2012, and he has spent 9 years trying to get financial backing for his engine - all without success.

He took out a number of patents worldwide, but I suspect many of those patents have now lapsed, as he speaks in early 2020, that he only had a few months left on the patents life before renewal was required - and he didn't have the money for the renewals.

 

https://motorbikewriter.com/aussie-two-stroke-invention/

 

http://citsengine.com.au/

 

https://motorbikewriter.com/aussie-2-stroke-invention-may-fail/

 

https://motorbikewriter.com/aussie-2-stroke-engine-attracts-investor/

 

https://www.rideapart.com/news/432752/clean-two-stroke-bridge-gap-electrification/

 

https://contest.techbriefs.com/2020/entries/automotive-transportation/10356

 

It appears that Basil van Rooyen has now retired, so the chances of his engine meeting with success, get slimmer by the day. The supposed local investors in the CITS engine design, from July 2020, don't appear to have materialised. 

 

I feel that Basil van Rooyen is another similar version of Ralph Sarich - because, despite Ralph Sarichs cleverness and persistence and ability to extract large amounts of money from auto manufacturers, Ralph could never produce a satisfactory major engine alternative - either with his Orbital Engine, nor with the Sarich 2-stroke, Orbital Technology, air injected engine.

Ralph did manage to make a couple of billion along the way with clever licencing fees and royalties, auto manufacturer funding, and selling his 2-stroke air-injected technology to the likes of outboard engine and UAV engine manufacturers.

Ralph was smart enough to invest that money into major property development, that has returned him more money than any new engine concept ever did.

Ralph does still believe in technology developments, as he has Cape Bouvard Technologies as one of his companies - but he no longer looks for a "new IC engine" design that will revolutionise the world - because there isn't any.

 

Even when GM presented a 2-stroke Sarich-injection microcar to the American public to see if it was a goer (in 1990), the board and beancounters of GM cruelled the project, mostly because it was deemed the 2-stroke powerplant did not stack up for the long-term - and quite likely due to the GM outlook, that both emissions regulations and fuel economy demands, would only get tighter and tighter in the future.

"The promise of (2-stroke) lightweight horsepower has been continually thwarted by poor fuel economy, traceable to the basic concept of the (2-stroke) engine," said Dan McCosh in Popular Science in 1990. And McCosh's opinion has been proven correct, time and time again.

 

https://www.hemmings.com/stories/2020/12/10/the-1990-micro-a-two-seat-two-stroke-roadster-had-a-chance-to-be-gms-miata

 

But it appears Basil van Rooyens 2-stroke engine will also be another clever new engine design that falls by the wayside, thanks to a general unwillingness by anyone with serious amounts of money to invest, to invest that funding into what is now regarded as "obsolete technology". 

 

 

 

[turboplanner]

The primary issue with two stroke is that it could not be designed for the emissions levels of two or three stages ago let along what's coming up.

The fuel consumption is secondary to that, and not really a problem in the smaller two stroke operations which have tended to be short time.

I was interested to see a comment earlier about someone putting up an argument for a non-auto engine to be exempted from emission standards.

 

In Australia, our whole automotive and transport industries only account for about 10% of CO2 emissions, yet governments ignored the 90% of industry and focused on cars and trucks.   Recreational aircraft may well represent 0.01% of the automotive and transport industries so an exemption would be reasonable, and should have been started when there was plenty of 2 stroke stock around.

 

However in this discussion about Higgs engines we should be looking at the future and the new engines currently going into cars which do meet the present and coming emission standards and do use new ways to absolutely minimise the fuel being processed through the engine. Common rail fuel injection, CDI and CI/Spark has had engines ticking instead of bellowing since about 2015. It might be that an engine could be adapted for slow rpm operation and compact water cooling in,lieu of high rpm/redrive/watercooling.

[Thruster88]

The company that is developing the Higgs engine also make liquid cooled cylinders for lycoming engines. Add the EFI and electronic ignition and you would have everything people want😁. At least the base engine is well proven. Would it really be any better, I am not convinced.  

[jackc]

I am waiting for someone to stick their head up out of the 2 stroke smoke and research demand for a bolt in replacement for the 503/582 engines.  IF Rotax runs out of spares, there will be an aftermarket supply?  China has a habit of doing this.  2 years ago I was looking for Toyota 12R parts, and found I could buy a complete drop in crate copy motor from China.   Now the Toyota 12R would have not been a high demand motor, I would have thought.  Last sold in about 1983?  

[turboplanner]

23 minutes ago, jackc said:

I am waiting for someone to stick their head up out of the 2 stroke smoke and research demand for a bolt in replacement for the 503/582 engines.  IF Rotax runs out of spares, there will be an aftermarket supply?  China has a habit of doing this.  2 years ago I was looking for Toyota 12R parts, and found I could buy a complete drop in crate copy motor from China.   Now the Toyota 12R would have not been a high demand motor, I would have thought.  Last sold in about 1983?  

How long before the first engine flies?

[onetrack]

Here you go, Jackc - a V4 Chinese 2-stroke of 1200cc by Benda, producing 113Kw/150HP at 9500 RPM. Reported to be in production next year.

Slow it down a little to preserve the engine life, you don't really need all 150HP anyway - gear it down for a prop, and Bob's yer Uncle! Probably set you back all of about $3K!

 

https://amcn.com.au/editorial/benda-v4-engines-revealed/

[APenNameAndThatA]

On 25/12/21 at 7:38 AM, turboplanner said:

SKYactiv has moved engine technology ahead in several areas:

It introduces compression ignition to petrol-engined cars so a cleaner fuel starting point. The crossover to "diesel" is now blurred with several fuel injections for emissions, and a spark introduced at some point for enhancement as well.

It meets the increased power and torque standards for the class

It lowers NOx and PM even further

It produces a low CO2 output of 90<116g/km

It lowers fuel consumption into the current ballpark

It utilises a pulse-tuned exhaust to drive the turbocharger harder, something which is dear to racers.

 

Car applications are changing.

Historically if young families wanted to travel interstate cheaply they bought a caravan and hitched it up to a Holden or Falcon. Fuel was cheap, Motels were expensive.

As the cost of fuel rose this model was slowly destroyed and caravan towing moved across to more committed camping type people in 4WDs. That this group now strongly dominates the top vehicle turnover in Australia is surprising, but there it is.

 

As Holden and Falcon models dropped out of the market the 2 litre market has been getting more and more use in longer distance travel, to the point where cars like Honda Civic can squeeze out a fuel economy on gentle highway travel of up to 4 litres/100 km, so increasingly the affordable interstate holiday trips have switched to low fuel cost and cheap motels.

 

In that application the 2 litre SKYactiv-X at around 4.6 litres per 100 km, but from Melbourne to Brisbane that's only an out of pocket compared to the Honda of about $20 to $30, so petty cash.

 

 On the other hand power is now within 14% of a VY Commodore which had a highway fuel cycle of around 9 l/100 km, so the SKYactiv will be pretty much giving the same performance on the holiday trip on about half the fuel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can look up the Wheels magazine review on their website. They compared the Skyactiv compression ignition engine to the old one. The fuel economy was the same. The new engine was 16% more powerful. Considering the expense in development and production, passed to the consumer, not a good outcome. Not to mention probable shorter engine life.  

[turboplanner]

3 hours ago, APenNameAndThatA said:

You can look up the Wheels magazine review on their website. They compared the Skyactiv compression ignition engine to the old one. The fuel economy was the same. The new engine was 16% more powerful. Considering the expense in development and production, passed to the consumer, not a good outcome. Not to mention probable shorter engine life.  

As I mentioned, the difference between Mazda and what might be the fuel leader in the 2 litre class, Honda is about $20 to $30 in a Melbourne-Gold Coast trip.

Mazda are set to go forward and meet coming emissions,and have been able to get an increase in power.

The bar for engine life in this class is at least the first ownership, but preferebly the second or third; that way the economics are affordable to families and their children.

 

I'm not suggesting SKYactive is a world-beater which will crush the oppostition, just that it's made some achievements. Other manufacturers are also moving into new technology. What I am suggesting is that this is the most exciting class of cars in terms of going forward to meet the new emphasis on CO2 reduction plus continuing reduction in NOx  (we are already at 97% reduction on Particulate Matter and 98% reduction on NOx since 1992), while still achieving minimal fuel consumption.

 

 

In the past we have seen the whole industry, in just falling over the line for a new level of emission compliance, being released with lower power and higher fuel consumption.  This is what happened around Euro IV with diesel engines and manufacturers who committed to EGR (Exhaust gas recycling). Those who couldn't afford the development opted to continue to use their older engines and hose the particulates down by injecting Urea into the exhausts, so for a time they were selling more power and better fuel economy.

[Flightrite]

If any of these weasly ideas for new engines designs were any good then they would have been invented ages ago and the top dogs knocked off the shelf, never gunna happen!😂

[facthunter]

You don't have to actually put something into production if you know enough about thermodynamics you can calculate efficiency expectations/ outcomes.. .People keep on reinventing the wheel..Nev

[APenNameAndThatA]

16 hours ago, turboplanner said:

As I mentioned, the difference between Mazda and what might be the fuel leader in the 2 litre class, Honda is about $20 to $30 in a Melbourne-Gold Coast trip.

Mazda are set to go forward and meet coming emissions,and have been able to get an increase in power.

The bar for engine life in this class is at least the first ownership, but preferebly the second or third; that way the economics are affordable to families and their children.

 

I'm not suggesting SKYactive is a world-beater which will crush the oppostition, just that it's made some achievements. Other manufacturers are also moving into new technology. What I am suggesting is that this is the most exciting class of cars in terms of going forward to meet the new emphasis on CO2 reduction plus continuing reduction in NOx  (we are already at 97% reduction on Particulate Matter and 98% reduction on NOx since 1992), while still achieving minimal fuel consumption.

 

 

In the past we have seen the whole industry, in just falling over the line for a new level of emission compliance, being released with lower power and higher fuel consumption.  This is what happened around Euro IV with diesel engines and manufacturers who committed to EGR (Exhaust gas recycling). Those who couldn't afford the development opted to continue to use their older engines and hose the particulates down by injecting Urea into the exhausts, so for a time they were selling more power and better fuel economy.

Good points. I hadn’t considered it from the point of view of future emission standards. 

[Thruster88]

On 28/12/2021 at 10:45 AM, facthunter said:

No technical detail on it that I could find on the site and it's not offered as an aero engine where you'd think the altitude advantages would be  highlighted.  You can over pressure the entire intake /exhaust system which is like having the sea level pressure increased. I still stick to what I've said  boost a 2 stroke and you only put more out of the exhaust, unless you time it to close later which is not possible with a piston ported motor. Nev

With an E-Tec 2 stroke, raw fuel never goes out the exhaust because they are direct injection into the cylinder after all ports are closed. It is a shame the non turbo 850 E-Tec, at 141hp is not offered for aircraft use with the C gearbox. Would love to get one for a super stol thruster.

[jackc]

Might be some potential for development work to make it happen?  I am sure many people will soon be scavenging the world for a 503/582 replacement that can have the technology to do the job.   I keep thinking of the new LJ50 Suzuki rag top I bought new in ‘75 with the 3cyl 540cc 2 stroke in it. Did 120k kilometres in it and traded it on a new 1980 18R RN46 Puslux….what a dog that was…..

[Thruster88]

We had an LJ50 as well, unstoppable in mud with the standard skinny tyres. Just one of the reasons I love 2 strokes

[jackc]

I consider my ‘two stroke endorsement” is 5 years LJ50 ownership, wonder if that can be RPL’d? 

🙂

[turboplanner]

Mazda has its SKYactiv, and I just knew Honda, who are close on power, better on fuel economy would have named their design. Lifted the nonnet this morning to hose the dust out and there it was the Honda "Earth Dreams" engine. Perfect for our Millenials.

[onetrack]

It's interesting to note that Hyundai is the latest in a string of manufacturers (many of them, European) to reportedly close down their IC engine development dept, and turn it over to an EV design dept.

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/news/hyundai-allegedly-closes-its-combustion-engine-development-center/ar-AASbCO7?ocid=msedgntp

 

I believe we will see this trend happening on an increasing basis over the next several years, as manufacturers start to realise that EV's are a suitable product for a very large percentage of the population, who don't travel long distances daily, and who don't need heavy towing capabilities.

The rest of the country will still be buying diesel Landcruisers, Hiluxes, Rangers and Isuzu's, for a few years yet.

[turboplanner]

19 minutes ago, onetrack said:

It's interesting to note that Hyundai is the latest in a string of manufacturers (many of them, European) to reportedly close down their IC engine development dept, and turn it over to an EV design dept.

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/news/hyundai-allegedly-closes-its-combustion-engine-development-center/ar-AASbCO7?ocid=msedgntp

 

I believe we will see this trend happening on an increasing basis over the next several years, as manufacturers start to realise that EV's are a suitable product for a very large percentage of the population, who don't travel long distances daily, and who don't need heavy towing capabilities.

The rest of the country will still be buying diesel Landcruisers, Hiluxes, Rangers and Isuzu's, for a few years yet.

The link says "allegedly" In the auto industry it always pays to ask why. A few years ago the Japanese, to compete with the Koreans decided to create a bigger critical mass by splitting up their workloads. Hino and Isuzu made an agreement where Isuzu did the development, tooling, engineering for engines and sold them to Hino and Hino did the same for transmissions etc. GM announced they were building a brand new EV factory; great news for the converted but it only had 400 workers so a very small pilot building facility

[pmccarthy]

I am towing a circa 2 tonne van with my Prado, turbo diesel. 11.7 litres per 100 km on the flat at 80 Kph. 8-9 litres per 100 kph in the hills yesterday at low speeds around 50-60 kph. I can’t imagine doing much better than that. Don’t think lectric will do for me.

[turboplanner]

30 minutes ago, pmccarthy said:

I am towing a circa 2 tonne van with my Prado, turbo diesel. 11.7 litres per 100 km on the flat at 80 Kph. 8-9 litres per 100 kph in the hills yesterday at low speeds around 50-60 kph. I can’t imagine doing much better than that. Don’t think lectric will do for me.

My Navara with 2.2 tonne van + about 1/2 tonne equipment in the Navara cruises around 95 at 21 L/100 km Melbourne to FNQ, would come back to about 16 at 80 km/hr. We would do 600 - 1000 km/day.

 

Electric calculation is just physics; the more the power demand the greater the kW/Hr, so I'm in the same boat, not enough range for me.

 

If you can forgo driving off to any likely creek to fish or doing some prosecting, the 4 to 5 L/100 km 2 litre class is cheap travelling with a motel at the end of each day.

[spacesailor]

You can spend More on fuel, then less on accommodation. ( Winnibago type ) It is the same in the long run.

I took a couple of days to get from ( near) Orange, to a airshow, ( @12,5 l p hundred ) 

A flyer came in after a one hour flight ( from Orange ) using 21 lphour ( avgas ).

Who used the most fuel ? (  21 l /100 or 12.5 l / 100  ).

spacesailor

 

[facthunter]

Planes fly in a straight line and did the plane do only 100 kms for 21Litres in one hour.? That's one SLOW plane and IF you do  say 170 kms in two days you've got Cuthbert Caterpillar's Caravan. The Winnebago's not for sale is it, Spacey?  Nev

[Flightrite]

I’ve been around this brown land a few times towing in the 80-90’s with an old XE Falcoon, was great back then, hardly anyone around at the remote spots, these days it’s like Coles carpark anywhere on the map, thank Christ I won’t be doing that again! EP is great but not out in the sticks!

[spacesailor]

The plane took one hour to cover almost, the point to point distance as I did by road, my milage  ( kiloige ) was greater on the clock !.

IF

My car was the lowest fuel user, I would have been forced into staying at an expensive hotel/motel, as well as eating out !.

My fuel cost in the delica are offset by having a bed ( comfortable double ) at call. Plus all that l need for camping  ( in the  outback  ).

Great for the ' bad back people', strech out & rest any were, including while the misus is shopping. LoL

spacesailor

[Old Koreelah]

14 hours ago, Flightrite said:

I’ve been around this brown land a few times towing in the 80-90’s with an old XE Falcoon, was great back then, hardly anyone around at the remote spots, these days it’s like Coles carpark anywhere on the map, thank Christ I won’t be doing that again! EP is great but not out in the sticks!

Yep. Half the people I meet are either already on the road, or planning to be.

Suffering from a tight budget, we postponed roaming till Boomers started giving up their campers. Covid torpedoed that, so I’m building one.

Looking forward to test runs in a couple of months. Not looking forward to packed campgrounds.