A friend recently sent me this interesting story about a new type of horizontally opposed engine with a link to VW. Not all together new a chap in New Zealand came up with a very similar engine in 1902, Richard Pearce but that is another story.
This is no wimp engine.
It's a two cylinder with four pistons delivering 300+ Horse Power It's extremely small and very efficient and is presently in use in test applications. The configuration below is equivalent to a extremely ballsy four cylinder engine. When doubled, it's an extremely ballsy 600+ H.P. engine
It’s called OPOC (Opposed Piston Opposed Cylinder), and it’s a turbocharged two-stroke, two-cylinder, with four pistons, two in each cylinder, that will run on gasoline, diesel or ethanol. The two pistons, inside a single cylinder, pump toward and away from each other, thus allowing a cycle to be completed twice as quickly as a conventional engine while balancing its own loads.
The heavy lifting for this unconventional concept was performed Prof. Peter Hofbauer. During his 20 years at VW, Hofbauer headed up, among other things, development of VW’s first diesel engine and the VR6.
The OPOC has been in development for several years, and the company claims it’s 30 percent lighter, one quarter the size and achieves 50 percent better fuel economy than a conventional turbo diesel engine.
They’re predicting 100 MPG in a conventional car.
For a good demo, See:
http://www.engineeringtv.com/video/Opposed-Piston-Opposed-Cylinder
DubbyFan Wolfsburg Wizard
518 posts · joined Nov 2010 ·
