Posted on 09/14/2007 9:15:09 AM PDT by Uncledave
By PETE LYONS
Bruce Crower has lived, breathed and built hot engines his whole life. Now hes working on a cool oneone that harnesses normally-wasted heat energy by creating steam inside the combustion chamber, and using it to boost the engines power output and also to control its temperature.
Ive been trying to think how to capture radiator losses for over 30 years, explains the veteran camshaft grinder and race engine builder. One morning about 18 months ago I woke up, like from a dream, and I knew immediately that I had the answer.
Hurrying to his comprehensively-equipped home workshop in the rural hills outside San Diego, he began drawing and machining parts, and installing them in a highly modified, single-cylinder industrial powerplant, a 12-hp diesel he converted to use gasoline. He bolted that to a test frame, poured equal amounts of fuel and water into twin tanks, and pulled the starter-rope.
My first reaction was, Gulp! It runs! the 75-year-old inventor remembers. And then this snow started falling on me. I thought, What hath God wrought
The snow was flakes of white paint blasted from the ceiling by the powerful pulses of exhaust gas and steam emitted from the open exhaust stack, which pointed straight up.
Over the following year Crower undertook a methodical development program, in particular trying out numerous variations in camshaft profiles and timing as he narrowed the operating parameters of his patented six-stroke cycle.
Recently hes been trying variations of the double-lobe exhaust cams to delay and even eliminate the opening of the exhaust valve after the first power stroke, to recompress the combustion gasses and thus increase the force of the steam-stroke.
The engine has yet to operate against a load on a dyno, but his testing to date encourages Crower to expect that once he gets hard numbers, the engine will show normal levels of power on substantially less fuel, and without overheating.
Itll run for an hour and you can literally put your hand on it. Its warm, yeah, but its not scorching hot. Any conventional engine running without a water jacket or fins, you couldnt do that.
Indeed, the test unit has no external cooling systemno water jacket, no water pump, no radiator; nothing. It does retain fins because it came with them, but Crower indicates the engine would be more efficient if he took the trouble to grind them off. He has discarded the original cooling fan.
So far he has used only gasoline, but Bruce believes a diesel-fueled test engine he is now constructingwith a hand-made billet head incorporating the one-third-speed camshaftwill realize the true potential of his concept.
Potential and Questions Crower invites us to imagine a car or truck (he speaks of a Bonneville streamliner, too) free of a radiator and its associated air ducting, fan, plumbing, coolant weight, etc.
Especially an 18-wheeler, theyve got that massive radiator that weighs 800, 1000 pounds. Not necessary, he asserts. In those big trucks, they look at payload as their bread and butter. If you get 1000 lb. or more off the truck
Offsetting that, of course, would be the need to carry large quantities of water, and water is heavier than gasoline or diesel oil. Preliminary estimates suggest a Crower cycle engine will use roughly as many gallons of water as fuel.
And Crower feels the water should be distilled, to prevent deposits inside the system, so a supply infrastructure will have to be created. (He uses rainwater in his testing.) Keeping the water from freezing will be another challenge.
But the inventor sees overriding benefits. Can you imagine how much fuel goes into radiator losses every day in America? A good spark-ignition engine is about 24 percent efficient; ie., about 24 cents of your gasoline dollar ends up in power. The rest goes out in heat loss through the exhaust or radiator, and in driving the water pump and the fan and other friction losses.
A good diesel is about 30 percent efficient, a good turbo diesel about 33 percent. But you still have radiators and heavy components, and fan losses are extremely high on a big diesel truck.
Bottom-line, Bruce estimates his new operating cycle could improve a typical engines fuel consumption by 40 percent. He also anticipates that exhaust emissions may be greatly reduced. Its all thanks to the steam.
A lot of people dont know that water expands 1600 times when it goes from liquid into steam. Sixteen hundred! This is why steam power is so good. But its dangerous
The danger of a boiler explosion has long been a factor in engineeringand in operatingsteam powerplants of all kinds, and Crower is properly wary of the miniature boiler he has conjured up inside his test engine. Thats one reason he chose to use one originally manufactured as a diesel, for its inherent strength, though he installed a carburetor and ignition system so it could burn gasoline at first.
The original diesel fuel injector system now supplies the water spray to generate the steam-stroke.
In addition to producing extra power, the injected water cools the piston and exhaust valve, which suggests to Crower that he could raise the compression ratio. Ive done this many times on regular engines: 15-to-1 on gasoline for the first five seconds works pretty good until you get some chamber heat and then suddenly it gets into pinging. But with the chamber being chilled, I bet 12-, 13-to-1 will be no problem on cheap fuel.
So what we can maybe do is have fuels that arent quite as good Itll save a nickel a gallon not having to keep three grades going.
As for his hope of lowering emissions, Bruce speculates the steam might purge cling-on hydrocarbons out of the combustion chamber. This thing may turn out to be so clean that you wont have to have a catalytic converter.
But he admits thats unknown, saying theres a lot of experimenting still to be done. Which prospect makes him smile. He thrives on this kind of challenge.
Bruces Background Youve kinda got to be in the cam business and know the dynamics of engines, Bruce Crower says about how the idea occurred to him. And he certainly has that background.
He was building and racing hot rods (and hot bikes), manufacturing speed equipment and operating his own speed shop in his home town of Phoenix when he was still a teen.
After moving to San Diego in the 1950s, among other exploits he dropped a Hemi into a Hudson and drove it to a 157-mph speed record at Bonneville.
Inevitably, the inventive and inexhaustible Crower built up a major equipment business in superchargers, intake manifolds, clutches and, especially, camshafts. Hes also credited with first suggesting a rear wing to Don Garlitsin 1963, three years before Jim Halls winged Chaparral. Bruce Crower is now in Floridas Drag Racing Hall of Fame.
Crower actually had introduced a wing two years earlier, during practice on Jim Rathmann's 1961 Indianapolis carfive years before Jim Halls winged Chaparral. Bruce had been crewing at the Speedway since 1954 (Jimmy Bryan, second place), and had been part of Rathmann's 1960 victory effort. He was likewise on the winning teams in 1966 (Graham Hill) and 1967 (AJ Foyt). Three decades later, in 1998, Eddie Cheever won with Crower cams.
Bruce even produced his own complete Indy engine, a flat-8 that didnt quite make the field in 1977 and then was rendered obsolete (due to its width) by the advent of ground-effect tunnels. But the Crower 8 and its automatic clutch did win an SAE award for innovation.
Today, Crower Cams and Equipment Company employs about 160 people in five facilities, and manufactures not only cams but crankshafts and connecting rodsincluding titanium rods for (unnamed) Formula One customers.
Bruce Crower cant be called retired now, but hes happy to let the company he founded roll along while he plays with cars. Thats how he looks at the intensive R&D work he carries out in the privacy of his 13-acre horse property near the rural community of Jamul.
One of several projects is building up Honda S2000 engines for the Midget raced by his granddaughter, Ashley Swanson. (I think shes on par with Danica Patrick, says the proud grampa.)
But his prime focus is proving his six-stroke engine is as revolutionary as he believes it is. Ive been trying to find something wrong with the whole basic idea for almost a year, he says, but I think were going to have a very marketable item.
Then he adds philosophically, If it turns out to be great, fine. If it doesnt, its just another year out of my life that Ive had a lot of fun doing something.
Didn't see it posted here and thought the autos and renewables folks here would enjoy.
Please Freep Mail me if you'd like on/off
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Let us know when the perpetual motion engine is completed.
Detonation.
The chamber heats the water so much that it turns into steam, and it expands and generates energy, then another burst of fuel is sent into the chamber and the cycle repeats.
You could recapture the steam by use of a condenser coil and get free heat at the same time for the car.
There have been a lot of devices used to increase the water content in intake air. I don’t understand how there is any additional energy from the fifth/sixth strokes mentioned in the article.
Knew Crower in the 50s, he must be close to 80 now.
Seems like way too much effort for a 40 percent increase in fuel economy. What we need is an alternative fuel source entirely, as well as more efficient gasoline and diesel engines until we get that source. We need to defund the Mullahs, not lengthen the time that they will be able to suck money from the west—money that they have not earned through industry or intelligence.
Not very comprehensive if he didn't vent the exhaust to the outside. Test sessions tend to be short after you have passed out (dying) on the floor.
But if Bruce is 75 that must mean I am 74. That can’t be...
It comes from ambient heat in the cylinder, which would otherwise be carried away by the coolant or fins. Insert a water spray and compress, and bam, the water flashes to steam and gives you an extra power stroke.
Sounds like it would be a good motor to run a generator for a hybrid design—that is to say getting it “torquey” for acceleration might take a while. Also I have this image of driving in the rain collecting rainwater.
Swap out a cam and timing gears and add a water tank and injector for 40% better fuel economy? I know a lot of trucking companies that would make that trade right now.
I had Crower fuel injection on a Chevy big block I had on a 62 Nova when I was in high school. It was so simple yet so effective.
The snow was flakes of white paint blasted from the ceiling by the powerful pulses of exhaust gas and steam emitted from the open exhaust stack, which pointed straight up.
LOL! You gotta like a guy who can tell a story like that on himself....
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