While I was perusing the new Yamaha models yesterday, I noticed something we haven't seen for some time, ... horsepower numbers. Right there among all of the other specs were clearly stated horsepower figures, FJR1300 at 145 hp, FZ1 at 150, R1 at 183, pretty interesting stuff. When Kawasaki released their new models, those numbers were missing but with the ZX-14, for instance, … [Read more...]
Exhaust driven alternator – turbonator?
This is interesting. It's an alternator driven by exhaust gas instead of a mechanical drive system. The TIGERS Turbo generator Integrated Gas Energy Recovery System alternator can be spun up to 80,000rpm and generate as much as 6kW. By eliminating the mechanical drive and parasitic losses, they immediately gain efficiency. In cars and especially trucks, this can be a … [Read more...]
Biodiesel confusion
Biodiesel is still surprising a lot of people. You can tell they're surprised because they use exclamation marks. "Diesel runs on vegetable oil!" or "Man drives truck powered by cooking oil!" Yesterday I saw another article, "You can run biodiesel engines on filtered coconut oil!" over on BoingBoing and it struck me that a lot of confusion exists out there about diesel engines. … [Read more...]
High performance alternative engines
There are a growing number of workshop projects dedicated to increasing the performance of alternative engines popping up all over. Some things, like the huge increase in diesel performance mods, biodiesel dragsters, diesel motorcycles and the like, are continuations of work that has been around for years but now we're seeing hybrid cars and electric cars and motorcycles going … [Read more...]
Toyota going all hybrid?
A sign of the times but how will it play out? Toyota announced today they are planning to convert their entire automotive lineup to hybrid power, Toyota will be all hybrid. What impact will that have on other carmakers and what about other vehicles like trucks and, of course, motorcycles? Toyota has a decent jump on most everyone with their Prius so is this a necessary move or … [Read more...]
RandCam Direct Charge Engine
In our continuing series of alternative engine technologies, here is the RandCam direct charge engine. It's a rotary engine but the rotors are cam shaped and on the sides of the engine assembly. A series of vanes working in conjunction with the shape of the side cams create combustion chambers. According to the web site, a RandCam engine would have two to three times the power … [Read more...]
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