What's the latest on the revolutionary Freevalve camless engine? Get the latest from Christian Von Koenigsegg. The goal is independent control over each valve by replacing the camshaft with pneumatic actuators and software to run it.
It always makes me happy to see a CEO of a company actually know their products inside and out...makes for a great company and employees feel like they have a strong leader.
Youd be surprised. Not all CEOs are engineers or designers. Some are strictly businessmen with advisors and secretaries that do the translation for them.
What did Eric Schimdt know about web searching? What did John Scully know about computers? CEOs run companies. They sell stuff, they don't generally build stuff. Koenigsegg is a genius. Sure, he has genius engineers working for him, but I bet he's up there with the best of them. I think this kind of valve technology is banned in F1 because it can be used for traction control, but that may be out of date info.
I work as an engineer at a data centre and my ceo can barely tie his own shoes! Then trys to tell me how to do my job😂 its pathetic, hes just an egotistic control freak who got to the top by stabbing people in the back! Everyone detests him an moral is at an all time low! Took our Christmas bonus etc etc cant wait for the old bastard to retire lol
With emissions getting stricter and stricter, with engines becoming smaller and smaller, and with people who want cars to go faster every year, this guy has found a solution to everyone's problem. He's keeping the ICE alive for as long as it can.
he already said 3 years back, that back then they could build a engine after the same principles like the agera r engine, which result in a 1 cylinder, 160-180hp engine with 300nm of torque and a fuel consumption of 2 l/100km. now with the freefalve system.....i mean damn! look at the numbers. its crazy. unfortunately i dont think this has a great future due to the electronic progress.
If he could pull off without freevalve those figures, with freevalve it would be something more like: 246hp and 1.3l/100km (torque is "meaningless" when speaking about work produced, torque is the same as RPM when it comes time to calculate the actual work done) Which would make ICE still the choice for many more decades. Your 45l fuel tank would now take you 3461km. Your engine weighs like 30kg (exhaust piping may weight more). Tesla needs what 600kg for the batteries alone? new Powervall is 13.5kWh @ 120kg ...
Yup. I didn't update my silverado after 2006. I knew that cyl Tech they were using was terrible. The valves didn't work properly with cylinder deactivation. The older silverado 6.0s and 5.3 where great. Not past 2006
@@powerwill8748 My 2016 5.3 has 80k miles, working perfect. GM has 4 million 5.3, 6.2 Ecotec generation motors on the road, and not many problems overall.
Amazing how he can communicate such a complex system and make it seem so “ordinary” and do it speaking a secondary language at that!!! Props to what he has done as a person and what his company challenges their own workers to achieve!!
Bolt on heads should be fairly easy for aftermarket, but certainly expensive because the kit would need to include a complete engine management system, including intake and fuel injection.
lerch25 with a head like this there's ALMOST no reason to need an aftermarket head. You have essentially limitless cam timing options, valve lift options, etc. Only thing would be bigger ports for high revving Na engines but I imagine those already flow amazingly.
Preston Tucker, of the Tucker Automobile Company, came up with a cam-less engine design in the late 1940s. It was a 589 cubic inch engine and actuated its valves using hydraulic pressure versus this design's pneumatic construction. This is a rekindling of an old technology and refined for modern application. There really isn't much new under the sun in the automotive world, just revisions and refinements of past ideas.
Adam Mashiach Obviously the Tucker company couldnt figure out how to make it work. It doesnt really count as a technology if they couldnt figure out how to make it work properly. So yes, this is a new technology.
Nick Palaroan. You are correct that it could have worked better, however Preston Tucker got it to work. The prototype Tucker, nicknamed the "Tin Goose", the one built in just 100 days, featured the hydraulically actuated valve system. In 100 days Preston Tucker and Alex Tremulis made it work passably, with some more time they could've made it work perfectly. Improving on technology doesn't make the older version invalid, it's just improvement...not invention. This system works much better because of new technology. New technology allowed this machinery to work (CNC, advanced metallurgy, computerized design, etc), that's where the real magic happened. This is the bi product of re technology, not new technology in and of itself. blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2014/06/19/tucker-tin-goose-prototype-to-be-added-to-national-register-of-historic-vehicles/
In his first video on freevalve a few years ago he mentioned that the camless idea was not his but which parts were. It's like he found a discarded idea and figured out how to make it work better with modern tech.
yusran zul well yeah, they doubled turbo psi... they could have gotten the same results by letting the turbo spool up higher on the stock engine. The emissions and weight savings are a benefit. Otherwise, the added complexity and expensive electronics might steer people away. In engineering, you want to simplify things as much as possible, this tech prob does the opposite so until those actuators go down in price, repair costs might steer folks away.
@@Dmeech100 i don't think all they did was tune it for more boost here lol... considering it is also 35% more fuel efficient i'd say theres more going on than what you think
@@Dmeech100 It also depends how much commodity electronics they use. Koenigsegg is one of those few companies that is actually pushing the boundaries. Their hypercars do use these tech. So it not straight prototype tech.
Serious genius. Hes also very humble. I watch Lenos garage all the time and hes been on a few times. Hes an amazing man. He deserves everything he has.
Maybe, still would be possible to put them in engines. Like he said, there is a lot of cost reduction. And i one fail, your engine would still work, the cpu would just deactivate the cylinder until you replace the valve that failed.
Man thats a crazy though. You have a dead cylinder and maybe at worst you get a check engine light and the other cylinders get reprogrammed to take up the slack.
Petar Menger together with turbulent jet ignition, this might be the best innovation in combustion engines in the last ~20 years, since the mass invention of turbochargers
@Ashish Patel manufacturers don't even bother with this anymore. But the good thing is that the petrol savings would probably be enough to buy another engine or fully restore current one even after its usage cycle is over.
apperently you have a HUGE loss in power in Combustion engines due to most of the energy gets converted to heat and not forward movement. Konigsegg is going to save the combustion engine.. but most importantly he's gonna slay everyone saying hybrids are only for priuses. Oh wait.. he already did with the Regera.
Pommes Kuchen We’re already wasting most of the energy when we generating the electricity. However, one day there will be no oil in the world, then we will have to use the electric cars...
Update is killing the internal combustion engines for electrical driven cars. Clean cars in exchange of destroying other countries with cobalt lithium productions.
No cams, no timing belt, no throttle body, no valve lash adjustments... Holy moly that's a huge leap! MUCH easier to maintain... No timing belt breaking, no burnt valves from incorrect lash, no vacuum leaks, or oil leaks in the VVT system, soooo much headache will just disappear...
Are you sure about that? My old '70 Chevelle never gave me a bit of trouble that took longer than five minutes to figure out. I spent a year and a half chasing down DTCs in my Audi to find the fault was a part thoroughly unrelated to any DTC I encountered. So much in this system needs to work PERFECTLY for it to work at all, I predict UNPARALLELED headaches with systems such as this.
We've had a hundred years to learn how to handle all of that. This system comes with exiting new problems we've yet to learn about... Jokes aside there are both positive and negative aspects to this. For instance most catastrophic failures, such as the electrical system being knocked out or the pneumatic blowing a line that disables the entire free valve system will cause the valves to fail shut. In a conventional engine a broken timing belt usually means there will be some serious damage to the engine.
I think that ultimately the system would be just as reliable as fuel injectors. It would probably get to the point where you change your Valve actuators every XX miles just like spark plugs. I had a 69 Camaro and other various classic cars and you had to adjust or change alot all the time...I.e.. spark plugs, clean the carb, adjust or replace the points, fix the oil leak from the two piece seal...not to mention the multitude of hondas with bent valves due to timing belt failure...etc....Just saying that with a little time and advance engineering techniques, I feel these problems will be mitigated
I was really sceptical when I read the title. Even though it's Koenigsegg, and they know pretty damn well what they're doing. Most of the scepticism was like "too many individual parts, how about long-term reliability". While that hasn't really been calmed down by Christian's explanations, the potential of the system is just way too enticing. "Hey, we can eliminate the wastegate. And the throttle body. And the pre-cat. And we can shut off cylinders so easily". We HAVE TO put a lot more effort and research into this. This is looking really good.
It is not "easy", but compared to the other solutions needed to make freevalve a reality, controlling the two flow paths (over turbo into exhaust and straight into exhaust) really is quite "easy in comparison".
I wasn't saying they put too little research into it. I know they are. Whatever they do, they do it properly. Just saying that there is no "too much" effort, so we could definitely give more ;-)
Probably not, pneumatics will take as much or more power to run than cams. As the guy explains the benefits are in overall cost, custom valve timing and size. The power and efficiency increase will come from custom valve timings.
@@DmitriyLaktyushkin he doesnt really go into detail about how the valves are actuated but i would guess its a pressurized hydrologic rail with electronic actuated solenoids. A very small hydro pump like what is needed in this application would probably be electric driven and not gear driven or direct drive like bigger hydro pumps. If this is the case then it would be far more efficient and less of a power loss than a chain or belt driven dual camshaft engine. Have you ever tried to spin a high combustion engine by hand? It takes a lot of force and a 3 or 4 foot breaker bar.
@@DmitriyLaktyushkin also he says the efficiency increase comes mostly from the cold start, not variable timing. But the variable timing is a major power adder, along with far less mechanical friction. I mean the engine almost doubles in horse power. NO amount of variable timing can give you gains in power like that. I bet most of that power come from lack of friction and heat
@Eclipse538 I think you should reassess the magnitude of said friction. Cam shaft is well oiled and operates under low load. Given the simplicity of design you'd need to spend a LOT of cash to get any other method of valve actuation more efficient than low friction cams. Also Atkinson/Otto cycles are basically different valve timings. So yes, you can get efficiency/power purely on adjusting timing and it has little to do with being able to heat up you cat converter faster.
@Eclipse538 One doesn't need to build engines professionally to know the difference between Otto and Atkinson cycles. A very basic knowledge of physics is required to understand that smooth, oiled cams are not going to have significant amount of friction. Any external system that provides power to valves will suffer double losses. First from whatever friction you have in converting engine power to this power source followed by valve actuation losses. The only losses in cam shaft drive are actuation friction losses. Engine designers are not idiots, cam shafts are used because they are cheap, simple and efficient at what they do. This has potential to be better, but it doesn't seem like a cheap or simple design.
@Amarjit Singh The Jesko's twin turbo V8 doesn't have the Freevalve feature, still got conventional camshafts to open and close the valves. That's why I mentioned the Gemera.
@Amarjit Singh I agree. And I also wonder why they didn't go with the Jesko. But then again, the Jesko came before the Gemera, so perhaps they still hadn't achieved the technical feasibility for production yet...
Years ago I asked a mechanic friend about using an electromagnetically opened and controlled valve train with pneumatic valve damping, He told me it would never work. Nice to see someone take this step in engine design. Imagine It. An engine that can idle smoothly at 650 to 700 and Produce GOBS of power on demand as needed. No more lumpy idle yet maximum horsepower and torque. The ULTIMATE sleeper.
What he's not talking about is he needs an air compressor a reservoir and hoses which also take up room and add complexity; also an additional computer and associated connections added on to pneumatic valving interfaced somehow to the computer! It's complexity is a multiple of ten when compared to the mechanical cam and springs, but the advantage is each component can be individually controlled to optimize for a given engine demand scenario!! What he's done to isolate the turbo exhaust and free/bypass exhaust from each cylinder and again individually controlled by pneumatic valve is genius! Then you also have the software development for each parameter that would need to be determined!! It will be awhile before this is on your garden variety grocery getter!!!
@@garybulwinkle82 Well, much/most of the added complexity once the basic hardware is set up is in computer code. It doesn't cost much more to "copy"/reproduce complex code as simple code.
I was told years ago where automotive tech was headed. This was one of the technologies being researched back in 2002. Another tech area was cars with no starter motor. The computer would use the crackshaft position sensor to determine which cylinder was just past top dead center and give a double shot of fuel from that injector then fire the spark plug, which would then kick over the engine. Another bit of tech Honda was researching was a device that was installed between the engine and transmission. Apply voltage, and it act as a starter and cranks up the car. Once the key is released and the engine is running, then it acts as a generator/alternator. Saves some weight by not have both a starter and an alternator. They are also looking at electric water and power steering pumps...increasing HP and efficiency by reducing the workload on the engine.
I thought about trying this on the yamaha 5 valve engines, because the cam box is separate to the lower head, you could design a bolt on replacement. But I was thinking more along the lines of "air cams" that could slide up and down and change the valve timing. The electronic actuators are the best, but adding air AND a bigger alternator to a bike would cause other problems I think. But if i ever win lotto, I'm trying it ;)
@@remid1994 no... They have pneumatic valves in MotoGP which is still mechanical actuation by a camshaft but there is an "air spring" that replaces the coil spring to close the valve
He is the mad scientist of the car world. I love it. I always had the thought of replacing valves with mechanisms similar to camera lens aperature blades, I have a feeling this would be the guy to do it.
Lynn Mckenney Putting it into 3mil car will change shit in this world unless he makes it affordable for most people lets say in Ford, Opel,VW and other cars that cost like 15k instead of 100 people that can afford a 1mil car.
Damian Toczek The engine in the video is for a chinese car company, why are you talking about ford? The point is that the system is being developed to be more cost effective day by day.
Daniel Carl Yeah, I really hope it catches up and big manufacturers join the party. Worth mentioning is that valve control similar to this (but not as precise or extensive as this) has also been achieved by BMW's Valvetronic. Look it up, it's pretty interesting technology as well, even though it relies on old tricks.
Daniel Carl The whole concept of "cammed" would disappear :) Every engine, even puny 0.8s will have the whole spectrum of cams you could get on an engine.
Yep, I remember discussing the future of camless valve operation way back in the early 90s albeit we never thought of pneumatic valve operation. It was electric servo stuff. Btw, where does this engine produce compressed air to actuate these pneumatic valves? Do they add a compressor to the engines accessory drive belt system where it will scavenge horsepower or is their an onboard air tank that must be filled every 10 miles? He skipped that part.
Absolutely late 90s ford introduced a supposed 800 hp 3 cyl engine w servo valves. Was tested on track and never produced. This isn't new tech it is reinvented updated and renewed interest. Anyone think big oil had a hand in this...
I am just as inspired this day as I was when I first learned of this. I have the utmost respect for MR.Eric Von Koenigsegg , as well as his team of brilliant people.
I agree, I can't wait for this to be an option for hot rodders. Early Chevy small blocks (pre-LS series engines) have the oil pump driven by the camshaft. This also applies to big block engines as well. I would like to see what the engineering solution is to correct this issue when removing the camshaft. Maybe a dry sump option?
Neal elliott Out of all the good ideas and redesigning going on you really think that will bea problem? almost every DOHC engine I know of has the Oil Pump driven by the crankshaft, only old pushrod motors like that probably would be driven by the cam, so this is irrelevant for most styles of motors. and DOHC/Push rod type of motor is irrelevant with this type of head, it even would be possible to make a head to throw on potentially any block as long as you have whats needed to run it.
All engines need to have this man. I know many are going to say oh, that's gonna be a hassle and more money. But just replacing a timing chain on some engines can cost you a fortune already.
160hp to 240hp and 240NM to 320NM of torque. That's amazing. 15% fuel savings, 35% emission savings. YES PLEASE. The main reason I'm excited for this is that you can potentially change cam profile on the go. For supercar applications, you go from street cams to sport to race cams for example. Or the car automatically goes into race cam over 6000RPM. Brilliant engineering.
Or the Toyota's Valvematic.(coupled with the D-VVTi) Current Corollas have it and it kicks out 98kW of power from a naturally aspirated 1.6l engine. And the fuel consumption of it is ridiculously low :)
You're still thinking in cams. The thing is that sport and race cams and such are still only cams which are only tuned to one specific rpm. Instead of switching between phases in some intervals where they are only good at one rpm, imagine having it optimised for every single rpm and every single combination of rpm, torque, engine temperature and air temperature. The thing is that we no longer have to have compromises in valve timings but can do it exactly as good as we want to spend time modeling, tuning and testing.
Sadly, the average swede have no idea who Christian Koenigsegg is or what he does. Some swedes tell you that Volvo and Saab are the only Swedish cars, but Volvo is Chinese now and Saab is gone.
We don't need to capture carbon. Plants do it for us, just the way God designed it. Do you think he was not aware of the very oil that is produced in the ground, both of which, all of which, he created?
I am thrilled beyond belief that someone is thinking outside the box for performance and not just emissions. I am a car guy that enjoys anything with an engine. DK, Omaha. ASE Master Tech since 1978. You are my hero!
I remember an article in a car magazine from 1986 discussing variable valve timing using solenoids. The topic was within the same article as the brand new VVT engine that Honda had created and installed into their NSX. It's awesome to see that the technology has evolved, and is being used for practical applications. :-)
Having a fairly solid understanding of the internal combustion engine types and history this here is some amazing technology. The elimimation of so many drive train components coupled with the precise control over the engine is mind blowing. Let alone who is providing the lesson at hand. Thoroughly impressive on all counts.
This is amazing! I love that this design makes it extremely tunable for a variety of applications! It's sort of like the next "exponent" in combustion efficiency whereas Variable Valve and DI were probably the previous exponent.
This is unreal. Individual valve control. Turbo control with no wastegate. More power, cleaner combustion without needing direct injection. This has to be the biggest ICE advance since its invention in the late 1800's.
The FIAT multiair engine does this exact thing, only it's controlling intake valve only (though hydraulically) and has one traditional camshaft. Lot's of people overlook the motor, but with this kind of technology, it's no surprise those 1.4L turbos easily reach 260-300whp.
Patrick94GSR Not to mention an increase in durability and a decrease in parasitic loss. The removal of the timing chain/belt reduces the fear of crashing a valve into the piston (interference engine) and it's also not dragging on the crankshaft.
They still have an inlet cam on their camshaft that pushes the oil for the inlet valve, so the valve timing and overlap is still fixed and only the lift varies. With full control of the individual valves, Königsegg has much more control of the engine.
I thought about solinoid operated valves 20 years ago, but This is even better. This may be the pinnacle of what can be achieved with a piston engine. Congratulations on having the ability to make this happen. This is truly magnificent.
Love this! That engine would be amazing to have in a little 2 or 3 series competitor. The power to weight ratio would be insane with this engine. Could you imagine this engine with Infiniti’s variable compression crankshaft system?! I bet each valve on that thing costs a fortune.
Kinda awesome, because in something like hot rods, you can have “switchable cams” on the fly, so you can switch between a “radical cam profile” and “streetable profile” Or even just have a “hybrid” type profile that around idle and under 1/2 throttle it runs in a streetable mode, and when you floor it, it can swap to a radical cam profile. Even have cylinder deactivation for fuel economy when cruising your muscle car
While everybody is just going electric, Christian believes internal combustion might be saved, might evolve and survive some more decades, powering our cars alone (Agera) or in a hybrid system (Regera). I can only admire this man, his vision and his shining passion.
He once said that electric cars are future, but not now, only in mayor battery breakthrough and he does not believe it will happen in next 15-20 years.
malikkium reading up on this guy's biography was very inspiring, he got where he is not just by million dollar loans, but the drive all his life to pursue mechanical technology and being an absolute genius in his field
Batteries in electric vehicles are history within five years. Ultra capacitors are where it's all going to happen. Batteries have too many heat, weight and internal resistance issues for electric vehicles. Ultra Caps have NONE of those (but a few others right now).
In this day & age, electric cars are a lie. As long as only 6% of our electricity comes from renewable sources, a gasoline driven car is just as clean as an electric one. Electric cars run on coal for the most part, and use up way more resources for production. You only need to make a gas powered car 6% more efficient to even it out, which is as simple as ditching that 1000 lbs battery...
I respect Mr. Koenigsegg very much. He represents His company and self well. It isn’t everyday we see someone with such passion and persistence in demonstrating the technology they are helping to pioneer.
I hope this saves the V* here in the US. The EPA is trying to shut down the use of V8s in production cars. Engines like the LT or the Gen III Hemi would be out of production unless this technology came along.
I have helped build Nuclear submarines I have worked at a oil refinery now I'm a machinist for a locomotive shop this technology is absolutely genius they should be on the front page of every newspaper in the world,you have just saved the internal combustion engine,I would love to work for this company, utmost respect
100% active fuel management. Pneumatic actuators are very reliable and eliminating the camshaft system is brilliant. Much better than solenoid controlled lifters though. Come on GM engineers!!
@David Galea yeah that was a bad time for the actual company but seems like a great time for the CEO and board. All that money had to go somewhere and I don't believe the recession bs. I'm just glad I got a 2014 truck so at least I knew my tax money would pay for a little bit better quality fake leather and oil coolers that leak every few years. Always loved their powertrains though and haven't had any major issues.
@Capt. Slow - You are aptly named, sir. The current standard is 460 H.P. The range-topper is 755 H.P. The new base (to be announced next month), will be at least 500 h.p. Z06, ZR-1 and possibly Zora will be announced in rapid succession. Zora may be a hybrid, and is projected to top 1000h.p. This info is widely available. I am not your librarian. I have noticed that dull, unimaginative leftist trolls nearly always refer to phallic, anal, clitoral, and fecal imagery. Go, and troll no more.
In the late 90s ford was playing w a 3 cyl engine producing 800 hp supposedly using servo/ solenoids. Never produced. Tech is old just being done so much better
This man is a great leader... He knows his product very well not just by explaining the basic composition and purpose of their cars but also explaining the core of their technologies... Salute!!!
Much respect for saying who the companies are, there’s no hiding or playing games.. this is what we are doing, this is who it’s for and this is why they want it done. 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
Ha, so true! You think they'd use a tungsten carbide pole to hold the hood. Some volcanic ash wrap with a molecular bonding agent to hold that $10 fan together.
TBustah hell, I thought of this two or three years ago in auto class, but my teacher said it would be too complicated/unreliable. And I'm not exactly a genius.
Nanorisk 1989 wasn't so long ago, I'm sure it was a possibility then. Computers may have been less advanced, the but the pieces were all there as far as I can tell.
TBustah Well, like you just said, the computers weren't good enough to control it. In other word, the pieces WEREN'T ALL there, the computer was absent.
Eh, as soon as you go to this type of Valve Control, the LS won't really be the same engine anymore. The whole appeal of the LS is that it's cheap, simple and has a lot of bang for your buck. This tech seems more suited for the tuner crowd than the muscle crowd (although both can benefit massively from this). I'd rather see this on a more technologically advanced engine. Can you imagine this on a W12 motor? It will solve so much of the complexity of that unit. 12 Cylinders in an engine barely bigger than a V8, combined with freevalve? The possibilites would be incredible. Even if they get the same performance/liter as the engine in the video, you are still looking at 900HP if used on the W12 unit that the VW group uses. That would be a sight to see.
No seriously, the beauty of this is that it can be made universal. 20 years or less and we WILL have freevalve kits for a good amount of current standard engines. It's awesome!
Exactly. There was another Freevalve video done by Drive 3 years ago, where Christian hinted at aftermarket applications for Freevalve technology. Their test bed was a SAAB 9-5 turbo that at the time of the video had in excess of 200K KM on the system through it's various engineering iterations. I want my 4 valve, Freevalve LS6/LS3/LS7/LS9 motor, damnit! :D
Yeah, the ability to shut down cylinders/individual valves at will is fantastic. I'm actually leaning towards finding a detective's LS3 Caprice PPV and making a stealth ship. Nice Zeta platform, so excellent brakes/suspension (Alpha would be awesome, but not sure if the Caprice PPV will migrate to it), in a roomy sedan. Doesn't hurt that it'll have a drivers side A pillar spotlight and maybe push bars still attached, but oh well .:D
8:21 they even modified their fan with tape to make it more efficient (some air would normally blow out the top, when taping that area, your forcing it all out the front, also reduce the energy required to push air out
I saw that and was thinking about it. Surely not such a high tech company fixing their office fan with masking tape? There had to be another reason, you guessed it, reducing the fan centrifuging air out sideways ;-))
I was skeptical at first. Now that he fully described what he's doing with this technology, I'm glad to see the development. He's doing everything. That's all I can say. Atkinson cycle knock reduction, deactivation, slew rate throttling, variable duration. If he really wanted to, he could make these engines become two-stroke, although the 4-valve heads may not be very conducive to it. Well-done sir.
I've never heard a cleaner and more informative presentation than this. If this was freestyle, i am seriously impressed. A great system to be shown though - probably this is what makes the presentation easy:)
Throttle control from the valves themselves. That blows my mind. He says the valves are pneumatically driven, but I see a coil and terminals on them. Maybe solenoids control the air that drives the valves open and closed. I know the engine drives an air pump to supply that air. To get that degree of control with that setup is beyond amazing to me. Brilliant guy.
This guy is a car God. Cant wait first production cars (other than KoenigseggOf course) having this technology. With this technology we will use valve map as well controling the valve operation.
You ever come across a movie where the technology is so advanced it seems farfetched, this is what this is. No wastegates or cams, completely nuts. Like never having to crap because your body doesn't produce waste. Crazy
It's an absolutely brilliant idea, I'm surprised no one tried it before. The only thing I find a bit spooky is one SLIGHT malfunction on any valve is likely to crash a valve into a piston.
I would be more excited about this if I could be reassured that in 20 years, when all car manufacturers have adopted this technology, that the circuitry would not be made in low-quality factories in China. I am so tired of this modern built-to-break attitude that we are so willing to accept as the norm.
Wow! This is Awesome!! This makes so much sense with no need for a cam, the parasitic draw of a cam, and of a vacuum force the pistons have to make to draw fuel and air in. Less weight, less parasitic draw on the engine. I would assume the only parasitic draw would be the turbo and the pump to drive the hydraulic system that actuates the valves, and of course the oil pump.
People make ridiculous power with lots of engines - The original motor was sized for production reliability, emissions, etc. Lots of tradeoffs for cost, etc. Sounds like the main emissions gain is with cold start - but that is still brilliant. Being able to run really high compression - with port injection - that is really unexpected, but super cool. And that compression is a big part of the efficiency gain.
I saw a "Never-Never Corvette" at an auto show in Paramas, NJ with electrically operated valves on a 327 ci Chevy Small Block. I'm not totally sure of the year - but it had to be before I moved from NJ to AZ with my family. That had to be in 1966 or so. No cam.... just 96 Volt coils to operate the valves against compression and with no cam, the engine had Electronic VVT that could be programmed in to change cam profiles as they were needed during differing RPM and throttle loads-gear ratios, etc. . This Corvette also used a central 'Light Generator' that was the source for ALL the lights in the car. It was under the passenger's seat - and although a little warm - it was a neat idea at the time. Fiber Optics were in their Genesis at that time and there was a long way to go.
I love how he is a company owner that KNOWS what he's talking about, even if it's hard to follow sometimes, but that's what makes it interesting to listen too.
He is the best engineet in my time...drastically improves everything he touches! Thanks for posting the video. I wonder how long until freevalves are in Big 3 production and other main engine markets, they are way better
