I am a big fan of Kevin Cameron, the motorcycling journalist who has written for American motorcycling publications for what seems like ever. I don't often get to see a copy of Cycle World, but I have enjoyed reading his books immensely. In one of them, an article of his from 1984 is reprinted, on the subject of con rods. The subtitle reads, "A well-designed connecting rod is a steel or titanium image of the stresses it must carry. A kind of art". Certainly the latest con rods...
In the previous article on crankshafts, the use of the crankshaft as a centrifugal separator was briefly discussed. The principle of centrifugal separation/refinement is well understood, and one only has to hear of news stories about uranium enrichment to appreciate that its uses are widespread. At the end of the previous article, I said we would further develop the idea of air and debris separation. Air in oil is a real nuisance, especially where we want to use the oil to provide the...
I have never been a great lover of science fiction. The daring antics of comic book heroes such as Buck Rogers or Flash Gordon, or any of their later brethren, have never gripped me. Dashing around slaying the baddies using some form of ray gun was, I thought, rather too fanciful, and even from a tender age sounded too far-fetched and wholly impractical to me. So when I first heard about Flexray it sounded more akin to my comic book past than any serious technology in the modern world. But...
Once there was a young engineer. Experienced in the stripping and rebuilding of traditional internal combustion engines, the assembly and testing of his first prototype design looked set to be a particularly enjoyable challenge and something he was anticipating with great relish. The first in a series of concept designs, the engine used a system of longer than normal cylinder head bolts clamping the conventional cylinder head to the cylinder block. In doing so, much of the upper portion of...
Although I couldn't possibly guess at the true statistics, I would imagine that at least 99% of all race engines are derived from mass-produced, OEM units. In essence that means modified or 'improved' but nevertheless 'stock' cylinder heads, and perhaps more critically, 'stock' or possibly even standard, unmodified cylinder blocks. The technology of the OEM cylinder liner and its cooling are therefore of great interest if they provide a signpost to the race...