SwRI’s single-cylinder engines available for combustion research; light-, medium- and heavy-duty applications
05 April 2017
Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) has designed and manufactured two advanced single-cylinder engines for combustion research and development.
The engines, one for light- and medium-duty applications and one for heavy-duty applications, can accommodate either multi-cylinder or single-cylinder heads through a custom cylinder barrel and head support shelf. They are designed for low-cost operation and include several unique patent-pending innovations, including mechanisms that adjust compression ratios and crankshaft offsets without the need for disassembling the engine.
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| SwRI engineers have designed a highly versatile single-cylinder research engine platform for advanced combustion research. The research engine platform is available for contract use or for purchase. Image courtesy SwRI. Click to enlarge. |
Optical access, dynamic cam phasing, secondary balancers, and floating liner devices can be added to the standard configurations.
These engines provide research laboratories a cost-effective system to test their combustion strategies and designs and make any modifications pretty quickly. They are excellent low-cost options for validating innovative ideas in engine design.
—Doug Eberle, a manager in SwRI’s Powertrain Engineering Division
The engines are designed for optimal combustion research and friction analysis, as well as alternative fuel, wear, optical, crank offset, and bore-to-stroke relationship studies.
Specifications for light- and medium-duty applications include a standard bore range of 65-110 mm, standard stroke range of 65-120 mm, and engine speeds up to 7,000 rpm. The heavy-duty engine includes a standard bore range of 110-145 mm, standard stroke range of 110-185 mm, and maximum engine speeds up to 2,500 rpm.
Both research engines are easy to customize and can be configured for spark or compression ignition. The housing design allows for easy bearing and crankshaft removal, includes hydraulic camshaft phasers, and has a belt-driven pump.
The single-cylinder engine platforms are available for contract research projects at SwRI or for use in a client’s laboratory in standard or customized configurations.
Im not sure it is a hoax or what? A single cylinder heavy duty engine, in a tractor-trailor truck hauling a 53 feets van full of goods can probably return over 65 mpg. So im interrested to buy a single cylinder engine for my car at 1/4 the cost of my 4 cylinder actual engine.
Posted by: gorr | 05 April 2017 at 07:02 AM
Gorr, the leap of illogic required to assume that the cost of a single cylinder engine is one quarter the .cost of a four-cylinder engine has to be a joke.
There's no other way to explain it besides idiocy, which is also possible.
Either way, you're trolling the world with that comment.
Posted by: Brent Jatko | 05 April 2017 at 07:11 AM
These are for combustion research.
Posted by: SJC | 05 April 2017 at 02:10 PM