This is a link to a story about Smokey Yanuk's hot vapor cycle engine, copied from Hot Rod magazine years ago, and translated from Swedish?

 

It is done well and points out the right questions about how does a mixture heated to 850 degrees C not detonate. A more pregnant question should have been, why is it not already burning in the intake manifold?

 

Or was it?

 

In the article the engine shown is a V-2. From years ago I remember it as part of the Small Block Chevrolet

and the test car being a Mercury Capri. In the story, two other 4 cylinder cars are mentioned. In the patent drawing, it is a 4 cylinder in line engine.

 

My thinking is that it had to be high pressure mechanical fuel injection, direct into the combustion chamber, and it had to have an adjustable curve so that the engine didn't knock like a diesel. The many engineers who drove the cars tried desperately to get the engines to detonate, by leaving stop lights in top gear and full throttle, but not one was successful. So, it had to be injecting and ignition (if any) after TDC.

 

So for my explanation to work I need a location and drive method for the high pressure pump. The distribution system may not have been required, if the pistons had rods that tripped the injectors open like the old CO2 model airplane engines. On the other hand, the distribution unit for a Lucas fuel injection system used on Cosworth race engines is smaller than my fist. I think the turbocharger, that he called a homogenizer to help atomize the mixture and operated at 3 PSI was part of the ruse. I think her replaced the low oxygen problem caused by a super heated intake with a whopping big amount of boost. Every pound he could get is my guess.  So how exactly he did it is unknown to most of us.

 

In another article he was said to have mentioned once that he had to use jet engine oil in his engines because of the heat, even in the pans would coke up regular motor oil.

 

If anyone has any ideas, I would sure like to hear about them.

 

Lynn E. Hanover