saabSean

<center><img src="http://www.leftlanenews.com/wp-images/media/apr24-myt_1.jpg"></center><p>Check out this experimental reciprocating internal combustion engine. Pretty cool if you ask me. There's a video of it in action on the linked page.<ul><li><a href="http://www.leftlanenews.com/2006/04/24/massive-yet-tiny-engine-promises-big-things/">Massive Yet Tiny (MYT) engine</a></li></ul>

Thumbmaster

Warp 4... engage!

kkemp

The comments on that page are spot on: this seems like the rotary in that it has a (near) fatal weakness.

In the case of this engine it looks like the combustion chamber is at the top of the rotation, and the chamber is formed by the top of one "piston" and the bottom of the next one. Whatever mechanism they use to prevent the stationary piston from moving seems like a potential weak point.

In a conventional engine, the cylinder head is fixed and bolted to the block, so there is very little possibility of it blowing off the top of the engine. In this MYT engine, there is some sort of cam preventing it (the piston that forms the "top" of the cylinder) from moving backwards. If that cam fails, goodbye engine ;-)

saabSean

Look at the video again, there are several combustion events occuring at once. It would appear that the exhaust phase occurs immediately after the combustion takes place the the "pistons" move into their next cycle.

Pretty wild. I'm trying to imagine what sort of vibrations occur with this scheme.

Boston Driver

So, just where do you place the hamsters???

saabSean

YUCK!!! LOL!