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Dan Gurney Patents a New Internal Combustion Engine


scannon

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Ariel "Square four's" basically used two 2 cylinder engines running in opposite directions with a gear drive off each crank. Have never seen one apart so don't know how similar they might be but the square fours ran strong but had some hot rear cylinder issues being air cooled.

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Inline 4s are inherently rough, as the piston acceleration at TDC is about twice that at BDC. Exactly how bad is a function of rod length / crank throw ratio. This engine looks to me like it is smoother than an I4 but at greater cost and weight. On a motorcycle, the designers have the choice of adding twin balance shafts to an I4, and most new single cylinder bike engines have them. Inline 3s are much better balanced, and need only a single balance shaft to get rid of all the primary imbalances. I have a particular soft spot for the Triumph triples (street triple, speed triple, and rocket 3)

 

I didn't know about Ariel's cylinder cooling problem, but most modern high performance bike engines are water cooled now.

Dan

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