Design Evolution

  • 2011 - Current Prototype

    The current prototype is designed as a 4.2L engine. Fabrication of the components is under way. The last of the parts will be machined in the coming months. Assembly and testing will begin immediately after. read more »
    Working on prototypes with spare time and spare money causes slow progress. Because of this we have decided to begin considering financial agreements. Interested parties should contact us.

  • 2009 - 6 Cylinder ORR (Out Runner Rotary)

    From designs on the computer to assembled and ready to crank took less than two years. It would not start. It had no compression. I found that when I bolted on my cylinders it egged the cylinder block and caused major leaks. I remade the cylinder blocks and finish machined them with the cylinders installed. I then reassembled the engine and cranked it. But within seconds the Mazda seals had dug into the aluminum parts and the engine self-destructed.

    Just like every other time that I had finished a prototype, I saw where the next one could be improved. The new engine would use newer technologies like direct injection and an ECM to control ignition and fuel systems. Also, the seals would glide across surfaces that match the specs of the chrome plated surfaces with Wankel engines. I need to run some CFD evaluations to help design the port shapes and port timing.

  • 2007 - Small 12 Cylinder

    The biggest advancement in my designing process was learning SolidWorks. I could not only draw the parts before machining but I could also assemble and test fit the components on the computer. I could drastically alter a prototype in a matter of weeks. I quickly designed a small 12 cylinder version of the engine that solved the major problem of the previous prototype. However, after making it through a handful parts, the new design became obsolete. My new design was a large step forward.

  • 2003 - 12 Cylinder Air Cooled

    By this time I had graduated to using 3D drawing software. The race engine machine shop I worked for bought a CNC machine and software to lighten blocks for sprint cars. I was paid to learn to use it and I got to use it all I wanted for my own personal use. Three years later (and much less machining time than previously required) I had my next engine almost finished. At this point I found a problem with how I was attaching some of the parts together. Despite this shortcoming, this was by far my most impressive design so far. 3D drawings and CNC machining had added a whole new dimension to my thinking.

  • 1998 - 12 Cylinder Water Cooled

    Bigger is better was my new motto. I decided that I needed to build it bigger so I could more easily make seals for it. Auto Cad was my new friend. I started using AutoCAD to create dimensionally correct 2D drawings. This really helped a lot when designing. I purchased twelve 2.375" diameter lawnmower pistons and acquired some used Mazda apex seals and started drawing. Three years and a lot of manual machining later, I had a two hundred pound water cooled 2000 cc engine ready to crank. I was so sure it would work that I got a patent (patent # 6253717) . I attempted to start it and shortly after firing the seals seized and the engine locked up. One problem I have had along my journey of design evolution is more often than not by the time I get half way though a design, the design has been made obsolete by a new design idea. Its easier to see what is wrong or what can be improved when you have a 3D model in front of you.

  • 1995 - 24 Cylinder

    Six years after the smog and vane model, and many hours of hand drawn sketches later, my new prototype was machined and assembled. I learned that the compression stroke on an engine does not waste any energy other than friction because it is considered to be adiabatic. The energy used to compress the air fuel mixture is stored and added to the power stroke to help push the piston down. The advantage to having a compression stroke is that it moves all of the air and fuel to one compact location to assist in a more complete and faster burn. So I added a compression stroke. My initial design included pistons located around a rotating output shaft that looked like a revolver on a gun. The revolver was stationary and the pistons reciprocated linearly relative to the crankshaft. As the output shaft rotated, a cam moved the pistons side to side and a port housing rotated to tell the pistons what they were supposed to be doing. I had trouble designing the seals. I changed to a rotating revolver and a stationary port and this helped a little. Somewhere around this time it occurred to me that the crank would be easier to design and it would be easier to seal the ports if I changed the cylinders to radiate outward from the crank. I later found that this was not an original idea: the Gnome and the Le Rhone both had cylinders that rotated around a fixed crank. The only thing that kept my idea original was the use of ports instead of valves. My new engine had two rows of eight cylinders for intake and compression and one row of eight for power and exhaust. The pistons were model airplane pistons and the engine was only eight inches in diameter and about six inches long. Again this engines biggest downfall was trying to get it sealed up.

  • 1989 - Smog Pump and Vane Motor Concept

    My first attempt at building an engine seemed, at the time, very impressive. It is now humorous to look back at many of my attempts. My first engine had three basic sections:


    1. intake and compression (in the form of a smog pump from an old Chevy truck and a lawnmower carburetor) hooked to...
    2. ...a hand crafted vane type motor (an oversized air drill motor)via rubber hose and...
    3. ...an assembly that had holes through a rotating plate. The holes would first align with the smog pump's output (Intake and compression) then align with a spark plug (combustion) and finally align with the vane motor (power and exhaust).

    It had no seals of any kind. Air and fuel went throughout the engine, if you could call it an engine, as it pleased. With the engine tied down to a workbench, I was excited and ready to hear my new engine come to life with the purr of a fine tuned engine. I hooked up my starter (1/2" Electric Drill) and started spinning it over. I could hear the air pulling through the carburetor. I reached over and flipped on the ignition. BOOM! It backfired and ignited the air and fuel in the radiator hose that hooked from the smog pump to the port assembly. It blew the hose off and the ball of fire that came out was the only roar I would ever here from my first attempt at a better engine. Luckily, the flames issuing from every orifice did not catch anything on fire. I learned my first lesson. What ever design I came up with was going to have to seal very well.

  • 1985 - Turbo Charger Concept

    I was 18 and working for a VW repair shop. One day during lunch we were sitting in the break room talking and I had an old turbo charger in my hands looking at it. It occurred to me that you could put a carburetor on the intake side of the turbo and as it spun it would output an air fuel mixture that could be ignited. The pressure from this combustion could be ported to the exhaust side of the turbo to spin the turbo. This would be a very simple engine. Before lunch was over I had realized that the combustion pressure would try to back up the way it came in and this would just stop the turbo. But that was the day I started thinking about a better engine design: something with fewer moving parts than a Otto Cycle and more efficient than a Wankel rotary or two stroke engine.