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Subaru�s new FA20DIT - built for Le Mans by RTU!

7K views 32 replies 15 participants last post by  breel 
#1 ·
Subaru’s new FA20DIT - built for Le Mans by RTU!

Subaru engine for Le Mans revealed | Racecar Engineering

"It is expected that it will produce in excess of 550bhp and can run with very little cooling indeed due to its use of a patented ‘Pseudo Adiabatic’ combustion process."

'nuff said
 
#8 ·
RTU | discover progress


Google Alberto Solaroli and you'll quickly realize this is just a bunch of BS. He's bounced from Canada to US and now Slovakia, sure sign of a scam artist
although the thirst for efficiency/renewable technologies has spawned an infinite number of BS claims, FA20DIT and lemans engineers at subaru wouldnt seem the type to be easily scammed, much less display an engine they got scammed on that doesnt work as planned at the PMW expo

that being said, no, dont believe all the claims, but i do believe there is something there.

all they really say is they use a different ECU, intake manifold, pistons/rings and can ditch radator. the most 'insightful' information i found was in one of the animation panes (below) basically it uses very cold air (guessing the extra heat exchanger thing is actually part of a vapor compression/refrigeration cycle) and very lean burn

RTU said:
The RTU patented technology would not work effectively, unless the pressurized air coming from the turbocharger through the intercooler (dark blue hose) would not be processed and further sub-cooled in the RTU patented intake manifold. Fresh cooled air is manipulated so as to allow the engine to run in a lean burn condition further cooling the engine. These superior properties allow for extreme power and efficiency.
 
#6 ·
mmm... id guess fancy materials for rings / cylinder lining at the least.....

but just because youre keeping heat in doesnt mean youre increasing combustion efficiency. they must have designed the cylinders to keep heat in as well as a combustion process (probably some tangent of modern DI developments) that takes advantage of operation at higher temps. maybe burns super lean?

those are exactly the issues that need to be tackled for IC engines to get any real bump in efficiency, this is exciting. or BS.
 
#9 ·
The "Fresh cooled air is manipulated so as to allow the engine to run in a lean burn condition further cooling the engine." part confuses me quite a bit. Through all of the training I have been through, lean-burns run the engine hotter, not colder. Running rich cools the exhaust gases. Lean buring is much more efficient though, which is why many companys, Honda specifically, incorporate lean burn conditions into cruise mode.
 
#11 · (Edited)
Yea that part confused me as well. "A little lean makes her a little mean" is what they say, but that causes higher temps. The magic is in the intake, and I wanna know what it is! I'd also love to see the piston & ring design. I can't wait to see it on the track. A lot of questions will be answered then (hopefully).
 
#14 ·
They use the term adiabatic because that it precisely what they are trying to accomplish with the engine; combustion of the fuel without transfering heat to the engine and instead transferring it as power to the piston.

citing wikipedia - "An adiabatic process ... is a process that occurs WITHOUT the transfer of heat or matter between a system and its surroundings."

"An adiabatic transfer is a transfer of energy as work across an adiabatic wall or sector of a boundary."

This is what theyre trying to do with the cylinder walls.
 
#15 ·
yeah thats what i mean, adiabatic would imply the waste heat is more contained within the cylinder (the vast majority of which being lost via exhaust) and utilized to increase output, as I said, as opposed to increasing combustion efficiency which would instead produce less waste heat and more useful work (like low temp lean burn).. semantics i guess and hard to tell anyway with those worthlessly tiny nuggets of info. also the patent has been curiously difficult to find...
 
#20 ·
Hybrid ceramic pistons and hybrid ceramic cylinder walls with special rings and ceramic coated combustion chambers and valves would keep a lot of the heat from transferring and allow a leaner burn using less fuel = more power. The trick would be to make the pistons durable enough for possible detonation events. I can tell you with companies already ceramic coating every fricking thing that it won't be long.
 
#23 ·
Careful running water during the summers... there are no rust inhibitors in it and you will end up rusting out your head gaskets prematurely.

Happens with a lot of track cars. They rape through head gaskets due to being run with distilled water vs standard coolant.

-- Dave
 
#31 ·
I think it's just smoke being blown up the ass, at best he's just trying to use some of Smokey Yunick's magic as his own. I found the patent searching through the Audi forums. He tried this with their 5-cylinder first and don't think they approved of it.
I tried to buy one of Yunick's Indy engines from the 70's. Twin turbo-blow through carb SBC, 250 cubic inch and 1200HP! Would have been fun stuffed in a Chevette LOL
 
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