5 of the strangest engines that made it to production

[Bryan]

An engine puts the auto in automobile; without one, you merely have a carriage and have successfully shifted yourself backwards by 120 years. A century-plus of engine development has brought forth a vast array of solutions to the internal combustion problem. Virtually every person who has set their mind to building a car has experimented with the number, orientation, and even shape of the cylinders.

Read the full article on Hagerty.com:

https://www.hagerty.com/media/automotive-history/5-of-the-strangest-engines-that-made-it-to-producti...

[Zephyr]

I believe NSU had a Wankel powered model for a short time. Although everyone associates the Mazda Wankel with the RX7, the Wankel was also an available option for their small pick-up truck for a couple of years. The rotary engined ones had round taillights, the conventional engine models had rectangular taillights. The conventional engined model was also sold as a Ford. I can't remember the model. Although it never went into production, someone (Ford?) had a mock-up of an atomic powered car on the car show circuit for awhile. 

[jrmedsel]

Ford's version of the Mazda pickup was the first generation Courier

[Billthecat707]

Also the rx-2 and rx-3

[Sanduners]

What no Pontiac Tempest 4 cylinder, half a V8 in 1961-63?  Even Mickey Thompson build and ran this engine.

[GoFast]

In a rotary engine, the output (more accurately eccentric) shaft is not 'geared.' There is, however, one pair of gears per rotor: the smaller one with external teeth is fixed, the larger one with internal teeth is attached to the inside of the rotor.  These gears merely keep the rotor and eccentric shaft motion in phase and do not transmit torque. 

[markmathes]

V8-6-4

[markmathes]

Quad 4

[MMikeJBenN27]

You are wrong about the Chrysler Turbine engine.  While 130 horses is not earth-shattering in a post-war car, 465 lbs. ft.  is EXCELLENT.  Performance was good.  The reason Chrysler killed the Turbine-as-a-car engine project was super-high production costs, that would have made it impossible to sell at a reasonable price, and, it was discovered in later versions, very high exhaust emissions that seemingly couldn't be cleaned up, which would have made cars so equipped illegal for street use.

[lesrof2evils]

How about the  COpper BRAzed engine used in the Crosley?

[GoFast]

The point of Honda's NR750 was that use of oval pistons allowed 8 valves per cylinder for greatly enhanced volumetric efficiency (better breathing).

[engineuser]

Or maybe, 8 valves per combustion chamber?

[CircuitBurner]

That Honda engine was not a 4 cylinder emulating an 8.

It was only two of those pistons emulating their proven V-4 design.

Basically removing the cylinder walls between each pair of V-4 pistons increased displacement allowing a lower friction reduction in bore radius that also ran cooler.

[1994scta]

Just curious of how well the rings sealed? Seems tough to get an even distribution of pressure to the cylinder walls.

[engineuser]

How about the Migrating Combustion Chamber Engine? http://ericksonmotors.com/mcc-fe-200/ http://ericksonmotors.com/mcc-fe-200-drawing/ http://ericksonmotors.com/mcc-fe-200-drawing/

[Cytecnick]

It may have never been put in a car (that I know of ) but Napier-Deltic made one of the strangest, coolest 2 stroke diesel engine designs I've ever seen :

[TonyT]

The GMC 702 truck engine was frightful! Two 305 V6's stuck together that resulted in a torque monster that regularly ate U-joints and, in the hands of the inexperienced, axle shafts. On the plus side, it was quiet, but being fed by two 2BBL carbs it wasn't exactly responsive.

[JackVan]

The last Chrysler turbine was in a 1976 B body. It ran better than the earlier ones. The EPA measurement of the exhaust sample include the ambient cooling air, so they were not measuring just engine exhaust. That was one of the problems. The high price was caused by the turbine wheel high temp metal and machining. We tried using hot pressed ceramic ones, but ceramic tech was not there yet. The 1964 car ran even with a 4 speed 300hp 327 Impala out on Woodward that year. Since a turbine was peak torque at stall, the hole shot was pretty good. The govm't forced the crushing of the 1964 cars with the body import waiver terms, and crash liability added to the final disposition of the remainder. Jay Leno's still runs fine.

[SJ]

Stanley Steamer.

[JGeske]

Not many made it in auto production, but were seen in ships and planes: Opposed Piston Engines. Such a novel concept.

[TikiBarJim]

What about the German tractor manufacturer that had an air cooled diesel for power. I forget the name.

[hyperv6]

The turbine was never really production.

[Chickensnob]

Suzuki built a production motorcycle with a Wankel engine in the 1970's.

[Gary_Bechtold]

The V8 Honda NR750 motor is pretty weird but cool idea.

[hyperv6]

By far the W 8 w 12 and W 16 from VW, Bentley and Bugatti.