Tech Talk 5/22/2014: The Engine That Drives The Elio

[karl]

Yep, sort of a 'Catch 22'; "These are still prototype parts and will continue to be until the plant is set up", and the Plant can't be 'SET UP'..... until these engines are 'completed' and installed into the "18 to 26 vehicles" of the "E" series and TESTED.

Catch 22 was a wonderful novel. Building machine tools and mold plugs and such is a lot different. One step at a time as long as the piper gets payed it will get done. Us whining about what we feel gets us no further down the road.

 

[zelio]

Catch 22 was a wonderful novel. Building machine tools and mold plugs and such is a lot different. One step at a time as long as the piper gets payed it will get done. Us whining about what we feel gets us no further down the road.

Thank you karl. I definitely agree. :-) Z

 

[ecdriver711]

This is all great info. Nice to see things happening and I can understand we are really getting informed all along the process. I don't think this has ever happened before as far as people getting to watch snapshots of a vehicle becomming a reality. People don't realize the stretch of time it takes, the planning and money involved. Kinda cool, and nail biting.

 

[Dustoff]

This is all great info. Nice to see things happening and I can understand we are really getting informed all along the process. I don't think this has ever happened before as far as people getting to watch snapshots of a vehicle becomming a reality. People don't realize the stretch of time it takes, the planning and money involved. Kinda cool, and nail biting.

 

[CheeseheadEarl]

How long does this kind of testing take?

Let's use 35mph as a lifetime average vehicle speed. You could simulate 100,000 miles of run time in around 4 months of round the clock dyno running.

Assuming multiple engines being tested, one might be on that cycle, another running start/stop tests, one running at max load till failure, and so on.

This testing doesn't necessarily need to be complete before these engines start being put in test cars (P5s, Es, whatever they're being called). Short of some catastrophic flaw, the external block should be at "final" form. Most problems found in dyno testing would be internal issues.

My opinion, worth exactly what you paid for it.

 

[outsydthebox]

Hello goofyone, please help me here: Not sure where or how these pictures of the IAV motor fits in; these pictures were taken back in March at "Bike Week," in Daytona Florida. View attachment 1163View attachment 1164 View attachment 1165 View attachment 1166 View attachment 1167

Cool pics! IIRC,My Geo Metro engine weighs around 85lbs... I wonder what this one weighs?

 

[goofyone]

Cool pics! IIRC,My Geo Metro engine weighs around 85lbs... I wonder what this one weighs?

That is a very good question. The basis of this engine design is the Suzuki/Geo 3-cylinder engine but updated with newer technology. I know they were supposed to use a newer aluminum alloy which weights less and has better heat dissipation properties and replacing the steel cylinder liners with the plasma transferred wire arc coating process also saves more weight so it would be interesting to see how much total weight they were able to shave off.

 

[karl]

Where is the information coming from that this power plant is a copy of anything existing? The mule has a Geo engine that has Blatz to do with the new one other than similar architecture. There are others out there as well?

 

[outsydthebox]

Where is the information coming from that this power plant is a copy of anything existing? The mule has a Geo engine that has Blatz to do with the new one other than similar architecture. There are others out there as well?

As I See It, when Goofyone said..."the basis of this engine design"....He could have said..." similar architecture"... I understood what he said.

 

[goofyone]

Where is the information coming from that this power plant is a copy of anything existing? The mule has a Geo engine that has Blatz to do with the new one other than similar architecture. There are others out there as well?

As I See It, when Goofyone said..."the basis of this engine design"....He could have said..." similar architecture"... I understood what he said.

Elio/IAV started by reverse engineering the Suzuki/Geo engine but once you start with that point you continue working from there and it eventually becomes a new design based on the previous architecture.

About 4:55 into this video Gino Raffin, Elio Motors Vice President of Manufacturing and Product Launch, discusses how they took the Suzuki/Geo engine and reversed engineered it as the basis of the new IAV motor design. Gino then goes on to discuss some more details about Europeans working on tooling for the block and heads, we now know this European company is Comau, and he also discusses the cylinder coating process. He goes on to talk about some aerodynamic updates like moving the shock inboard which appeared in the P4.