Polemicist

Ah another Tomorrow's World fan...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_vaOgnMXF0

But back on topic, I remember talk of ceramic engines many times; they're inherently more efficient as they don't require a cooling system (always an oxymoron apropos a heat-engine!) but I understand cost of manufacture is the big hurdle.

CHIPPO

Were there not some partially ceramic engines in Indy Car racing for a while ? or is my memory going.

And was Raymond Baxter the only fighter pilot in WW2 to have a pot shot at a V2 rocket. As it took of from a wood in a German city very near the end of the war

Nick Graves

There's also a problem of NOx emissions which the greenies don't like, since it causes respiratiory problems.

Ultra_Nexus

F1 engines use ceramic pistons.

CHIPPO

F1 engines use ali pistons any other material is banned under current rules, previously Beryllium alloy pistons were used but are now banned.

As i recall Beryllium bronze is one of the highest strength metals available but has some toxicity problems in the environment, but it makes fantastic springs

God that goes back to metallurgy at college in the 70's,

Ultra_Nexus

No, they use ceramic ones now because they are limited to 18k revs.

http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2011/1...des-engine-hq/

Oh, and the valve springs in an F1 engine have been made from air for quite some time

CHIPPO

Well the set of rules i read must not be correct then, but then again my memory is getting old this was last year. Thinking back I think it actually said they are made of an ali ceramic composite.

I was not reffering to valve springs just springs in general, yes the FI engines use air, the Fiat 500 Air being the first use of Air springs for valve in a production engine

Nick Graves

It's not really the same; a Multiair still uses zebedees to close the valves. It actually uses an air pump to open them and then blows off the air (more tea, vicar?) in order to vary the valve duration.

The springs are most inconveniently omitted from this illustration: