Just because auto engine technology has been stable for a long time does not prevent innovators from trying to make improvements. Peer under the hood with George J. Coates, proprietor of Coates Enterprises in Wall Township, N.J.
Working with only a handful of people in his shop near Asbury Park, Mr. Coates has developed an engine head that uses rotary valves to manage the flow of gases into and out of combustion chambers, rather than the poppet valves used in virtually all cars produced now. Mr. Coates asserts that the rotary valves increase an engine's power and reduce emissions, and he has outfitted a 1984 Mercedes-Benz 280SE with one of his experimental six-cylinder engines. cast iron plug valve factory
Mr. Coates, a 52-year-old engine specialist who came to the United States six years ago from his native Dublin to commercialize his venture, said he was in negotiations to license his rotary-valve technology and to raise money to build a manufacturing plant in New Jersey.
The odds might seem against him. After a century of development and the production of hundreds of millions of units, the internal-combustion, piston-powered automobile engine is pretty well refined. Now closely controlled by on-board computers, the engines in cars today deliver better gasoline mileage with fewer emissions than ever before.
Over the years, it is true, other technologies have been tried. The Chrysler Corporation, for instance, had a small fleet of cars with turbine engines on the road in the early 1960's, but high manufacturing costs kept them from commercial introduction. The Mazda Motor Corporation commercialized the rotary-piston Wankel engine, which is small and powerful. But it is also something of a gas glutton, so it is offered only in one model, the RX-7 sports car.
Electric cars, in theory and practice, have been around a long time as well. (Henry Ford's wife drove one because she did not like the noise and vibration of the Model T.) They never became widely popular, however, because the limitations of battery technology made long-distance travel unfeasible.
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