[Land-speed] How About - - No Cam at all?

[Ed Weldon]

Jon--
Working vehicles with solenoid valve actuation don't show me a lot.  I can
think of several dozen current and past land speed racers who would be
perfectly capable of taking a modern car with a 4 cylinder overhead valve or
overhead cam engine and have it running with no cam and solenoids lifting
the valves in a few weeks of tinkering.  It wouldn't put out a lot of power
because the necessary light valve springs would severely limit rpm likely
well below 2000.  All you'd need would be a 2nd distributor with motor
comutators and brushes switching the solenoids backward and forward and
maybe some special attention to keeping them cool so the insulation wouldn't
burn up after prolonged operation since you'd want to keep them "on" to hold
the valves open or closed as required.  Timing changes would require just a
bit of creativity in design and building of the comutator segments and the
brush mountings.
I'm sure the project would climb Pikes Peak in first gear; but it would be a
slow trip.
It wouldn't take a rocket scientist to put this thing under digital control
with a speed sensor on the crankshaft and some transistors and solid state
relays taking computer output and turning it into switching the solenoid
driver currents.  Might be a bit of a challenge synchronizing this with the
throttle and some dampening so it doesn't fight with the valve control.
Classic control problem.
Now developing this to the point of threatening an H or G gas
record.......That's a whole different story.
Ed

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jon Bishop" <jon.the.wise at gmail.com>
To: "Ed Weldon" <23.weldon at comcast.net>
Cc: "lsr list autox" <land-speed at autox.team.net>; "Dick J"
<lsr_man at yahoo.com>
Sent: Sunday, September 02, 2007 10:39 PM
Subject: Re: [Land-speed] How About - - No Cam at all?

> On Sep 2, 2007, at 9:59 PM, Ed Weldon wrote:
> > I looked over Sturman's website. ......

> I don't disagree, but it would appear they do have working vehicles
> built, if only proprietary systems, it's a start at least.