Can You Tune a Piston Engine With Crank Locks for MAXIMUM Torque?

[@Ben_Bingo]

Hey, one of the dyno creators here, the "overpowering" you see with engines is actually true, you can technically apply infinite torque to a piston engine, and it will still rotate at the lowest speed possible and this is a function of the torque of the engine. The dyno accounts for this by increasing the tgt speed (target speed in rpm) so the dyno will dyno to an rpm where you cant infinitely apply load. You can also manually increase this so you can dyno to any rpm you want for testing. Also more on the crank locks, the reason they work is by allowing engines that can make more than 4000Nm able to actually transmit that higher torque through the crankshaft and keep the crank offsets correct. The reason its 4000Nm is because that is the maximum torque a controller bearing can handle before turning into a free bearing, so they wont necessarily increase torque lower down (even though there are slight improvements), it will just allow you to keep being efficient past the 4000Nm barrier.

[@outandabout259]

The thing that went wrong with the 4 crank lock test is that the piston firing order got messed up. As you can see for example at 15:22 all pistons are pushing on the same half of the rotation so there's nothing to continue spinning the engine. Also, your crank locks aren't quite doing what they are supposed to. The purpose of crank locks is to lock the crank into one unit so that it always keeps its intended shape. Normally pistons overpower the controller and start spinning wildly in different directions, and the engine can't produce useful power (good example at 10:33). When the whole crank is locked into one unit all torque gets transmitted into, in this case, the dyno and is not lost at the bearings. Keep experimenting, i'm sure you'll find some way to keep the crank locked! If you pay attention to the position of the crank and it doesn't change during a test, you know your solution is good.

[@shayes.x]

To more reliably detect the first stall, you could set up a sensor targeting the flywheel which, if turned on or off for too long, indicates a stall. (Idea may need some tweaking to work properly)

[@Drosba]

I love how piston engines are becoming a trend now. I always liked them, it's like the game gives us 2 types of engines with an easy engine to wheel connection and we are just: I could make an engine with those pistons...

[@nikkiofthevalley]

Funnily enough, piston engines can be a lot more powerful than a gas engine. There is an actual reason to make them.

[@outandabout259]

​@@nikkiofthevalley that's true but if you just need more power than an engine can output, you can always use several bearings rotating the thing you need rotated to multiply the power.

[@loneside4912]

Just wait until you see "piston bearings" lol. It is possible to edit the blueprint.json file to force pistons to offset an attached block 90 degrees when taken off the lift. Done by changing one of two "xaxis:" values from 1 to 2. Such that one "xaxis:" value is 1, the other is 2. I think that defines the difference in rotational position, but either way, allows stuff to offset by 90 degrees on top of a piston, and allows you to transfer exponentially greater torque than a controller bearing. Also does not need "crank locks". kAN would maybe have a better time understanding this stuff with blueprint editing lol. Something I wanted to point out, as it's kinda hard to see from your perspective. Sensors cannot see through pistons/other parts, so when you have that jittering of pistons, it's because the line of sight was broken for the sensors. Best way to work around that is to use oscillating sensors on the blocks above the pistons, such that when the piston is aligned for the power stroke, the sensor is tilted in one way, and when the piston is on the retract stroke, the sensor is tilted the opposite way... If you are able to use the blueprint edited piston offset, it's best to use a standard radial sensor array on the crankshaft. With your current engine, since you wanted two pistons in pairs, it would have been much better to just pair up two pistons on a single crank journal, requiring only one offset bearing.

[@thesteamengineer442]

Pretty sure the crank locks weren't made right. Instead of the entire pipe part being attached to one segment of the crankshaft, it should have been separated into 2 parts pushing against each other, because otherwise the locks just slip around the square crank at higher torques

[@darealkosmo]

I figured I wasn't doing it 100% correct, but this was my reasoning for what I did: I tried the way kAN did it and the way you described, with the "lock" split into 2 halves and attached to the adjacent blocks so they can push against each other. Except when I did that in the last video, the "locks" weren't pushing against each other, they just glitched into/through each other for me. Maybe it was a case of multiplayer lag that gave me the wrong idea and taught me something that wasn't the case. When I tried it how you see it in this and last videos, it seemed to work a lot better, so I stuck with it. I will mess around with this more, appreciate you explaining how to do it right!

[@thesteamengineer442]

@darealkosmo Might be caused by the initial jerk of the engine as it gets in position and when it initially starts. Maybe lowering the crankshaft's bearing on speed could help.

[@nikkiwatson687]

Two piston piston engine

[@thesteamengineer442]

@@nikkiwatson687 That would just give the engine more torque, leading to even worse bearing slip

[@Berilaco]

For maximum torque output you want a good gear ratio... like the audi hoolitron has 2 electric motors that have 320NM torque but run 28000RPM so they have a 12-1 gear ratio which gets them 6000NM of torque in total( the axles twist 180degree before the wheels even move )

[@darealkosmo]

true that! That's definitely the way to go if you want maximum output torque. I was just approaching this from the max torque at crank perspective.

[@ducewags]

"Crank locks" I have boxes of them for engine rebuilds, and some how I think this might be next level, maybe? Now off to watch the show, and thank's Kosmo for the great video's you post.

[@xEternalSaltx]

You make me wanna get back into playing scrap mechanic I might just do it on stream

[@MrLarsgren]

its the bearing that cause the springglitch effect so yeah it might help on the torgue when its sliding a bit. suspension just make the effect stronger. can make the same effect using a piston instead of a suspension its just way weaker and not suited for land vehicles.

[@gsestream]

how about instead of the rotation tester, mass on a variable length stick, if it can lift it, just fit a massive speed reducer to get the max torque test run on a step piston engine

[@wisnoskij]

What about a solid axil? Is their any way to build a solid axis piston engine? What we really need is for pistons/bearings to work on the lift. Also, for the physics to be less jank. I tried to play this game and any vehicle above a golf cart seems to be too heavy to function correctly. I had heard in a previous comment that putting a tire on the axil fixes some of the bearing slop.

[@DigitalJedi]

You would need to glitch weld it or blueprint edit the parts into position. You need the bearings to offset the pistons initially so your don't have 4 pistons firing at the same time.

[@MattDvc]

oh.. and set the dyno target speed to some value lets say 20rpm where the engine is not stalling but its under load. it gives you more consistent and realistic results. you can increase the refresh rate as well.

[@darealkosmo]

I didn't realize I had that ability! Thanks for the tip!

[@brennangideon8228]

Did anyone else notice his crank locks aren't locking? They're just adding friction because they are not butting up against another object on the other side of the bearing.

[@TurtleMasterFlex]

I also just noticed at some points you have 2 pistons on the same side of the crank! at 11:40 and 15:14

[@WituskiDeMurr]

Sup kosmo how are you I love your vids

[@1nsane89]

Hmm.. What if the shaft itself was solid, aka no bearings between segments? Would mean a completely new design on how the pistons attach to it. Is that even doable?

[@Baer1990]

16:00 I don't know what is going on, but 2 pistons run parallel and 2 pistons opposing at 90 offset. So 1 piston is wrong or 2 pistons are wrong lol

[@piraterubberduck6056]

If you built this as a radial engine you could eliminate the need for crank locks completely. I wonder how much power you would get out of it then.

[@vasilevs1934]

Try another type of piston engine, for example axial

[@toddabbott781]

Why do you run the bearings in the crank shaft? I would figure it would be more stable

[@darealkosmo]

the bearings are to offset individual cylinders, otherwise they will all be firing at once and it will be a hekkin bad time

[@MattDvc]

on the last test the crank is too stiff. need more inertia in the engine / flywheel to keep the rotation going. maybe in the next video you can keep the engine stiff with 4 locks and try to optimize the flywheel. remember its about inertia, not necessary the mass of the flywheel so it can be spoked with most of the mass on the outside so the bearings don't get affected as much with the overall mass.. then when you get that good play with timing to build ultimate engine. 😎

[@darealkosmo]

Good call on the flywheel! I had that idea but I realized I'd have to rebuild the engine AGAIN and that would negate all the testing I had been doing for almost 2 hours haha! Appreciate the comment :)

[@Poldovico]

Is there no way to weld the locks in place after the controller has already turned them?

[@darealkosmo]

nope

[@waylonmorristexas4851]

Very interesting

[@KingCheepcheep6]

what if you made the crank out of frictionless blocks?

[@darealkosmo]

I suppose that's something to consider and try! Difference might be too negligible to notice but who knows :)

[@JanTonovski]

Hello Kosmo, could you maybe try to play Derail Valley on the channel?

[@whiskeycolaintequile28]

hi kosmonaut how are you?

[@dalainawillis507]

I think the locks made the engine not rotate into position whenever he had four

[@devakadex9588]

TURBOCHARGE ITTTT

[@Sans-fl4pe]

ask for a rematch

[@Layow.]

Hey Kosmo, you didnt set up the locks correctly...

[@darealkosmo]

hey what's up dude, long time no see xD I wrote out a thing explaining why I did what I did in another comment. Basically the "right" way didn't work for me last time I tried it, but it might have been due to multiplayer lag or my last brain cell going to lunch. So I learned to do it this way and it still kinda works tho doesn't it? I am sure it could be better. Will definitely mess around with it more.

[@erher1433]

they slip so much, from what I saw in kAN's video I'm pretty sure you built them wrong, but I'm no expert so don't quote me on that

[@OverlordIcy]

He did. He made all the pipes one piece where they're supposed to be two pieces that are separate on the lift and mash together when let off the lift. He just has pipes touching the next block in line.

[@justinpatterson5291]

Scrap mechanic physics is weird...

[@MrLarsgren]

thats where the challenge announce its arrival. you can replicate almost everything in the game you just need to do adjustments to work around the odd physics. personally i find it annoying they havent fixed the sliding on bearings suspensions and pistons yet. games key part is mechanical contraptions but every part that make things able to move slide around like its tied on with a wet noodle.

[@Goofy-15]

early 👌👌

[@hargunsinghartist]

I Liked my own comment again 😂❤❤❤❤