I 3D Printed a Transparent Combustion Engine in Resin

[@tsbrownie]

1) ignition timing, each fuel has a different burn rate and that means power will be applied early, late, or on time. 2) spark plug gap varies with fuel and compression. 3) different fuels require different carb jets.

[@propanas]

As the engine should work as close to detonation as posible, spark plug should have its heat rating set acordingly. But i think its imposible on this type of engine :D.

[@Argosh]

These toy engines are really not built for this level of perfection. But you're spot on in my opinion.

[@imwacc0834]

Knock knock LOL

[@Thinginator]

I was also going to mention that the air/fuel ratio for the different fuels is probably all wrong, but you’re spot on, there is a lot involved in properly tuning an engine.

[@djwhillman]

My money is on pre-detonation it's seems the timing is too advanced.

[@Crowbars2]

One idea to possibly make the engine run better, and be a bit more _scientific_ is to give the engine a load. I think the best idea is to use some kind of generator hooked up to a multimeter, so you can directly compare the different fuels.

[@ryanhamstra49]

I second this

[@LordCogordo]

U need to have a load in the generator, if not, it will not have a load, i'll just spin the generator free, u need a led o some shit to power too

[@jonnyboy5019]

Adding a load to the engine also could potentially also solve the Skipping of Power Strokes. As mentioned by Bully Maguire, the generator does need an Electric load connected to it, however a Resistor would do pretty nice

[@shutdahellup69420]

@@jonnyboy5019 yas

[@Crowbars2]

​@@LordCogordo That's why I said to attach a multimeter, they have a very high resistance, usually 1 megaohm.

[@fireballmx]

Biggest issue you have is the lack of fine tuning on the fuel injection side - all those fuels have different stoichiometric ratios for combustion as you mentioned in the video so you need to adjust the carb/jet to inject more of the methanol/nitrometh fuels (and possibly adjust the gas injection too - you could just be dealing with misfires)

[@tichifrancetich8713]

Thats just what i was thinking

[@MRmessyRoomedPerson]

And also the viscosity of the fuel changes how much flows through the carburetor for the same needle adjustment

[@07Hawkeye]

jets have nothing to do with octane. also this engine has a carb, literally all that needed to be done was adjust the air/fuel ratio, any regular sized carb has 2 adjustment screws on the sides to do this... however a carb as tiny as this one idk what it has to adjust air and fuel ratios.

[@07Hawkeye]

@@MRmessyRoomedPerson running higher octane in engines that use carbs tends to make the mixture slightly more lean. all that is needed is to adjust the fuel/air ratio with the adjustment screws on the outside of the carb. viscosity isnt an issue in a 4 stroke engine, only 2 strokes since a 2 stroke engine runs on a mixture of fuel and oil, that's when needle adjustments need to be made as well as changing jets... since it's a 4 stroke that never has oil in the fuel, you dont need to worry about viscosity. in this case, running higher octanes will result in running just slightly more lean, adjust the air and fuel screws.. hence why the only thing he noticed changing was the rpm, when you adjust the screws on the sides of any carb while the engine is running you will change the idle rpm.

[@wolfie54321]

@@07Hawkeye On carbies designed for cars, basically the carb needs to be rebuilt to run methanol or nitro because the volume flow rate required for the same air flow is so different that any screw adjusters on the carb won't get you there. No idea about the little carb on this thing though.

[@loadstone5149]

Hey integza, I’m a car and motorist enthusiast myself, so perhaps I can explain some of your inquiries. The reason rpm decreases as more highly combustible fuels are used is because the fuel expands with more energy. This means that the force applied to the piston is greater thus a greater torque is produced. The rpm decreases to compensate for the increased torque because the force is applied over a shorter length of time meaning that the impulse of the piston will decrease (dp=Fdt). Even though the respective force has increased, it is applied over a much shorter time. This means that the object will accelerate slower yet apply more turning force (torque) to the axel. Furthermore, the reason you weren’t getting the 4 cycles may be due to (as you’ve alluded to) the spark plug timings. In a car, a vital component for efficiency is the timing belt which dictates the spark plug’s the moment of ignition. If the spark plug is ignited before the fuel is compressed enough then it will fail it’s cycle. This is common in smaller engines (especially I4’s) because the piston has to travel further in order to compress the fuel enough and have a successful ignition. Also check for seals. Metal is good for engines because of its high melting point but also because it can create a good seal with itself. Plastic, being a polymer, is not too good at making seals (especially with metal) so this can lead to leaks and a decrease of pressure in the combustion chamber. This may also be the reason for the drastic decrease in rpm for higher energy fuels.

[@wyattnuffer80]

The timing belt controls the timing of the valves, it's the sensor on the cam and/or crank that controls ignition timing

[@nictanium]

The sensor on the crankshaft is the info for when to fire spark plug. The spark has to fire at the appropriate time before the piston hits top dead center(closer to tdc at low rpm and earlier at higher rpm) Tho you can get the same info from the cam sensor it is much better to get it from the source. The cam sensor is really only used for fuel injection timing. No point injecting gas if the intake valve isn’t open.

[@3DPDK]

@@wyattnuffer80 This is correct.

[@3DPDK]

@@nictanium While both you and Wyatt Nuffer are correct, this engine uses a magneto to generate the spark (no battery required). That doesn't mean it's not a timing issue, but the engine may not have a way to adjust the position of the magnet or coil to adjust the timing.

[@munchobell2890]

AYYYYYYYYYYYYY thats what i said

[@dapz]

idk if you have done this in the past, but could you make a piston engine powered by the pressure generated from sublimation of dry ice? You might be able to 3d print almost all of the components

[@beeflasagna3150]

Hi dapz

[@Eduardo_Espinoza]

I've been wanting to do this for years

[@suspense_comix3237]

Sterling engine

[@dapz]

​@@suspense_comix3237 It's not a stirling engine, stirling engines use a temperature difference to expand and contract gas that is completely enclosed within the system. what im thinking is more in line with a steam engine

[@xmysef4920]

@@dapz Yes, but an engine that runs off of dry ice is still going to run on a the expansion of the co2 gas generated by a temperature difference created by the -70C of dry ice and the ambient temperature. But yes, a stirling engine’s working fluid is enclosed within the system unlike what a usual steam engine is.

[@tomasjosefvela1]

Distributes on cars have always had a mechanism to advance the timing when at higher RPM's . As the engine revs up the pistons move faster and the spark needs to happen earlier to catch the fuel and compression at that perfect spot that allows the fuel to ignite before the exhaust valve opens. Great video as always, thanks for sharing!

[@Integza12]

❤ ᴄᴏɴɢʀᴀᴛᴜʟᴀᴛɪᴏɴꜱ ʏᴏᴜ ʜᴀᴠᴇ ʙᴇᴇɴ ꜱᴇʟᴇᴄᴛᴇᴅ ᴀᴍᴏɴɢ ᴛʜᴇ ʟᴜᴄᴋʏ ᴡɪɴɴᴇʀ ꜰᴏʀ the 🤶 ɢɪᴠᴇᴀᴡᴀʏ ᴘᴀᴄᴋᴀɢᴇ ʜɪᴛ ᴜᴘ✉️ ᴛᴏ ᴄʟᴀɪᴍ ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴘʀɪᴢᴇ 🎁

[@Ghost812many]

Yo, when you switch fuels like that, you have to retune the engine timing and carb flow rates (i.e. rejet) for that fuel type. Also, engines running race fuels tend to run at higher than normal cylinder pressures than their stock counterparts. That little green o-ring on that piston probably not gonna cut it. Maybe vent the crankcase to monitor blow-by with a pressure guage. Just a few tips from a fellow engine enthusiast. Happy Brapping!

[@pieterpretorius1014]

the carb used on this engine is the same that's used on model airplane engine. the spray bar setup is actually very simple and works. these model carbs don't have jets like the carb you would find on a car engine. i would a bigger fuel tank would also help and some minor tuning of the mixture needles

[@Giuseppe326]

That carb is basically 2 straws with a throttle body there’s no tuning it

[@Popwarner-x1w]

I have a transparent engine that runs on Colorado Kool aid 🙂

[@BPBomber]

An integza upload. Hell yes, exactly what I needed right now. Thanks for the smiles buddy.

[@mgoopioopi9322]

Same

[@UncleJimmema]

As others have mentioned the fuel/air ratio and ignition timing are probably a factor. The lack of a head gasket might be playing a role too, at 10:05 you can see exhaust gases poofing out of the seam which would suggest its not getting as good compression as it could.

[@bryanleal1475]

yes and also even with a head gasket it appears the melting Resin is creating a lack of Straight Deck to even get any clamping seal on. that is also an consideration to take as well

[@jimmyb1451]

My guess as to why it's firing inconsistently, is that the air fuel mix is VERY rich. As is often the case with engines as small as that. If there isn't a mixture screw on the carburettor, there's not much you can do about that, aside from removing the "jet" (which will be a small tube in the centre of the carby in this case) and replace it with a new tube with a smaller hole in the end in order to lean out the A/F ratio. You can either do a lot of maths to work out how much to reduce the jet size, or you can just do it by trial and error. I'd wager that if you reduce the jet orifice by 10%, it will fire much more reliably. It will also run hotter, and may not have enough lubrication. You could try restricting the flow of fuel with a valve, that might allow you to tune it.

[@allen4335]

If the flow of air and gaz is bad it will stop right away .. the problem here is not in the mixture but in the ignition u can’t see spark .. if the mixture was bad that doesn’t explain why we dont see spark

[@jimmyb1451]

@@allen4335 You won't see the spark. All engines will run on a considerably wide A/F ratio. You can smell it when they're running rich and generally you'll see black soot from the exhaust. (in petrol engines) If the A/F ratio is too lean, you'll see engine and exhaust temps rise (dramatically, as in they will melt the cylinder head at the exhaust valve in extreme lean conditions) you'll get detonation (knock) and in the case of these small engines that use the fuel to lubricate the cylinder, they will run out of lubrication and wear the cylinder to the point of no compression within ten minutes. So no, they won't stop right away, they can run rich or lean, and if they are, it can have diabolical ramifications. If anything, because of flame front temperatures and flame propagation speeds of the three fuels in question, it explains why the high percentage nitro methanol fuel fired more reliably than the other two fuels.

[@teabagtime]

Could it also be leaky valves? perhaps some air is being pushed out during the compression cycle (either through exhaust or air inlet valve). Also I don't know much about these sorts of things, but it looks like the intake valve isn't opening very much at all on the intake stroke. Maybe adjusting the cams, or perhaps adding a shim on top of the valve so it gets pushed further?

[@jimmyb1451]

@@DjoXey I did notice that. That would be the second thing I would go after, only because it did the same thing more or less on multiple cylinders. Definite possibility though.

[@aidenwantscracker7849]

If it ran Very rich the smoke would be a darker color

[@TheTartopum76]

First thing would be mixture, as all of these fuels have different air/fuel ratio. Bad mixture would cause the engine to run poorly, if it even runs. Second thing, it would provide better data to use some form of engine load to better test the performance of each fuel.

[@joshlansdowne5163]

Yeah I agree, I think it's the AFR's - Integza should look up fuel Lambda's / AFR's for the different fuels - there's a lot of tuning videos around this for actual vehicles. I'm assuming you're running too rich for the ones that fizzle out and then was running too lean for the one that revved higher. Perhaps tweak the quantity of air that works it's way into the engine (you'd probably do this by changing the carb jets but not sure that can be done with that model).

[@thebamplayer]

How would a stoichiometric mixture run?

[@ratemisia]

I was thinking that the issue might be an inadequate air intake or poor expulsion of exhaust.

[@jc13781]

came here to suggest this, its definitely got to be something up with the air fuel ratio... there are lots of other videos where he has had issues do to air fuel as well

[@Mis73rRand0m]

Skipping power strokes is likely due to no load lean conditions - enough accumulation of unburned fuel on the "dead" strokes will eventually make one good puff. If he has enough compression and was running under load it probably would be predetonating depending on ignition advance.

[@justfivz]

Tomatoes are disgusting! Nice video. My idea is a 3D printed inverted Wankel engine, maybe a transparent one made with resin.

[@integza]

Congratulation! You just won a 3D Printer! Send me your info (Name, Address, Zip Code, Phone Number) to [e-mail].

[@justfivz]

@@integza done the email start with fole***

[@jayaramesh7544]

I also needed 3d printer

[@13_cmi]

Tomatoes are indeed disgusting. I have a ton growing but I’m still never gonna eat them.

[@derrickhardy1071]

@@integza compression is different for each fuel hence different strokes yes?

[@jacks__9229]

your engines/rocket content just keeps getting better, love the videos

[@Sentinel209]

i agree

[@dincao17]

When the power stroke occurs creates massive pressure. The opening of the release valve might not be enough to release all that compressed pressure ,so the fuel entry valve when opened, because there is still compressed material in there, instead of fuel entering it will be repelled.

[@user-dj1hy6zc6q]

Exactly what I was thinking. The timing of the spark and duration of the burn might not be well suited for the design of the engine, causing it not to scavenge well, causing a bad intake stroke following good power strokes.

[@PatchesTheProtogen]

Hi Joel, The reason why this engine is not doing a power stroke every 4 strokes could be that it might have speed governing, specifically hit and miss where it doesn’t combust the fuel when it is running above the set speed. Just something to consider :) Kind regards Hunter

[@RI7]

And i see some fuel leaking to crankshaft from the cylinder

[@josephjefferson2609]

I love your content I show it to my 4 son's, and I have to say thank you because your videos has made their love of science equal to or surpass my love of science.

[@Beltonius]

Valve and ignition timing (IE when the valves open/close and when in the stroke the spark happens) may all need to change with the different fuels. In addition, the carburetor is built assuming the required air/fuel ratio for the original fuel. Those ratios, as you pointed out, are different for any other fuel.

[@jimmyboe25]

Yeah watching stuff on PFI when Brett goes and checks out Top fuel dragsters they talked about how the sparking timing and everything else changes with the fuel

[@funkdoobiest]

Thank you so much for making this video! My six-year-old wants to make an internal combustion engine, so we are learning all we can about them preparatory to getting our hands dirty. Thank you!

[@hayden3928]

Make? Thats awesome! Out of what meterials?

[@BuZZarDFPV]

I think it has to do with timing, by changing the octane of the fuels as you are, you change the ignition point in the cycle, you'd have to tune the timing to match the ignition time, useful for increasing compression to avoid detonation (Lower octanes self detonate under higher compression).

[@4x4BMW]

The motor has electronic ignition so unless it was a super high compression I wouldn't suspect there to be an issue with pre-ignition. Maybe double check with a micrometer the length of the cylinder maybe even sand it down a bit to gain some compression

[@4x4BMW]

Not to take away from what you said or be rude in any way but I don't suspect this four-stroke has the same type of compression that maybe a nitro 2-stroke motor would have

[@Bigggy172]

Timing as nothing to do with octane rating. Gasoline will brun at the same rate whatever the octane rating. The maximum timing that engine can take is only relavent to the engine itself and combustion chamber design. If an engine can make more power with more timing on an higher octane fuel it's simply that you havent reached the maximum of the engine yet. Let's say max timing of 36deg is acheived with 91oct, 116oct race fuel wont make more power, it will be the exact same. If you cant reach max timing we "said" octane fuel well its another storry. This as been proven on an engine dyno by Engine Master on Motortrend

[@wondermuttperez255]

I would speculate the stroke missing has to do with the load on the engine. A load would pull the RPMs down and thus the cycles would complete in the allowed time to meet the next power stroke. This would mean the powerstoke is only missing because the engine is using inertia at the point the second powerstroke would hit so it essentially becomes another suction phase that would cause a combustion failure. but the inertia in the system wouldn't be great enough to maintain a speed that can skip a third powerstroke cycle.

[@KanedaNLD]

You need to adjust the timing of the motor. So it sparks a little early. The way your spark will be in time with higher RPM. Same as with the top fuel drag racers. They run terrible at low RPM, but a high RPM they run super smooth.

[@marsgizmo]

Love the see-through mini engine! Awesome project Joel! 👏

[@andresgalvez2718]

Video idea: build a transparent electric motor and put magnetic powder around the stator coils. That way we could see the operating motor and the activation of each individual coil. I'm a huge fan of 3D printing, engineering, motors and (obviously) integza!

[@samflint4749]

Thats an amazing idea!

[@zefror_7078]

One thing you should look into the model of the engine can explain why there isn't consistent power strokes. The engine may be hit-n-miss engine with irregular firing cycles which is just built in the engine. That means if the engine is exceeds certain amount of rpm it will miss a power stroke to drop down the rpm.

[@wbbigdave]

I once again recommend you look at turbo prop engines. They provide a mix of power and efficiency with smaller aircraft. It also has a really interesting design for compression and air intake

[@jackfuller6028]

Love the videos, I would like to provide my two cents on why she wasn't running right: As a qualified and experienced small engine tech, and what you have there is essentially a small vintage briggs and stratton engine, I reckon your fuel mixtures were off (too rich) The reason you got better combustion with the 25% nitro is (as you perfectly explained) the nitro requires less air to burn, so a rich mixture actually helped its combustion. If you adjust the fuel mixtures, I suspect gasoline would end up running mint.

[@shanejensen3497]

A 3D printed see-through fire piston which demonstrates how diesel engines work, would be a fun project to see. You can ignite small pieces of cotton or tissue this way. It's a cool way to teach how a quick change in volume can increase temperature.

[@ToninFightsEntropy]

Suggestion: Stress test a transparent pulse jet by putting a tomato in it. I once saw someone put sand in engines to destroy them and it went for a very long time, lasted surprisingly well. I'd like to see something similar to that with transparent parts on something with fire in it vs tomatoes instead of sand.

[@ismamuller1]

Integza, all your skipping cycles troubles are related to the fuel-air mixture. Different fuels have different density, therefore if you don’t adjust the carburetor, it won’t work properly. I don’t know if you have adjust on that carb, but if not, you have to adjust some how the fuel metering jet… for metanol it should be smaller, as metanol is less dense than gas…. Modern multifuel engines today do that by adjusting the injectors opening time, thus adjusting for less or more fuel per volume of air.

[@jacobe2995]

This^

[@ismamuller1]

@@kese5593 maybe you are correct. I got it the other way arroun, nevertheless, the rationale is the same… ajust the f..ing mixture.😀😀😀👍

[@jondahl9826]

One of the issues with the engine running on alternate fuels is the jetting of the carburetor. Alcohol generally takes twice as much fuel as gasoline, so your carburetor needs to be able to flow far more fuel. The addion of nitromethane amplifies that need. In racing vehicles there are carburetors designed with huge metering jets and passages for the alcohol based fuels. Ignition timing may also be affected by the different rate of burn.

[@celifreo6586]

It would be really cool to use an arduino or similar to adjust the spark timing manually, controlled with a hall effect sensor. You could also put a capacitor in series with the spark plug for a hotter spark, see what results you get from different fuels

[@krashanb5767]

It's called Speeduino :)

[@mylittleparody2277]

Congratulations, you just reinvented the engine computer. And that would be an awesome thing to do with maybe auto tune depending on the fuel and the engine.

[@zelwinters1981]

@@mylittleparody2277 Oh man, you'd need oxygen and knock sensors then. :D

[@gepanzerteRatte]

I was actually thinking about something like this a few weeks ago. Really impressive work 👍👍 Good job

[@sethh8892]

When dealing with compression you also have to remember there's a difference between Dynamic compression and static compression. Static compression is the typical one used to measure the compression of an engine. It only refers to the Piston at bottom dead center and the Piston at top dead center. However this is not always the proper way to measure. When the Piston is at bottom dead center the valves are still open, which means that it's not actually compressing any air. As the Piston moves up in the bore, the valve is still open for a bit, then fully closes. The measurement of the volume that is compressed in the combustion chamber when the valves are fully closed is called the dynamic compression ratio.

[@ebonfortress]

I think only the most advanced ICEs (like F1) use dynamic compression

[@sethh8892]

@@ebonfortress no, Dynamic compression occurs in almost EVERY combustion engine due to intake and exaust duration overlap. When going up on the compression stroke, your valves may still be open. This means you're not actually compressing anything in the combustion chamber. So if you were to measure your compression based off bottom dead center to top dead center, you would not be making up for the compression lost due to valves being open. Dynamic compression ratio understands this, and makes up for it. Dynamic compression ratio is only measured from when all valves in the head are absolutely closed during the compression stroke.

[@ebonfortress]

@@sethh8892 Thanks. Just read that actual operation of ICE is somewhat more complicated than a simplified model we all know. What really surprised me is that both intake and exhaust valves could be open at the same time and it actually improves performance

[@ebonfortress]

@@sethh8892 As far as I understand intake/exhaust overlap is kinda different. You want to have as large stroke as possible during expansion to utilise as much combustion energy as possible but you can't have say 20 to 1 compression ratio on compression stroke because of knock. So you keep intake valve open to keep the "real" compression ratio to say 10 to 1.

[@sethh8892]

@@ebonfortress yes, thats called dynamic compression. Its the actual copression the engine experiences. If you only measured from bdc to tdc you would get static compression.

[@putinslittlehacker4793]

it has to do with how fast the air fuel mixture burns as the flame front moves at different rates depending on the fuel, also i don't think you adjusted your carb to run richer to take advantage of the ability to burn more nitromethane and as you said it's less energy dence so given the same air fuel ratio you make less power.

[@HaartieeTRUE]

the problem is that he can't. Look closer, at the valve he uses to control the engine. That's the carburator bellow it. He can only control throttle, not air-fuel mixture.

[@Plankyo5223]

My idea is to make the engine run on hidrogen withch is also combustible.

[@robot64shorts38]

That I a great idea i really want to see it

[@Not.a.bird.Person]

One hypothesis I would suggest for performance/fuel is that mix ratio is important and unless the carburetor is controlled for the specific mix ratio with the butterfly valve, you will not get adequate performance for each fuel. In this case, my favored hypothesis would be that 4 strokes may not provide an adequate mix ratio with the valve setting and the pressure to ignite properly. Another thing to consider is that different fuels will require different compression ratios to ignite adequately. Compression is a fuel dependent design variable in a 4 stroke engine but the general philosophy is more is better till you reach a weight limit for structural strength to hold the pressure in. There is however a minimum pressure for many fuels to ignite repeatably. You seem to have a major leak on the cylinder head (looking at those bubbles), I would recommend adding a gasket and see if it improves the ignition because if pressure leaks, that means you may not have enough pressure built up to ignite some fuels properly.

[@jtrider3779]

All the alcohols you tested have a different stoichiometric ratio, which you briefly touched on. Gasoline is 14.7:1, and while I don’t know about methanol or nitromethane off the top of my head, I do know that ethanol in 9.7:1. So you need much more fuel to combust with the same energy. Where the benefit comes from with these alcohols is in high performance engines with extremely high cylinder pressures. Gasoline will burn too hot and too fast, which can cause problems such as pre ignition, and melt pistons. When you start to get into high compression ratios, advanced ignition timing, and forced induction, these alcohols have their place. They burn cooler, and slower (the slower a fuel burns, the higher the octane rating). Running pump gas under these extreme conditions will often be detrimental to a cylinder, but the alcohol fuels make it much safer to run. Edit: also, an added benefit is, alcohol burns much cleaner. If you ever disassemble an engine that’s ran on alcohol vs gasoline, you will notice that on the piston, valves, and cylinder head will have lots of carbon deposits, whereas the alcohol engine will look clean as a whistle!

[@Craftlngo]

this was also my thought. You can't simply change the fuel without tuning the whole engine cycle (compression ratio, ignition timing, air-fuel ratio, etc.) fitting to the fuel.

[@Moltrax]

I'm always just amazed by what you are able to create and I always wanna do something like this myself whenever I see your content, keep up the great work!

[@AAaa-jc5sk]

The volatility of the fuel (how much it wants to detonate) . Gasoline is less powerful than diesel, but is easy to boom. Gasoline can ignite from a spark but diesel won’t.

[@maxloftus4268]

I'd love to see a video 3D printing steam engines, the gasoline ones are really cool but I've always wanted to see the inside of a steam engine working!

[@theholyelmo5150]

He has done this

[@farmallforlife3790]

Yes he did this already

[@spaz-vo3hw]

In keeping with the same theme, could you do a clear two stroke engine? I’ve always wondered what that would look like.

[@DoNotPushHere]

Same here, some pin this comment up!

[@johanocop]

Yes, with a clear exhaust👍

[@badrobot4497]

A 3d printed transparent transmission would be great to see. I know most of us understand how gears work, but to see a sun gear engage and run through individual gears would be awesome 😎

[@Jedusaad]

You should try an transparent piston with a 2-stroke engine, that`d be fun to watch.

[@bobi_lopataru]

transparent piston? i think you meant a transparent cylinder

[@prophecy66]

Hey Integza, I think it would be an interesting video to see if you can use the waste heat from the gasoline engine to power a steam engine and somehow combine their outputs if possible. Squeeze all the power you can out of those dinosaurs :)

[@munchobell2890]

U ARE A GENIUS

[@keithyinger3326]

That is a brilliant idea. I kind of do something similar here at my house. Out in my workshop that is attached to the house I have a woodstove. I have a copper coil and a one-way valve running through the bottom grate of the fireplace which Heats a 50 gallon barrel of water over time. Then I can pump that hot water through a radiator in the house and blow a fan over it which keeps the house fairly warm. Mind you it is only a tiny house with one main room a bedroom and a bathroom but it still works pretty darn good. In the summertime it also works pretty well in reverse. The water is sitting out in the barrel gets down to 60° or so at night. Then I can pump it through the radiator and it serves as kind of a air conditioner in the summertime.

[@prophecy66]

Pretty cool that something similar is already in use. And cool to hear about your radiator setup, good use of the woodstove. I think an additional way to use the steam produced could be to power implements. Think an excavator for example. The engine itself could run the tracks and what not, but the steam could be used for hydraulics perhaps.

[@cimjohansson4878]

a stirling would be better.

[@xxhellspawnedxx]

I think I saw something: To me, it looked like some of the fuels ignited well past the cylinder starting the power stroke - It seemed to flash at the mid stroke position - which would lose you a lot of energy, as the explosion would work against the piston when it's going into its exhaust stroke. If my eyes aren't deceiving me, that's a timing issue and may be related to the missing power strokes issue. From my limited knowledge of combustion engines, I seem to remember that you need to tune the engine according to what fuel you're using to get the action to work right. So that might be worth tinkering with. For the missing power stroke issue, I think you need to do more tests. See if there's pressure escaping around the top of the cylinder, what happens if you move the ignition timing around, etc.

[@black_yeti]

when you change the fuel, you need to tune the carburetor. if not, the engine will run with either too much fuel or not enough depending on what fuel you're using. in the case of nitromethane you want more fuel than air.

[@joshloessb]

Yep, pretty sure that this is exactly why the "better" fuels performed worse.

[@chauvaudziggy9802]

Each fuel requires a particular ratio of the carburetor for a perfect combustion, moreover variables like weight, diameter, cm2... can make vary the parameters of admission What I would like to see is to compare the different fuels by installing a solution that gives them more kinetic energy with for example the installation of a flywheel ( "volant d'inertie" I'm not really sure about the translation )

[@ReachJase]

Its the dwell time for the switch to change state from on to off and on again. Since the rotational speed is twice the time it takes for the ignition signal to register you are only catching the spark every second power stroke imho. A faster reacting signalling device might be the answer such as a close tolerance hall effect switch. It looks like the switch used in the video is a magnetic reed switch, so there is travel time needed to latch and unlatch the switch if that is the case.

[@jeffmcdonald101]

Perhaps the different fuels are not reaching optimal stoichiometric ratios with the same carburetor settings? You could try forced intake so you can dial it in to get the most power maybe. Very cool demo engine mate. Nice work on the 3d print cylinder.

[@williamking5979]

stoichiometric is the most efficient burn of a fuel, but not for getting the most power. not that it matters much on a tiny engine for the purposes of this video, however that thing was running extremely rich, you could see fuel down the cylinder walls. so anything learner would be better.

[@dylanshandley1246]

@Blake Belladonna I don’t think stoich would be a great idea for this engine. A lot of engines (from jet engines to rocket engines, to Internal combustion engines) don’t run at a perfect stoichiometric ratio because, while it may generate the most power, its also going to generate the most heat. In ICE’s, you don’t want that because a lot of the internal parts will start to lose structural strength, and would eventually just fail at those temps. In this case, where you don’t even have the benefits of an iron/aluminium block to act like a big ol’ heat sink with coolant passages through the hottest areas, you’d just melt the resin “cylinder”, then the aluminium components, then the brass components.

[@williamking5979]

Dylan is correct. Most cars will only shoot for 13.7-1 which is stoich at idle and at a constant cruise. When accelerating they can sometimes go as low as 10.5-1 to prevent damage to the engine from heat, pre-dentonation/ pinging, etc. And in some situations newer cars will push beyond stoich to 14 or even 15-1 at a cruise to further increase fuel economy. This causes the engine to stutter slightly but is not noticeable with an automatic transmission with a torque converter as a buffer.

[@nictanium]

stoichiometricis kinda the best of all worlds. Lots of power, runs cleanish, and won’t destroy itself. Lean burns hot and can melt pistons and valves etc. rich will never burn out the engine but runs dirty and will eventually stop because of that. It is best to run stoichiometric to slightly rich. The most important thing that will effect things is that different fuels can have very drastically different stoichiometric ratios. stoichiometric Air/fuel for gas is about14.7/1.0. (14.7 grams of air with 1 gram of fuel. stoichiometric air/fuel for nitro methane is about2.1/1.0 (2.1 grams air with 1 gram of nitro methane) If it’s a carb designed to run gasoline it may be too lean for use with nitro methane. As an example if the cylinder held 14.7 grams of air it would need 1 gram of gasoline for stoichiometric combustion or approximately 7 grams of nitro methane for stoichiometric combustion. Too rich or too lean can cause no combustion and a carb designed for gas may be too lean for reliable nitro methane combustion. As the exchange is not 100% it may take 2 or 3 cycles to build up enough nitro methane to actually combust.

[@nictanium]

Most engines do try to run perfect stoichiometric ratio as consistently as is possible. It creates the most power reasonable available and runs fairly clean as well. But that’s not why they do it. They do it mostly for emissions reasons, this is especially true for automobiles. All automakers have to meet certain emission levels and as they are judged by the entire fleet of vehicles they make even going slightly over set levels by not being stoichiometric can lead to billions of dollars in fines from government. Running rich produces more hydrocarbon pollution(ever seen a diesel pickup truck “rolling coal”, running lean makes combustion hotter and leads to the formation of nitrous oxides( that causes acid rain). Various vehicle manufacturers have tried various ways of idling the engine lean to save fuel but because at idle there is less air entering the engine (less volume of combustion lowers combustion temperature) so the increase of temperature by running lean doesn’t raise the temperature to that required to create nitrous oxides. It’s only in pretty extreme conditions that engineers try to run combustion outside the best stoichiometric ratio they can achieve. Example top fuel dragsters, run as rich as you can to get most power and cooling from nitro methane without hydrolocking the engine. Another extreme example would be the Saturns F1 rocket engine. They run( lol they haven’t run a Saturn F1 rocket engine in many decades, should have said ran not run) pure fuel around the outside of the injector assembly to stop combustion from happening against the inside surface of the rocket nozzle so it doesn’t melt. Every where else on the injector assembly is set to run perfect stoichiometric ratio mostly for power but also a little for it to run clean. In short other than a few extreme examples any engineer that has to pick an air fuel ratio will pick the perfect stoichiometric air fuel ratio(at least as perfect as the technology he has available can achieve)

[@Tomd8002]

Would be interesting to measure and compare the amount of torque the different fuels produce. (Especially if the engine is fixed so it fires every 4 strokes!)

[@MrJK-dx1bi]

hi bro this issue is because every engine is designed for specific fuel for example : petrol engine are designed to have a low compression rate where else diesel engine are designed to have a high compression rate so in this case the engine that you own may have a low or high compression rate so if u have to use other fuel efficiently we must have to tweak the engine's compression rate that's the problem you are facing while using different type of fuel and u changed the engine to transparent by resin which may some error can be occur in dimensions and cause this problem

[@DaimyoD0]

Well of course the next step would be to build some other miniature engines with a transparent cylinder, right? Being able to look at the differences with a two-stroke engine (like how differently lubrication works) with a transparent cylinder would be great, or a diesel engine (how it doesn't use a spark plug, etc.) Something I've always found fascinating is how different cylinder configurations have different characteristics, how they have to be timed with one another and be balanced. Like for example, every piston in an inline engine needs a counterweight, but in boxer engines, pistons are arranged to oppose each other and balance each other out. I've never seen this outside of an animation. I'd also love to see you play with moving energy storage, like using flywheels or reaction wheels.

[@texastaterbug5395]

Take a look at Warped Perception's videos

[@donot...gotovideos8271]

That would honestly be really cool

[@rmg_lb]

Not sure if resin would withstand diesel pressures for long. Then again, RUDs never stopped Integza, luckily for us :D

[@vipulbhardwaj8232]

I like the sound of these engines and it is so satisfying to see the the piston moving😀

[@geor664]

Try measuring the output of the hall effect trigger to see if the triggering signal is slew rate limiting in response time. Also do the same at the ht spark end. Create a capacitive divider network to reduce the HT voltage your trying to measure with your oscilloscope to something within the voltage range of the oscilloscope. You can create a capacitive voltage divider clip with a giant plastic peg to clip to the spark plug, and use insulated wire coiled, to create two capacitances for a voltage divider.

[@jbirdmax]

A common misconception about octane is that it makes your fuel more explosive. In actuality, they add octane to calm the volatility of petrol (gas) to help the engine run more smoothly and with less misfire ping. Also better atomization of the fuel as it leaves the carburetor will increase performance and fuel economy as it helps the engine fire more reliably.

[@ABaumstumpf]

Misfiring is a sign of either a very bad engine-design or too high compression rate for the fuel. Higher octane means it is stable under higher compression, which in turn yields higher power/efficiency.

[@harryp1778]

I'd love to see a transparent rotary engine, it would be so cool if you could even build it from scratch!

[@Ghost812many]

Yo, check out the channel Warped Perception. He did a rotary with a clear faceplate, and some other interesting stuff.

[@PatchesTheProtogen]

Hi Joel Hunter again, Another reason why the engine is doing only one power stroke per eight strokes could be that the Hall effect switch/sensor might not be registering some of the strokes because of how fast the engine is running. Kind regards Hunter

[@Bateker]

If you give the engine load then it will ignite every 4th stroke. The carburettor ensures that the engine is kept at one speed and therefore does not fire with every power stroke. :)

[@zanzio]

Well not really. What you are talking about are "hit and miss" engines and they usually keep one valve open when combustion is not needed. A carburetor just mixes fuel with air, it doesn't keep the engine at one speed by skipping power strokes but rather by limiting the amount of mixture that is sucked into the cylinder. Combustion should happen every 4th cycle.

[@nathangoosen]

Now that you've done a video on a 4 stroke engine, a follow up video on a transparent 2 stroke engine would be really interesting. This video does a excellent job of explaining how the motor functions and how amazing and complicated modern 4 stroke engines are.

[@zacharymance5194]

Thank you for showing a preview at the beginning before diving into the content. I can't stand modern youtubers that give their life story before diving into the raw content.

[@austinbrewer2680]

As a lot of people have said, there's a few engineered solutions that need to be added. You will need to control the valve timing. That could mean 3d printed cams, or electronic solenoid control (much cooler, and easy to adjust for different fuels). Next, you need a way to measure the AFR. Typically that's done through the exhaust fumes. Then, you can modify the intake of gasoline:air for the proper mixture. Third, you will need to control the timing of the ignition system. Retarding or advancing the ignition times for fuel is necessary, as fuels don't always ignite/burn at the same speeds. Looks like you have a future ahead of this engine. Time to create an ECU out of a raspberry pi or something and get to work 👍 PS. While you're at it, maybe you'd like to experiment with engines with alternative crankshafts to maximize power delivery. Piston power is greatest at the start of the combustion. Yet, the crank is positioned at the point with the least amount of torque (nearly vertical, rotated up). Maybe you could solve that problem 👍

[@Ek_Erilar]

Video idea: You should try to print an axial type compressor and see if it's possible to get it self sustaining if used in a jet engine. EDIT: i've seen one video of a printed axial copressor but never used for an engine

[@HQIT998]

you can put the electric jet engine in an alluminium pipe to be less weight and lounch it in to space and sorry if i say something wrong,i am not good at english

[@SalientDebate]

If the cylinder weren’t exhausting the entire contents of the cylinder during the exhaust stroke, the plug may be firing into a dead charge unable to ignite the cylinder until the next cycle clears it. Typically scavenging from the exhaust pulses plays an important role here. You may try adding a bit of positive pressure to the intake to overcome this. Would make for an interesting video.

[@arturbaginski795]

I suggested the same as the main issue - too much exhaust gases at misfire cycles, and also that adding some turbo could partly sort it.

[@salame_essiccato4802]

Try to build a 2 stroke engine

[@64t120r]

When you first put the clear cylinder on, we could see bubbles coming out from gaps between the cylinder and the head. Put a gasket in there. Also print your cylinder small and polish to the proper dimension. Just a thought.

[@susimposter123]

You should definitely make a compressed air LiquidPiston rotary engine. WarpedPerception tried one and it’s like a Wankel rotary engine but better.

[@Tibyon]

Exhaust stroke is slower when there's actual exhaust to be pushed out. Different fuels also have different detonation speeds which don't necessarily correlate to power. Test again with a static load, or some kind of muffler on the exhaust and you'll have a better time plotting the power of each fuel.

[@blubb7711]

Faster burn always increases efficiency, but you have to put enough fuel into it. It’s simply running way to lean on nitro, without cranking up the carburetor

[@jasonabell8631]

Methanol is also used in drag racing for it's high octane rating and cooling effect

[@tollefreyerson6710]

I think you need to up the Jules of the spark for starters. Than look at either increasing the exhaust valve or increasing the compression. I think if you decrease the intake valve you might start to find the perfect air fuel ratio which is absolutely critical in a 4 stroke engine design. Good luck!!!

[@gmanshackshack6822]

The word you are looking for is "stoichiometric"... A lean running engine spins faster but produces less torque. A rich running engine runs slower and also produces less torque. An engine burning the proper stoichiometric mix of fuel and oxidizer (air) produces the most torque at a rotational speed somewhere between the lean and rich mixtures. The alcohol, having a lower caloric content requires a richer mix than gasoline. So your engine was running faster. Nitromethane... opposite logic.

[@gmanshackshack6822]

This might also account for the poor combustion issue... improper stoichiometric mix... too rich or too lean to light.

[@Demdere]

This

[@QuadPrime]

I'd also guess its because of the mechanical nature of the reed contact thats used to pickup the Crankshaft's position. keep in mind, it's not only igniting at the Powerstroke, but at every incidence the Piston is at it's highest point. Those reed contacts need to be accelerated and decelletated twice to create one negative flank that indicates passing the upper endpoint. Could be just about losing the sweetspot in those higher rmps. Depending on the nature of that Spark plug circuitry, try a hall sensor instread. You may even need a power transistor to energize the coil if it's a regular ignition coil setup. This will also require a reverse diode to protect the Hallsensor and Transitor from the peak voltage, even better, a set of HV-Caps (WIMA MKP). For a transitor, something that switches really quick is important. the steeper the flank, the better the ignition. That's why mechanical contacts remained for so long in combustion engines. good luck, and thanks for the nice video.

[@jacobrzeszewski6527]

Your problem could also do with a poor ground. I’m assuming the valve pushrods are the only thing grounding the cylinder head to the base. Most engines ground to the block.

[@nitroxunit1]

That's what I noticed too when he pointed out the inconsistent firing. If the coil is grounded to the block (lower part of engine) then the spark plug isn't getting a constant grounding thru the new plastic cylinder.

[@jameslmorehead]

I was thinking the same thing!

[@the_normal_guy9308]

11:09 The air to fuel mix is off. Along with the air pressure and fuel injection. Remember. Different fuels require different air to fuel mixtures. But the engine has a "fixed" amount of air and compression. Im not an expert, feel free to correct me.

[@HaartieeTRUE]

yeah, just noticed the carburator only has a throttle valve

[@HaartieeTRUE]

for nitro fuel, i think the air-fuel mixture should be lower

[@champgamer4394]

Make a movie like explosion. Big fireball and big smoke. But resin print this and make it rocket powered so it becomes a firework.

[@WetDoggo]

The different speeds might have to do with the mixtures igniting at different positional degrees, which can seriously harm efficiency. Also the air fuel ratio might be very off

[@DrTheRich]

exactly, car engines have a timing adjustment to advance the timing with a faster rpm

[@victorcimpean7791]

Video idea: make a small car and power it with your IC engine Love your videos!❤️

[@mrCetus]

I like the sound of these engines and it is so satisfying to see the the piston moving

[@tek5358]

You might need to adjust the timing advance to allow it to account for different fuel burn rates, if it's just a magnet or hall effect sensor, you would need to physically move the sensor, or coil, or adjust the magnet's rotation on the cam if there is a built In adjustment method

[@Marco-ip5cw]

I commented the same thing this is totally a timing and compression issue

[@SimpleSaemple]

Video idea: Create an engine that uses a fuel cell for hydrogen or similar. Less heat and more efficiency! Also, the piston chamber might simply be too long, causing inadequate compression.

[@zahariburgess3660]

isnt hydrogen one of the hottest burning gasses

[@CryoSignal]

Honestly super impressed you made that animation for such a small part of the video

[@nathanbeitler6083]

It would be so freakin cool if you made a hydrogen generator (through electrolysis) to power this little engine!!

[@dmartinr41]

that is hard, because the output is hho mixed, a very explosive gas

[@JosiahGould]

I'd like to see this replicated with wood gas, to see how efficient it is compared to "normal" fuels. Maybe combine the exhaust heat with a gas generator to keep it self sustaining.

[@stephenkeen6044]

Two possible issues: 1. Time to recharge ignition capacitors. Usually these small ignition systems are CDI, capacitor discharge ignition. They require a capacitor to charge up between discharges (sparks) and thus have a maximum frequency that they operate in, higher engine speed can result in not enough time to charge the capacitor. Switching to a two-stroke with a glowplug will improve reliability, but also generate a lot more heat. 2. Fuel / air ratio. The carburettor may not be supplying the right amount of fuel for the air for some of the fuels. You need to tune the ratio for each fuel to get close to the "stoichiometric" ideal in order to have effective combustion.

[@robinson4470]

I have to admit that I have been spamming the make a rocket comment and trying to win a 3d printer with it, and I know you are probably guilty too

[@christiancoding]

While I did not do that, you still have my respect. This May not be fair but i get why you did that.

[@jreererer8490]

Always knew you were a very smart person, being an enginehead wasn't surprising at all

[@ZeL-iq5sf]

You could try making the whole engine in resin

[@hayden3928]

"Engines tend to be made out of metal, and metal tends to be opaque." Not many understant this pain.

[@wolvenar]

As far as why there are different RPM vs fuel comes down to the speed in with the fuel reacts, vs total amount of energy available in each unit of fuel. An extremely oversimplified way to look at it is that a lower octane fuel will react faster, but have less molecules that are able to react per intake/power stroke. The motor will have less overall torque when there is a significant enough load with lower octane fuel, but without that load the faster reaction will drive the motor to turn faster. With a load the generally higher octane fuel with more reactant molecules per measure of fuel and air will have more overall energy with a longer burn within each power stroke. The motor can utilize this additional energy as torque to drive additional load. I hope this helps.

[@foxertttt5358]

You should have a sort of engine off where you put all the engines you’ve made against each other and have pull a banana (the best way to test an engine) and see which is the best

[@Athiril]

Less energy in the fuel doesn’t mean less power or efficiency. For example propane has a very high octane and lower energy content, but that higher octane can withstand a lot more compression (more efficiency) and/or much higher boost from forced induction (more power). Additionally with propane you can put the tank upside down and feed from the bottom to inject liquid propane into the carb or injector. The liquid to gas phase change as it heats up and expands will drastically cool the charge, allowing even more pressures. You can increase efficiency by raising the compression ratio very high, to optimise for premium gasoline, water+methanol injection through the intake at about 10% the fuel usage rate and is said to add around 10 points on the octane scale, allowing even more pressure from either compression (thus greater efficiency) or forced induction. Then propane can take that further as a fuel, and of course you can run the injection with propane as well to optimise for an extreme. There is an engine in Mazdas that runs at 16:1 compression ratio with a supercharger and fuel ratio of like 28:1 or so etc.. very lean, they’re fuel efficient and supposedly run around 40%+ efficiency. This runs just off gasoline. Optimising that for any of the aforementioned fuels you could push that even further. And if you combine that with Atkinson cycle to reduce pumping losses it raises the efficiency further. Then there is another thing, called freevalve, basically electromagnetic valve timings or compressed air valve timings… remove the need for a camshaft reduces the rotational mass and improves efficiency further from that reduction but also allows any “cam” timing you want and can run both Otto and Atkinson cycles in different situations.

[@KorkwiN7]

You need to play with the jet to adjust the fuel, and also the spark timing. Each of those fuels will likely have different ideal fuel and timing "tuning". I bet you could get all those fuels to fire every power stroke.

[@Alan_Hans__]

Jan Ridders made some great little glass cylindered motors about 8-9 years ago. Will Trudell has a real motor with a glass cylinder and Latheman's crazy machines has some glass cylinders made from syringes. Seeing the flames inside a motor is pretty insane.

[@BroncoJoeAK]

Methanol has a higher octane rating than gasoline. So it’s harder to ignite, meaning under higher compression it doesn’t light off on it’s own prematurely via compression/detonation under higher compression ratios. 95 Octane gasoline, if I heard correctly, also seems pretty high for such a low compression, although the actual compression ratio is unknown to me. Your best bet is to look for spark blow-out. Essentially, gasoline is dielectric and so when you have a fuel mixture that is too rich and/or too much of a gap in your spark plug (or too small a gap), your spark plug is unable to ionize the gas surrounding the electrodes and form the corona necessary to create an arc and ignite your fuel. Different fuels will also run better at different stoichiometric values. At that scale I also wouldn’t be surprised if re-jetting isn’t an option. My suggestion would be either adjust your stoichiometry to achieve a slightly leaner fuel mix if you can, a tighter gap in the spark plug, or both. You could also try bumping down to a lower octane fuel. Edit: I saw people also mention ignition timing advance, and while that is likely a factor, I don’t really see a way to advance the timing accurately per RPM with something at that scale. In my opinion, you’re probably looking at air:fuel mix, and spark plug gap.

[@randybobandy9208]

Towards the end of the radial engine/propeller age, aircraft engines began using a power recovery turbine, which recovered some of the waste exhaust gas energy through a turbine that mechanically connected to the propshaft to add power. Pretty neat what they came up with at the absolute limit of radial engine development

[@themanleygarage]

Your air fuel ratio is incorrect. Nitromethane burns best at 1:1 air to fuel ratio. Best power around .8-.9:1. Gasoline at 14.7:1. Best power naturally aspirated around 12.5-13:1. Methanol at 5.5:1 or 6:1. Best power at 4.0:1 on average. Additionally, your ignition timing is critical. It would be fun to instrument, and tune the engine with a basic fuel injection system like mega-squirt. That way you could command and achieve optimal ignition timing, and air fuel ratios. Develop different tunes, and even utilize different injectors to test fuel delivery rates. A wide band O2 sensor could be utilized to monitor combustion events. This will give you precise control of the engine. Could be fun to test different air fuel ratios, while simultaneously being able to throttle the engine. Then maybe build, borrow or steal a small dyno to test power output. I like the videos keep up the great work.

[@tavinanderson7077]

Hey Integza, you should make a video describing how a carburetor works. It would help with understanding different fuel types and help in understanding the reasons for some fuels running better than others.

[@Atomy111]

Smarter every day did a really good video about that

[@jasonpoling8510]

I loved your video and very awesome to see. Please note: Compression, Carbeuration (for amount of fuel) and timing of the spark all come into play for proper 4-stroke performance.

[@zanderzahnarzt3265]

How about making a deathly 3D printed LASER?! 😍

[@tuckeralbaugh5818]

I think your engine is still burning during your exhaust stroke. That could be why its spinning slower. Maybe a longer stroke would help?