Patent CA-2430340-A1 (CA)
Inventor: VAN WYK ABEL
IPC: F02B23/06
Filed: 2003-06-02
Abstract: As a personal automobile, I owned a Dodge 1974 Dart Sport, that I had bought from Chrysler Canada Ltd. It had a Slant Six gasoline engine, consisting of 6 cylinders in an in-line block that slanted about 15 to 20 degrees in relation to the vertical.   At that time, people in the know, such as mechanics and sales representatives, commonly referred to its unique slant design as a means to allow for a lower engine compartment in order to benefit the appearance of the vehicle.   As I observed an unusually good combustion efficiency, I asked Chrysler whether this peculiarity was known to them.   Their Manager of Product and Quality Engineering, S. M. McDowall, answered with a two-page letter, dated July 18, 1974, of which a copy is inserted in this Abstract and given the page numbers 4 and 5; thus meant to be a part of it, as it gives witness to the conception of the invention.       The gist of it was that the uniquely high efficiency was not known at all.   It affirms that this engine's efficiency, in this vehicle and at an average vehicle speed of 90 kilometres per hour, was as I had claimed: better than 30 miles to the gallon; in metric about 12.5 kilometres per liter.   People in the know believed this to be an efficiency of 25% higher than of any similar car-and-engine combination of any other make.    With today's use of fuel injectors and electronic equipment -- all to improve efficiency -- it is still comparable. From which we may deduct that the efficiency benefits of the wedge-shaped chamber design equals the better efficiency benefits of the injection systems and their electronic accessories combined: -- about 25%   My method of collecting data was to record my car's odometer reading at the gas pump, top up the tank to almost overflow, then calculate its efficiency; and repeating this seamlessly at every tanking. So that after fifteen or twenty times I would be able to compute the average over several months, which could thus be regarded as being as accurate as possible.   Had dynamometers been as readily available as they are today, of course I  would have such test figures reported to Chrysler, and they, no doubt, would have responded in like. But, as it is, their letter is the only witness of that I  ran road tests, and that these were sound enough for them to be expertly checked out similarly --by road tests and with the best measuring equipment available.   It is only lucky that they graciously shared with me that their findings were the same as mine.   These are the unequivocal facts that are fundamental to the invention here being disclosed.   In general it was believed that the purpose of the slanting was that the tangential forces of compression and combustion were to counter the weight-caused forces of the pistons being pushed unduly up against the cylinder walls; thus that it was to eliminate the tendency of higher wear and tear in the direction of the pistons leaning down onto the cylinder walls.   But, in the absence of any other possible explanation available, it was and still is being reasoned in this disclosure that the unusually good efficiency of the Slant Six engine was due to that its combustion chambers were wedge-shaped.   It is worth it to repeat this: -- As it was not known to even the manufacturer that this slanted engine design had an inherently high combustion efficiency, their letter is an unwitting testament to the fact that the wedge-shaped combustion chamber design was not intended to benefit combustion efficiency, but that it was incidental to it, and therefore not so by invention. Which I believe gives strength to my claim that my invention is worthy and unique, as well as that it is purely mine.   The potential of the here disclosed invention is that all internal combustion engines can be devised so that their efficiencies will be similarly much improved --thus by 25%. Only the dynamometer will be able to tell with certainty, but at this stage it is reasonable to expect a conservative 15% over-all improvement, world wide.    This can be realized by designing combustion chambers for internal combustion engines that incorporate the rationale explaining the uniquely high efficiency of the Dodge 1974 Dart Sport Slant Six engine, but so that all forces onto the pistons will be in balance in relation to the centre lines of the pistons. Which is the novelty of the Balanced Storm Combustion Chamber concept.   Using the invention will increase the cost of an engine only a very tiny portion of the economic savings potential it will create. Thus it is reasonable to expect that the granting of the patent will start an industry wide research and development effort, that will improve the efficiencies of all makes of internal combustion engines.   Even if this optimistic view would be justified for only one-fifth of the possible 25% mentioned, it would still mean a 5% beneficial impact world wide, thus still be of immense dimensions.   But of far greater importance to all of society will be its parallel reductions in air pollutions. Which may well surpass the Kyoto Protocol requirements for all of Canada; certainly in terms of auto caused pollutions.