Valeo has customers for half camless engine
French automotive engineering company Valeo says that it’s camless engine development project will likely be ready by 2010 or 2011, and it already has a few customers working together with them, though Valeo board member Martin Haub declined to name who the customers are.
Valeo’s camless engine is not a full camless engine, but rather half camless, where only the intake valves are electronically actuated with a camshaft. The exhaust valves are actuated using the traditional camshaft method. Valeo says it took the half camless approach because this gives the Valeo half camless engine 80 percent of the performance of a fully camless engine while keeping costs down by half as much - as it is, a four-cylinder half camless engine is about 300 euros more than a normal camshaft engine. As for benefits over a normal engine, Valeo says the engine has 15% to 20% better fuel economy, as well as 15 to 20% better torque at the low end of rev ranges.
Mercedes Benz already has it’s own camless engine project called KDI EVT, with the resulting cam-less valvetrain engine expected to be supercharged with direct injection. BMW is also researching the technology, but is concerned with cost and durability, says BMW general manager for calibration V8 engines Christian Bock. Bock says the technical barrier to camless engines are not the valve actuators themselves but rather the sensors to make it all work with precision. Currently sensors are no accurate enough and have engine-life durability and reliability issues.
Look after the jump for a diagram from Valeo explaining how their electronic valve actuators work.
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December 15, 2006 @ 8:11 pm
godd consumption, low end torque, no big thing ,simply programming of the valve timing, perhaps more accurate than normal vvt if sensor work perfectly
good part is lower engine drag since its simplyfied operation,
but just imagine 8000rpm, perhaps sensor need some advance reading,i dont know,
for now i trust, conventional engine, since the main reason is to cut cost,
if a small electrical problem, means a total messed up, broken valve,
only if it proven in f1 ,then i belive its reliability,
looks like that they are trying for supercharged fat torque engine that require lower rpm power peak, means that they wont risk this camless for high rpm characteristic, yet
no more pomen bawah pokok for this electro-mechancal car.
December 15, 2006 @ 8:54 pm
on the negative / conspiracy side:
scheme to force every car owner using the engine to go to authorised SC.
only SC will be supplied with the computer device to diagnose this engine, and equipment to handle it.
then engine purposely built with so-and-so reliability and limited lifetime/durability. sure visit SC after warranty over.
then can taruk services charges kau - kau due the high-tech, precision parts, expensive materials bla bla bla..
in a nutshell, after sales profit-maker.
more electronic in car, engine, transmission etc = higher fault occurence = higher repair and maintenance cost.
December 15, 2006 @ 9:43 pm
IMHO, this camless tech can only fit in :
a) in smaller capacity (
December 16, 2006 @ 12:32 am
Paul,
There seems to be something wrong with your website. My browser has been having difficulties displaying your website i.e. the front page with the proton ad. No problems with other websites though. Is anyone else having this problem?
December 16, 2006 @ 12:43 am
Yes, I face a same problem but not to other. Sometime appear Proton ad only, sometime appear 2 or 3 thread only. For the last 3 days, I try to click many time in my Favorites - Paul Tan link section but for tonight it seem OK to me. Is that it is technical problem or ahem ……. “Paul Tan block my entry”, ha, ha, …. no offence hah.
December 16, 2006 @ 2:49 am
had some problem with the script, it only affects internet explorer (stupid browser), not firefox. - is it better now?
December 16, 2006 @ 9:11 am
Paul,
Now its ok. T thought my IE have a problem & I nearly format my hardisk!
December 16, 2006 @ 10:26 am
Paul,
No wonder me and my firefox facing no prob.Let us all change our browser.
December 17, 2006 @ 8:02 am
Upgrade your IE browser to IE 7. Everything will be okay.