Breakthrough or snake oil?

[orezok]

Speed of Air Engine Technologies Breakthrough Piston Technology

 

[gstrom99]

Here

Reported. I did not and never will click on BLIND links...

 

[NoTrespassing]

Speed of Air Engine Technologies Breakthrough Piston Technology

Wow, those are some pretty impressive claims! If true they would certainly be a game changer. Kind of hard to believe and I'd like to see independent testing results. Has this been done? I did find this:

DIYAutoMechanics@groups.io | Speed of Air Engine Technologies' Delivers Performance Breakthrough. 05/23/2021

groups.io

How about fuel consumption?

Note that the truck was fitted with a five-stage tuner in order to see the difference in the engine response when adding fuel, and to test the impact of the SOA technology on emissions and tailpipe opacity. The tuner was dialed up after each three-minute engine load test on the dyno, along with the emissions and tailpipe opacity calibration.

The purpose of this test was aimed at simulating pulling a 30,000-lb. trailer load at 50 mph instead of the more common test with maximum hp or torque. The chassis dynamometer was set up to hold the vehicle at 50 mph, wide-open throttle at full load. The engine revs were limited to 2,500 rpm. In order to avoid damage to the dyno, the engine was not run at full power during the full sequence of tests, which lasted for almost one hour.

Extensive testing indicates that on average, an F250 Ford Super Duty typically gets a combined fuel consumption (both street and highway) of 13 mpg. Anderson’s truck achieved 22 to 24 mpg at freeway speeds. A Ford F350, also fitted with SOA components and coatings, reported as much as 24 mpg or even more.

While fuel savings from SOA technology will vary with engine type and application, consumption has been reduced in general by as much as 30 percent in constant-speed conditions. Clearly, in commercial applications, SOA can help businesses not only reduce fuel expenses, but also avoid costly EPA fines and the extra expense of meeting emission requirements with after-gas modifications or re-powering.

As for improved engine life and reduced service intervals, Anderson’s newly built truck will need time to validate these benefits, but other SOA engines indicate surprisingly cleaner components after many miles of service.

For example, in a CAT 3516 mine haul truck engine, oil-change intervals could be extended by nearly double that of a conventional engine. Based on oil samples from the SOA engine versus the stock engine, SOA reduced the soot levels in the oil by 55 percent over a period of 27 months.

The economic impact of this aspect alone saved nearly $250K in operating expenses over 18,000 hours of service life. That figure is based solely on labor and materials for oil changes, not including maintenance or repairs due to engine wear, or lost production due to service down time.

While SOA’s innovations are relatively new to the engine market, they have been in development for a couple decades. Initially applied to V-Twin motorcycle engines, this patented technology is now benefiting much larger and more complex powerplants, backed by years of independent testing. All told, SOA has a proven technology with real-world, cost-effective benefits. It shows that the internal combustion engine can still be a viable, long-term option in a rapidly changing world.

 

[NoTrespassing]

Looking more closely at the article I linked to, the engine tested had many more modifications than just pistons.

 

[LouNY]

Speed of Air Engine Technologies Breakthrough Piston Technology

Interesting I had heard of this before but not much lately.

 

[gstrom99]

Reported. I did not and never will click on BLIND links...

Looks like the "blind" link ("here") got fixed, with a title, so it is no longer a problem.

 

[SmallChange]

Well this is a bit of a head scratcher. Most significant I think is their claim that the dimples create turbulence, which allows the combustion air to burn hotter closer to the metal. I understand that to mean that the turbulence is lowering the heat transfer coefficient between the air and the piston, so the air stays hotter and more of its thermal energy contributes to mechanical work rather than being lost into the piston. The trouble with that is that creating turbulence close to an air-solid interface is going to RAISE the heat transfer coefficient, not lower it. I smell a rat.

I've spent the last few years primarily doing computational fluid dynamics and heat transfer between air and solid surfaces.

On the other hand, such things are difficult to figure out just by looking at them. A scientific paper with data and an underlying theory could lay all this out in a way I'd be inclined to trust, but the advertising article linked doesn't do that. I'm going to rate this "funny, doesn't sound right, but not yet proven to be snake oil beyond a reasonable doubt".

 

[NoTrespassing]

FB page link won't work here I guess. Search "Speed of Air facebook"

 

[Boss 302]

My first impression was they are pushing the old "turbo encabulator" again (many of us remember that commercial). My guess it's snake oil, certainly not something that I would be willing to try on my Powerstroke. That would be an expensive experiment.

 

[LouNY]

If I was needing to rebuild a diesel I would certainly be tempted to try it depending upon the increase in cost.