Electronic Valves?

[rmarkr]

A riding buddy told me of this last night:
BMW have developed electronic/electric valves for the cyclinder head. There is no throttle body or camshaft. Throttle is controlled by the amount and duration of the inlet valve opening; valve timing, opening and duration is constantly adjusted by the engine management system.
Anyone heard of this? It sounds like it could work well.

[BubbaZanetti]

no throttle body?

how is the fuel/air mixture introduced to the head?

electronic valve control seems like a good concept. sensors in the crank directing servos in the head to actuate the valves. i've read a bit about this and it seems voltage needs are a bit higher than what can currently be supplied reliably by our batteries. those little actuators have a lot to overcome in larger engines.

[BMWRich58]

A riding buddy told me of this last night:
BMW have developed electronic/electric valves for the cyclinder head. There is no throttle body or camshaft. Throttle is controlled by the amount and duration of the inlet valve opening; valve timing, opening and duration is constantly adjusted by the engine management system.
Anyone heard of this? It sounds like it could work well.

I know a guy who works for Navastar.
Says they've had a "cam less engine" running for years now.
Only draw back is,current computers not being fast enough(think) to keep up with the engine demands. In due time he says.

[rmarkr]

no throttle body?

how is the fuel/air mixture introduced to the head?



I seems that there will be just an inlet tract/port, but the amount of mixture entering the engine will be controlled by the inlet valve/s - no butterfly or slide.

[Bob1100RTC]

I heard that Chrysler was working on something like that 10 years ago. If I recall correctly the engine had direct injection.

[boxermaf]

You'd want to have some incredibly high reliability on those solenoids and wiring running the valves - they would have to withstand alot of heat and work perfectly - a single nicked wire would ruin your day with a valve into the top of a piston.

While technically feasible, I like having simpler, mechanical systems in the valve train department. I can even handle VVT with eccentrically mounted camshafts controlled by embedded systems, but I like the valve opening/closing bit to be mechanical myself.

I'm not a technophobe - I design embedded systems like that and much more complex for a living. The simplicity of an airhead is like a breath of fresh air, sometimes.