92RS shearn

My group is trying to come up with ideas for a senior design and the ones we came up with were turned down.
1)Built in hydraulic jack system in the car
2)Automatic cooling system when car is unoccupied.

Both were turned down by the proffesors so we need new ideas, and I know people here would have some.
It can have to do with anything, engine, interior, heating cooling etc...

So if there was something you wish you had on your car but it doesn't exist, maybe I can create it.

Any ideas would be useful,

Thanks,
Chris

Vader

A bypass oil filtration (kidney loop) in addition to the staqndard oil filter, along with an electric pump to pre-lube the engine before startup.

AJ_92RS

Automatic unlock/open door feature if the keys are left in the ignition.

I know a few cars won't let you use the power door locks to lock the car if you left the keys in it, but they'll still let you manually lock the door.

They need to make one that will UNLOCK AND OPEN the door after you try to close the door in case you do leave them dangling. That way you can't close your door at all if you try and lock it (which would make it very obvious that you left them in there), but make it so you can still close the door if you don't try to lock it.

Know what I mean?

BOTTLEDZ28

iTrader: (9)

How about heated windows. just like the mirrors on new cars. only there will be a sensor of somesort that will detect frost and automatically heat the windows even when the car is off. Now we dont have to scrap the windows in the morning anymore

Jza

Electrochromatic windows. oooh. Imagine tinted windows at the touch of a button.

Arm the alarm system, and all the windows go completely opaque. Drive at night, and have crystal clear windows. Go halfway on a sunny day. :hail:

Jim85IROC

iTrader: (2)

more horsepower and better handling. All that other crap just adds weight. If I wanted a bloated car with a million bells & whistles I'd buy a 4th gen.

89RsPower!

variable gear ratio rear ends similiar to what tractor trailers have, some way to switch gear ratios for different types of driving at the push of a button.

spartyon

10yr/100,00miles warranty free would be good. i need one on my cars. i cant afford new

AJ_92RS

It's called a Hyundai or a Kia

dimented24x7

iTrader: (2)

pcm along with a 4l80-e with the northstar with 32V and fully infinite valve timing so i can emulate any camshaft profile i please.

dimented24x7

iTrader: (2)

id rather walk then drive one of those things.

dimented24x7

iTrader: (2)

my old maxima wouldnt let me close the door with it locked... it would automaticly unlock if i didnt lock it w/ the key.

ME Leigh

Develop a new way of actuating the intake and exhaust valves without a camshaft, or orther archaic method.

AJ_92RS

I thought you only have to hold the handle up? That's the way my Mazda is (actually about 80% of foreign cars)?

Kingtal0n

how about we get RID of the valve all together? Infinate valve train capability!

ME Leigh

Even better a different type of valve, one that doesn't restrict flow by being right in the wrong spot. Like a gate valve or?

ontogenesis

I'm 150% in agreement with Jim...i could really care less about handling, but definately something for horsepower...

Ideas that other have had (and some produced) include:

burst disks on nitrous plates incase of nitrous backfire (no one has any that go into the manifold itself yet) (Wilson Manifolds' Nitrous Pro-Flow)

a block modification and piston modification that oils the pistons (like ford powerstrokes do)

i like vader's electri pre-lube idea, or just an electric pump all together, better yet, a remote electric pump, there'd be alot less parasitic powerloss, no modifications to internal engine components short of fabbing a fitting for the rear main bearing, a rear mounted unit would help weight transfer and the extra line would hold more oil...which is always a good thing...

i'd kinda like a one peice intake manifold gasket like they have for oil pans

a kit to do priority oiling

two peice valve covers so you can adjust valves without losing a ton of oil

three peice oil pan (saw one for a mustang once) so you can change oil pumps, bearings, etc with the engine in the car

a timing cover (2 or 3 piece prefferably) with an externally adjustable cam button, perhaps adjustability for idler gear pairs in gear drives...

a steering box with (infinitely?) adjustable ratios (no idea how they work, so i dunno how plausible that is)

or best yet, a DASH AND UPPER DOOR TRIM THAT DOESN"T F&CKING CRACK!

hope that gives you something you can use, better yet, i hope some of that **** gets made

92RS shearn

WOW, look at all of these ideas, I knew I could cout on you guys to come up with something, I like many of your ideas.

I too was thinking of doing something with the valves to make them more efficient, wither a different shape or something to that effect.

I like vaders elect. oil pump as well, definitely save the engine some wear.

One of my partners wanted to sdo something with a lock as well, I will have to see if they like that idea

The automatic window heaing system isn't a bad idea, though I don't know about engaging it when the car is off, I'd think it would run down that batt fast.

Along with the thought of the valves, the infinitely variable timeing, that thought crossed my mind as well, would have to do it with elect. motors and a cpu, not sure if it would be concidered mechanical or elect, I will ask though.
Oh and king talon if you want no valves you could always use a rotary

The changing of rear end gears is a great idea, definitely mechanical, I'll have to study the specs on the rigs and see how it is done on them. I would love to have 2.73's cruisin down the road and then switch to 3.73's or 4.10's at the touch of a botton

Along the same thought, an infinitely variable transmission, Imagine holding your peek RPM of your engine while the trans gear continually decreases, imagine coming off the line with 3.30:1 and cruise at .3:1

Even the variable steering box ratios, all along a similar line of though of variable gearing

Some great ideas you guys have here, fel free to keep them coming, I have till tuesday to write more proposals.

Chris

Oh and can you describe the piston oiling? Are there oil passages in the pistion or something?

AJ_92RS

But you didn't suggest that so I guess it doesn't apply to you.

RJR99SS

solonoid operated valves are supposidly on the horizon, they were suppose to be out from gm in 05 but that dosnt appear to be happening.

Basically, the valve is just part of a solonoid, add current and it pops out. Remove current and it closes, naturally this would allow for infinite "cam" profiles...

ontogenesis

yea, the oil is pumped through the block but there are holes in the cylinders that match up on BDC and oil flows through it very briefly and continues on it's path.... I guess it's actually a Cummins turbodiesel that has it, i saw it on an episode of two guys garage...i may be wrong all together, they call it "gallery cooled pistons"

92RS shearn

Maybe I could combine 2 ideas,
a solenoid operated valve control, and then a gate type valve so that it does not interupt the air flow into the cylinder, just attach a lever to the selenoid at one end, then to the gate at the other end, when the gate valve open it would swing the gate into the cylinder towards the wall.

Just a thought,
I'll have to think about it more tomarrow since it is 3am

Jim85IROC

iTrader: (2)

I think you're most likely to see electro-mechanically operated valves first. Put a coil winding around the valve stem and a giant magnet around it (think of a subwoofer). Can you imagine the tuning possibilities if you can control every aspect of lift, duration, opening and closing speeds, etc? The torque curve will be as flat as my first girlfriend.

Kingtal0n

<b>Oh and king talon if you want no valves you could always use a rotary</b>

thats not funny

and What I MEANT was...
I saw a new type of "camshaft" for a new type of "engine"

instead of using the cam to open valves, the valves are INSIDE the camshaft...

That is, if you CALL them valve. they are just HOLES. two sided holes. the camshaft spins and when the holes in the cam match the holes in the head, you have your lift and duration. Small "covers" over the holes operate duration, and lift isnt an issue since the holes simply uncover the entire hole.

weird huh? I saw a picture of it, a big poster like thing. I also heard about it at several F-body meetings. It supposedly made somthing like 260 Horsepower on a small 1.8 N/A motor. its for the little cube motors. thats what I heard, and saw.

PonchoTA

I've thought about this a lot also (when I was looking for a sr. project idea too!)
Only bad part about that whole idea is the heat. Solenoids do NOT like heat! At all!

If you could figure a way to make it much less heat sensitive, including the wiring (current = heat = resistance = higher current = higher heat = higher resistance, ad nauseum)

Very good idea though! Infinite "cam" profiles, all controlled by the ECM, depending on load of engine.

Morley

A pre-lube would be nice, but that has been done and marketed using an accumulator, it was a manual system so it never really caught on. Something like an electric pump that runs like the fuel pump when ignition is switched on would be good, you don't have to remember to push any buttons or flip any switches.

Jza

Adjustable intake runner lengths.

ZZ28ZZ

How abt:
An internal supercharger. (like the old Allison airplane engs)
Affordable dual overhead cams (V-8). (just dreaming here)
Variable intake runner lengths/diameters. (tricky I know)
Variable exhaust header tube lengths/diameters. (even more trickier)
Exhaust gas temp sensors, or O2 sensors for each cyl which would provide feedback to the CPU to automatically/independently adjust mixture for each cyl.

A spin-off on Vaders idea;
An accumalator with a shut-off valve to trap pressurized oil.
Just before eng is started, the pressurized oil would enter the oil system to pre-lube eng. When eng started, oil would slowly re-presurize accumalator thru a small orfice incorporated into a check-valve. The check-valve would allow free flow towards the eng but not allow too much oil to enter accumalator when eng was first started robbing the eng of oil press.

Enkil

Things I'd like to see:

Something that burns as clean as methane but not quite as dangerous to carry around in a car.

Anti-theft system like the one in the beginning of Robocop 2.

Lights that automatically adjust their aim and intensity based on driving situations. (long dark road at night on a highway, the lights would be brighter and aimed more upward, etc)

I like that electrochromatic window thing.

I'd like to see a more drive-by-wire system. Less fluids, more electrons! Granted, there'd have to be a backup system in the event of an alternator going out.

Automatic t-tops. Have a flexable plastic compound that rolls up inside the T-bar, and while I'm at it, invent a way to make it rigid when extended.

Invent a way to put more trunk space in thirdgens.

Either a high-res LCD flat-panel display in place of the gauge cluster, or modular gauges so I can choose what gauge I want where without much difficulty.

Morley

They have these new flexable organic LED's, maybe make a wrap around dash with these displays replacing the analog instruments.

BOTTLEDZ28

iTrader: (9)

Boy I sure would like to have turbo boost and super pursuit mode

Bird_of_Prey

"Along the same thought, an infinitely variable transmission, Imagine holding your peek RPM of your engine while the trans gear continually decreases, imagine coming off the line with 3.30:1 and cruise at .3:1 "


CVT?
no.. what's that clutch thing that snowmobiles use? one big long gear and the 'torque converter' is all adjusted by weights and springs..
hell, it gets my 600 cc engine movin' good..

spartyon

alright then i did suggest it and i wont drive one of those. my mom wanted to buy me a "new" car, kia, and i couldnt even get into it. literally couldnt. i just want the warranty thats all

Rage13

how about a new cooling system for engines, use freon to cool the heads insted of water. you could run freon lines thru the fuel tank and intake too, that way the motor get a little chill right from the begining.

Raiden

I'm gettin so lazy I would like to see an automatic ball scratcher

Raiden

Yea, This idea is awsome! I have read that most ware is done upon start up. This would make an engine last 10X longer than the average engine! Think of the $$$$ this invention could make!

Maybe a type of fuel injector per cylinder?

dimented24x7

iTrader: (2)

lol.. definatly would come inhandy for those long hot road trips in the summer.

jamesbob02

You guys have been talking about an infinitely variable camshaft - I saw something like that on a new ferrari design i think, in a magazine or something - it had DOHC and the cams had lobes that had a slope to them, I mean you know regular ones are horizontally flat,, obviously, but the camshaft was pushed and pulled in and out (to the front or back of engine) to change the characteristics of the lobe dependant upon speed, throttle, etc. - allowed the engine to go from normal to hi-perf mode instantly. Anybody else seen this?

patrickm00

as a mechanical engineer who's done projects like this before, i'd have to second the pre-oil idea as well. i think the electric pump would have some merit, but the remote pump would be too costly for production once you run lines, etc.

one thing that could also save us a bundle of alternators would be liquid cooling (i think some cadillacs have it, but a way to make it efficient and affordable)

also, maybe something having to do with EGR traps. basically, lots of crap can be filtered out of the gas, but any aftermarket system always looks awkward and has a plastic bottle to empty. but if you find out the composition of this liquid, run it through a filter, it might turn out to be 89% motor oil, so maybe the solution is to filter it and return it to the pan with a purge valve.

these things are not only good for extending the life of engines, but also emissions, which is a serious issue in auto research. and not enough thought ever goes into cheap upgrades for EXISTING cars, since the majority of pollution comes from very few very old cars.

the other one that i personally like a lot, but isn't necessarily a good senior design project - active aero.
one or more adjustable spoilers that can be tuned to increase downforce/driveability at high speeds, or lift for fuel economy at low speeds, etc. add to this variable height springs to lower the car at highway speeds and cut drag (which is usable on real roads, since highways are generally flatter and could accomodate an inch or two drop - less for f-body cars than sedans, but the idea works either way.)

92RS shearn

Well after the rest of the group looked at this page we decided on two new proposals.

Everyone liked Vaders ideas of the pre oiling and the kidney loop. Heck if we do this one and get it to work well I will put it in my next engine buildup and write a tech article if anyone else wants to do it.

The second proposal will include a combination of JZA's electrocromatic tinting for the summer and heated windows for the winter time. I doubt either one will be rejected.

I'd like to do a variable trans of rear axle, but the others felt it would be too difficault for the limited time we have available, they are probly right.

Thanks again for all of your guys help.

Chris

ontogenesis

i'm really thinking the remote oil pump (not even real remote, but just external would be nice...i might have to take a look at it and tinker some

jamesbob02

Yeah I like the external oil pump idea too.

Morley

Or even heated rear view mirrors. Ever had ice/snow on them and tried to get it off?

92RS shearn

Well those ahve been around for wuite a while now. I had those on my 82 Town Car.

But I just went and gave the prof. my propasals and the oil one is a go. Now I just have to get some research done. But strange thing, he said there is no oil pump on cars, its just the counterweights on the crangshaft that splash the oil around. Now I know that isn't true on SBC's because I know there are oil pumps, driven by the distributor. Are the 4-bangers oil pumpless or something? He is chinese so maybe he isn't familiar with SBC's.

Plus he said that you wouldn't need to prime the system of the car was recently run (couple hours), how long would it take for the oil to drip from the cylinder walls to the pan? I'd think it wouldn't take hot oil more than a few minutes.

Oh and if anyone has any links to any dry start tests I'd really apreciate it, I need to prove how much wear is done w/o preoiling versus a dry start.

Morley

Yeah, they were avialable on the Land Barges but thats about it.
Just goes to show you that even though you have enough education to become a professor, you don't have to be smart

Every auto engine has an oil pump, even the little 3 bangers. Some are mounted externally and others are mounted internally.
If he insists that there is no oil pump...ask him where the oil pressure is coming from that the guage is showing.

AJ_92RS

That's caused from 'splash pressure'. Totally different that 'compressed pressure'.

See...... the guage reads how much pressure is applied to the sides of the engine from all the oil being slung around. Kinda like when you're playing dodge-ball..... how bad the nose bleeds is an indication of how much pressure was applied to the nose. :sillylol:

:lala: :lala: :lala: :lala:

Morley

Morley

Slick 50 had some studies they did, but they were proven to be tainted.

One application where the pre/post oiling is invaluable is with turbos, it prevents the bearings in the turbo from coking up.
Don't know of any "up to date" oiling studies though.

Here is a link to one of the accumulator type pre oilers.
http://www.accusump.com/acc_products/acc_units.html

Kingtal0n

isnt it true, however, that pre-oiling only works when the engine is spinning?

Dont the lifters have to line up with the oil galleys or somthing?
Doesnt the crankshaft need to spin to line up the oil holes from the bearings?

Im not a genius, but i know that if the little hole in the crank doesnt line up with the little hold in the bearing then i doubt oil can move through...

89WS-6

What about this for an idea? One valve per cylinder. I mean, basically, if you had a 4 inch bore, you could approach or equal this measurement, in the single valve size. If they can make two valves open when they need to by the use of a camshaft, I am sure that they could turn a flap of some sort upwards in the head, to block of the intake pathway or the exhaust pathway, dont know if this would cause problems like pre combustion of fuel, since the exhaust is right there, but it is an idea.