Electronic valve control

[Martin Hill]

> 
> 
> I had an idea a few years ago which would solve the valve problems, but
> I am not going to tell any one about it unless you promise not to go and
> make the prototype and sell it for huge sum of money, I want the
> patent... or I will swap the design for a cone shaped hat...
> 
> Anyway, the idea is this ( and no it probably won't work ) insted of
> valves with springs, you have a metal rod in both the inlet and exhaust
> port.  The rod is cut so that at zero degrees a hole the size of the
> port is exposed, thus air/exhaust can flow down the port, through the
> hole.  at 90degrees the hole will be facing away from the port, thus
> exposing the metal of the rod and therefore closing the port.
> 
> If you use a solenoid on a level which is connected to the rod, the
> opening and closing will take less effort than a spring, and provide
> just as good a seal.
> 
> The fact is that ports would no longer need to be circular, so you can
> have a much larger inlet and exhaust width, should one be wanted. plus
> the timing would be computer controlled.
> 
> You may or may not think that this idea would work. unfortunaley due to
> my insanity I care very little.
> 
> Rob Humphris -- Too fat to run, too stupid to hide.
> >

Sounds very much like a rotary valve to me.  This does work and has 
been done before.  Although the one that I have seen is just driven 
off the engine.  The bit about the valves being in a shaft is the 
same though.  The shafts were driven like a camshaft.   I think there are problems with sealing the ports.  The 
advantage is that it can do loads of rpm.  The one I saw was around 
14000 I think.  As there is no valve bounce to worry about.  Another 
good point is that if something does break there is no valve to hit 
the piston.

Martin