pining,twin plugging,etc...

[Dave Williams]

-> I was talking to my mate who has been working on engines for about 30
-> years now, he told me about
-> an 8 piston desiel engine with 4 cylinder bores and two crankshafts.
-> The two pistons opposed each other and on the compression stroke
-> would move towards each other causing a masive compression which
-> would ignite the desiel and force the two apart.  It worked very well
-> but was unreliable due to the fact that it had so many rotating
-> parts...

 That's *old* technology - works right nicely, too.  Those designs came
out around 75 years ago.  Junkers and Napier made both aero and marine
Diesels with opposed pistons and dual cranks.  The Napier Deltic,
mentioned here not too long ago, was of that type.  A bank of a Deltic
had three cranks and six cylinders arranged in a triangle; just line up
as many banks as you need.