Monday, February 8, 2010

W9 Engine


Thomas Johansson has been working toward a Master of Science degree in Engineering at the Lulea University of Technology in Sweden. Looking for an appropriate project for his thesis he decided to design and build a complete internal combustion engine from scratch to run on E85. Of course, he didn’t just build an inline 4 or V8 or anything so mundane, instead, he chose a W9 design, a nine cylinder engine with three banks of 3 cylinders each. After lots of CAD work and finite element analysis, the engine was made real. From first sketch to complete engine required 13 months.
The engine is aimed at installation in a mid engined sports car where the compact dimensions and low center of gravity are advantageous. The power output is 526 hp (est) at 10,700 rpm, torque 280 foot pounds (est) at 7200 rpm and the engine is dimensioned to allow installation of a tri-turbo for a projected output of 1005 horsepower! The engine displaces 182 cubic inches and weighs 262 pounds complete with exhaust, … very impressive.
If development proceeds and these numbers can be realized, this would be a wonderful engine for many applications. The size and weight make this perfect for high performance use in any number of small cars. His Masters thesis can be downloaded where he explains the thinking behind this project and you can see the in progress images of the build at Atom Racing. Nice work!

2 comments:

  1. it is a excelent work....

    but my question is
    why w9 engine is needed when W8 V12 W16 engines are available.......

    ReplyDelete