Smoky Yunicks Hot Vapor Engine?

[afterburn 549]

What Ever Happened To Smokey's Hot-Vapor Engine? - Hot Rod Magazine

What Ever did happen to it ?
I was pondering this last night and thought it might be good for some forum hoop jumping and postulations .

I was wondering what his tricks were...maybe very high C/R ?

[Dansvan]

I was thinking more along the lines of Miller cycle.

[Aragorn]

I remember reading about Smokey and this type of engine but thought it was in an old 80's Car and Driver. The motor and process (adiabatic process) they were talking about was either in a Dodge omni or charger.

50mpg doesn't sound like much today for that small of an engine. I remember some Geo Metros getting mid 50's mpg in the 90's without any trickery. Even the Honda Insight seemed to get better than 50 mpg if driven right. Wonder what this process could do today with the current technology.

[Eric 951]

Originally Posted by Aragorn

I remember reading about Smokey and this type of engine but thought it was in an old 80's Car and Driver. The motor and process (adiabatic process) they were talking about was either in a Dodge omni or charger.

50mpg doesn't sound like much today for that small of an engine. I remember some Geo Metros getting mid 50's mpg in the 90's without any trickery. Even the Honda Insight seemed to get better than 50 mpg if driven right. Wonder what this process could do today with the current technology.

I thought he had it in a Fiero?

[Scott Douglas]

I remember reading about that. Last I heard the rights were bought by a carb company so they could kill it.
I vaguely remember reading about a 350 cu in Chevy that would develop something like 400 hp and tons of torque with no computer/electronics etc involved.
I believe the technology involved homogenization of the intake charge as well as bringing it up to a well controlled temperature before it entered the engine.

[Aragorn]

Originally Posted by Eric 951

I thought he had it in a Fiero?

In the article linked above the main emphasis was on the Fiero. In the Hot Rod Magazine article linked above they talk about how he also developed this process for Ford, Buick and Dodge Omni/Horizon motors. The article I was referring to I think was in Car & Driver in the 80's having to do with Smokey's Garage. In that article he referred to the Omni/Horizon getting around 50mpg. I was just referring to a similar article I remember reading in C&D.

[intakexhaust]

Would have liked to see the Yunick kits come to real. Perhaps over ambitious and claims made the suppliers throttle back?

The Ford vaporizer for the model T

[afterburn 549]

I was reading the article..his daughter said most the secrets went to grave with him..
I am thinking perhaps he used very high cylinder pressures ?

[asphaltgambler]

I remember this vividly. But after some time, it all kinda went away. About the same time Smokey was doing simpler way to obatin more power in the early 80's buy selling basically cast high-compression pistons for small Chevy & Ford V-8's coupled with a special grind cam. The kits were all about efficiency not so much added performance.

The pistons and rings were cast not forged for better fit, lower drag and the domes were designed to radically increase compression but produce the right amount of turbulence. The cam grind & profile made it all work. Looking back it really was not anything revolutionary but rather a better approach to make the low-compression smog laden 60's design work better.

I'm pretty sure that these kits actually were produced and made it into customers hands. problem was the amount of labor and parts cost to do the 'conversion' was obviously really high.