2010

GT Suite assignment

Richard Sayles
Blackpool and the Fylde College
5/20/2010
Contents
Auto CAD Assignment page
I. Introduction 3

II. Initial Design Parameters 4-5

1. Capacity
2. Stroke
3. Bore
4. Maximum Lift Exhaust/Intake Valves

IV. Building of engine on GT suite 5-8

V. Initial Results 9-11

VI. 4-2-1 branch manifold design and results 12-16

VII. Conclusion 17

VIII. Bibliography 18

IX. Appendix 1 19

X. Appendix 2 20
Introduction

The purpose of this assignment is to build an engine with a 1600cc capacity, and monitor
the affects that changes made to the engine have on torque and brake horse power. The
parameters of the engine have to be as follows:-

 Maximum capacity of 1600cc

 Must have 4 cylinders
 Must not exceed 14,000RPM
 Must not exceed 250 BHP
 Must be 4 stroke
 Must last 6 race meetings with 2 rounds (approximately 60 miles per race
meeting)
 Run on methanol

The main objective is to design a race engine that is limited in power. But changing certain
parameters of the engine will allow the torque of the engine to be increased but will
sacrifice the extra BHP that is generated over 250BHP. The main changes to be made will
be:-

 Exhaust and Intake lengths

 Exhaust design
 Firing order

The car engine will be used for a small closed wheeled single seated series, and with all cars
limited to 250bhp the engines design is all in the power curve and the torque. This will
determine the winning car.
Initial design parameters

In order to meet the 4 cylinder regulation and meet the 1600cc regulation, a formula is used
to work out the capacity of each cylinder. This formula is as follows

𝐶𝑎𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦 ÷ 𝐶𝑦𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑠 = 𝐶𝑎𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝑒𝑎𝑐ℎ 𝑐𝑦𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑟

1600 ÷ 4 = 400

Now that a capacity of each cylinder has been determined a stroke and bore of the cylinder
can be achieved. In order to keep the performance benefits and full use of the rev range, a
formula can be used to determine the optimum stroke on a rev range. With the limit on
most high performance F1 engines using 27m/s, an optimum stroke of 25m/s for this low
budget engine for the reliability side of the car. The full formula is as follows:-

𝑚𝑝𝑠 × 60000
𝑆𝑥2

25 × 60000 1500000
= = 10714 𝑟𝑝𝑚
70 × 2 140

Adding a table to show the different stroke lengths using this formula allows a clear view of
what stroke is the optimum stroke for this engine:-

Stroke Rpm at
25m/s
70mm 10714 rpm
65mm 11538 rpm
55mm 13636 rpm
50mm 15000 rpm
52mm 14423 rpm
54mm 13888 rpm
53mm 14150 rpm

25×60000 1500000
= = 14150𝑟𝑝𝑚
53×2 106
Although the rpm exceeds the 14000rpm rev limit, it makes the most of the range. After
this the bore needs to be worked out so that the capacity is filled to its max for the
regulations. This is achieved by using the following formula:-

𝑃𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑛 𝐴𝑟𝑒𝑎 = 𝐶𝑎𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦 ÷ 𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑜𝑘𝑒 𝐵𝑜𝑟𝑒 = (𝑃𝐴 ÷ 𝜋) × 2

𝑃𝐴 = 400000𝑚𝑚3 ÷ 53𝑚𝑚 = 7547.2𝑚𝑚2

𝐵𝑜𝑟𝑒 = 7547.2 ÷ 𝜋 × 2 = 98.02mm

So after working out the bore and stroke, the optimum valve lift calculation for the exhaust
and intake valves can be worked out as follows:-

𝐼𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑘𝑒 𝐿𝑖𝑓𝑡 = 𝐵𝑜𝑟𝑒 × 1.57 = 98.02 × 1.57 = 15.54

𝐸𝑥ℎ𝑎𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝐿𝑖𝑓𝑡 = 𝐵𝑜𝑟𝑒 × 1.31 = 98.02 × 1.31 = 12.97

These are the maximum lifts that will be required for the engine, these will be used on a 310
degree duration, for both exhaust and intake for the first test runs. The next step in working
out the engines optimum intake and exhaust lengths, but because these will be changed in
the engine to balance the torque and the power of the engine, as the engine is restricted to
250bhp.
Building the engine on Gt suite
One of the first steps of building
the engine on Gt, is to insert the
cylinders. These need to be setup.
Certain setups can be template so
that they can be used throughout
the engine. Also certain criteria’s
and be either ignored or made
default by using the commands
“def” or “ign” this allows the
software to use default settings to
provide the data that is required.
The next step in the building of the
engine is to create the intake of
the engine, this starts at the
“Ambient environment” this
setting can be changed so that the
engine can be tested at different
altitudes by changing the pressure,
but also the air entering the
engine can be changed at this
point. For example, the settings

can be changed so that pure

hydrogen is used in the intake. But
for the engine a normal air
comprising of mainly nitrogen and
oxygen at 1 Bar with a
temperature of 15 degrees
calicoes. This engine has no air
box and no air filter, this will
intake its air with no obstacles to
obstruct the flow. This then goes
through a bell mouth to direct the
flow, then an extension so that the
intake length can be easily changed to longer or shorter. And finally through a throttle body to
simulate where the throttle body would be situated. The next step in the construction of the engine
is to allocate the fuel to the
throttle bodies, as the engine will
be running of ethanol a high fuel to
air ratio is set to 11:1 and the fuel
set to ethanol and a high rate of
fuel delivery of 10g/s is required.
One of the next steps is to design
the intake valves and there lift
arrays. This was first worked out
using a lift array chart to work out
the lift per degree that was
required (see appendix 1) this was
then imputed into excel. This
allows the opening and the closing angle of the array to be easily adjusted by changing the start
angle and then copying the change to correspond with the lift. The timing angle is set to the cam
angle but can be set to the crank angle, as the camshaft timing has been set to the crank angle on
the lift array, but the lift array chart
was worked out on cam angle the
angle was adapted so that rather
than being on a long duration of 300
degrees it would have a duration of
150 degrees. Also the sizes of the
intake valves are changed at this
point to 37.96mm in size. Once the
intake valves have been placed a
flow split is used to connect the
throttle body to both of the valves.
It is important to connect the flow
split in a sequence so that the
dimensions imputed into the flow
split are allocated to the correct
ports on the engine. The same is
done on the exhaust valves with
the exhaust valves set to
37.96mm diameter and a new lift
array is set in the same way as
the intake valves. The final step
is to build the exhaust and to
connect the cylinders to the
crank train. A flow split is
required to link both exhaust
valves to the exhaust pipe. The
flow split uses the same
dimension angles as the intake
flow split, but the dimensions sizes are slightly smaller. This is because the exhaust valves are smaller
and the higher temperature of the exhaust makes the gasses flow much easier. Once the flow split
and the valves have had their parameters entered, an extension is made for the pipe. The original
design will just have 4, 500mm pipes and the length of the pipes will be changed to see what
happens with the overall power. The engine should have more than 250bhp, the design of the
engine needs to be adapted to sacrifice some of the horse power but to be gained in torque.
Initial results after testing

After the test was initially tested many faults where found with the engine, firstly to do with certain
parameters left blank, by filling in as “def” or “ign” these needed to be changed before the engine
would run, the most common one was in “initial State object” these where all changed to a template
“init”. The other fault was with the camshaft timing as it stated that no air was present for
combustion. This was altered with the camshaft timing. After this the engine did run and produce
some power output. However, this was negative power and the engine was not acting as a engine
should and was producing negative 125hp. This was because the engine was acting like a compressor
rather than a engine and the camshaft timing had to be changed in order to give a positive
horsepower figure. For the next few runs the timing was adapted to allow for the engine to run but
producing only 176bhp. This was because the camshaft timing was still out, but it was the camshaft
over lap that was now the problem. Once this was changed, a better output was achieved with
320bhp. Now that the output was established, it was much higher than what was needed for the
engine. The engine needs to have more torque but less power; this hopefully can be achieved by
having longer exhausts and intakes. But there is far too much power so this needs to be addressed.
The next test will be to lengthen all of the exhaust lengths to 5000mm to see what affect this will
Have on the power output.
Once the exhaust lengths had been lengthened, another test was begun, this showed an increase in
power and torque, plus a much better output on the overall power curve, as much as this was not
the desired affect it is peaking its power earlier as stated by Heinz Hizler:-

“The longer the induction tract the greater will be the flow resistance; therefore the more rapid will
be the decrease in cylinder volumetric efficiency once it has reached its peak, and the engine’s speed
continues to rise.” Heinz Hizler, Advance Engine Technology P247

The next step is to increase the intake length; the original intake length was 60mm. This has been
changed to 100mm, and this gives an overall intake length of 190mm. Heinz Hizler states:-

“For a given tract diameter, the longer the tract the more rapid will be the rise in volumetric
efficiency build-up with rising tract speed.” Hizler, Heinz Advance Engine Technology p246

Although Heinz hizler says that a longer intake will allow the power to increase earlier hopefully it
will produce more torque than Bhp.
The results for the longer intake have shown that the power has peaked much earlier but has lost
both power and torque with a flat spot at about 6,000rpm. This has given bad performance gains as
much as now the torque is over 200Nm it is now lacking the full 250bhp that the engines are
allowed. Plus the overall rev range is lacking power in the higher rpm with optimum power dropping
after 8000rpm. If this engine was against a equally powerful engine in the championship the gear
ratios would have to be much higher and would most likely lose in a straight line race due to the
short rev range.

After looking at these results the longer intake has been changed back to what it was, to see
if changing the exhaust design will affect the overall torque and power. Looking at different
designs the 4-1 branch manifold would be very similar to the 4 pipes that are already
installed, as well as most engines with this application are looking for more bhp than torque.
So exploring the 4-2-1 branch manifold which is used on most performance car designs as
well as rally cars, will hopefully provide the engine with more torque.
4-2-1 branch manifold design

Looking at the design of the

4-2-1 branch manifold and
the firing order, the exhaust
will be designed to flow from
cylinder 1 and 2, then 3 and
4. This is not the same as
most exhaust designs with a
4-2-1 manifold, but both
designs will be run and
checked to see which design gives the better output. After the 4 exhaust pipes that have
been added, they were then connected using 2 flow splits that allowed the combustion
gasses to flow from 4 into 2. The flow splits went from 2 40mm diameter pipes into 1 60mm
pipe. This completes the first branch of the design, where as the 2 branches then feed
directly onto the next flow split, this is 65mm in diameter. This was then connected to a
500mm main pipe until the end environment. The engine was then run and found to give
the following results:-
These results show very poor bottom end performance and restricted high end performance
with a max power of 207bhp; this has been the worst power run completed but shows the
power output peaking at 12,500rpm. Overall this design does not meet the requirements
that are needed, this is most likely because of the build up of backpressure due to the firing
order feeding the pipes with exhaust gases unevenly. The next step in the 4-2-1 branch
design was to try the conventional design of connecting the exhaust ports of 1 and 4, then 2
and 3. This should hopefully eliminate the build up of back pressure with a more even flow
of back pressure. The following results where as follows:-

The results show a much better power output at the bottom end. This will be because the
backpressure was reduced due to the firing order. The firing order of the engine is 1-3-4-2,
this sets the firing intervals 180 degrees apart. But connecting 1-2 and 3-4 means there is
only 180 degrees between gases meeting in the flow splits then having a gap of 540 degrees
to dissipate both gases. The new design of 1-4 and 2-3, shows that there is a full 360
degrees of crankshaft rotation before the 2 gasses meet, giving a more even flow of gases.
For example, if 1 fires and after 150 degrees it has exhausted all of its pressure and creates a
negative pressure wave it can aid 4 in extracting its exhaust gasses from the combustion
chamber increasing volumetric efficiency. The next alteration will change the firing order to
a “big bang” firing order firing, but looking at both exhaust designs with the 1-4,2-3 exhaust
manifold design as well as the 1-2,3-4 exhaust manifold design to see whether or not the
designs will affect the power and torque graphs. In theory the “big bang” engine should
have more torque as there is more power on each powerstroke increasing the overall
turning force of the engine with a longer 360 degree delay between strokes, where as the
original firing order has just 180 degrees between power strokes. The results for the 2 runs
are as follows:-
The results show that with the new ”big bang” firing order, the 1-4,2-3 exhaust design restricts the
torque very low down the rev range where as it has double the torque in the 1-2,3-4 exhaust design.
This is because when 1 and 4 fire both exhaust gases are expected to flow out of the first flow split
at the same time. Whereas with the 1-2,3-4 design, when 1 and 4 fire they do not meet until the
second flow split. This is shown in the following average pressure flow chart:-

As shown in this flow

diagram the 1-4 split goes
darker on the flow split as
the 2 exhaust waves hit
each other and cause
higher exhaust pressure.
This has been taken at 2000
rpm just as the torque takes
a sharp drop on torque.

On this flow diagram, the

colours are not so dark at
the flow splits. This shows
that the flow is much more
even throughout the
exhaust system as it is not
being choked at a flow split
as much as the 1-4,2-3
design. This has also been
taken at 2000rpm

Overall the exhaust system is restrictive and requires improvement, but with the use of a “big bang”
shows more torque produced, even if it is just lower down in the rev range. With further
development this exhaust system will produce more power. Comparing all 4 runs side by side allow
the overall benifits of the exhaust designs with the 2 firing orders. The results are as follows:-
 overall the gain in bhp is
not very noticeable
especially at the higher
end of the rev range.
But at the lower end the
original firing order with
a 1-4,2-3 branch exhaust
manifold shows benefits
in early bhp gains this
drops of after 3000rpm
this could be because of
restriction in the

exhaust system. In the

torque graph it shows a
high peak in the big
bang engine with the 1-
2,3-4 branch design
with a maximum torque
of 104.5Nm in the lower
rev range. However,
this is not considered to
be the best design as at
1000 rpm it only
produces 46Nm of
torque where as the 1-
4,2-3 branch design with the original firing order show that at 1000rpm it produces 98Nm of torque
with a maximum of 104.5Nm of torque in the lower rev range. Overall the 1-4,2-3 branch manifold
design with the original firing order, has shown the best results overall in the lower rev range.
Conclusion

This report has shown the initial limitations to the 1600cc engine design, but with more time a big
improvement in the power output will be seen. The first problems with the engine where in the
construction of the engine, where faults where found with the camshaft timing. Although these
where over come, more time could be spent on the camshaft timing and trying different overlap
periods, will show if this timing can be improved. After building the engine different features where
tried to see whether or not improvements could be gained. Although some of these designs limited
the engines power (like the 4-2-1 branch manifold designs) with time these power out puts could be
improved. As the engine was initially designed to have 4, 500mm exhaust pipes, this is often not a
practical exhaust to have as it would be very loud and if the engine is enclosed in a engine bay, the
engine bay temperatures would be very high. So the investigation into the exhaust could result in
the target of 250bhp limit as well as making the engine gain more torque. As the big bang engine
saw an improvement in torque, with the 1-2,3-4 branch manifold design. Further investigation needs
to be looked into as the exhaust system is restriction the flow after 5000rpm, in order to determine
witch firing order would be better suited to the engine as both big bang engines produce the most
torque and power higher up the rev range. This would have to be investigated along with the
camshaft timing to establish witch engine design would perform best.
Bibliography

Advance Engine Technology (2008) Hizler Heinz, Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann. 1st edition