Hope to start a technical discussion on what we can see so far from the picture of the casting. Block ,head, valve cover and waterpump.
What I see is I think the top of the head. And the rough casting of a twisted wedge style combustion camber. A bunch of water jackets on what I would assume are the exhust side. Two more on the other...and a water jacket around all 3 cylinders?
What I see is an engine with an undersquare bore/stroke ratio, thus it will favor torque production rather than power. Use of the semi-hemispherical combustion chamber will improve surface/volume ratio and decrease heat loss through the chamber, increasing efficiency. The cavities on the exhaust side look like a mix of coolant and oil return paths. We know from tech talk 31 that the holes around the combustion chamber in the head are the coolant entry lines for the head, so the two holes on the intake side are likely the oil feed for the heads. Other than this there isn't much we can get from the raw casting we didn't already know. I see the timing cover isn't in the picture and I don't think I've ever seen it anywhere, so they might still be waiting on that. Use of the two stage tapets as described in the Dreamcruze video will of course increase volumetric efficiency when it's needed, increasing output and thus decreasing specific fuel consumption (a bit deceiving as SFC is measured in g/kw-hr so increasing power output decrease SFC but not actual fuel consumption.)
That, my friend is a hornets nest. You think plasma liners are a hoot, check this rascal out. The "valve cover" IS the cam retainer, apparently.
http://gas2.org/2014/08/16/elio-motors-town-hall-meeting-go/ Supply lines clogged. And a few other things from town hall.
I see the same thing and have no problem with integrating the cam caps and valve cover. The Japanese (and others) have been running camshafts directly on an aluminum head for about 5 decades now. Some had separate cam caps and some did not. Nobody said you can't flame-spray a hard coating onto bearing surfaces.
For those of us (me) who are not techno savy I just wanted to say thank you for details and explanations of "why" things are the way they are. I love trying to learn as much as I can about this, this, carcycle. The more I know the better I can take care of it and like the hemispherical head I now know it's a "HEMI"
