The Elio Engine

[Brainmatter]

The problems you were seeing were that of two vastly different metals being used, that quite honestly should never have been combined. Most of your high performance engines on the market are all aluminum. The LS series of motors from GM, including the LS9 6.2L supercharged V8 putting out 638 bhp (476 kW) at 6500 rpm and 604 lb·ft (819 N·m) at 3800 rpm, are all aluminum engines for the high performance applications (some of the truck series motors used iron heads with aluminum blocks). All sport bike motorcycles have been using all aluminum engines for decades as well. Using aluminum for both the heads and the block is better than using iron. It's lighter, it dissipates heat better, and is so readily available these days that the costs have changed. In this application of a 900cc I3 with ~55hp, you are much better off using aluminum instead of iron, especially for the weight concerns.

That's not entirely true. The Elio will use an aluminum cylinder with a treated (plasma arc or whatever they ultimately decide) surface for the aluminum cylinder. The ls9 and all non-race aluminum blocks from GM have pressed in place iron liners. The cylinder bore is iron. Can't combine two metals more successfully than that. Aluminum and iron.

That said, the coated or treated cylinders should hold up just fine in the elio. This tech is pretty well perfected now. Toyota used it in the MR2 spyder and other cars as well.

 

[goofyone]

Cylinder coating technology is very well proven and is available in several forms in quite a number of cars on the road today. This technology is lighter and provides better thermal performance than iron liners and in many cases is not any more expensive. The specific method mentioned for the Elio engine is currently being used widely on Ford and Nissan productions including high performance cars like the Nissan GTR and Ford Mustang GT500.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_transferred_wire_arc
http://flame-spray.com/

 

[drift]

This from an article about IAV: IAV also designed the 3-cyl. gasoline engine powering Elio Motors’ 3-wheel vehicle, which is expected to go on sale in early 2015, priced at about $7,000. Prototype powertrains will be available in second-quarter 2014.​

 

[Ty]

This from an article about IAV: IAV also designed the 3-cyl. gasoline engine powering Elio Motors’ 3-wheel vehicle, which is expected to go on sale in early 2015, priced at about $7,000. Prototype powertrains will be available in second-quarter 2014.​

Quite cool. Can you post a link to the article?

 

[drift]

Quite cool. Can you post a link to the article?

http://wardsauto.com/north-america/rapid-growth-drives-iav-us?page=2

 

[zelio]

http://wardsauto.com/north-america/rapid-growth-drives-iav-us?page=2

Interesting. The date of that article is December 2013. And they showed the True Blue Elio. Now for a little speculation to spice this up. Is that the P5? Sorry, I couldn't help but ask. LOL :-) Z

 

[Ty]

Interesting. The date of that article is December 2013. And they showed the True Blue Elio. Now for a little speculation to spice this up. Is that the P5? Sorry, I couldn't help but ask. LOL Z

Are you trying to stir up trouble, zelio? I think so. That is SO a rendering of the green P3... lights, fenders, gas cap, rear end... I heard that "big oil" stole P5 and is paying off Paul to keep quiet about it and are trying to make people pissed off about saving fuel...

Shh... I'm rarely serious.

 

[zelio]

Are you trying to stir up trouble, zelio? I think so. That is SO a rendering of the green P3... lights, fenders, gas cap, rear end... I heard that "big oil" stole P5 and is paying off Paul to keep quiet about it and are trying to make people pissed off about saving fuel...

Shh... I'm rarely serious.

You are so funny! Now I am going to have to admit I looked at the color of the car not the style. Shame on me. Am I obsessed with dates or what! LOL :-) Z

 

[Ty]

You are so funny! Now I am going to have to admit I looked at the color of the car not the style. Shame on me. Am I obsessed with dates or what! LOL Z

You just might be. Hey, if the engine and transmission are available 2nd quarter of 2014, that would be April - June. The P-5 should be right around the corner... any day now... wanna make bets on the color?

We could assume Sour Apple, Rocket Silver, and Creamsicle will not be used...

 

[zelio]

You just might be. Hey, if the engine and transmission are available 2nd quarter of 2014, that would be April - June. The P-5 should be right around the corner... any day now... wanna make bets on the color?

We could assume Sour Apple, Rocket Silver, and Creamsicle will not be used...

I tried to run a survey about that but it got lost in the shuffle. I just checked the results and Red Hot had 5 votes, Licorice ad True Blue had 4 each and then I think there were a couple of more votes but that is all. I'm afraid they will use the March Madness as an excuse to use Licorice but I hope they go for color. I'd like to see True Blue but Red would also be good. We simply do not want it to blend in with the background and it needs to be a color they haven't used in the past. In fact when I saw the blue in that news release my first thought is "Oh good, they are using True Blue for P5". I forgot to check the style. LOL :-) Z