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Single fluid Engine

Uses the same oil for fuel, lubricant and coolant
  (+2, -8)(+2, -8)
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The modern automobile needs a bewildering array of liquids to be poured into it before it is ready to go.

Simplify! Simplify!

In order to bring order to this chaotic situation, I propose an engine - a prime mover - which will use, as for as possible, just one fluid.

A thick oil - so that it lubricates. It will burn this very same oil. Could be turbine, or the old boiler - piston - condenser type, if the internal combustion thing is hard to get going with a thick fuel. The working fluid will be the same oil, in that case. The cooling system will circulate the very same fluid. Oil has less heat capacity than water, so a larger volume of it will have to be circulated. Could be a vegetable oil, so that you can fry fish n' chips in it.

So just one reservoir of oil serves as the fuel tank, oil sump and radiator. You don't have to wonder whether you are out of radiator fluid, lubricating oil or fuel. When you top up that one tank, you've topped up all three.

At the end of the trip, a touch on the w.washer knob and a fine spray covers the windshield, the wipers gently wave and then the remains of squashed bugs and dust disappear in a flash of flame.

Haven't been away, just lurking.

neelandan, Sep 13 2005

(?) This could stick up like a hood scoop... http://www.fsifilte...efinery%20small.gif
[normzone, Sep 13 2005]

prototype refinery engine http://flatheaddrag...s98kl/98mbrown2.jpg
[normzone, Sep 13 2005]

[link]






       Sounds like a two-stroke lawnmower.
supercat, Sep 13 2005
  

       <Presses the button to squirt windshield wiper fluid. Taken directly from the crankcase, it’s a viscous, burnt-black oil.> “God, I can’t see a flipping thing!” <And doesn't see the telephone pole rushing at him.>
ldischler, Sep 13 2005
  

       This sounds much like the first engines. Before they made them work properly.
wagster, Sep 13 2005
  

       /just lurking/ well, good to see you've ceased lurking for a bit.
david_scothern, Sep 13 2005
  

       But the whole point of using multiple liquids is that some are better than others at each job. You said yourself that this oil wouldn't be as effective for combustion or heat capacity.
Germanicus, Sep 13 2005
  

       Nope, sorry, go back to lurking if this is the best you can do. (like your profile BTW)
zeno, Sep 13 2005
  

       This could work, it just needs to be more complex.   

       Have a small refinery under the hood of every automobile, and turn crude into motor oil, transmission fluid, gasoline, brake fluid, coolant, refrigerant, and washer fluid.
normzone, Sep 13 2005
  

       consider that for many years there have been air cooled engines.   

       that removes 1 fluid   

       manual or pneumatic steering   

       thats 2 gone   

       manual transmission   

       3 gone   

       now we haVE 2 options, go with a thin oil that goes thru a heater for thinning like 0w-30 or just go electric and voila (thats french for presto!)
Arcanus, Nov 22 2008
  

       I have a weedeater that only takes one fluid, a mixture of gas and oil.
Spacecoyote, Nov 22 2008
  

       why would you want to use the same fluid for lubrication that you use for combustion? Isn't it intuitive that the fluid that lubricates the rings is going, by near necesity, to have different properties from the fuel? Hopelessly compromised. On the other hand i have heard tell of truckers who ran out of fuel pouring crankcase oil into the fuel tank to make a burnable blend.
WcW, Nov 23 2008
  

       Very well, a fuel oil pump in a hydrodynamic suspension would be nice to function as a bearing too. But you have to simplify the engine first, a likely candidate would be a rotary engine of some sort with bearings at each ends of driveshaft. Also, the fluid is in continous flow such that it can act as heat regenerator before being burned. And so, in some way, a new CVT would be operated by varying the pump pressure. And so it would be the Single Fluid Engine you've dreamed after... Good luck for your quest!   

       (Your idea is very much plausible, just scrap that wiper thing anyways... just wondering why they boned you right away... hmmmmm, must be a controversial idea - imagine scrapping out multibillion industries catering to redundancy just to earn their respective worldly shares?)
rotary, Nov 24 2008
  

       the multi billion dollar ethylene glycol industry? The real problem here is that we need an engineered hydrocarbon that performs cooling, lubricating, suspension, transmission, and fuel purposes over a wide temperature range. This fluid would need to be close to conventional fuel in cost, meet similar emissions standards, and have competitive performance for all the purposes it is used for. Then you are beholden to the OMNIFLUIDS co. for all your fluid needs. There doesn't need to be a conspiracy against this idea, it goes against common sense. I pay a premium price for my transmission fluid because it has special properties that my fuel does not have.
WcW, Nov 25 2008
  

       //truckers who ran out of fuel pouring crankcase oil into the fuel tank to make a burnable blend//   

       If anyone saw "Scrappy Races" (a UK spinoff from Scrapheap Challenge) they had a great unintentional demonstration of a diesel engine running on its own sump oil. The engine was destroyed.
Srimech, Nov 25 2008
  

       death in the desert vs. running a 50/50 fuel oil bend and ruining my engine. I think i know what i would choose.
WcW, Nov 25 2008
  

       WcW, I agree. The engine mentioned did indeed produce a lot of power before its demise. The reason it was running on its own sump oil was because they had accidentally removed the governor and then killed the normal fuel supply in an attempt to stop it. If it had been in gear, it might have got a fair few miles before the lack of lubrication seized it.
Srimech, Nov 28 2008
  
      
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