A recent Porsche patent reveals that the prestigious German automaker is working on a groundbreaking new engine based on a six-stroke principle, challenging the conventions of the automotive industry.
New types of internal combustion engines (ICEs) rarely emerge on the market. While enthusiasts occasionally encounter oddities like the Liquid Piston engine or the eccentric “mono-stroke” E-Rex, they generally have to contend with traditional two-stroke or four-stroke engines.
However, Porsche appears determined to explore new concepts. Recently released patent documents show that the company is developing a gasoline ICE with a six-stroke combustion cycle, in collaboration with the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca.
In a conventional four-stroke engine, the piston travels through the cylinder four times, with only one ignition event (or power stroke) occurring during that cycle. Porsche’s new concept adds an extra compression and combustion event to the four-stroke cycle, venturing into uncharted territory.
The innovation lies in the crankshaft, which, instead of rotating around a fixed point, orbits an annular gear within the engine’s crankcase while simultaneously rotating on its own axis. This rotational action around the annular gear provides the additional power stroke, resulting in two top dead centers and two bottom dead centers in a single combustion cycle.
Potential benefits of this system include more complete combustion, improving emissions and power-to-displacement ratio. This could allow Porsche to use smaller, more efficient engines while maintaining the performance levels of larger displacement units.
However, this concept also presents significant challenges. The mechanical complexity raises questions about production and maintenance costs, as well as the ability of traditional workshops to repair such a sophisticated engine.
It’s important to note that, for now, this is just a patent. Many innovations never make it to the production phase. It remains to be seen whether this six-stroke engine will ever hit the roads and whether we’ll have the opportunity to hear its unique sound.
The automotive industry is watching this Porsche development with interest, questioning whether the world is ready to adopt such a revolutionary technology at a time when electrification dominates the sector’s trends.
Source: Visordown
Some serious stress points on this engine design. Hope Porsche does hours upon hours of hard field testing before releasing it into the wild! Porsche take a que from GM bowling green plant on their Corvet engine issues and customer sat ratings.