Running on 3 cylinders

[13k]

I'm not sure if this is OT or not...
My buddy and I put our heads together and came up with this idea. A 4 cylinder engine, with 3 cylinders. Literally just take out that cylinder, shave the cam lobes (or something like that) to stop the valves from opening, unplug the injector and spark plug for that cylinder.

What would happen if you drove around like that?

[JBradley500]

you'd be turning a 4th rod, piston, and that section of crank still and that takes a lot of power away... especially the drag of the rings.

also, you'd need the valves functioning to let that cylinder relieve cylinder pressure. secondly I'm not engineer but holding both of them open doesn't seem like a good idea if you decided to do that. i wouldn't want exhaust gasses to have a free path to the intake track at all times either.

baasically i think you're going to end up with 25% less cylinders, 50% less power and probably 50% less milage because the engine will be working much harder all of the time.

[13k]

you'd be turning a 4th rod, piston, and that section of crank still and that takes a lot of power away... especially the drag of the rings.

also, you'd need the valves functioning to let that cylinder relieve cylinder pressure. secondly I'm not engineer but holding both of them open doesn't seem like a good idea if you decided to do that. i wouldn't want exhaust gasses to have a free path to the intake track at all times either.

baasically i think you're going to end up with 25% less cylinders, 50% less power and probably 50% less milage because the engine will be working much harder all of the time.

I was talking about removing the cylinder, and everything associated with it. Connecting arm(rod) and piston. There would be no compression, because there would be no piston. The valves are closed by default, so shaving the cam lobes would leave them closed.

[JBradley500]

Oh. well in that case i believe the engine would be rough running. The engine being out of balance that far will not be a good situation. I don't know if there would be enough room for mallory to offset the missing weight from the rod and piston.

[deevergote]

Balance would be a huge issue. It's an interesting idea, but simply removing the parts wouldn't be enough, I don't think.

Plus, the way the pistons move is 1&4 , 2&3. That means with a 3 cylinder variant, you'd have one of the outside pistons up, and the other two down... then those two up, and the outside one down. That would tear itself apart. For any balance at all, you'd need the center one to be up while the outers are down, and vice versa. That would require engineering a new crank, camshaft, distributor, and ECU program.

[Jack93prj]

I hope your joking dude

[13k]

Balance would be a huge issue. It's an interesting idea, but simply removing the parts wouldn't be enough, I don't think.

Plus, the way the pistons move is 1&4 , 2&3. That means with a 3 cylinder variant, you'd have one of the outside pistons up, and the other two down... then those two up, and the outside one down. That would tear itself apart. For any balance at all, you'd need the center one to be up while the outers are down, and vice versa. That would require engineering a new crank, camshaft, distributor, and ECU program.

I knew balance would be an issue, but I didn't know it would be that bad!
The italic section makes me think that with custom work, you could actually make a 4 cylnder a 3 cylinder, and make it work...

I hope your joking dude

I'm as serious as asking about a civic on an accord forum.

[Jack93prj]

at least I know how a engine works and yes it was a serious question so you seriously thought that you could shave off a cylinder to make it a 3 cylinder...if you want a three cylinder honda: get a geo metro motor, swap it in and make the most pointless underpowered accord ever.

[wed3k]

you'd need a different cam profile. the easiest would be a two cylinder and a different tune.

it's still not going to run very well considering the manifold designs.

[oyajicool]

It sounds like trying to make one of those GM V8 engines that shuts down, i don't know how many, cylinders for the sake of better gas mileage in higher speed.

My engine runs on three, almost, on lower rpm due to low compression on #3 cylinder.

[hondallday]

http://youtu.be/OemaDoLtS2w

Just think of it as if it was your accord. If you do this don't take off your muffler too.

[Tippey764]

Well mind you for the complete idea the cylinder is completly deleted

Its no longer in the engine and that bore is gone

Were not talking about an engine with a dead cylinder flopping in place.

[deevergote]

A dead cylinder with the piston just flopping around would be better, using the stock crank. See my balance comment above.

[Tippey764]

A dead cylinder with the piston just flopping around would be better, using the stock crank. See my balance comment above.

Provided no other modifications were done then sure

But this thread isn't about removing a piston and leaving everything else the same

[southsidecb7z]

May I ask, what is the purpose of this idea?