In my research of Smokey's engine Something Has struck me that no one seems to metion. When the air/fuel mixture is heated up past the Turbo (check valve), a lot of pressure is created down stream .When the intake valve opens, this pressure is directed to the top of the piston much like combustion pressure. This seemes to me to be the most important factor in making this engine more efficient. He has used the exhaust heat from the power stroke to expand the airfuel charge thus creating another power stroke.Instead of intake,compression,power,exhaust as a conventional four srtoke, he has power/intake,compression,power,exhaust.What do you think?

I was fortunate to converse at legnth with a gentelman who worked closely with Smokey on that project. ( I think a lot of work which Smokey took credit for was actually done by this man) The patent abstract, all of the media published articles and the surviving engines that utilized this concept were carbureted. The engines did not operate under high boost conditions. (Less then 4 psi. at max throttle /load) As a result there was not much positive pressure doing work on the piston during the intake stroke. The way it was explained to me was that there was a chemical radical present in the fuel (pump gasoline) that acted as a detonation/preignition suppresant at elevated temps. He also went on to say that all engines exhibit some degree of detonation. If the engine components were robust enough to withstand the seemingly instant rise in pressure there was a lot to be gained in BSFC.#'s. An additional benifit was that by virtue of the high intake temps. the fuel was in a gaseous state and that reduced the time needed for complete deflagration, thus reducing the amount of spark timing lead and the associated negative work. I suspect the Nox #,s were fairly high but that really wasn't on the radar at the time he was developing this process. Even a worst case scenario I'm sure it was better then a diesel.

First, some Smokey Yunick credentials that are undisputable, traceable by documentation and numerous photos...B-17 pilot in WWII (1942-43, crash landed two bombers that were so shot up they failed structurally upon landing), member of Flying Tigers (1943-1944), helicopter pilot (1970's-80's), casanova (forever), motorcycle racer (1938-40), inventor (lifelong), head of Chevrolet racing development (1955-1956), Head of Ford racing (1957-1958), Head of Pontiac Racing (1959-1962), won Nascar Championships in 1951 and 1953 with Hudson, won Daytona 500 twice, won Indianapolis in 1960 (almost again in 1969, hose clamp prevented it), created the angle plug head for Chevrolet, the extended reach spark plug in your car today, etc., etc. Made and lost several fortunes, successfully searched for gold, silver and oil in Equador, was automotive consultant to Ford, Chevrolet, and Chrysler at various times in his life, knew Henry Ford II by first name, Bunkie Knudsen was his best friend, Pete Estes, Harley Earl, Mickey Thompson, Bruton Smith, Ed Cole, Zora Duntov, Richard Petty, John DeLorean, and Werner Von Braun were friends...   

The hot vapor engine not only existed but was installed into at least 6 different makes of vehicles...after a thirty minute ride in the car, Ford, GM, Chrysler, DeLorean, BMW, Volvo and Volkswagen were all interested. DeLorean immediately offered 20 million (with the backing of H.L. Hunt in Texas) with a formal contract to be signed on a Thursday. DeLorean was arrested for drug possession on the preceding Tuesday, and the deal fell through. For Smokey's direct account of what happened, see page 525 of his autobiography "Best Damned Garage in Town".

Cars in which Yunick hot vapor (adiabatic) engines were installed included the DeLorean (3 cylinder), Ford Fiesta (1 cylinder), Volkswagen (2 cylinder), Pontiac Fiero (4 cylinder), Chrysler (4 cylinder) and Buick Skylark (3 cylinder). Some of these cars still survive, and Smokey's daughter has the Volkswagen and the Pontiac Fiero is owned by a collector in South Carolina. A 3 cylinder engine is in the Smithsonian, along with his trademark hat.

All automotive engineers that tested the hot vapor engines came away amazed with the power vs. gas mileage, as well as the tremendous lowering of emissions because of the engines efficiency. Puzzling to them was the lack of a spike that should have killed the engines, and they tried everything imaginable to get the engine to spike but to no avail. Finally, just before his death in 2001, GM bought the rights to the homogenizer, the very item that Smokey considered the brains of the system. You will see it soon because there are several experimental cars under way that will stimulate the technology, not GM designs but rogue designs by guys like yourselves, or should I say the doers and not the theoreticists who talk it to death...

I was lucky to have met Mr. Yunick in his later years, 1999, at Lowe's Motor Speedway, and told him that I thought that he was one of the most gifted engineers to have ever lived. After asking him about the status of the hot vapor engine he seemed to brighten up, and stated that he was leaving it as his legacy, that he realized in the early 70's that the fossil fuels would not last forever. Asked about his most proud moment in life, after his wife Margie and kids, he mentioned the hot vapor engine and the number of engineers from around the world that tested it trying to get it to fail, and the fact that all left amazed at the performance and lack of emissions.

Guys, instead of talking about the hot vapor engine research it, make one (Smokey did, so can you, he tells you how), and put it into a car. This solution is so much better than a hybrid, a corn car (ethanol), etc.

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