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March 28, 2008
Ford Explorer gets 1000 hp With Dual Hydraulic Motors
By Jen Dunnaway
Editor
This has to be one of the darndest things I’ve ever seen: it’s a 2002 Ford Explorer that runs on two 500-hp hydraulic motors, which are in turn supplied by a hydraulic pump powered by a 1.9L VW TDI motor that runs on biodiesel at a constant RPM. Hydraulic pressure is built up by the pump to 5100 psi, stored in high-pressure accumulators, and then discharged to turn the hydraulic motors. A project of some very brainy students at Cal Poly, the Explorer runs a 10-second quarter mile, does 0-60 in 3 seconds, and still gets 35 mpg. If I was more of a engineering geek I might be able to explain it better—hopefully there’ll be some more info on the ride page as this awesome project develops. We’re exepcting to see this monster at the Ultimate Track Car Challenge in in June, so stay tuned!
Comments
Mechanical Engineer & FAA Licensed Aircraft Mechanic
Dec 12, 2008 at 11:12 pm
I’m not surprised. I am a Mechanical Engineer and FAA Licensed A&P Aircraft Mechanic/Technician. There’s many other powerplants aside from gasoline four-stroke piston engines and heat-of-compression diesel engines, for the quick throttle response needed for automotive applications. Electric Motors are the best type of powerplants, running on A.C. since their efficiency is around 80% on average. Gasoline-powered pistons aren’t anymore than 33%-34% efficient at the most. 1/3 of a gallon goes to heat the engine, another 1/3 to overcome friction losses within the engine and the vehicle’s road friction, the last 1/3 is used to drive the piston. Note that there is 20,000 BTU per lbs of gasoline w/ gasoline weighing 6 lbs/gallon. As for Electric Motor Horsepower, that is way more efficient around 80%, but you’d need a good D.C. current supply from batteries, which get converted to A.C current through an Inverter, you’ll still lose a lot of amps in process. Something like the A.C. current freezers on meat trucks. Like an 800 amp D.C. current 12 volt battery will invert out to about 110 volts A.C. and 8 amps, lol. Some, not all of your battery charge can be restored while driving, by having the A.C. motor also drive alternators. Can also run alternators off the wheels, no more than 100 miles range, before supplemental re-charging the batteries for losses is required. But pretty high torque and instant power though. Lastly is the HYDRAULIC MOTOR, bingo! Converting hydraulic pressure by a hydraulic pump to power a hydraulic motor. We use these on heavy rotor helicopters, which don’t start up well with just compression air from the turboshaft turbine engine. Such the massive C-47 Twin Blade Chinook Helicopter monster. Need a hydraulic motor assist on the rotors, while the thing is winding up its compressor and turbines to light off, then the hot gases drive the free turbine to the transmission unit to drive the massive 3000 lbs a piece twin rotors to ground idle RPM & of course later flight idle RPM. Knowing that Hydraulic Horsepower (HP) = [P x Q] / [1714 x % EFFICIENCY] for hydraulic motors, where P = HYDRAULIC PRESSURE RATING IN PSI, Q = GALLON PER MINUTE HYDRAULIC FLOW, % EFFICIENCY = HYDRAULIC MOTOR EFFICIENCY RATING. Knowing this, one can phase in a Hydraulic motor to a driveline on a car, with the appropriate Torque and Horsepower rating for the given vehicle. Then drive the hydraulic pump on a gas piston engine or electric motor powered by a generator which is powered by a gas piston engine. Might say a “Hydro Hybrid Car” hahahaha. Anyways, it is another method to drive a flywheel & transmission, for moving a car with some heavy duty power. I know the oil companies don’t like to encourage this type of powertrain. Any Master Mechanical Technician or Skilled Mechanical Engineer, can design & build any of these concepts. It’s just that the oil companies own all the stock in the automobile manufacturing companies. Yep, better technologies are constantly repressed & supressed from ever becoming mass-produced, by (you guessed it right!), THE OIL COMPANIES & THEIR AFFILIATE CORPORATIONS! Technical Colleges, Licensed Mechanics, and Engineers, might be building their own Concept Cars, powered on A.C. Electric Motors or Hydraulic Motors, but don’t count on any mass production of these just yet. All this is old technology anyways. During World War II, they had “Concept Tanks” powered on Hydraulic Motors which were going as fast as 49 MHP on the battlefield. Couldn’t use them though, moved too fast. Any Engineer or Master Technician, can develop any of these better concept cars. But since we have a mostly un-educated society, this doesn’t help in getting the public to stand up against the oil companies. We Engineers & Technicians all have before, but we’re too few to make a difference. So I guess for now we’ll just invent our own innovative technologies. Using a Hydraulic Motor for an automobile powerplant/powertrain isn’t anything new. But Hydraulic Motors should be the Powertrain for Automobiles totally. Too much greed by massive corporations coupled with a society that is not very educated in the realms of Science, Technology & Engineering is the root of the problem. Most of the innovations world-wide are pioneered by Foreigners from the East anyways, that greedy Western Corporations like to steal/hijack as their own, then completely repress it and stick it on the shelf and keep it there! If America wakes up as whole, by being more educated, then things would surely change. But I don’t see this happening the way things are getting worst in this American Nation. Lastly, Electric Motor Horsepower is EHP = [Current x Voltage x % Efficiency] / [746]; and Internal Combustion Piston Engine Brake Horsepower (BHP) = [6.28 x [Torque x RPM] / [33,000]. Efficiency is much higher in Hydraulic & Electric Motors. None of this is a big deal, it’s just greedy corporations mass producing less efficient technologies, then living off the publicly-traded stock from it all. They have a monopoly on it all. So to my fellow Engineers & Technicians, carry on with your own innovations, the rest of society really doesn’t care about improving anything, while they’re being robbed on a daily basis by the greedy corporations that be. Since our society for the most part likes to be ignorant instead of educated in real Majors such as Science, Technology, Mathematics & Engineering. This is due to their ignorant, selfish and lazy selves for the most part in this American Nation. Welcome to America!
The Technical Colleges actually have the brightest students, more the real Engineers that the Super Corporations like to just call “Technicians”. Compared to the watered-down ASTM Reps, who like to call themselves “Engineers” working for the super-corporations making the big-bucks (bribes). Again, welcome to America, where even the entire system has a right to be wrong! lol
hydraulic power units
Aug 7, 2008 at 7:56 am
Wow. The car looks good.
Jon
Apr 20, 2008 at 11:17 pm
Does anyone know the proper procedure to remove the interior heat/AC vents in a 2003 explorer? I had some work done years back putting LED singles behind my vents and some of them have now burned out. I wanted to replace them myself this time around. Any help?
halonine
Apr 2, 2008 at 9:46 pm
BMW FTW!!!! go beemer go beemer its your birthday
Anonymous
Apr 2, 2008 at 8:19 pm
Ya thats well and great but that engine in a jetta will get 50 mpgs and a two three thousand dollars will do the same thing
sirus
Apr 2, 2008 at 7:25 pm
thats pretty smart. why not do that to all sorts of cars. it would save tons on gas and also satisfy your need for speed.
nismoke
Apr 2, 2008 at 12:26 pm
simply amazing!gives car manufacturers a slap on the butt
tony
Apr 1, 2008 at 11:25 pm
BMW ALL THE WAY OH YAE MIKE IS RIGHT!!1
tony
Apr 1, 2008 at 11:25 pm
BMW ALL THE WAY OH YAE MIKE IS RIGHT!!1
Miller
Apr 1, 2008 at 7:23 pm
I finished a top respected hydraulics course 2 Years ago and I’m not surprised someone FINALLY did this.
Congrats and I wish it went towards a kick-ass pickup truck or some kind and not this Soccer Mom/Family Vehicle.
Time for a swap after using it at the TEST TRACK I think! (-:
Mike
Apr 1, 2008 at 7:17 pm
American cars dont last. BMWs all the way.
gary
Apr 1, 2008 at 5:39 pm
but why a ford exploder
DanJ
Apr 1, 2008 at 12:26 pm
Check your calendar, fellas.
JR
Apr 1, 2008 at 12:08 pm
Its a good idea but its only a drag car since it runs on pressure that is stored in tanks. This couldnt become an efficient daily driver, or even a weekend car.
JR
7urtle
Apr 1, 2008 at 6:34 am
looks sweet. but they never make the real gas savers car would companies lose too much money then.
Jas
Apr 1, 2008 at 5:19 am
You cant be serious??WTF!!
Steve
Apr 1, 2008 at 2:38 am
would it have a hydrostatic drive to match the motors, sort of like a htdraulic motor tractor? or, well, ha for power and gas milage, i’lls tick with diesel lol, 700+ hp with 25+ mpg
nate
Apr 1, 2008 at 12:56 am
Don’t get too exited for this, it’s not exactly something revolutionary that everyone is going to start building. It’s not feasible. Simple laws of thermodynamics state that energy in equals energy out. heat is the biggest robber of energy in combustion engines making this equation more like: energy in - heat generated = power to wheels. This thing is great for going really fast for a short period of time and then going slow for a long time. your average energy output with this setup will actually be smaller than just using 1.9L engine in a typical setup. Also, i doubt that it is very good at building up pressure for a hard acceleration unless it is sitting still.
Louis
Mar 31, 2008 at 4:04 pm
Excellent Engineering and thought process done through.
Austin
Mar 30, 2008 at 9:13 am
Thats awesome to see. I wish car companies would make gas/electric hybrids with diesels. Imagine the MPG you could get with a diesel instead of a gas engine. Anyways props to the guys who built this thing.
GTwildfire
Mar 29, 2008 at 3:09 am
Y’know… having thought this out, My guess is that the accumulators are exhausted in a run on the quarter mile, and pressure needs to re-build for the vehicle to reach optimal power. It’s a kind of a rubber-band effect. Store energy from a lesser source, then let it all rip.
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kind of a mechanical version of an electrical capacitor. I’ve been knocked on my ass by a 9-volt transistor battery, same deal.
GTwildfire
Mar 29, 2008 at 1:08 am
BRILLIANT, simply BRILLIANT.
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Hydraulic motors? Why the hell didn’t that occur to me?
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The biggest surprise by far is the YIELD from a stinkin little 1.9 litre engine… generating 1000 horsepower.
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So um… GM. What was that about meeting CAFE standards?
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oh yeah, that’s right. It would take them a decade to come out with their own version of this, and after all that it would only yield a 200 horsepower gain and an additional 3 mpg.
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The best thing about this design is that by reducing the horsepower, you can reduce the engine that drives the hydraulic motors. Heck you can even eliminate one of the hydraulic motors. This design team apparently was going for broke in terms of performance, but the design can be scaled down and go for broke in terms of efficiency…
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Now, for someone to do just that, and see what all this is capable of.