This V8 Makes A Shocking Amount Of Power

As a work of art, solenoid engines are an impressive display of electromagnetics in action. There is limited practical use for them though, so usually they are relegated to that realm and remain display pieces. This one from [Emiel] certainly looks like a work of art, too. It has eight solenoids, mimicking the look and internal workings of a traditional V8.

There’s a lot that has to go on to coordinate this many cylinders. Like an internal combustion engine, it takes precise timing in order to make sure that the “pistons” trigger in the correct order without interfering with each other through the shared driveshaft. For that, [Emiel] built two different circuit boards, one to control the firing of each solenoid and another to give positional feedback for the shaft. That’s all put inside a CNC-machined engine block, complete with custom-built connecting rods and shafts.

If you think this looks familiar, it’s because [Emiel] has become somewhat of an expert in the solenoid engine realm. He started off with a how-to for a single piston engine, then stepped it up with a V4 design after that. That leaves us wondering how many pistons the next design will have. Perhaps a solenoid version of the Volkswagen W12?

32 thoughts on “This V8 Makes A Shocking Amount Of Power

  1. I like that he felt comfortable doing it in his native tongue and let the translation do the work for him. I quiet like that approach. The language shouldn’t get in the way of the presentation.

    1. small but important detail (imho): the captions are not youtube generated or translated. theyre “user supplied” in some form.

      you can tell because the options are “Off, Dutch, English, Auto-translate” so either he or one of his viewers went through the video and wrote down all the text with timecodes.

    1. Number of cylinders does not equal displacement. And I have had a V4 that easily outperformed a V8 of equal displacement that I also had. Engineering decisions make the difference, not the number of cylinders or the displacement.
      That being said, Larger displacement can give you a more powerful platform to start with, but the cylinder arrangement can have a greater impact than the actual number of cylinders.
      A greater number of cylinders can give you smoother power delivery, at the cost of more difficulty in balancing.

        1. I’ll best you minus one cylinder and present: the Koenigsegg Gemera.
          Features a two liter, three cylinder engine producing 600 hp.

          “There ain’t no substitute for cubic inches”

          Yes there is, Yank. Clever European engineering.

        2. My stock 2019 VW GTI with 4 cylinders hits almost the exact same quarter mile, 13.9s, as my dads 1997 Z28 Camaro with a V8 when it was stock. The cars have almost the exact same curb weight. Taking inflation into account, he paid about $18k more than I did as well for the same performance.

          1. They weren’t exactly fireballs through the 80s and 90s, some really embarrassing 80s ones with less power than my minivan in about the same weight. They stuck the Z28 badge on something with only 145HP in ’83 I think.

        3. There’s a reason that Offenhauser engines are no longer used in the Indianapolis 500. For the same displacement, a 4 cylinder engine has a longer flame path from spark plug to the farthest edge of the cylinder than an 8 cylinder engine does. That means the trade-offs needed to prevent detonation are more disadvantageous. If a longer stroke is used to increase the volume per cylinder, maximum RPMs must be decreased and airflow through the valves is below optimum.

    2. This motor is wired up like a 4 cylinder. He has two solenoids turning on together. What would really help is putting properly fitted oilite bushings in the crank end of the connecting rods rather than the sloppy fit they have.

  2. And the “shocking amount of power” mentioned in the title is…? Maybe it’s mentioned in the video, but using it in the title should put it to the text, too. Or maybe it’s just a pun, but still resulting into a misleading title.

  3. Super goed project, leerlingen kunnen op die manier beter de werking van een motor begrijpen. Wel een hele klus om de planen te tekenen en om de cnc te kunnen aansturen. 👍👍👍👍👍.

  4. Best of all, it sounds like a V8 engine.

    Specifically, it sounds like a Detroit Diesel 8V93 two-cycle diesel, the magnificent “Silver 93”.

    For those that wonder why, it’s because the way he wired it, each cylinder is “firing” on every revolution, just like a two-cycle IC engine.

  5. “Shocking amount of power”… describes engine… doesn’t reveal power levels. Bad journalism!
    Always cover who, what, where, when, why & how.
    Oh never put in the title a question you don’t answer.

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